West Virginia, the deposed king of U.S. coal, is moving to repeal a 1996 state law essentially banning nuclear power plants in the state. The state senate on Tuesday (Jan. 25) overwhelmingly approved a bill to repeal the nuclear prohibition. The vote was 24-7, with three senators who did not vote. The bill had both bipartisan support and opposition.
The bill is now headed to the House of Delegates in Charleston, where a similar measure is pending. The House bill is likely to pass both the Energy and Manufacturing Committee and the Government Operations Committee, which sent the legislation to the full House on Monday. A House public hearing is scheduled for Friday (Jan. 28).
The Parkersburg News and Sentinel noted, “A driving force behind the push to repeal the nuclear power ban was the recent announcement that North Carolina-based Nucor will build a new steel mill in Mason County. Nucor uses electric arc furnaces instead of coal-fired furnaces to produce steel products. The company is known for seeking contracts with clean energy companies to provide power to their furnaces.”
In a press release, Leon Topalian, Nucor president and CEO, said, “The green economy is being built on steel. As an electric arc furnace steelmaker and North America’s largest recycler, Nucor is already a world leader in sustainable steel. Our (greenhouse gas) intensity is less than one-third the world average, but we are committed to going further. Steel will continue to be an essential material for our nation’s economy, and Nucor is proving that it can be produced in a sustainable way to help the world meet its climate goals.”
The bill had the support of a wide spectrum of West Virginia politicians, including Republican Gov. Jim Justice, who became a billionaire based on his ownership of an inherited coal company, which he diversified into many other businesses, including owing the legendary Greenbriar resort.
The 1996 law requires applicants to build nukes to make a detailed case to the state’s utility regulator, the Public Service Commission, on how it would plan to manage nuclear waste, economic feasibility, and the impact on state environmental laws and regulations.
In committee testimony, the PSC and the state Department of Environmental Protection, said they already have rules in place to regulate potential nuclear plants, and noted that the plants would also have to pass muster with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Senate President Craig Blair (R-Berkeley County) said, “I’m excited. Another barrier down for economic development in the State of West Virginia, You can’t ask for anything better than that.” Minority whip Michael Woefel (D-Cabell County) said, “This bill makes us a leader in terms of being all-of-the-above in terms of our energy sources. I know the Nucor Corporation has asked us about what our future plans may be, and this would be a step, as they see it, in the right direction to allow nuclear energy as an energy source.”
Sen. Hannah Geffert (D-Berkeley), whose father worked on the first commercial nuclear power plant in Shipingport, Pa., and the first nuclear submarine, the Nautilus, in the early 1950s, voted against the bill. She said, ““I’m not against nuclear power in any way, but I am concerned about what we’re going to do with the waste. Currently, a lot of waste is stored on site in nuclear power plants across the country in barrels, which does not seem like a wise way to go.”
West Virginian was for decades the leading coal producing state in the U.S. and is still an important coal producer, both of steam coal for power generation and metallurgical coal for steel production. But Wyoming in the 1990s surpassed the Mountaineer State.
–Kennedy Maize