Nuclear Energy and the 2014 Mid-Term Elections

Uranium (Nuclear Minerals) / Nuclear Power - Economics, Design, & Industry

Date posted: 11/07/14

Dr. Conca reports that if Mitch McConnell starts his tenure as Senate Majority Leader with -red meat- votes for his conservative base, and President Obama counters with executive orders and vetoes, then America will experience two more years of confrontation. Alternatively, if they both focus on areas of potential cooperation, Washington could actually get something done. Many folks in the energy world are betting that cooperation will spell victories for fossil fuel, wind tax credits and nuclear energy. Lawmakers will push legislation to promote energy efficiency and speed approval of oil and gas drilling permits, says William Galston, a Senior Fellow of Governance Studies at the Brookings Institute in Washington. Congress and the White House could find common ground with Republicans from the Midwest who support extending wind energy tax credits, and those who want to end now-irrelevant limits on U.S. crude oil exports that have been in place since the 1970s. Since 2008, oil and gas production has expanded greatly in this country. It is hard to imagine natural gas needing much more support than it already has. And domestic oil production will have doubled during the President Obama tenure. We will produce more oil in 2015 than anytime since 1972. More oil and faster production growth than under any Republican-controlled Congress, ever. So what more can happen in the next two years. Yes, the Keystone pipeline may be used as a pawn to extract concessions on bigger issues like immigration and budget, but energy in this country does not need the new Congress to be strong. Except for nuclear. Nuclear energy does not matter much to Congress because nuclear has no constituency. There is no West Virginia like there is for coal, no Texas like there is for oil, no Pennsylvania like there is for natural gas, no environmental movement like there is for wind and solar. But, nuclear energy has always been a national asset.