AARP calls Iowa nuclear plant bill "bad public policy"

[bananas]

Source: Des Moines Register

A state organization representing 378,000 older Iowans said today that thousands of its members have been contacting Iowa legislators to oppose bills that would help MidAmerican Energy construct a new nuclear electricity plant in Iowa.

“We oppose Senate File 390 and House File 961 because those bills substantially shift the cost and risk for nuclear power construction to ratepayers, ” said Bruce Koeppl, AARP’s state director. “Rather than rely on shareholders to finance a new power plant, this legislation shifts the billion-dollar-plus costs to ratepayers for a possible nuclear power plant, years before the plant is built, or the plant design has even been approved.”

<snip>

AARP officials said the House version could be debated as soon as Tuesday on the House floor, while the Senate version could come up next week on the Senate floor. Both bills have already cleared House and Senate committees.

Koeppl said the lack of consumer protections in the bills – no comparison of alternatives, no cap on how much rates can increase, no cost protection from cost overruns, and no protection if the proposed plant is cancelled, demonstrate the need for Iowa legislators to study how to best increase the state’s electrical power generation.

<snip>

Read more: http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2011/04/11/aarp-calls-iowa-nuclear-plant-bill-bad-public-policy/

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I hope Iowa does not approve this bill.
It's called CWIP - Construction While In Progress - and the bans were a direct result of the nuclear boondoggles of the 70s and 80s. CWIP is a scam. The bans were placed to prevent those kinds of boondoggles in the future - and here we are, this is the nuclear industry's way of telling you that these will be monstrously expensive boondoggles that you will pay for even though it's highly likely they will never be completed.

[AndyTiedye]

1. If Nukes are So Great, Why Do They Need Subsidies, Liability Limits, and CWIP Charges?

[Art_from_Ark]

2. Good question

[grahamhgreen]

3. Good on em. No Nukes.

[Faygo Kid]

4. I don't think it's anti-nuclear so much as it's anti-ripoff of taxpayers.

Either way, they are exactly right on this one.

CWIP is a horrendous scam, and I'm glad AARP is taking this stance.

[bertman]

5. REC. This CWIP is not an isolated strategy. It's going on in other places.

Thanks for posting this, bananas.

[cascadiance]

6. A college friend of mine works in a nuclear plant in Iowa...

I visited my college friends back there the week before Halloween this last year. I remember at least one day or so he wasn't able to hang with us on some things we were doing together because of something going on at the plant at the time that forced them to take some emergency shifts in odd hours of the day. Haven't had a chance to find out what it was, but in retrospect, I wish I'd asked. It does make me wonder now though how much these sorts of things happen every day at the various nuclear plants around this country that most of us never hear about.

[janet118]

7. Nuclear energy is neither cheap nor clean, yet . . .

Over past 50 years, nuclear energy subsidies = $145 billion. Subsidies for solar over same period = $5.8 billion. In 2006, nuclear power received $800 million - nearly half of all R&D subsidies in the U.S. DOE. Shouldn't we be investing all that tax money in energy alternatives that are really clean and cheap?

And where is the money to store, for centuries, those decades' worth of spent fuel rods stashed all over the country going to come from? If you guessed the taxpayers, you're probably right.

We should be spending all that R & D money on sustainable, clean energy. Imagine where we'd be now if we had put the money spent on nukes and oil into solar, wind, tidal or geothermal alternatives. It makes me want to cry.

[upi402]

8. CWIP? WA State had WPPS called "Whoops!" - seriously

and for good reason. They had a drunken governor Dixie Lee Ray and she was as professional as W was. She was pro-nuke.

[No Elephants]

9. What does it take for people to "smarten up?"