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Backed by business groups, the Republican-controlled Assembly is advancing a bill that would allow the Public Service Commission to again consider plans to build nuclear power plants. The chamber gave preliminary approval to the plan early Thursday after no debate but Democratic critics delayed a final vote.
The plan would repeal a 1983 law that outlaws the construction of such plants unless they are shown to save ratepayers money and a federal repository for nuclear waste is operating. The law, enacted after the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear plant accident, has essentially acted as a ban.
The plan will not become law this session given opposition by Democrats who control the Senate and Gov. Jim Doyle. But approval in the Assembly would be significant and escalate a debate over the safety of nuclear power and the best ways to provide energy for Wisconsin residents.
Supporters say nuclear power is already among the most reliable sources of electricity for the state, pointing to the Kewaunee and Point Beach reactors, and is critical as energy use is growing. They say it is more efficient to produce than energy from coal and better for the environment since it does not give off gases that contribute to global warming.
“Especially given the growing concern about climate change, Wisconsin will need the option of new nuclear in the years ahead,” Brian Rude of the Dairyland Power Cooperative, which owns a closed nuclear reactor in Genoa, Wis., said in testimony to lawmakers.
In addition to repealing the moratorium, Assembly bills would require the state to lobby for a federal repository for nuclear waste and investigate how it will meet its future energy needs when the Point Beach and Kewaunee reactors are set to stop operating in 2033.
The Wisconsin Citizens Utilities Board, which represents residential ratepayers, urged lawmakers to reject all three bills, saying the best approach for Wisconsin’s energy future is conserving and developing renewable sources.
And environmental groups say the state would be irresponsible to change the law without a clear plan to dispose of the toxic waste the plants create. A federal plan to store the waste in Yucca Mountain in Nevada remains several years away despite years of study.
Critics warn Wisconsin’s embrace of nuclear power could resurrect a long-ago discarded plan to store the waste in northern Wisconsin. Supporters call that a scare tactic.
Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker, D-Weston, said the bill won’t get a hearing in the Senate, let alone pass.
“I don’t see a great public groundswell for nuclear energy,” Decker told reporters on Thursday.
