Utilities Sue US Government To Suspend Nuclear Waste Fee
April 05 2010 - 2:43PM
Dow Jones News
A raft of utilities is suing the Department of Energy to suspend
collection of a nuclear waste management fee.
More than a dozen utilities, including Florida Power & Light
Co. (FPL) and NextEra Energy Seabrook, have joined the Nuclear
Energy Institute in the suit, arguing that because the DOE doesn't
have a nuclear waste management plan, companies should no longer be
charged the fee.
The DOE has collected more than $24 billion in fees based on a
one-tenth of a cent per kilowatt-hour surcharge customers pay to
foot the waste management bill, an annual $750 million in annual
revenue to the waste management fund.
But the DOE hasn't managed any utility nuclear waste, and the
Obama administration last year terminated the Yucca Mountain
management program in Nevada. It has instead established a special
panel that is charged with making recommendations to the DOE over
the next two years for waste management alternatives.
In a letter to Energy Secretary Steven Chu last year, the
Nuclear Energy Institute said the DOE collection of the fee should
be suspended until a nuclear waste management program is defined
and properly evaluated.
The utilities point out that the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of
1982 that initiated the waste fund requires the DOE to conduct an
annual "fee adequacy review" for the fuel management program.
Chu has so far declined to suspend the fee. The DOE wasn't able
to immediately comment.
The suit--filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia--follows a similar challenge to the DOE by the National
Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners last week.
-By Ian Talley, Dow Jones Newswires, 202-862-9285;
ian.talley@dowjones.com
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