COURT ORDERS DOE TO HALT NUCLEAR WASTE FEE COLLECTION

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for D.C. yesterday ordered the Department of Energy to suspend collection of the Nuclear Waste Fee from electricity ratepayers after a challenge from the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. NARUC filed the suit after the Yucca Mountain shutdown, opposing DOE’s continued collection of the fee on consumption of nuclear energy consumption despite the lack of a repository program. Yesterday’s decision comes after the court ordered DOE last year to conduct a fee adequacy assessment, which the court has found unconvincing. The decision states, “Because the Secretary is apparently unable to conduct a legally adequate fee assessment, the Secretary is ordered to submit to Congress a proposal to change the fee to zero until such a time as either the Secretary chooses to comply with the Act as it is currently written, or until Congress enacts an alternative waste management plan.”

NARUC hailed the court’s decision yesterday. “Today’s decision from the court is great news for consumers of nuclear power. Nuclear utilities and their consumers have paid more than $30 billion since the early 1980s for the construction of a nuclear-waste repository. These consumers have upheld their end of the deal, but unfortunately all they have to show for their investment is a hole in the Nevada desert,” NARUC Executive Director Charles Gray said in a statement. “Putting aside the political dispute about the proposed Yucca Mountain facility, nuclear-power ratepayers should not be charged for a program the federal government has closed down.”