The News Tribune

By PATRICK MOORE

July 23, 2010

 As the U.S. gears up to develop sustainable methods to meet rising energy demand cleanly, few states are as well-positioned as Washington. Hydropower is a big contributor to the state’s carbon-free electricity supply, thanks to the Columbia and Snake Rivers. Washington ranks fifth out of all states for wind-power production. And the state has vast potential for geothermal energy.

Not as well known is the role that nuclear energy plays in protecting Washington’s atmosphere. Last year, nuclear energy generated in the state prevented 5.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, the equivalent of removing nearly 400,000 passenger cars. And nuclear reactors produce more than 70 percent of the country’s emissions-free electricity every year.

I am back in the Pacific Northwest this week as co-chair of the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition (CASEnergy), meeting with community, business and policy leaders in Seattle and Tacoma to make sure they are fully informed about the important role nuclear plays as part of the nation’s clean energy mix.

CASEnergy is a national grass-roots coalition comprising people from all across the country in business, labor, industry, academia, politics and the environmental community, united in their support of nuclear power as part of the country’s green energy portfolio.

The latest Gallup poll shows 62 percent of Americans – an all-time high – favor the use of nuclear energy. Earlier this month, Washington state Sens. Jerome Devlin and Larry Haler joined the newly formed bipartisan National Nuclear Caucus to demonstrate their support for the expansion of nuclear energy in Washington and around the country.

U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Pasco, has also endorsed the caucus and believes it will enable Congress to be better positioned to support new nuclear plants.

The industry’s support extends to the White House, as President Barack Obama has made nuclear energy a key component of his strategy to build a clean energy economy and put Americans back to work.

Earlier this year, he extended the first loan guarantee to the industry to help attract private financing for two new reactors in Georgia in what will be the state’s largest construction project, employing up to 3,500 workers. Over the last three years, in a period of dramatic economic constriction, the nuclear industry has created more than 15,000 jobs nationally.

Federal support has been critical to winning over investors who still remember the cost overruns in the 1980s. Fortunately, many of the conditions that led to past cost increases and construction delays no longer exist.

Nuclear reactor designs have become more standardized, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has developed a new approach that enables it to approve designs and sites up-front under a single license. The process has been restructured to ensure that design, safety, siting and public concerns are settled before a company starts building a new plant.

Nuclear plants may be more expensive to build than coal or gas, but they more than make up for their construction costs by providing consumers with one of the lowest-cost options for emissions-free electricity. At 2 cents per kilowatt-hour, nuclear-sourced energy is about 30 percent cheaper to produce than carbon-heavy coal, and about 60 percent cheaper than natural gas.

Washington is also primed to address the issue of spent fuel storage. Members of the president’s Blue Ribbon Commission were in Washington last week meeting with Gov. Chris Gregoire. One promising area they are exploring: recycling spent fuel in advanced reactors, as is done in France, Japan and Britain, which will greatly reduce the volume and radioactivity of the byproducts requiring disposal by reusing up to 95 percent of spent uranium.

Until a long-term solution is found, used fuel will continue to be safely and securely stored at each of the nation’s 104 reactor sites, as it has been for the past 30 years without incident.

Washington’s energy mix is a snapshot into the nation’s clean energy future – and with the state actively involved in supporting the nuclear industry’s growth, that picture is getting brighter every day.

Patrick Moore, Ph.D, is the co-chair of the nuclear industry-funded Clean and Safe Energy Coalition and co-founder of Greenpeace. Moore spoke Thursday to Tacoma Rotary #8 at the Landmark Temple Theatre.

Read more: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/07/23/1274042/nuclear-power-an-important-part.html#ixzz0uoQSUFQV

July 26, 2010
By Christine Todd Whitman and Thomas D. Peterson
Special to Roll Call

By implementing policies that jointly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve homegrown and advanced energy solutions, and save precious energy and capital, Congress could move us toward a cleaner and more secure energy future, while creating jobs and growing the economy.

A study released last week by the Center for Climate Strategies identified 23 major sector-based policies that, if implemented as part of national policy, could add as many as 2.5 million net new jobs and $134.3 billion to the economy by 2020 while holding down energy prices and reducing harmful greenhouse gases to meet national targets.

The specific actions recommended in this report were identified after examining 16 comprehensive state climate action plans that the center helped develop through consensus building and input from more than 1,500 technical experts and stakeholders across the U.S. over the past five years.

This bottom-up strategy ensured that all available options were considered, that they were carefully analyzed, and that the most effective and acceptable were implemented.

