France slashes renewable energy targets, expands nuclear power with new law.

[NNadir]

Yeah, yeah, I know, there will be lots of people here who think this is a bad thing; we still have a large antinuke contingent here still who think that the term "renewable energy" is not an oxymoron, although it clearly is.

I, on the other hand, am happy to see this. I would never want to see France end up with the same fossil fuel dependence that Germany exhibits, nor would I like to see France's carbon intensity climb to a figure 1000% higher to match that of Germany.

The carbon intensity of antinuke Germany over the last 12 months is 445 grams CO₂/kWh compared to pronuclear France's 29 grams CO₂/kWh over the same period, in "percent talk," roughly 1530% higher to be more precise.

Source: Electricity Map, 12 months Accessed 2/15/2026.

So called "renewable energy" is not "green;" it is not sustainable; it is not even "renewable." The land and material intensities are too odious to support on this planet, a point I've made many times here. Moreover because it is unreliable, so called "renewable energy" is dependent on access to fossil fuels.

I take opposition to fossil fuels seriously even if the Germans and other antinukes, here and elsewhere, don't.

The article link and excerpts:

France slashes renewable energy targets, expands nuclear power with new law

France is this week set to pass by decree a new energy law slashing the country’s renewable energy targets and massively expanding nuclear power production. The law change comes as a relief for state-run electricity provider EDF, which had been mandated to close some of its nuclear plants and is struggling to compete with price pressure from European solar and wind power producers...

...France set out a new energy law after years of wrangling on Thursday which slashes its wind and solar power targets and drops a mandate for state-run firm EDF to shutter nuclear plants.

“We need to stop ​our internal family ‌squabbling. We need both nuclear and renewables,” Finance Minister Roland Lescure told reporters.

The law, to be ⁠pushed through by decree on Friday after almost three years of bitter disagreement among lawmakers, also reverses a previous legal mandate to shut 14 reactors.

That was a 2017 campaign ‌promise of President Emmanuel Macron, who later changed course, backing nuclear expansion with a plan for at ⁠least six new reactors...

The morons in the anti-science squad, Greenpeace, of course, piped in with their toxic line of ignorant bullshit, according to the article.

One of the reasons that our planet is in flames is that we have had media that quotes these illiterates in Greenpeace as if they were environmentalists rather than badly educated anti-intellectual types out of their league, incapable of understanding basic energy and environmental issues, and frankly out of their bourgeois consumer oriented minds.

I trust you're having a pleasant Sunday.

[c-rational]

1. Good news. Sanity reigns abroad.

[thought crime]

2. It is not a Zero-sum game of nuclear vs renewables

Despite the title, this appears to mainly be a plan to keep the state-controlled energy provider EDF running as “tens of billions of euros in public financing would be mobilized to finance the projects and safeguard EDF’s finances.”

“The move to pare back renewables should help shield EDF, which operates a fleet of 57 reactors, as power demand grows more slowly than expected over the next decade. The company is struggling to remain competitive as abundant wind and solar in Europe have pushed down power prices and ‌forced reactors to lower output.”

“The plan for 2026 to 2035 foresees more use of the country's 57 nuclear power plants and the construction of six new ones, as well as more energy from offshore wind farms...The first new reactor should ‌be inaugurated by 2038.”

There aren’t too many countries so committed to nuclear energy, but even in France, Offshore Wind is seen as a viable and important part of the solution as well.