Skip to main content

EEI Adopts Global Climate Change Principles

As we reported yesterday, the members of the Edison Electric Institute voted on a set of policy principles designed to "guide their engagement" in the debate over climate change. They were approved.

The press release follows:
In unveiling the new principles, Kuhn stressed three components he said would be critical to any federal action or legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions:
  • Ensuring the development and cost-effective deployment of a full suite of "climate-friendly" technologies;
  • Minimizing economic disruption to customers and avoiding harm to the competitiveness of U.S. industry; and,
  • Ensuring an economy-wide approach to carbon reductions.
Kuhn said EEI's member companies have long been leaders in taking voluntary actions to address climate concerns. "Since 1994, when EEI joined the U.S. Department of Energy in the Climate Challenge, the electric utility sector has accounted for more than two-thirds of all the greenhouse gas reductions achieved under the program," Kuhn said. "Looking forward, the principles we're releasing today are designed to help us build on that progress in a way that allows us to maintain an affordable and reliable supply of electricity."

Underscoring the critical importance of technology, Kuhn declared, "No matter what path America chooses to address greenhouse gases, success will require an aggressive and sustained commitment by the industry and policymakers to the development and deployment of a full suite of technology options." Some of these options are currently available-although at a higher cost than conventional generation sources-but others are not, Kuhn said.

Needed technology options include energy efficiency; demand-side management and renewable energy sources; increasing nuclear capacity; advanced clean coal technologies and carbon capture and storage; and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.
For the complete document, click here. More coverage later as it becomes available.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Fluor Invests in NuScale

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

An Ohio School Board Is Working to Save Nuclear Plants

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

Wednesday Update

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