The 23 actions the center identified include new clean energy sources for heat and power; improved energy efficiency and industrial processes; transportation and land use improvements; agriculture and forestry conservation; and expanded recycling and waste energy recovery. They were chosen because they have the potential to reduce pollution, they are cost-effective and improve energy, health, environment and economic development. They would be implemented through federal, state and local action under a national framework that sets the stage for longer-term strategies.

The Clean and Safe Energy Coalition’s “Policy Roadmap for Clean Energy” takes a similar broad-based portfolio approach to supporting clean energy technologies — including wind, solar and nuclear energy — while placing a premium on each industry’s potential for job creation and broader economic development.

The road map makes broad policy recommendations to chart a viable course for a sustainable clean energy policy, including the following:

1. Enact policies to take control of America’s energy security.

Ninety-five percent of the country’s transportation infrastructure is powered by oil, and more than half of it is imported. Federal support for electric and hybrid vehicles is a good start to avert this dependency, but those vehicles will only be as clean as their electricity source. The current electric grid won’t be able to handle large volumes of renewable energy technologies unless it’s modernized.

2. Ensure access to financing for clean energy projects.

Access to capital is the biggest hurdle for clean energy developers. Credit is still tight and private investors are leery of financing large infrastructure projects without guaranteed rates of return. Federal incentives, such as clean energy loan guarantees, help ease access to capital markets and ultimately reduce the cost of electricity to consumers.

3. Increase investment in clean energy jobs.

Training a new generation of workers is vital because much of the clean energy industry’s work force will be eligible to retire during the next decade. Tens of thousands of clean energy jobs could be created if all the clean energy projects are supported. Nearly 1,000 workers are engaged in pre-construction activities for new nuclear reactors in Georgia and South Carolina alone. Federal job-training grants are critical to ensure that eligible companies in the clean energy supply chain will be able to fill high-paying jobs with American workers.

If state and local leaders and thousands of their stakeholders across the nation can find a pathway to a comprehensive energy and climate policy at the subnational level, surely Congress can do the same for our nation.

Both the Center for Climate Strategies report and Clean and Safe Energy Coalition policy recommendations conclude that a broad-based energy portfolio, with a focus on low-carbon sources, is essential to America’s energy, environmental and economic transition. Without policy direction now, we will cede U.S. leadership in developing these clean energy sources to other nations and miss an opportunity to begin implementing game-changing energy technology.

Christine Todd Whitman is the former Republican governor of New Jersey and former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. She is a co-chair of the industry-funded Clean and Safe Energy Coalition. Thomas D. Peterson is the president and CEO of the Center for Climate Strategies and a teaching fellow in governmental studies at Johns Hopkins University.

To read the full story on Roll Call’s website, click here.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) this week introduced the Enabling the Nuclear Renaissance Act (S. 3618), which gathers into a single bill many nuclear energy provisions found in previously introduced legislation. Voinovich’s legislation also includes provisions not found in other bills, proposing to establish several offices within DOE to handle nuclear energy issues and a new government corporation to assume responsibility from DOE for implementing the disposition of used nuclear fuel.

While it shares elements of the nuclear energy title in the Kerry-Lieberman American Power Act and several bills that encourage development of small reactors, Voinovich’s legislation goes much further in reshaping the government’s approach to nuclear energy. It provides funding and assistance to train workers, modifies the ways reactors are licensed and financed, and removes used nuclear fuel management from DOE.

Voinovich said the bill “intends to reignite the nuclear renaissance. This bill gives our companies and universities the tools to compete and win.”

The legislation also includes nuclear energy in any national clean energy portfolio that is developed. Specifically, it allows nuclear companies to participate in a federal Renewable Electricity Standard (RES), which would place an obligation on utilities to produce a portion of their electricity from clean energy sources. Currently, only renewable energy generators qualify for the RES, though legislators have tried unsuccessfully to include nuclear energy.

The industry welcomed the new bill. Alex Flint, NEI’s senior vice president for governmental affairs, said the legislation “recognizes the role that nuclear energy should have in expanding our nation’s non-emitting electricity generation while simultaneously creating tens of thousands of U.S. jobs, helping to achieve desired greenhouse gas reductions, and strengthening our energy security.”
The bill includes the following financial incentives:

• Following the lead of DOE’s fiscal 2011 budget request and the American Power Act, Voinovich proposes $54 billion in total loan guarantee authority. However, the bill goes further in proposing tax incentives for companies building new reactors and for manufacturers of parts used to construct a nuclear plant;

• Adopting ideas from the Nuclear Power 2021 Act (S.2812), which encourages the deployment of small reactors, the legislation directs DOE to develop a 50 percent cost-sharing program with industry and provides $100 million a year for 10 years in government funding. Voinovich said that small reactors “represent an opportunity for the United States to regain global leadership” in nuclear technology.

