NEI Nuclear Notes

There's quite a spirited debate going on at WSJ's Environmental Capital about the proposed defunding of Yucca Mountain in President Obama's budget plan . NEI's Scott Peterson notes in the comments , This is an opportune time to re-evaluate America’s policy on managing commercial reactor fuel. Given the clear need for expansion of nuclear energy (more than 70% of U.S. carbon-free electricity production comes from nuclear power) , the Obama administration and Congress should revisit the decision to use a once-through fuel cycle and instead pursue uranium recycling as part of an integrated approach includes at-reactor storage, private sector or government-owned centralized storage, and continued development and licensing of a federal repository. Given the legal obligation that the government has to fulfill its responsibility under that law, the industry believes the NRC’s review of the Yucca Mountain license application should continue. In parallel, the administration sh...

In a November 7 posting , the Wall Street Journal's Environmental Capital blog provides an excellent summary of the various "messages" observers believe voters sent about their desires on energy policy during this election. While some clean energy advocates believe the voters expressed a clear mandate for clean energy, exits polls suggest that the voters' message may be more nuanced (i.e., mixed) than advocates would like. It seems the voters were far more interested in the candidates' economic proposals than their energy proposals, according to exit polls cited in the posting. While both candidates promised action on climate change, the public's concerns about economic security appear to trump concerns about longer term challenges, such as climate change, making voters less eager to bear the costs that will fall on the public when government-mandated carbon controls are implemented. Whether "election haruspicy " interests you or not, the Environme...

In the world of Washington politics, one man's incentive may be another man's subsidy or boondoggle. A Wednesday afternoon posting on the Wall Street Journal's Environmental Capital blog reported the Senate's rejection of an attempt to extend tax credits given to renewable energy projects. The posting describes the on-again/off-again life of renewable energy tax credits and the punishing effect their uncertainty has had on investment in wind energy projects. Each time the production tax credit has lapsed, investment in wind energy has fallen off sharply, roiling the wind industry: The U.S. has never had long-term clean-energy subsidies in place; usually they are renewed for a year or two at a time. Lots of people in the industry blame that unpredictability for the stop-and –start pattern the clean energy industry’s developed over the last two decades. New projects generally come to a standstill the year after tax credits expire. The American Wind Energy Association, a ...