NEI Nuclear Notes

Over the years, Dr. Roger H. Bezdek has become the leading authority on the issue of federal energy subsidies. In the most recent issue of Public Utilities Fortnightly , Dr. Bezdek has returned to the subject and provides an important reminder that the conventional wisdom isn't all it's cracked up to be: [T]he refrain is often heard, "The fossil industries are being given huge federal financial incentives, while renewable energy is being starved." The data show that this conventional wisdom is wrong. In fact, there's a huge imbalance in recent federal energy incentives; however, the imbalance is strongly is strongly in favor of renewable energy (RE) especially when the contribution to energy supply of the different energy technologies is considered. While the report is for subscribers only, our archive of content on Dr. Bezdek's work remains free.

Federal subsidies and their role in promoting our national interests have been debated since the earliest days of our nation . Earlier this week, NEI and Management Information Services Inc. released a MISI report that catalogs in exhaustive detail the panoply of federal subsidies for energy development since 1950. This report presents the facts on the many forms of subsidies employed by the federal government and the amounts expended to promote each type of energy. As the principal author, Dr. Roger Bezdek , said to reporters at the National Press Club on Tuesday, the report does not make any judgments about the appropriateness of the mix, amounts, or targets of energy subsidies. It simply tries to lay out the numbers as completely and accurately as possible, so that public discussion about the history and future of federal energy incentives can be well informed. The MISI report also does not touch on the other side of the subsidy story - what the public gets in return. NEI has done ...

Dr. Roger Bezdek, President of Management Information Services Inc ( MISI ) and a noted expert on energy policy analysis, spoke at the National Press Club today, taking questions from the media on the release of a new report on federal incentives for energy development. According to the report, the main beneficiaries of more than $700 billion of federal energy incentives over the past five decades have been the oil and natural gas industries. The oil and natural gas industries together garnered 60 percent of federal incentives between 1950 and 2006, with 46 percent of the roughly $725 billion in federal support going to the oil sector, according to the MISI study. The report shows that the oil industry has benefited from $335 billion in combined incentives, with natural gas receiving $100 billion. The MISI study also shows that, contrary to some claims, federal energy incentives have not gone to nuclear energy technologies at the expense of renewable energy sources, such as wind and s...

An Australian blog, Falkayn's Nest , is asking hard questions after reading a study authored by anti-nukes that claims local opposition is bound to stifle any and all development of new nuclear in Australia: I wonder how long it takes before some enterprising local council works out that the impact on jobs, industry and local living conditions of a nuclear power plant far outweighs the potential and theoretical downsides? As it turns out, his assumptions are on target. In a study that appeared recently in the International Journal of Nuclear Governance, Economy and Ecology , Roger Bezdek and Robert Wendling found that in seven regions with nuclear facilities... [H]ousing and real estate values have benefited from the operation of nuclear facilities: total property values, assessed valuations and median housing prices have often increased at rates above the national and state averages. In each local area, housing prices were several times higher than prior to the opening of the nuc...

This is one particular issue we haven’t been able to tackle fully primarily because it is a difficult issue to quantify. How do you define a subsidy ? What goes under subsidies? Does the Price Anderson Act count as a subsidy? Does the Nuclear Waste Fund? How many and what are the different types of subsidies used for energy development? I hear all the time that nuclear power is so heavily subsidized it can’t survive on its own. Well we’re going to finally get into this issue as well as discuss the subsidies received by all other energies and technologies. In Issues Online which is a publication by four groups including the National Academy of Sciences, an article titled The U.S. Energy Subsidy Scorecard was published quantifying the energy subsidy topic. The article was written by Roger H. Bezdek, president of Management Information Services, Inc., an economic research firm in Washington, D.C. and Robert Wendling, the vice president of MISI. When I see claims that nuclear power gets...