• The bill authorizes funding for educational and training programs to create a trained nuclear work force, with $5 million to DOE to support nuclear science and engineering in primary and secondary education and $5 million to the Department of Labor to expand work force training to meet the demand for workers skilled in nuclear power plant construction and operation.

The bill proposes the creation of several new offices to manage aspects of an expanded nuclear presence:

• An independent government corporation would assume the responsibilities currently held by DOE for managing used nuclear fuel. The legislation does not offer prescriptions for how used fuel should be handled, either via a repository or reprocessing or both.

• A proposed National Nuclear Energy Council as an independent forum within DOE for industry, Congress, government agencies, national laboratories and universities would address significant issues facing the nuclear industry. The council would have 15 members, six of them from the nuclear energy industry.

• An Advisory Committee on Energy Park Development, also within DOE, would manage community initiatives to develop former DOE sites as energy parks.

Additionally, the legislation picks up several themes from other energy legislation that are designed to allow nuclear energy reactors to go on line sooner than the current licensing and regulatory regime allows. Specifically, the bill:

• Eliminates NRC hearings for issues not raised in public meetings.

• Allows environmental impact statements used for early site permits to stand for combined operating licenses as well, eliminating a duplication of effort.

• Enhances regulatory authority. The bill extends the term of NRC commissioners to ensure the NRC is fully staffed in the event of delayed confirmation procedures.

The legislation has been referred to the Senate Committee on Finance.

To see the story in Nuclear Notes, click here.

First, on Monday, July 12, the Governor held a nationwide CASEnergy member call from San Antonio to explain the four points of the CASEnergy Policy Roadmap for Clean Energy, to discuss the efforts surrounding the new initiative and next steps going forward, to highlight how members and others can help with efforts in their area and to answer questions from Coalition members and call participants.

During the two days that the Governor was at the conference, she was able to meet with a number of important Latino organizations and their leaders.

Governor Whitman discussed with them how nuclear energy power plants can be a vehicle for good, well-paying jobs in the Latino community, citing a program Miami-Dade College in South Florida has with NextEra Energy (formerly Florida Power & Light).

With the national unemployment rate among Latinos at 12.4 percent, compared to the national average of just under 10 percent, many wanted to hear about the economic benefits nuclear has to offer. To that end, Gov. Whitman explained that of the clean energy technology options available now, none is better-suited than nuclear energy at supplying large amounts of electricity that does not pollute the air, together with creating thousands of needed jobs within Latino communities.

The Governor added that nuclear energy facilities often act as economic hubs in local communities by luring new businesses and increasing a tax base that provides good schools, libraries and other critical infrastructure – all of these would greatly help to strengthen Latino communities.

The same week of the conference, Gov. Whitman and Juan C. Zapata, Chair of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO) Education Fund and a CASEnergy member, co-wrote an editorial that was published in the Austin American Statesman on July 9, titled, “Jump-start job creation by focusing on how we produce, use and conserve energy.” In the editorial, the two discuss how nuclear expansion will help Texas meet its anticipated 48 percent growth in electricity demand by 2030, which is more than double the national average. The editorial also highlights the economic benefits of nuclear energy for both the state of Texas and the Latino community, with specific regard to the job creation potential of the two proposed reactors at NRG Energy’s South Texas Project in Matagorda County.

The sum is set aside to educate the next generation of nuclear scientists and engineers.  Through its Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP), the DOE is allocating $5 million in scholarships and fellowships to 117 American nuclear science and engineering students. Eight-five of those scholarships will go to undergraduate students, and 32 fellowships will go to graduate students in relevant fields.

Each scholarship student can expect to receive $5,000 to cover the cost of education over the next year while fellowship students can expect to pocket $50,000 a year over a three year period to pay for graduate studies and research.

The remaining $13.2 million in grants will go to 39 universities and colleges, enabling the purchase of new equipment and upgrades to research reactors. To view the list of awardees, visit this link.

“Restarting the U.S. nuclear industry is a critical part of our efforts to build a clean energy economy and create new clean energy jobs,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, according to a Department of Energy press release.  “To ensure American leadership in the global nuclear energy industry, we need a skilled workforce for years to come.  This investment will give our students the support and resources they need to advance nuclear energy and keep America at the forefront of the nuclear industry.”

According to the release, the Department has provided more than $80 million in funding to U.S. universities and students through NEUP since 2008.

Dr. Moore began his trip by addressing more than 20 members of the Beaufort Kiwanis Club in a 30-minute speech and answered questions about the role of nuclear as part of a clean energy policy.

