Nuclear Energy and California's GHG Bill

A little more than a month ago, NEI's President and CEO, Skip Bowman, addressed Town Hall LA on why "America Needs Nuclear Energy Now." Just recently, I came across a clipping from the Oct. 11 issue of Platts Electric Power Daily (subscription required) that ought to bring that notion home to California ratepayers:

Sempra Generation's proposed 1,450-MW coal-fired Granite Fox project in Northern Nevada will find a market regardless of California's global greenhouse gas policy that could limit electric sales into the state, according to a Sempra representative addressing a California Energy Commission public hearing on October 7.

(snip)

[A] "greenhouse adder" of an initial $8/ton of CO2 emissions for an electric generating unit now required of utilities in California would raise the price of energy sold by Granite Fox from $3 to $4/MWh, depending on the plant's duty cycle because the company would have to mitigate one-half of the plant's CO2 emissions.

Sounds like it might be time to build more non-emitting baseload generation.

Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy, Environment, Energy, Politics, Technology, Economics, California