Skip to main content

More Democats for Nuclear Energy?

By Eric McErlain
Thanks to my NEI colleague Donn Salvosa passing along the following exchange between Larry Kudlow and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi than ran this morning on CNBC (no link available):
KUDLOW: All right. We're here, back with more of my interview with House leader Nancy Pelosi. We'll get her thoughts on the U.S. policy in Iraq and on energy. I began by asking whether she would support an offshore drilling bill.

Rep. PELOSI: Depends. The Senate bill that is out there now is a much better bill than the House bill because it's targeted in what it would use the money for. I think we have to have some sunset to say, `How many years can we have tens of billions of dollars siphoned off from the federal government to a state?' Which is part of that bill? But there's really a need for remediation in terms of wetlands in New Orleans and the rest. So some kind of a bill like that might gain support just so long as it wasn't used as a model to do offshore drilling all over the country and in a way that is very close to shore.

KUDLOW: Expansion of nuclear power?

Rep. PELOSI: Has to be looked at. Technology has changed over the last, say, dozen years when this debate was going on a long time ago. I think we have to look at it. Because what is the alternative? You go to India? What is it, coal for all of those people, China and the rest? So I think it has to be revisited.
Next, click here for an interview Virginia Governor Mark Warner gave to Helen Smith and Glenn Reynolds where he expresses much the same sentiment.

Technorati tags: , , , , , , ,

Comments

Anonymous said…
Unfortunately, Paul is probably onto something here. Politicians that are out of power (either party) tend to run toward the center (as they see it). However, after they are elected, they tend to revert to catering to the groups they think are their core backers. It is almost always a political plus to be open minded. What remains to be seen is whether Democrats (individually or collectively) will see any reason to take action that would be counter to knee jerk environmental positions.
October 27, 2006 at 2:40 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fluor Invests in NuScale

By
You know, it’s kind of sad that no one is willing to invest in nuclear energy anymore. Wait, what? NuScale Power celebrated the news of its company-saving $30 million investment from Fluor Corp. Thursday morning with a press conference in Washington, D.C. Fluor is a design, engineering and construction company involved with some 20 plants in the 70s and 80s, but it has not held interest in a nuclear energy company until now. Fluor, which has deep roots in the nuclear industry, is betting big on small-scale nuclear energy with its NuScale investment. "It's become a serious contender in the last decade or so," John Hopkins, [Fluor’s group president in charge of new ventures], said. And that brings us to NuScale, which had run into some dark days – maybe not as dark as, say, Solyndra, but dire enough : Earlier this year, the Securities Exchange Commission filed an action against NuScale's lead investor, The Michael Kenwood Group. The firm "misap
1 comment
Read more

An Ohio School Board Is Working to Save Nuclear Plants

By
Ohio faces a decision soon about its two nuclear reactors, Davis-Besse and Perry, and on Wednesday, neighbors of one of those plants issued a cry for help. The reactors’ problem is that the price of electricity they sell on the high-voltage grid is depressed, mostly because of a surplus of natural gas. And the reactors do not get any revenue for the other benefits they provide. Some of those benefits are regional – emissions-free electricity, reliability with months of fuel on-site, and diversity in case of problems or price spikes with gas or coal, state and federal payroll taxes, and national economic stimulus as the plants buy fuel, supplies and services. Some of the benefits are highly localized, including employment and property taxes. One locality is already feeling the pinch: Oak Harbor on Lake Erie, home to Davis-Besse. The town has a middle school in a building that is 106 years old, and an elementary school from the 1950s, and on May 2 was scheduled to have a referendu
Post a Comment
Read more

Wednesday Update

By
From NEI’s Japan micro-site: NRC, Industry Concur on Many Post-Fukushima Actions Industry/Regulatory/Political Issues • There is a “great deal of alignment” between the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the industry on initial steps to take at America’s nuclear energy facilities in response to the nuclear accident in Japan, Charles Pardee, the chief operating officer of Exelon Generation Co., said at an agency briefing today. The briefing gave stakeholders an opportunity to discuss staff recommendations for near-term actions the agency may take at U.S. facilities. PowerPoint slides from the meeting are on the NRC website. • The International Atomic Energy Agency board has approved a plan that calls for inspectors to evaluate reactor safety at nuclear energy facilities every three years. Governments may opt out of having their country’s facilities inspected. Also approved were plans to maintain a rapid response team of experts ready to assist facility operators recoverin
Post a Comment
Read more