Let Them Eat Nukes
April 25th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
Your government in action: Yesterday the House passed 118-21 a bill that would subsidize the nuclear power industry to the tune of roughly $200 million. HB 2994, the brainchild of none other than the increasingly notorious Dennis Bonnen (R-Angleton), is a vulgar piece of corporate welfare crafted explicitly for the benefit of NRG Energy, a major power company with ambitious plans to double the size of its South Texas (Nuclear) Project in Matagorda County. (The City of Austin and the City of San Antonio also have an ownership interest in the nuclear plant).
The bill would allow school districts to sign a tax abatement agreement with nuclear or “clean coal” developers years in advance of a power plant’s completion, offering a giveaway for 8 years after the plant opens. The locals like it because it won’t cost them a cent. That’s because under our new school finance system passed last year the state would have to reimburse the Matagorda school districts for the lost revenue – around $29 million - each and every year, according to the conservative fiscal note estimate. This is money that would otherwise flow to underfunded schools across the state.
Lawmakers raised hardly a peep of protest yesterday with only anti-nuclear warrior Rep. Lon Burnam (D-Fort Worth) taking to the back microphone to call Bonnen’s bonanza “corporate socialism.” Burnam pointed out that NRG has already made a decision to add two units to the South Texas Project, so what, he asked is the point of a handout?
“This is something that is very seriously being considered but it is not on-line and it is not being built,” replied Bonnen. Technically, that’s true, but there’s nowhere else for NRG to go. And, according to their most recent SEC filing, the company is planning on filing a license application to the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission sometime this year.
Dick Lavine, with the Center for Public Policy Priorities, argues that Bonnen’s approach is an abuse of the system. “The whole point of this economic development act is to compete with other states for [companies such as] Samsung and Toyota,” Lavine told the Observer. “Now in this case it’s to give a break to somebody that’s already decided to build a plant in the obvious place to build it.”
And it’s not as if the nuclear industry is wanting for subsidies. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 offers the industry “$10.1 billion in subsidies and tax breaks, as well as unlimited taxpayer-backed loan guarantees and other incentives,” according to a 2005 Public Citizen analysis.
Luckily, Senate members in committee yesterday expressed a great deal of skepticism towards HB 2994’s companion, SB 1710 by Sen. Glenn Hegar (R-Katy). “The way our system is set up you’re gonna end up costing school districts in Tyler money,” said Sen. Troy Fraser (R-Horseshoe Bay). He left the bill pending.
But Bonnen, like many others, will be loathe to let nuclear power go unpromoted. Texas is being touted as a frontrunner in a “nuclear renaissance” in the United States, with tentative plans to triple the nuke plants in the state. Boosters like Bonnen are pushing nuclear power as a means to curb greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. “Nuclear is a zero-emission facility,” he told the House yesterday. “This is the most environmentally responsible way we can produce significant amounts of generation and low-cost generation for our constituents.”
April 26th, 2007 at 2:42 am
They’ll try anything ‘legal’ to grow the nuclear industry. If only the population knew about the alternatives.
There is absolutely no need for nuclear power in the US because there is a simple mature technology available that can deliver huge amounts of clean energy without any of the headaches of nuclear power.
I refer to ‘concentrating solar power’ (CSP), the technique of concentrating sunlight using mirrors to create heat, and then using the heat to raise steam and drive turbines and generators, just like a conventional power station. It is possible to store solar heat in melted salts so that electricity generation may continue through the night or on cloudy days. This technology has been generating electricity successfully in California since 1985 and half a million Californians currently get their electricity from this source. CSP plants are now being planned or built in many parts of the world.
CSP works best in hot deserts and it is feasible and economic to transmit solar electricity over very long distances using highly-efficient ‘HVDC’ transmission lines. With transmission losses at about 3% per 1000 km, solar electricity may be transmitted to anywhere in the US. A recent report from the American Solar Energy Society says that CSP plants in the south western states of the US “could provide nearly 7,000 GW of capacity, or about seven times the current total US electric capacity”.
Further information about CSP may be found at http://www.trec-uk.org.uk and http://www.trecers.net . The many problems associated with nuclear power are summarised at http://www.mng.org.uk/green_house/no_nukes.htm .
April 26th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
Don’t forget that the feds just fined NRG for manipulating natural gas markets
http://www.cftc.gov/opa/enf07/opa5292-07.htm