Duke CEO Rogers: Without Nuclear, Congress Won't Reach Climate Change Goals

Duke Energy Corp. Chief Executive Jim Rogers said environmentalists and Congress should support nuclear energy or risk failure in battling global warming.

The strident talk from Rogers, one of the first utility executives to call for regulating carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants and other industrial sources, comes as Duke plans a nuclear project in Cherokee County, S.C., estimated to cost up to $6 billion.

It also comes at a time when the Democratically controlled Congress considers how to tax or otherwise regulate industrial carbon dioxide emissions.

Coal-fired power plants are a major source of carbon dioxide, blamed by climate scientists as a cause of global warming, which threatens to melt polar ice and cause flooding, among other environmental disasters.

Nuclear energy, on the other hand, has zero emissions, and the President Bush-backed Energy Policy Act of 2005 provides financial incentives for utilities to start building plants again. But where to store nuclear waste for the long term is unresolved and has been a sticking point in Congress for years.

Rogers has been ahead of the curve on this issue for some time now. For a look back in our archives, click here.

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