Green America is a nonprofit membership organization based in the United States that promotes ethical consumerism. Founded in 1982, by Paul Freundlich, it is dedicated to harnessing the economic power of consumers, investors and businesses to promote social justice and environmental sustainability through helping responsible consumers and green businesses find each other in the marketplace.

Opposition to Nuclear Energy

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. ¹ 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. ²

Green America was one of more than 600 co-signing organizations on a January 2019 open letter to Congress titled “Legislation to Address the Urgent Threat of Climate Change.” The signatories declared their support for new laws to bring about “100 percent decarbonization” of the transportation sector but denounced nuclear power as an example of “dirty energy” that should not be included in any legislation promoting the use of so-called “renewable energy.”³

1. “Nuclear explained.” U.S. Energy Information Administration. Accessed August 16, 2021. https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/nuclear/us-nuclear-industry.php>
2. “ 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/
3. “Group letter to Congress urging Green New Deal passage.” Earthworks. January 10, 2019. Accessed August 12, 2021. https://www.earthworks.org/publications/group-letter-to-congress-urging-green-new-deal-passage/