The bill -- which won support from a bipartisan coalition of legislators and is backed by unions, businesses and academics -- is now in the hands of the state Senate.
“With energy, you always have to look long term,” Wisconsin state Rep. Kevin Petersen, the bill’s primary sponsor, said. “Wisconsin needs to know where we’re heading in the future so that we can maintain affordable energy for businesses and homes.”
Petersen believes the ban will be repealed this year. In the meantime, he hopes to see continued bipartisan support for the measure as it progresses. Petersen will, he said, support new nuclear construction in the state, as long as it is “cost advantageous to the ratepayers.”
“We must keep in mind that nuclear energy is unique in its ability to produce large-scale, carbon-free electricity around the clock," Alex Flint, the Nuclear Energy Institute's senior vice president of governmental affairs, said at a recent hearing on the moratorium before the state Senate’s Committee on Natural Resources and Energy. "Whatever the future may be, my recommendation is that Wisconsin should empower itself with all options as it considers its future. One of those options should be advanced nuclear energy. Nuclear has its plusses and minuses — consider them all, but do allow yourself to consider them.”
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