EnergyBiz - September/October 2007 - (Page 40) toP roW, froM lEft Bill Harvey, Alliant Energy; Dennis Wraase, Pepco Holdings; Gary Rainwater, Ameren; Jeff Sterba, PNM Resources; David Ratcliffe, Southern Company; Richard Kelly, Xcel Energy BottoM roW, froM lEft William Moore, Westar Energy; James Rogers, Duke Energy; Kevin Burke, Consolidated Edison r atcliffE I agree totally. It’s a terrible indictment that we would send our spent fuel internationally to get it reprocessed. Why can’t we reprocess it in this country? stErBa Something has to be done. I am a little leery about continuing to pound our heads against the Yucca Mountain issue. We probably will need to have five or six regional storage facilities that are going to be above ground. I’m not saying give up on Yucca Mountain, but we need an interim arrangement so we can move some of the material off of our facilities and onto a federal facility. It has taken the Japanese 15 years to develop reprocessing technology. Should it take us that long? Absolutely not. Will it? My guess is it will because of the political processes that we’ll have to go through. rogErs We need this national conversation now. stErBa Absolutely. just breathtaking. We don’t seem to be able as a society to agree on carbon, renewable portfolio standards and development of a national transmission infrastructure. EnErgyBiz One way our country deals with stunning challenges is the presidential election cycle. How important do you think the 2008 presidential campaign will be in shaping this nation’s energy future? r atcliffE The politics are certainly important and interesting. But they don’t change the fundamentals of what we’re dealing with. I get pretty pessimistic when I spend a week in Washington. When you go there and you understand the enormity of these issues, the complexity of these issues and the absolute stErBa lack of r atcliffE leadership in terms of an ability to see long term and come together on a bipartisan basis for the benefit of the country, it’s not very encouraging. It puts us back into a mode of making the best decisions we can without certainty. I don’t think the election changes the complexity of the issues. Even with a new president, sure, there’ll be some influence one way or the other, but it won’t change the difficulty of getting good policy for the long-term benefit of this country. THE BIG PICTURE & PRE SIDENTIAL POLITICS EnErgyBiz Are you optimistic that the United States can develop a coherent strategy for nuclear power as well as all of the other issues we have just discussed? HarvEy It will never happen. Just reflect on our conversation, which is outstanding. The sheer enormity of our conversation is www.energycentral.com E n E rgyB i z 41 http://www.energycentral.com
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