By Kennedy Maize
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs has turned thumbs down on small modular reactor enthusiasm in The Grand Canyon State. The Democratic governor has vetoed a bill the Republican legislature passed to ease the path for SMRs to supply power to data centers and other large industrial users. The legislation would have waived several regulatory requirements in Arizona law governing energy siting.
In her April 18 veto letter, Hobbs wrote, “I am supportive of conversations around the responsible adoption of emerging energy technologies, including the potential development of small modular reactors that may help address generation capacity concerns. Unfortunately, this bill put the cart before the horse by providing broad exemptions for a technology that has yet to be commercially operationalized anywhere in the nation.”
Arizona House Majority Leader Michael Carbone, the bill’s primary sponsor, threatened to try to bypass the veto or use the veto against Hobbs if she runs for reelection next year. He told the Arizona Mirror he is likely “to bring the issue back in a new form next session” or bring it up “when we have a Governor who is willing to support jobs and economies in rural Arizona.”
Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen also recently joined a lawsuit with other state lawmakers and energy companies to limit the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s authority over the technology.
Hobbs was Arizona Senate minority leader from 2015 to 2019. She was elected secretary of state in 2018 and ran against former TV news personality and Trump MAGAnaut Kari Lake in the 2022 gubernatorial election. Hobbs won narrowly. Lake, echoing Trump, claimed falsely that the election was stolen. Lake ran for the U.S. Senate in 2024, losing to Democrat Reuben Gallego by 2% while Trump won the state by 6%.
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Louisiana has joined Utah, Texas, and startup nuclear power developer LastEnergy in suing the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s licensing of small modular reactors.
The Pelican State’s Department of Environmental Quality April 8 announced that “Louisiana will join a major national lawsuit challenging the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) ‘Utilization Facility Rule’ as it applies to small modular reactors (SMRs) and related nuclear innovation.”
The original lawsuit was filed late last year in Texas, putting it into the sights of the Republican friendly U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which also has Louisiana jurisdiction. The suit claims that the small, advanced reactors are inherently safe and require no federal safety regulation or oversight.
Republican Gov. Jeff Landry said, “Louisiana’s energy future demands innovation, not unnecessary red tape. Joining this lawsuit is about defending our ability to pursue advanced energy solutions like SMRs — solutions that are reliable, clean, and essential for economic development in the State. This is part of our broader strategy to make Louisiana an energy leader in the 21st century.”
In another element in that “strategy,” a new bill in the state legislature would streamline state regulations to permit “the development and construction of a small modular reactor.” News from the States commented, “That would position the state to be ready when the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission allows the projects to move forward. The bill advanced out of the Senate Committee on Environmental Quality and heads next to the full Senate.”
The bill sponsor is freshman Republican state Sen. Adam Bass, who was a neophyte to state-wide politics, elected in 2023, ousting incumbent freshman Republican Robert Mills, who originally had Trump support when Mills in 2019 ousted incumbent freshman Republican Ryan Gatti. Trump abandoned Mills in the 2023 election.
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The Texas House of Representatives has passed a bill (HB14) to give state aid and money to developers of advanced nuclear reactors in the Lone Star State.
It would provide up to $200 million in grants from the $5 billion Texas Energy Fund for “reactor technologies across two generations (Gen III+ and Gen IV) and includes large light water reactors, small modular reactors, microreactors, and nuclear cogeneration.” The legislation would create a special position in the governor’s office to administer the program.
The bill follows recommendations of the Texas Advanced Nuclear Reactor Working Group last November. The working group was established by the Public Utility Commission of Texas.
While Texas is among the states challenging the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s small modular reactor licensing, the new Texas law does not attempt to avoid the NRC. Austin ABC affiliate KVUE quoted Republican State Rep. Cody Harris, the bill sponsor, “We’re not creating any new permitting authority in the state of Texas. The state of Texas can’t go in and say, All right, we approve you for this site, but the federal government doesn’t, so go ahead and build. That’s not what we’re doing in this what we’re doing in this bill.” The House is also considering legislation to appropriate some $750 million in new money for the nuclear carveout.
The bill passed by voice vote but it did have opposition. Republican State Rep. Brian Harrison said, “This is going to cost a ton of our constituents’ tax money at a time when we should be cutting government and returning money back to them in the form of property tax relief…. It creates more government. It creates more bureaucracy. It adds more bureaucrats, and this is pure crony corporatism and corporate welfare.”
The legislation now is before the Texas Senate.
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