Pence Bill seen as laying the groundwork for a nuclear energy "renaissance" in America
– By Thomas Cheplick –
In an attempt to stop "cap-and-trade" legislation from becoming law, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives, are touting an alternative energy bill that favors the construction of 100 nuclear power power plants over 20 years. The so-called "Pence legislation", named after Congressman Mike Pence (R-IN) who introduced the measure, will lead to a drastic cut in America's carbon emissions too.
Jack Spencer, a nuclear policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC, thinks the Pence bill will sow the seeds for a nuclear energy renaissance in the United States.
"The 'Pence legislation' will lead to regulatory reform, and while it does have subsidies in there, those subsidies are for the expansion of America's energy infrastructure. What's more, the 'Pence legislation' puts in place a number of free market principles that need to be established in order for us to have a nuclear energy renaissance and for our nuclear energy industry to become more vibrant," Spencer said.
Rep. Pence's bill also will create incentives for more oil and gas drilling in the United States.
Notably, the measure does not include any fines or new taxes on carbon emissions – the emissions many assume are behind global warming. Supporters of the 'Pence legislation' point out that such new CO2 taxes are unnecessary as Rep. Pence's bill will move America's energy model from one that primarily relies on coal-fired power plants to one that relies like France on CO2-free nuclear power plants.
Spencer cautions against America fully adopting the French nuclear energy model "because we're not French."
"If the French way works for them, that's fine," he said. "I'm not criticizing the way the French do nuclear energy. They have far fewer natural resources than we do. I think if the rest of the world follows the French model, however, which is a state-centered business, it may not work. We need to take American free market principles and re-establish them with the nuclear industry. In the United States, we have a lot of resources at our disposal and perhaps a single kind of nuclear reactor, backed by a single kind of reprocessing, is not for us. We should let the market decide what is best for us in terms of what sort of nuclear energy we use."
However, the 'Pence legislation', he adds is "good."