“If you asked 100 people on the street if their lights came on because of nuclear energy, I would guess three people would know it.”

Paul Pinsky, the director of the Maryland Energy Administration and one of the leading climate advocates in Annapolis during his long tenure in the General Assembly, who recalls protesting against nuclear power plants in the 1970s. Now, he says, nuclear has “become a staple” in the state and nation’s energy portfolio, even if many Americans don’t realize it. Maryland's Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant, which opened in 1975, generates about 40 percent of the energy produced in Maryland, and more than 80 percent of the carbon-free energy generated in the state comes from the nuclear plant. (Maryland Matters — Sept. 23, 2024)