Kentucky Ban Overturned in State Senate

The news is that Kentucky is en route to overturning its ban on building nuclear energy plants:

Sen. Bob Leeper of Paducah said adopting the federal standard would allow Kentucky sites to be considered for next generation nuclear power plants which would help curb greenhouse gas emissions caused by coal-fired powered plants.

This is simply another story that tells what is percolating around the states – either bans are falling or public service commission rules against paying for a plant as it is built are being overturned. We’re not sure we’d make the coal/nuclear divide quite so stark, but this is Kentucky and it explains the tilt of the story (which originally came from The Morehead News there).

"With our coal reserves and gas reserves in Eastern Kentucky, to me, that's the wrong way to go."

That’s state Sen. Walter Blevins, who voted against the bill. He really didn’t like the result.

Blevins said since there were some negative votes, the House should take a closer look at the bill.

The vote in the senate? 29-6. Darn that democracy thing!

We can’t say that we’ll be ban-free by the end of this year – we’ll see how stubborn Wisconsin is – but it shows the states moving faster toward a nuclear future than only looking at Washington might suggest.

Kentucky coal miners circa 1915.

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