Drawbacks, jobs tied to proposed nuclear plant

DES MOINES - Legislation to let MidAmerican Energy begin billing customers for a nuclear power plant without any assurance it will be built or brought online is a “pre-emptive bailout” of the Iowa-based utility, according to an opponent.

However, the possibility of jobs for some of the state's 12,500 out-of-work construction workers won the backing of the Central Iowa Building and Construction Trades Council.

Many people have run out of unemployment benefits “and most have run out of hope,” Earl Agan Jr. of the labor council told a Senate subcommittee on Senate File 390 March 28.

SF 390, according to Senate Commerce Committee Chairwoman Swati Dandekar, D-Marion, would help address hurdles MidAmerican Energy might encounter in exploring plans to build a 540-megawatt nuclear-powered facility costing $1 billion to $2 billion. The plant would use new technology that consists of a cluster of small modular reactors rather than the large-scale structure currently besieged with major problems in Japan.

The legislation isn't needed because the Iowa Utilities Board has the tools to work with MidAmerican now, according to Wally Taylor of Marion, who represented the Iowa Chapter of the Sierra Club.

SF 390 and House File 561, Taylor said, “are special interest legislation for one company.” They are unfair to ratepayers, who would begin paying higher rates while MidAmerican explores the possibility of building a power generating plant.

Much of the discussion dealt with advance cost recovery - allowing MidAmerican to raise rates before building the plant - at a time when, according to Anthony Carroll of AARP, many businesses and individual are struggling to pay utility bills and there is a record number of Iowans receiving energy assistance.

It doesn't appear nuclear power is the right investment for ratepayers, Sonia Ashe of the Iowa Public Interest Research Group told the subcommittee.

The bills would allow MidAmerican to force the costs on ratepayers, she said. “That sounds like a raw deal to me,” Ashe said.

Representatives of Iowa municipal utilities and rural electric cooperatives were enthusiastic and indicated they plan to be investors in MidAmerican proceeds with a nuclear plant.

It's not only the control over the cost of generating electricity that a plant would bring, said Kim Colberg of the Linn County REC, but the cost of meeting evolving environmental regulations.

“Carbon is the gorilla in the room,” he said. “We need options.”

Taylor and other speakers said there are options - wind and conservations, for example.

MidAmerican CEO Bill Fehrman defended his company's record on developing wind energy and promoting conservation. MidAmerican spends more than $50 million a year on energy efficiencies, he said.

Time is running out for SF 390 and HF 561 to meet the Legislature's self-imposed funnel deadline this week that requires House bills to be approved by a Senate committee and Senate bills to be approved by a House committee.

House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, said he will keep HF 561 alive to give the House Commerce Committee more time to work on it.