ORAL ARGUMENTS IN WASTE FEE CASE SET FOR WEDNESDAY

Oral arguments will take place Wednesday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioner’s case challenging the Department of Energy’s continued collection of the Nuclear Waste Fee. The court reopened the case in February, after NARUC challenged DOE’s court-mandated fee adequacy review. Following the Yucca Mountain shutdown, NARUC challenged the Department’s continued collection of the one-tenth of a cent per nuclear-generated kilowatt-hour fee that nuclear utility ratepayers send to the Nuclear Waste Fund. An opinion from the court last year required DOE to complete the review, which it did in January, citing ongoing efforts to find a path forward for disposal of commercial spent nuclear fuel. But NARUC has said DOE’s review is insufficient to justify continued collection.