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Greenville News Endorses Possible Duke Nuclear Power Plant

By Eric McErlain
Taking note of Duke Power's interest in possibly building a new nuclear power plant, South Carolina's Greenville News offers an endorsement:

A natural gas-oil plant and a coal plant both have drawbacks. A gas-oil combo would be clean and efficient, but it would also lack price stability because of the volatility of oil and gas prices. Coal is efficient, but it's the dirtiest of all. And government-mandated controls on emissions make it expensive.

That leaves nuclear. Its two drawbacks: the perception that it poses a safety threat and the reality that nuclear plants are the types of hard targets terrorists covet. But here in the Upstate we live daily with both concerns. Two of Duke's nuclear plants are nearby, with the Catawba Nuclear Station sitting near the North Carolina state line and the Oconee Nuclear Station at Lake Keowee. Both plants have existed for decades without a major safety incident. Already, there is perhaps no higher priority for homeland security than protecting our nuclear assets.

Take those concerns off the table and we are left with nuclear's strengths: its cleanliness and its ability to keep rates low. In manufacturing heavy South Carolina, this is vitally important, and not just for consumers. Our large industrial electricity consumers need low, predictable energy prices. Spikes in energy prices hurt their bottom line, which in turn jeopardizes job stability.

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