By: NRECA
The Administration took two big steps in late February to show action on boosting U.S. jobs and gaining Republican support for potential legislation with clean energy/climate provisions. With legislation stalled on the Hill, the President is trying to spark congressional action on these initiatives.
Within a week of pledging to support some Republican domestic energy positions, the President announced an $8.33 billion loan guarantee for the Plant Vogtle nuclear project partnership (Southern Co., Oglethorpe Power Corp. and two municipal utilities) in Georgia. In highlighting the 80 percent loan guarantee to build two additional reactors, the President emphasized the $14.5 billion project would create thousands of jobs and help reduce U.S. carbon emissions. The Energy Department is about to announce loan guarantees for three projects in Maryland, South Carolina and Texas. The President’s public embrace of nuclear power as a source of clean energy and green jobs builds on his FY11 budget request to triple the loan guarantee program to $54 billion from the $18.5 billion Congress approved for FY10. The Vogtle project announcement is a significant achievement for electric cooperatives. Only a few months ago, partnerships like Vogtle faced regulatory obstacles to participating in this program. Hard work by electric co-ops and others in the past year resulted in a decision making partnership projects eligible for the program.
In another Administration effort, the Interior Department sent Congress a timeline for an environmental review of expanding offshore oil exploration and production in 2012, which could potentially allow drilling to start as early as 2014. This is a major effort toward gaining Republican support for energy-climate legislation. The Administration acknowledged offshore exploration proponents’ claims that expanded drilling could create thousands of new jobs and cut the U.S. trade deficit. Even as the Administration unfolds initiatives aimed at increasing energy supply options, the President is actively supporting congressional efforts to pass legislation that puts a price on carbon and creates a cap-and-trade program while allowing the Environmental Protection Agency to proceed with efforts to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.
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