Texas' Energy Future

We don't often quote the leftie site dKos, but a pro-nuclear Texas progressive there has a report on Texas nuclear power plant expansions:

The difficulties with the coal proposals and the remaining demand for increased baseload capacity provided a window for NRG Energy, the largest shareholder (44%) of the South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Company (STPNOC) to propose expanding the 2 existing units at STP to 4. TXU similarly proposed expanding the two units at Comanche Peak (Dallas region) to four; these plans remain active after TXU scrapped most coal designs. Two additional plants on greenfield sites are also proposed; one by an Amarillo group, the other by Exelon corp. to be situated on the Gulf Coast somewhere near the STP site. In total, these represent somewhere in the neighborhood of 8000 MW capacity on top of ~4500 MW existing nuclear capacity. For scale, Texas capacity was approx. 63,000 MW in Summer 2006.

The report indicates the proposed South Texas Plant expansion (from 2 to 4 units) got a lot of local support in public comment hearings:

On Wednesday, June 27, the NRC held an initial public hearing to discuss the Letter of Intent that NRG has filed and how the Combined-Operating License process differs from previous instances. I attended this meeting -- quite a trip at 80 miles from my residence in central Houston -- and found the crowd of nearly 180 people almost entirely in favor of the proposal. Notably, Bay City Mayor Richard Knapik and Matagorda Co. Judge Nate McDonald gave strong statements of support during the Q&A period. Additionally, a representative for US Congressman Ron Paul (TX-14) informed me the congressman is also strongly in favor of the expansion. Local residents commended STP on being a clean and quiet neighbor, providing clean energy and high quality jobs to the region. The main exceptions were representatives from the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, Public Citizen, and the SEED Coalition who expressed doubts about the safety and "green-ness" of the plant.

The STP expansion appears to be "technologically and financially sound" and supported locally, so a very good chance it will sail through.

It would be great if this momentum continues, and Texas remains a key energy producer beyond the usual fossil fuels, adding more nuclear and wind to our energy portfolio.