The Environmental Law and Policy Center (ELPC) is a Midwest-based non-profit environmental advocacy group, with offices in Chicago, Columbus, Des Moines, Duluth, Jamestown, Madison, Sioux Falls, and Washington, D.C.

Environmental Progress has referred to ELPC as “the most influential anti-nuclear environmental organization in Illinois.” ¹ In 2016 ELPC opposed a proposal in the Illinois Legislature that would have allowed two nuclear facilities to receive the zero-carbon energy subsidies that the state provides to wind and solar energy producers. ²

Nuclear power plants produce no carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas emissions, and as of 2021 accounted for 20 percent of American electricity production—the largest source of zero carbon electricity in the United States. ³ An  October 2018 proposal from The Nature Conservancy noted that zero-carbon nuclear plants produced 7.8 percent of total world energy output and recommended reducing carbon emissions by increasing nuclear capacity to 33 percent of total world energy output. ⁴

Environmental Progress has accused ELPC of taking donations from natural gas energy firms. Environmental Progress asserts that natural gas and coal firms have an interest in supporting wind and solar energy over nuclear because wind and solar are a less likely than nuclear to replace the carbon-emitting fuels. In April 2016 ELPC president Howard Learner told an Illinois newspaper: “The Clinton nuclear power plant is not competing very well in the competitive economic power market. . . . Everybody looks with excitement when a new natural gas plant is built. People look with excitement when a new wind farm comes, creating construction jobs.” ^{5  6}

1. “ELPC.” Environmental Progress. October 13, 2018. Accessed August 16, 2021. https://environmentalprogress.org/elpc
2. “ELPC.” Environmental Progress. October 13, 2018. Accessed August 16, 2021. https://environmentalprogress.org/elpc
3. “Nuclear explained.” U.S. Energy Information Administration. Accessed August 16, 2021. https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/nuclear/us-nuclear-industry.php
4. “The Science of Sustainability.” The Nature Conservancy. October 13, 2018. Accessed August 16, 2021. https://www.nature.org/en-us/what-we-do/our-insights/perspectives/the-science-of-sustainability/
5. “ELPC.” Environmental Progress. October 13, 2018. Accessed August 16, 2021. https://environmentalprogress.org/elpc
6. Brady-Lunny, Edith. “Absent legislative action, Clinton Power Station faces dark future.” Herald-Review: Lee News Service. April 24, 2016. Accessed August 18, 2021. https://herald-review.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/absent-legislative-action-clinton-power-station-faces-dark-future/article_d3e54de9-e80a-5eb3-a500-dd0df2b61b9c.html