Senate sends nuclear power bill to governor

DES MOINES – The Iowa Senate voted Tuesday to allow MidAmerican Energy Co. to boost electric consumer rates by $15 million to study the feasibility of building a nuclear plant in Iowa to generate electrical power.

House File 2399, which passed on a 37-13 vote, provides for an annual electrical bill rate rider for three years of $4 per residential customer, $15 per commercial customer and $1,100 for industrial customers to finance a three-year study to be reviewed annually by the Iowa Utilities Board.

The bill, which was opposed by 13 Senate Democrats, now goes to Gov. Chet Culver.

Sen. Tom Hancock, D-Epworth, the bill's floor manager, said MidAmerican – which previously agreed to operate under a rate freeze through 2013 – needed a cost-recovery mechanism to cover site selection, design, licensing and construction of a plant to generate electricity using nuclear power.

Iowa currently has one nuclear power plant -- the Duane Arnold Energy Center near Palo – and one study option could be exploring a tandem nuclear plant near that location, backers said.

“This is a great bill and perhaps is one of the best bills we will run this session,” said Sen. Jerry Behn, R-Boone, who challenged some of the environmental concerns raised about global warming, greenhouse gases and carbon dioxide.

However, Sen. Rob Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, argued that “nuclear power is not the solution to climate change” in pushing for a broader focus that would include renewable sources, such as solar and bio-mass co-generation, and energy efficiency measures.

Proponents turned back an amendment that sought to have MidAmerican investors, rather than ratepayers, bear the up-front cost of the feasibility study. Hancock said typically it falls to the end user to finance a study from which they will eventually reap a benefit.

“This is asking people to pay $15 million. This would be unprecedented for the Legislature to mandate a rate increase,” Hogg said. Others characterized it as an unfair tax or fee increase that would even be applied to low-income residential customers receiving energy assistance.

Hancock said the Office of Consumer Advocate had signed onto the proposal as an appropriate way to cover the cost of  extensive seismic, weather, population, atmospheric, emergency planning and other study areas required by federal and state regulators before a nuclear power plant can be constructed.

“My fellow colleagues, let's not bury our heads in the sand. We need base load power,” said Sen. Randy Feenstra, R-Hull, who joined other proponents in arguing that coal and natural gas won't meet the carbon-reduction needs of the future.

Also under the measure, MidAmerican and Alliant Interstate Power and Light would be allowed to enter into rate-making to pay for investments that would lead to lower carbon-intensity emissions from existing electric-generating facilities in Iowa. Included would be alterations from coal to natural gas as fuel source for an existing electric-generating facility, adding carbon capture and storage to an existing coal-fueled electric generating facility or adding gas or biomass as primary fuel source, Hancock said.

Also Tuesday, senators voted 35-14 to send Culver a ‘trailing spouse” measure that expands unemployment insurance benefits for the spouses of deployed soldiers. Typically, workers who voluntarily leave their jobs aren't eligible for jobless benefits.

Sen. Steve Warnstadt, D-Sioux City, said often a spouse who is left behind during a deployment finds it difficult to keep a job and care for a family, and frequently must move closer to relatives for help.

Opponent argued the measure was anti-business because the fund from which jobless benefits are paid is financed by a tax on businesses based on their employment history.

Culver has indicated he supports the measures and likely will sign it.

Comments: (515) 243-7220;

rod.boshart@gazcomm.com