The debate over nuclear power in recent months has revolved around taxpayer backed loan guarantees for new nuclear projects. Not only has the President announced $8.3 billion in federal loan guarantees for a two-reactor project in Burke County, Georgia, his budget proposal includes tripling the nuclear loan guarantee program from $18.5 billion to over $54 billion. Unfortunately, some groups have used this debate to disguise their anti-nuclear agenda in anti-loan guarantee rhetoric. The basic construct of their argument is that nuclear energy is so risky and so expensive that using …
The Heritage Foundation’s stance against expanding subsidies for nuclear energy has once again been manipulated by the anti-nuclear crowd to infer that we are anti-nuclear. This time, Harvey Wasserman on The Huffington Post wrote that Heritage, along with some other groups, believe that nuclear energy is “too expensive to matter.” To be clear: We are not anti-nuclear. The Heritage Foundation has written in study after study over the past three years that we not only believe that nuclear energy can be a critical part of America’s energy future but that …
The Department of Energy finally announced the formation of its blue-ribbon commission on nuclear waste. The commission, co-chaired by former Indiana Congressman Lee Hamilton and former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft has been charged with reviewing the nation’s nuclear waste policies and providing recommendations for moving forward. If carried out properly, the commission could provide an historic opportunity, helping the U.S. set a new approach for managing its nuclear waste. Despite the broad support that nuclear energy currently enjoys, until the nation comes up with an economically rational and sustainable …
There has been a lot of talk in recent months on expanding the loan guarantee for energy projects broadly and nuclear projects specifically. The problem with the LG program is not the cost, per se. It is clearly set up so that the recipient has to pay for the administration costs. And as for the likelihood of default, the risk for nuclear seems almost nonexistent as compared with other renewable sources. New nuclear plants will be cranking out a valuable commodity for the better part of a century. The problem …
Flash back to the mid 1990s. You’re the coach of the Chicago Bulls and your team is down by one with seven seconds to go. It’s crunch time. Who do you get the ball to, Michael Jordan or bring in the 12th guy off the bench. This isn’t a trick question; it’s just a no brainer. You get the ball to MJ. Energy policy is no different. When facing an energy crisis and countries face a disruption for one reason or another and they need a lot of energy, are …
The Heritage Foundation on Tuesday released the above chart headlined U.S. a Nonstarter in Nuclear Power. The point of the chart was to show those who continue to question the value of nuclear power that other countries are making concrete decisions and moving forward in earnest. Unfortunately, some felt the chart sent the wrong message. By not explicitly putting the U.S. on the chart, they argued, we misrepresented the status of nuclear power’s comeback here. It’s true that 17 utilities and consortia are in the permitting process to build up to 30 new …
Something strange is afoot at the Environmental Protection Agency. It is no secret that EPA bureaucrats have been chomping at the bit to start regulating carbon dioxide ever since courts ruled that the naturally occurring plant food which is exhaled by every human being (even Al Gore) is a pollutant. Their exuberance recently emerged in the form of 258 pages that they leaked to the trade publication Inside the EPA. This unsearchable (it was scanned into a digital file in such a way as to prevent anyone from digitally searching …
