stefan
09-20-2007, 08:54 PM
Lawmakers meet Nuclear plant to be explored
Critics say proposal would limit public's say in energy development
By Judy Fahys
The Salt Lake Tribune
Lawmakers are exploring how to make it easier to build Utah's first nuclear power plant.
Supporters and opponents are taking their respective places behind a bill that the Legislature's Interim Public Utilities and Technology Committee is considering today.
"This bill will affect our pocketbooks," said Vanessa Pierce, executive director of the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah (HEAL).
The environmental group joined forces Tuesday with the Utah Ratepayers Association in a news conference that described the bill as a gift to industry to be paid for by consumers. Meanwhile, the Utah Mining Association said it backs mining, whether for the coal that Utah relies on now or the uranium that might be used in a nuclear plant.
Legislators have been eyeing nuclear power for a couple of years. They kept it on the back burner while the state fought plans to operate a high-level nuclear waste storage site on the Skull Valley Goshutes Reservation in Tooele County, but the storage plan's defeat has opened the door for the idea to be reconsidered, lawmakers say.
In July, the interim committee directed its attorneys to develop a legislation modeled after a similar Florida law.
The proposal, "Recovery of Costs for Nuclear Power Facilities," largely tilts the financial burdens and risks of nuclear plant development from utility companies and their investors to ratepayers.
One provision would allow nuclear companies to charge ratepayers for construction-related costs long before they receive any power from a nuclear plant. Another would allow the utility to have ratepayers pick up the costs for a nuclear plant that never goes into operation under certain conditions.
Pierce, flanked by Roger Ball, said the law, if passed, would limit the public's say in energy development and cut the funding available for developing renewable energy resources.
"This is truly a boondoggle," she said.
Ball, who leads the ratepayer group, previously directed the state's Consumer Protection Committee. Noting that the only utility in the state that would qualify under the new legislation would be the parent company of Rocky Mountain Power, he said the bill "socializes the costs and privatizes the profits" of nuclear development.
The state's two-year energy policy advisory committee put a lower priority on nuclear power, as did the Governor's Blue Ribbon Advisory Committee on Climate Change. And, while a 2006 energy policy bill said nuclear power should be studied as an option, no such study has been undertaken.
Utah Energy Adviser Dianne Nielson said Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. has not taken a position on nuclear power aside from insisting that other states should not be permitted to dump their waste in Utah and that high-level waste should be stored instead where it is produced.
She also noted, however, that the state has traditionally focused on finding ways to burn coal, the state's most abundant resource, cleanly. Nuclear, she said, "just doesn't fit our business plan."
David Litvin, executive director of the Utah Mining Association, said his organization supports removing obstacles to safe energy production.
"Uranium and coal are both mining, and we support mining," he said.
"We need all of the energy sources we can get to meet our demands."
Critics say proposal would limit public's say in energy development
By Judy Fahys
The Salt Lake Tribune
Lawmakers are exploring how to make it easier to build Utah's first nuclear power plant.
Supporters and opponents are taking their respective places behind a bill that the Legislature's Interim Public Utilities and Technology Committee is considering today.
"This bill will affect our pocketbooks," said Vanessa Pierce, executive director of the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah (HEAL).
The environmental group joined forces Tuesday with the Utah Ratepayers Association in a news conference that described the bill as a gift to industry to be paid for by consumers. Meanwhile, the Utah Mining Association said it backs mining, whether for the coal that Utah relies on now or the uranium that might be used in a nuclear plant.
Legislators have been eyeing nuclear power for a couple of years. They kept it on the back burner while the state fought plans to operate a high-level nuclear waste storage site on the Skull Valley Goshutes Reservation in Tooele County, but the storage plan's defeat has opened the door for the idea to be reconsidered, lawmakers say.
In July, the interim committee directed its attorneys to develop a legislation modeled after a similar Florida law.
The proposal, "Recovery of Costs for Nuclear Power Facilities," largely tilts the financial burdens and risks of nuclear plant development from utility companies and their investors to ratepayers.
One provision would allow nuclear companies to charge ratepayers for construction-related costs long before they receive any power from a nuclear plant. Another would allow the utility to have ratepayers pick up the costs for a nuclear plant that never goes into operation under certain conditions.
Pierce, flanked by Roger Ball, said the law, if passed, would limit the public's say in energy development and cut the funding available for developing renewable energy resources.
"This is truly a boondoggle," she said.
Ball, who leads the ratepayer group, previously directed the state's Consumer Protection Committee. Noting that the only utility in the state that would qualify under the new legislation would be the parent company of Rocky Mountain Power, he said the bill "socializes the costs and privatizes the profits" of nuclear development.
The state's two-year energy policy advisory committee put a lower priority on nuclear power, as did the Governor's Blue Ribbon Advisory Committee on Climate Change. And, while a 2006 energy policy bill said nuclear power should be studied as an option, no such study has been undertaken.
Utah Energy Adviser Dianne Nielson said Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. has not taken a position on nuclear power aside from insisting that other states should not be permitted to dump their waste in Utah and that high-level waste should be stored instead where it is produced.
She also noted, however, that the state has traditionally focused on finding ways to burn coal, the state's most abundant resource, cleanly. Nuclear, she said, "just doesn't fit our business plan."
David Litvin, executive director of the Utah Mining Association, said his organization supports removing obstacles to safe energy production.
"Uranium and coal are both mining, and we support mining," he said.
"We need all of the energy sources we can get to meet our demands."