August 18, 2008

Gang of 10 on Nuclear Energy

By Joseph Somsel
With the increasing public debate this election year over energy policy, proposals to remove offshore and ANWR drilling restrictions have rightly caught the public's attention.  While this is a critical policy focus requiring re-examination and revision, other energy policy issues are also seeing the light of day that normally are buried in the trivia of governmental regulation.A new faction within the US Senate, the "Gang of 10", have put forward a set of energy policy proposals that they see as a compromise between the "soft energy path" types like Speaker Pelosi and the "hard energy" hawks like Newt Gingrich. Again, oil drilling captures the most attention but there are significant impacts from the Gang's proposals in other areas.  Let me address their plans for civilian nuclear power.According to Senator Conrad's website posting, the Gang has three proposals related to nuclear energy.  First, they want to subsidize "workforce...(Read Full Article)