March 17, 2008

Schwarzenegger goes nuclear?

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is making waves in energy circles after saying Friday that nuclear power has "a great future" and that it is time to "relook at that issue again rather than just looking the other way and living in denial."

Schwarzenegger made the comments at the Wall Street Journal’s ECO:nomics Conference in Santa Barbara.

Schwarzenegger, who has made environmentalism a centerpiece of his governorship after signing a landmark greenhouse gas reduction law in 2006, decried environmental "scare tactics" that "frighten everyone that we're going to have another blowup and all of those things."

Referring to a recent conversation he had with John Bryson, CEO of Edison International, Schwarzenegger said of nuclear power, "I think that's a very important kind of a subject that we ought to debate over in the future because we're talking about carbon free, you know, power and energy."

"There's no greenhouse gas emissions," he later said of nuclear power.

California currently has two active nuclear power plants, PG&E's Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant and the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station owned jointly by Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric.

They were built before the state placed a ban on new nuclear plants in 1976.

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, an Irvine Republican who floated an initiative to lift California's ban on nuclear power last summer, has already seized on the comments as a positive sign.

"I’m delighted to see Gov. Schwarzenegger now out front on this vital issue. California cannot meet its global greenhouse gas reduction targets nor meet its growing need for clean energy without modern nuclear power," wrote DeVore, who voted against AB 32, the 2006 measure which requires California to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020, on his blog.

DeVore has authored two pieces of legislation, AB 1776 and AB 2788, on nuclear power again this year.

The Bee's David Whitney reported on Sunday that there has been a resurgent interest in nuclear power:

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission received seven applications for new power plants last year and is expecting a dozen more by the end of December. The applications, combined, will cover a total of 22 reactors since more than one is proposed at some sites, spokesman Scott Burnell said.

"Nobody had started the applications process for 30 years until last year," Burnell said.

UPDATED Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, chair of the Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee, issued a statement on Monday saying, "Nuclear power has no future in California’s new energy era because of its monumental dangers to the health and welfare of Californians"

"History cannot keep repeating itself on this one. There is not and never has been a safe place to store nuclear waste and fuel rods. In addition, once all the costs are added up it is not cost-effective. California has done a great job increasing energy efficiency and renewable energy these past three years. That is what we need to keep building on.”

Posted by Shane Goldmacher on March 17, 2008 11:30 AM