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Southern Economic Journal
Article . 2025 . Peer-reviewed
License: CC BY
Data sources: Crossref
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Forgoing Nuclear: Nuclear Power Plant Closures and Carbon Emissions in the United States

Authors: Luke Petach;

Forgoing Nuclear: Nuclear Power Plant Closures and Carbon Emissions in the United States

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper examines the effect of nuclear power plant decommissioning on electricity generation and carbon emissions in the United States. Using data on nuclear reactor closures in the United States between 1993 and 2022 and data on state‐level carbon emissions and electricity generation from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), this paper adopts a difference‐in‐differences (DiD) approach to estimate the effect of nuclear decommissioning. Two‐way fixed‐effects (TWFE) DiD estimates suggest a nuclear plant closure increases annual state‐level per capita carbon emissions between 6% and 8%. The increase in state‐level carbon emissions is driven by a substitution toward fossil fuel electricity—particularly coal‐fired electricity—following a plant closure. To address concerns about bias in TWFE estimates stemming from heterogeneous treatment effects and/or variation in treatment timing, I implement two alternative estimators robust to treatment effect heterogeneity. Estimates from both the Callaway and Sant'Anna (2021) and Borusyak et al. (2024) estimators support the TWFE findings: nuclear power plant closures increase per capita carbon emissions at the state level.

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selected citations
These citations are derived from selected sources.
This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Citations provided by BIP!
popularity
This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Popularity provided by BIP!
influence
This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Influence provided by BIP!
impulse
This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Impulse provided by BIP!
1
Average
Average
Average
hybrid