Defense issue updates from John Tuma's Capitol Update for May 7, 2010

Nuclear Power. The energy area certainly saw a game changer occur in the House on Thursday afternoon while they were debating SF2971 which made technical changes to our energy laws. Rep. Bill Hilty (DFL-Finnlayson) offered an amendment repealing the moratorium on the construction of new nuclear reactors in Minnesota. Rep. Hilty is a champion on environmental issues, but felt it necessary to make a preemptive strike with an amendment to repeal the moratorium that required some conditions to be met. Those conditions were protection for ratepayers and taxpayers from cost overruns related to the construction of nuclear power plants, but unfortunately did not include any requirements to find a permanent nuclear waste storage site. The amendment passed on a 73-59 vote with an unusual mix of support. Not all the pro-nuke legislators supported this change, but several strong environmentalists also followed Hilty. The issue will now go to conference committee with the Senate, who has not passed the moratorium repeal this year but did pass a repeal last year by a wide margin.

Coal Power. On the same House energy bill there were three attempts to repeal the moratorium on new energy coming from coal power plants in Minnesota or imported from other states. The 2007 legislation does not allow for the construction of coal power plants or the importation of dirty coal power from our neighboring states until there is a regional or national energy policy regulating carbon emissions. Only two of the amendments had a roll call vote and they both failed on a vote of 58-74.

Click here to read the rest of John Tuma's Capitol Update for May 7, 2010.