He highlighted the numerous job opportunities available in the nuclear energy sector to students and faculty at Lowcountry Technical College and the College of Charleston. Prior to the Lowcountry event, Dr. Moore sat down with Josh Dawsey of the Beaufort Gazette to outline the economic and environmental benefits of new nuclear energy in South Carolina.

Dr. Moore also discussed the environmental benefits of nuclear energy with the Coastal Conservation League in Charleston, and the S.C. State Ports Authority.

While in South Carolina, Dr. Moore addressed key regional media in conjunction with his meetings with business and environmental leaders and students in South Carolina, including meetings with top daily and business press, The Beaufort Gazette, Charleston Regional Business Journal, and a popular local news talk radio program, The Rocky D Show. 

In these interviews Dr. Moore discussed CASEnergy’s Policy Roadmap for Clean Energy as it pertains to South Carolina, with regard to the enormous job creation potential of new nuclear - especially relevant in a state with four new reactors under consideration by the NRC, and with nearly half of its nuclear engineers eligible for retirement by 2013.

• Gov. Whitman’s day began with a live appearance on Richmond radio’s “Morning News with Jimmy Barrett” on WRVA-AM. During the interview she emphasized the need for a comprehensive energy portfolio, which would include the expansion of nuclear energy. Richmond’s “Morning News with Jimmy Barrett” is a two-time winner of the Virginia Association of Broadcasters’ “Best Morning Show” award.
• After calling into Richmond’s “Morning News,” Gov. Whitman spoke with NPR’s national environmental correspondent, Elizabeth Shogren. The conversation began with a focus on clean energy policy and nuclear’s role as part of climate legislation, and then transitioned to the economic merits of nuclear energy, in which Gov. Whitman highlighted the enormous job creation potential of nuclear expansion. 
• Gov. Whitman also spoke with Scott Dance of the Baltimore Business Journal about the new reactor proposed at Calvert Cliffs in Maryland. Whitman and Dance discussed nuclear energy in Maryland, and how building a new reactor at Calvert Cliffs will bring jobs to the area as well as attract new business to the state. 
• In the afternoon Gov. Whitman taped an interview with Sky Radio Network’s Energy Advisor program, in which she spoke about the need for a comprehensive portfolio of energy solutions – including new nuclear – to meet the nation’s growing energy needs. Energy Advisor has recently featured a variety of leaders in the energy space, including T. Boone Pickens and White House energy and climate change czar Carol Browner. The program will air on both the Fortune Channel on American Airlines and CNN’s Airport Channel this September and October.  
• To round out the day, Gov. Whitman talked to GreenSense Radio’s Robert Colangelo about energy policy and the environmental merits of nuclear power. GreenSense Radio is a weekly radio program covering environmental and sustainability topics that airs each Sunday on WCPT–AM in Chicago, and has a loyal podcast following. You can also listen to CASEnergy Coalition co-chair Dr. Patrick Moore’s interview with GreenSense from April 4. 

Please click above to view/listen to the articles and interviews as they are posted online.

The study calls for the creation of a comprehensive energy strategy that will support the manufacturing process.   NAM’s strategy specifically lists nuclear energy as a fuel that can provide the reliable, “baseload” energy necessary to power a strong, domestic manufacturing economy.

This is just another example of how the nuclear energy industry is creating job opportunities in the U.S. Please click here to read the entire study.

In her interview, Gov. Whitman spoke about her role as a leader in the energy field, highlighted the history of her involvement with the CASEnergy Coalition, some of the leadership challenges faced around environmental issues, and the growing support for nuclear in both Washington and among Americans across the country. To view the interview, visit the WashingtonPost.com’s On Leadership website.

• Enact policies to allow the U.S. to take control of its energy security.
• Ensure access to financing for clean energy projects.
• Increase investment in clean energy jobs.
• Address nuclear used fuel storage needs through federal support for recycling and other safe, innovative solutions.

On May 12, 2010, the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition unveiled its four-point “Policy Roadmap for Clean Energy” at the National Press Club to an audience of Hill staff, industry members,  media, Coalition members and other organizations interested in developing nuclear energy and other alternative energy sources.

CASEnergy Coalition Co-Chairs, former EPA Administrator and New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman and Greenpeace Co-founder Dr. Patrick Moore, were joined by:

• Stephen Moret, Secretary of Louisiana Economic Development;
• Denise Bode, Chief Executive Officer of American Wind Energy Association (AWEA); and
• Daniel S. Lipman, Senior Vice President, Operations Support & Core Process Innovation of Westinghouse.

For more information, please click here.