No nuclear repository, no waste fee collection: Georgia PSC
Washington (Platts)--3Feb2010/724 pm EST/024 GMT
Georgia ratepayers should not have to pay into the Nuclear Waste Fund, given the Obama administration's planned termination of the Yucca Mountain repository project, the Georgia Public Service Commission said.
The PSC unanimously passed a motion calling for an end to the waste fee payments and for the return of all money state ratepayers have paid into the fund since its was established in 1982 to bankroll the US Department of Energy repository program. Georgia customers of nuclear utilities have paid more than $1.1 billion into the fund, the PSC said.
"Since the current administration is no longer supporting any funding for Yucca Mountain, we cannot support any additional Georgia ratepayers' funds going into the fund and Georgians should get their money back," PSC member Doug Everett said.
Separately, legislation was introduced in Minnesota House of Representatives in January that would place waste fee payments in that state in an escrow account that would be used to fund a state nuclear waste storage commission. The bill, which is in a House committee, would appropriate funding for the commission from the escrow account.
--Elaine Hiruo, elaine_hiruo@platts.com
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