GE Stresses Wind Over Nuclear Power, Senator Says

GE Stresses Wind Over Nuclear Power, Senator Says

Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- General Electric Co., the biggest maker of power-generation equipment, appears to be focused on renewable energy sources such as windmills rather than the nuclear power needed to combat global warming, Senator Lamar Alexander said.

The Tennessee Republican is a nuclear-power booster who has called for 100 reactors in the next 20 years as the Senate weighs legislation to cut greenhouse gas emissions. GE said it remains committed to nuclear energy.

“Have you seen all those GE ads for windmills?” Alexander said yesterday in a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington. “Now have you seen any GE ads in this day of concern about climate change that says that 70 percent of our carbon-free electricity comes from nuclear power? I haven’t seen any.”

“They don’t seem very enthusiastic about nuclear insofar as I’m able to tell,” he said.

Fairfield, Connecticut-based GE, which has partnered with Hitachi Ltd. to build reactors, has fallen behind Toshiba Corp.’s Westinghouse in the number of customers choosing its reactor design. Utilities that had agreed to use GE’s new design didn’t fare well in competition for federal loan guarantees to support new reactor construction, triggering “rumors” that GE would pull out of reactor design, Alexander said.

Any deal on the Senate legislation would have to promote nuclear power, Alexander told reporters after the speech.

Targeted Cuts

Alexander said he supports climate legislation that regulates emissions from power plants and from automobile tailpipes. He doesn’t back broad emissions reductions across industries as proposed in a cap-and-trade bill passed in the House in June, saying that would hinder economic growth and raise energy costs.

GE is lobbying the Senate to adopt the House language, which would in part reward use of renewable energy and energy- efficiency measures as a way to cut emissions 17 percent by 2020.

U.S. President Barack Obama and China’s President Hu Jintao are joining more than 100 heads of state in New York today to discuss climate change initiatives at the United Nations.

“GE remains committed to nuclear energy for the numerous economic and environmental benefits it offers,” Jack Fuller, chief executive officer for GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, said in a statement. GE Hitachi is based in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Loan Guarantees

Four companies, including Constellation Energy Group Inc. and Southern Co., are finalists for Energy Department reactor loan guarantees. None of those customers has chosen GE’s new design. NRG Energy Inc., one of the finalists, has selected an older General Electric design that was certified in 1997.

Fourteen of the 28 proposed reactors would use Westinghouse’s AP1000 design, which was certified by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2005. The Westinghouse design is still undergoing changes that require commission approval.

GE Hitachi’s “economic simplified boiling water reactor” design was chosen for reactors to be built by four utilities. Detroit Edison Co. and Dominion Resources Inc. have each submitted applications with the commission to build a reactor using the GE Hitachi design, according to GE.

Exelon Corp. said in November that it wouldn’t move forward with the GE design because it wasn’t certified, and Entergy Corp. said in January it would suspend review of the design

GE Hitachi may get approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for its latest nuclear reactor design by the end of 2010, Fuller said in an interview this month.

To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Whitten in Washington at dwhitten2@bloomberg.net