Skip to main content

Wisconsin Clean Sweep

Scott Walker Awhile ago, we featured a race for the House in New York in which all three candidates offered support for nuclear energy. New York, meet Wisconsin:

It could be the most radical yet least discussed policy change coming for Wisconsin. Both candidates for governor  – Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, a Democrat, and Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, a Republican – said in a recent survey they would support lifting the ban on the construction of new nuclear power plants in the state.

No offense to Milwaukee Magazine’s Matt Hrodey, but if that’s the most radical idea coming down Wisconsin’s pike, time to hit the off-ramp. We know Wisconsin isn’t that dull.

After all, as Hrodey himself points out, Wisconsin has plants – Kewaunee and Point Beach – and they chug along quite tidily:

Nuclear power generates about 20 percent of the state’s power, according to the Public Service Commission.

The article aims to produce some controversy, though, so there’s this:

Sharing similar concerns about atomic waste [as Greenpeace], State Rep. Jon Richards (D-Milwaukee) pledged that he would introduce a bill when the state Legislature convenes in January to ban companies from transporting the waste on state waterways.

I wonder if that happens now. In any event, Rep. Richards will not have a governor who would sign it on that basis alone – frankly, I can see bills like this taking hold due to the sacrosanct nature of the waterways in many states – Lakes Michigan and Superior in Wisconsin, for starters.

For example, here’s Tom Barrett on his web site:

Tom is committed to working to protect our lakes and waterways. He was a forceful proponent of the Great Lakes Compact, and he has always opposed efforts to drill for oil and gas in the Great Lakes.

And here’s Scott Walker:

Two Great Lakes…over 15,000 inland lakes…thousands of acres of forests…the nation’s greatest river. These are a small but significant snapshot of Wisconsin’s fantastic natural resources where Wisconsin families camp, fish and hunt.

See? A lot of state pride is justifiably tied up in the lakes and the natural beauty of the state. Neither candidate says anything about nuclear energy (that I could find) on their sites, but that’s okay – it doesn’t seem to be a bone of contention between them.

The latest roundup of polls at Real Clear Politics shows Walker up by about nine points – it’s an unusual year, though, so we’ll see.

---

I’m not absolutely sure how big a story this is:

Chris Huhne announced yesterday that plans for a tidal barrage green energy scheme were dead in the water - and the UK will get eight new nuclear power stations.

The Energy Secretary was blasted for failing to honor the Lib Dem manifesto vow to scrap nuclear in favor of green energy projects.

Huhne is himself a Liberal Democrat, the minority party of the governing coalition in Great Britain where the majority party is the Conservatives. Huhne decided to stand his ground quite forcefully:

Mr Huhne said: "I'm fed up with the stand-off between advocates of renewables and of nuclear, which means we have neither. We urgently need investment in new and diverse energy sources."

His decision is at odds with the Lib Dem manifesto, which "rejected" a new generation of nuclear plants as a "far more expensive way of reducing carbon emissions than promoting energy conservation and renewable energy".

Huhne gets it about right: he may be in hot water with his party mates (I’m not sure why that tidal energy project went south – presumably, nothing to do with nuclear energy), but he has chosen to do something private industry supports. Austerity is key in Britain right now, so having private interests want to pursue nuclear energy fulfills public policy without the government having to splash out the money.

So, good – I’ll look more into this one – I’m curious about what else Britain wants to do in the energy realm - but this move doesn’t seem all that controversial.

No, Wisconsin politicians do not normally dress in leather jackets and tee shirts. In his role of County Executive a couple of years ago, Scott Walker showed up to unveil a statue of The Fonz, the character played by Henry Winkler on the Happy Days TV show. Happy Days was set in Milwaukee. Honestly, the gear works for Walker.

Comments

SteveK9 said…
Estimated cost of the Severn barrage --- ₤30B (those are pounds if not displayed correctly). They simply decided it would not be cost effective compared to other low-carbon technologies.
DocForesight said…
So if 2 NPPs supply 20% of Wisconsin's electricity then could it be said that 10 NPPs could supply 100% of it? If so, at 1 square mile per NPP that's only 10 square miles of land use for the entire state for power generation. Compare that to wind at what, 200+ square miles per GWe? So that would be approx 2,000 square miles -- when the wind blows.

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