Hasta La Gadget!

For years, I’ve said that when it comes to the challenge of fighting climate change, we will need every tool available to reduce carbon pollution and create opportunities for new clean energy technology.

Yet, despite a world that demands more carbon-free energy – not less – public policies have left some of the tools in the toolbox. Until now.

Last month, with the help of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s leadership, the New York State PSC took unprecedented action in passing a Clean Energy Standard that, in addition to ensuring ample opportunity for more wind, solar, and energy efficiency, recognizes the important role of existing carbon-free nuclear power. This is a game-changer: never before has nuclear received economic credit for its environmental benefits.

New York State is now the first government to include nuclear in its clean energy policy, providing a mechanism that will help keep New York’s nuclear energy plants open. In the wake of an energy market that did not previously adequately value this power, the state faced the very real prospect of having these plants shut down.

The consequences of these shutdowns would have been dire, as New York’s existing nuclear power plants provide the majority of its carbon-free power. In fact, New York’s nuclear plants provide 61 percent of the state’s emission-free electricity and avoid 26 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually, equating to a societal value of almost $1.2 billion annually based on federal estimates.

Not only does New York recognize that meeting its own carbon reduction targets would be impossible without nuclear, achieving the carbon pollution reductions set forth in the federal Clean Power Plan would become virtually impossible in the near term. Any premature nuclear plant shutdown would represent a setback in the state reaching its clean energy goals.

The same goes for states across the country, where nuclear is the source of the bulk of our carbon-free power today. For example, in the case of the closure of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in late 2014, the plant’s output was replaced by natural gas-fired generators, which produced an additional 3.1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in New England in 2015.

And, a recent report issued by Bloomberg New Energy Finance found that if currently unprofitable nuclear energy plants were to shut down and were replaced with gas-fired generators, there would be an increase of 200 million tons of carbon pollution from power plants every year.

Across the country, a number of other states face the prospects of premature nuclear plant shutdowns, threatening our position as a clean energy leader. The timing couldn’t be worse. The ten hottest years on record have all occurred since 1998. More carbon pollution will only exacerbate the problem.

Now more than ever, states should look to New York as a model as to how they can fairly value all forms of clean energy for their carbon free attributes.

Last month’s news represents a meaningful step in the fight against climate change that will impact our energy policy outlook for decades to come. This is a worthwhile cause that Governor Cuomo should be acknowledged for undertaking, not only for the sake of cleaner air, but for establishing a common sense and fair policy of recognition for nuclear that ensures that nuclear power remains a vital component of our clean energy strategy for years to come.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

by Virginia C. McGuire

Let’s say you’re Sleeping Beauty, and you’ve just woken up after 100 years. (This is the fairy-tale version, not Disney.) You’ll need to buy grown-up things such as groceries and a cell phone, which means you need a way to pay for them. But if you haven’t used a credit card in a long time, it might be harder than expected to get approved for a new one.

In fact, if you’ve had no activity on your credit accounts in recent years, it’s possible that your credit file will have disappeared. That means you’re in the same position as someone who’s never had a credit file, and you’ll have to rebuild your credit.

For the care and growing of your credit history, it’s a good idea to keep your credit card accounts active. You can do that by using each of your credit cards at least once a month, even if it’s only to buy a pack of gum. After all, using credit is the best way to demonstrate that you can use credit responsibly.

But there are plenty of reasons your accounts may go dormant for a while — because of an illness, an extended overseas work assignment or a spouse who has all the household’s accounts in his or her name. Heck, maybe you lived in a commune and had no use for money at all.

In a worst-case scenario, inactive accounts eventually can mean that your credit history will disappear. But that takes a long, long time to happen.

Let’s look at the details.

What happens if you don’t use credit at all?

Most lenders — credit card issuers, mortgage banks, etc. — report your account status and recent activity to the credit bureaus. This information makes up your credit history, and it’s used to generate your credit scores. Lenders look at your past credit behavior to determine how risky it would be to lend you money.

If you stop using your credit cards, those accounts will still show up on your credit history — for a while.

» MORE: Life without credit cards: How two families make it work

How long accounts stay on your record

The length of time an inactive or closed account remains in your credit file depends on whether it shows positive or negative information about you.

“If the last thing that happens to a particular account is they’re in a delinquent status, we’re required by our regulators to remove that from the file after seven years,” says Mike Catanese, vice president and consumer data leader for the Atlanta-based credit bureau Equifax.

If the account looks good on your record, though, it’ll stay there for 10 years.

That’s right. Good news stays on your credit file longer than bad news does. So if you have an account in good standing and close it or stop using it, it still will help your credit for 10 years.

Why is that?

“It’s driven by what the lenders, or the people that are making future loans, will want to use,” Catanese says. “A bank won’t look at what you did 15 years ago as relevant for a credit decision today.”

The effects of inactivity

What’s harder to pin down is the effect that inactivity will have on your ability to get credit. If you have a credit file, but it shows you haven’t been using credit at all for several years, could that keep you from getting approved for a credit card? Catanese says this will vary a lot depending on your individual circumstances and the lender’s requirements.

“The goal of pulling a credit report for a lender is to decide not only whether you’re low enough risk to get some kind of loan or credit but also to understand how much you can handle in credit,” Catanese says.

If you haven’t been using credit at all in recent years, lenders may be less eager to lend you money. Or, they may give you a smaller credit line than you expect.

If you do end up with no credit history

Back to Sleeping Beauty. If you’ve been out of the credit loop for an extended period, the first step is to request a free credit report from each of the credit bureaus to confirm that you’re not in their system. If someone has stolen your identity or there has been some activity on an account that you forgot about, you may have bad credit to contend with rather than no credit.

After you’ve confirmed that you have no credit history at all, you can start rebuilding.

There are multiple ways to do this. Among them:

• Ask your landlord to report your rent payments to the credit bureaus.
• Ask a trusted relative with good credit to add you to his or her credit card account as an authorized user.
• Apply for a secured credit card, which will require you to put down a deposit as collateral. Secured cards are usually the best options among credit cards for bad credit.
• Apply for a credit-builder loan.

» MORE: Building credit? How a credit card ‘gets you there faster’

Reasons to keep your credit file active

If you’re thinking of putting your credit cards on ice, or you’re getting ready for an international move, it may be a good idea to take steps to ensure that you won’t lose the good credit history you’ve built.

“Not only does it affect whether you get a loan, it can affect insurance applications and job applications,” Catanese says of the need to have good credit history. “Rightly or wrongly, credit reports now are a large part of establishing you as a responsible adult in our society.”

Consider putting one small recurring payment on a U.S.-issued credit card, such as a Netflix subscription or a utility bill. That means your credit card will be used at least once a month, so the issuer will continue to report your activity to the credit bureaus and your credit file will stay active. You can automate things even further by setting your credit card to be paid automatically out of a bank account. Now all you have to do is make sure there’s enough cash in the bank account for that automatic withdrawal to clear, and voila. Your credit history will remain active, and you will barely have to think about it.

Of course, completely ignoring your credit accounts isn’t the best idea, either. Log in periodically to see whether there have been unauthorized charges, and check your credit report once a year to make sure there are no problems or surprises.

With a little forethought, though, you can set up a low-maintenance plan to keep your credit active while you’re off doing more important things with your time.

And if your history has already vaporized? You built a credit record once before, and you can do it again.

Virginia C. McGuire is a staff writer at NerdWallet, a personal finance website. Email: virginia@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @vcmcguire.

This story originally appeared on NerdWallet.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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