Former Sen. Bennett Johnston (D-La.), a defender of nuclear energy and former chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, died March 25 at age 92..
Johnston was a moderate Democrat that served in the Senate from 1972 to 1997. He started in the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1964, and then the Louisiana Senate in 1967. He ran for the U.S. Senate after losing a race for Louisiana governor by a close margin.
Johnston was either a ranking member or chair of the Energy and Natural Resources committee from 1973 to 1996, during which time the most serious nuclear reactor accident in the United States happened at Three Mile Island Unit 2 in 1979, according to Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call.
In response to Three Mile Island, Johnston worked with then-President Ronald Reagan to establish the Institute for Nuclear Power Operations to preserve nuclear energy, according to Llewellyn King’s tribute to Johnston in the White House Chronicle. Johnston also advocated for licensing and deploying more nuclear power plants in the United States and rewriting nuclear licensing laws in the Energy Policy Act of 1992, according to the American Nuclear Society.
Johnston was also convinced in 1995 by his committee report to slash funding for the Department of Energy’s Hanford site, which he said was too contaminated to funnel money into.
