The nuclear energy industry blasted the Obama administration Wednesday for reinstating a 10-year tax that Congress rejected in December’s omnibus spending bill.
The Nuclear Energy Institute pointed out the tax Wednesday in a detailed review of the White House proposed budget, issued Tuesday, saying the group will begin reaching out to lawmakers to roll back the measure that neither the industry nor Congress supports.
“Industry recognizes that the federal government is under significant budget pressures, but reinstating unjustified taxes on utility consumers while the government has failed to meet its own obligation is outrageously unfair,” said Alex Flint, the trade group’s senior federal affairs vice president.
The tax would be used to clean up the Energy Department’s uranium enrichment facilities in 30 states, putting consumers on the hook through their power bills for a cleanup effort that the federal government should have taken care of years ago, the industry argues.
The institute says the administration’s attempt to reinstate the tax, after it has been rejected each year by Congress, is the “latest of multiple attempts” by the Obama administration to re-impose the levy even though the industry met its $2.6 billion financial commitment under the 1992 energy policy law to fund the cleanup and decommissioning of the sites.
Flint also is “displeased” that the administration’s fiscal 2017 budget increases the amount of money requested for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the industry’s main safety regulator.
The commission receives a big chunk of that money from fees the industry pays for the work it does. But since the work of the commission has dwindled in recent years with fewer nuclear reactors coming online, the industry believes its time for a trim in addition to reducing its number of staff.
“They staffed up, they haven’t staffed down,” said Steve Kerekes, a spokesman for the industry group.
The budget request released Tuesday “falls far short of needed efficiencies and cost-cutting,” the group said. “The administration submitted a budget request that is a mere 0.5 percent ($4.7 million) lower than this year’s [fiscal 2016] $982 million budget.”
Flint said the “public interest and the agency’s safety mission will be better served once the [commission] is right-sized, and it increases rigor throughout its regulatory processes.” He said congressional appropriators will be urged to make steeper cuts to the agency’s budget.
The issue of resizing the agency was a priority last year of Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, who is chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that oversees the nuclear regulator.
