NorthIowaToday.com

Founded in 2010

News & Entertainment for Mason City, Clear Lake & the Entire North Iowa Region

Nuclear plant debate sets off series of reactions at Capitol

James Q. Lynch, CR Gazette –

DES MOINES — Consideration of a regulatory framework for a proposed nuclear power plant has set off a large reaction, including competing ads and a planned ‘zombie’ march.

The Senate Commerce Committee is scheduled to take up the bill at 9:30 a.m. today. MidAmerican Energy has proposed construction of a small-scale nuclear power plant. Costs for the plant are estimated at $2 billion.

The issue has lain dormant for nearly two months, but Commerce Committee Chairman Matt McCoy, D-Des Moines, plans to move the bill ahead of the Legislature’s self-imposed March 16 deadline for bills to clear one chamber and a committee in the other. The bill was approved in the House last session.

News that McCoy was going to try to revive the bill prompted a flurry of action from both sides of the debate.

Following a short rally at Zombie Burger + Drink Lab, 300 E. Grand, Des Moines, protestors dressed as radioactive zombies will march — or stumble and sway — to the Capitol to deliver their message: “A nuclear future on the ratepayer’s dime is not a future young people support here in Iowa.”

Meanwhile, Washington, D.C.-based environmental group Friends of the Earth began running a television ad (which can be viewed online at http://smgs.us/4fu) in the Des Moines, Sioux City and Cedar Rapids markets. The group spent about $8,400 on the 30-second commercial.

The ad reminds Iowans of the ongoing impacts of the nuclear disaster that rocked Fukushima, Japan a year ago. It also argues Iowa ratepayers would be saddled with higher electric rates for years to come — even if the reactors never get built.

“The rate hike sets MidAmerican up for windfall profits, while strapping consumers with the financial and safety risks,” said Mike Carberry, Iowa nuclear campaigner with Friends of the Earth. “State senators should heed the 77 percent of Iowans who oppose the bill and reject it.”

MidAmerican fired back with its own more than 3 1/2-minute ad on YouTube (which can be viewed online at http://smgs.us/4fv) to rebut what President and CEO Bill Fehrman called “a lot of misinformation about what passage of the bill means.”

“This bill does not give MidAmerican Energy permission to build a nuclear power plant or charge any cost for a plant to our customers,” Fehrman says in the video. “It does allow our regulators — the Iowa Utilities Board — to determine if nuclear energy is right for Iowa.”

Acknowledging that many senators — Democrats and Republicans alike — are looking at the political fallout from the bill, that’s the tack McCoy plans to take when the Commerce Committee meets.

“What I’m trying to say is that we’re not regulators. We’re legislators,” McCoy said. “We want to keep this option on the table and allow MidAmerican the opportunity to run this bill up the flagpole with the IUB and consumer advocate and try to make a business case for why they should proceed.”

McCoy said he has enough votes to get it out of committee. But its fate in the full Senate is uncertain. McCoy said it lacks sufficient votes from Democrats to pass, so the measure needs significant Republican support.

The bill is a work in progress, and several amendments address opponents’ concerns, McCoy said.

One gives the Iowa Utilities Board significant power to stop the project if it determines the nuclear plant is not in the state’s best interest. Other amendments expand the period for cost recovery and give the utilities board more time to hire staff with expertise in nuclear energy.

Another amendment would not allow the company to increase customer bills to recover costs of the project until construction work started. Even then, MidAmerican Energy could only collect what the utilities board approved to be prudent expenditures, McCoy said.

McCoy said tougher federal regulations for coal plants likely will result in the state losing as much as 40 percent of the electricity generated by coal generation in the coming years.

Currently, the state gets about 72 percent of its electricity from coal plants. The state’s only existing nuclear power plant provides nearly 8 percent. Wind turbines provide nearly 16 percent, gas provides about 2 percent and the rest comes from hydroelectric and other renewable sources.

McCoy said it’s the responsibility of state leaders to come up with reasonable options for electricity generation.

Natural gas is an option that many nuclear opponents frequently mention, McCoy said. Though it may be relatively inexpensive now, he said, it won’t be cheap forever.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Even more news:

Watercooler
Copyright 2024 – Internet Marketing Pros. of Iowa, Inc.
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x