Senate Energy Bill Offers Boost for Westinghouse
Jun 29 - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A massive energy bill approved overwhelmingly by the Senate yesterday could provide a long-needed boost for Monroeville-based Westinghouse Electric Co., the nation's largest nuclear power plant developer.
It also provides $3.5 billion worth of funding for nuclear power research and
sets 2010 as a target year for getting a new domestic nuclear power plant up and
running,
The tax credits, directed toward electric utilities, and other financial
support could help Westinghouse emerge from a nearly three-decade slump that
began with a 1979 accident at Three Mile Island, which brought an abrupt halt to
nuclear plant construction in the United States.
For other energy interests in the region, the bill was a mixed bag --
possibly brightening prospects for Upper St. Clair-based Consol Energy and
alternative fuel developers such as Hazelwood-Capital Technologies
International, while dealing a blow to Moon-based Michael Baker's hopes of
engineering another Alaskan pipeline.
"We are very supportive of the [Senate] bill," said Westinghouse
spokesman Vaughn Gilbert. "We think it will not only promote nuclear power
but it is a balanced bill and it's important to have a balanced energy
policy."
For some time, nuclear industry insiders have expressed optimism that
environmental opposition to nuclear construction would diminish as the safety of
the plants improved and as concerns grew about U.S. reliance on foreign oil and
on fuels such as coal that contribute to air pollution and global warming.
The Senate's bill, which passed 85-12, appeared to affirm some of the
industry's thinking, although the legislation still must be reconciled with an
energy package the House passed earlier this year that is regarded as providing
more support for traditional energy producers.
A spokesman for Consol, the nation's third-largest coal producer, was not
available to comment yesterday, but mining industry representatives lauded it
for the billions of dollars worth of incentives it also provides to spur
development of clean coal technologies and power plants using them.
Among other companies that could benefit in the region is upstart Capital
Technologies, a Carnegie Mellon University spinoff that is studying a brownfield
site on Neville Island for a possible biodiesel plant.
The company did not respond to a request for comment, but the National
Biodiesel Board and the American Soybean Association jointly praised the energy
bill's extension through 2010 of a biodiesel tax incentive that was enacted last
year and was credited with jump-starting the fledgling industry.
The two trade groups also lauded the Senate bill's provision for a renewable
fuels standard that would require the use of 8 billion gallons of renewable
fuels, such as biodiesel and ethanol, by 2012.
Even though the Senate's energy bill raised hopes among some local firms, it
appeared to dash the hopes of at least one.
Dick Giffhorn, president of Michael Baker's energy group, said the exclusion
of any provisions for oil and gas drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
"does dim the prospects" for a proposed pipeline to transport natural
gas from Alaska to the rest of the country. Michael Baker, which engineered the
Alaska pipeline in the 1960s, had hoped to get the engineering contract for
another.
Drilling in the refuge was a feature of the House bill and Giffhorn said he
believed the refuge ultimately would be opened for drilling. He also said any
incentives a final energy bill may provide for drilling elsewhere in the country
or for alternative fuels such as methane from coal also could benefit Michael
Baker.
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