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Earth Matters: Two humongously over-budget Georgia nukes, seven years late, delay startup yet again [1]

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Date: 2023-02-24  

In July 2017, with total completion costs estimated at $25 billion, construction at V.C. Summer was terminated about 40% finished. The blame was put on incompetence, manufacturing mistakes, and unlicensed workers taking on tasks they didn’t have the training for. South Carolina utility customers will nevertheless be paying extra on their electrical bills for many years to cover part of the cost of this fiasco.

Over the past eight years, Georgia Power Co., a subsidiary of Southern Company with the largest stake in the Vogtle project, has repeatedly extended the promised startup date of its two new reactors as myriad troubles have stood in the way of their completion. This has included similar problems as at Summer, including shoddy work that had to be redone. After three decades without a new U.S. reactor being built, skills and supply chains had just about vanished by the time ground was broken.

The hubris behind the idea that a project that’s never been built previously will go smoothly is not a new affliction in any field. But it was particularly prominent with the AP1000 designers. When it became painfully obvious that the contractors weren’t competent to do the job at Vogtle, Westinghouse itself took over construction. But it was a designer, not a builder, and neither it nor anybody else had built an AP1000 or its smaller predecessor anywhere. Burgeoning costs sent Westinghouse into bankruptcy in July 2017, further complicating the project.

All these problems piled on the delays and, of course, the cost overruns year after year. Documents filed at the State of Georgia Public Service Commission show the costs to build Units 2 and 3 have now risen to the aforementioned $35.7 billion, although Southern Company has put the figure at a fuzzier “more than $30 billion.” Whichever is the case, when the two new reactors do switch on, together with the two aging Vogtle reactors they will constitute the largest and most expensive nuclear plant ever built. Not just in the U.S., but in the world.

David Kyler, director of the Center for a Sustainable Coast.

It should be noted that when the first two Vogtle reactors were approved in the mid-1980s, the needed capital investment was estimated at $660 million. By the time the reactors were completed, that had jumped to $8.89 billion ($23 billion in 2023 dollars).

As in South Carolina, ratepayers in Georgia will have to pay a significant portion of these costs. In an opinion piece earlier this month, David Kyler, the director of the Georgia-based Center for a Sustainable Coast, wrote:

Thanks to the [Public Service Commission] and the General Assembly, these performance failures have cost residential ratepayers dearly. With the PSC’s approval, projected average monthly bill increases soared from $5 to an estimated $17.20, solely due to the Vogtle expansion, according to documents filed with the PSC. By the time unit 4 is operational, that figure could rise to $20 a month or more, at least a $240 annual increase for the average customer. Moreover, in 2011 Georgians began paying for Plant Vogtle when the General Assembly passed the Construction Work in Progress Act, the basis for Georgia Power collecting a nuclear tax on every residential Georgia Power bill, long before the new units would be operating. Including profits approved by the PSC on cost overruns, that tax has aided Georgia Power in amassing some $9.4 billion in profits to date, rewarding them for being years behind schedule and at least $20 billion over budget. ... Since 2011, every month, on every bill, customers have paid this nuclear tax, totaling over $1,000 for each Georgia household. Surely that is not in the public interest.

Despite safety issues—radioactive waste, embrittlement of steel in reactor containment vessels, potential for terrorist attack—nuclear power has clear advantages. Currently, it provides more emissions-free electricity than any other single source, though solar and wind are catching up. And some advocates say the U.S. cannot achieve zero emissions from power plants without at least some new nukes.

The leading candidate for these new machines is small modular reactors—each with 50-350 megawatts of capacity. Advocates view these as an improvement over the mega-expensive gigawatt giants that make up most of the world’s 440 existing nuclear power reactors. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently issued a final rule certifying the NuScale company’s SMR design.

Artist's rendering of NuScale's small modular reactor

With its Carbon Free Power Project, NuScale, owned by the Fluor Corporation, has plans to complete six 77-megawatt reactor modules at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory by 2030, a change from the original 2026 startup date. Meanwhile, GE-Hitachi says it will complete an SMR in Ontario, Canada, by 2028. No matter how much better these designs may be, the target dates seem highly optimistic for building something that’s never been built. And the estimated cost of NuScale’s plan has already swollen from $3 billion to $6.1 billion.

Critics say SMRs are not economically sound and that solar and wind farms not only can be installed much faster, they also are cheaper. GE-Hitachi asserts that it can build its SMR at a cost of about $60 per megawatt-hour. But utility-scale solar combined with storage now pencils in at $45/MWh, wind power runs $30/MWh, and stand-alone utility-scale solar at $32/MWh, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

Nuclear has provided 20% of U.S. electricity since the 1990s, about half the nation’s clean energy, and much that will continue for at least a couple of decades. The Biden administration is providing billions to keep existing reactors online and to research new nukes. But given the Georgia and South Carolina experience, nuclear advocates are likely to find it much harder to get utilities, bankers, investors, and ratepayers interested in funding them.

WEEKLY GREEN VIDEO

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GREEN BRIEFS

The Institute for Public Policy Research and Chatham House have issued a new report: “1.5°C—dead or alive? The risks to transformational change from reaching and breaching the Paris Agreement goal.” The report states:

The historical failure to sufficiently tackle the climate and ecological crisis could create consequences that challenge the ability of societies to tackle the root causes of this crisis. This is a doom loop: the consequences of the crisis and the failure to address it draw focus and resources from tackling its causes. We describe this as a ‘strategic risk’ to our collective ability to realise a transformation of societies that ultimately avoids catastrophic climate and ecological change. This dangerous dynamic extends to how prospects for tackling the climate and ecological crisis are framed. We explore a key example: the growing debate over whether it is now inevitable that global heating will breach the internationally agreed goal of 1.5°C.

The Guardian reports that experts who argue that holding the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) is still possible risk feeding complacency that today’s slow pace of action is adequate to the task, according to the researchers. On the other hand, those arguing it is out of reach risk spurring a sense that little that can be done, or that only “extreme approaches” such as geoengineering can work.

Steve Hanley at CleanTechnica notes that the report contains an “especially troubling” chart showing how deep greenhouse emissions must be cut to to constrain temperature rise to one of three levels: 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit), 1.7C (3.0F), or 2.0C (3.6F). He writes, “Take a look for yourself. It is quite self-explanatory. While the need for steep cuts is increasing, the amount of carbon emissions is accelerating.”

Kristopher Tigue at Inside Climate News reports that a gang of Republican extremists are determined to prevent their party from finding common ground on climate policy, something surveys show could be problematic on Election Day.

One such poll was conducted in December by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. Among other things, the surveyors found 70% of Americans believe global warming is happening; 67% say the issue is “extremely,” “very,” or “somewhat” important to them personally; 63% say they feel a personal responsibility to help reduce global warming; and 61% disagree with the statement “it’s already too late to do anything about global warming,” while only 14% agree.

Another December poll was conducted by George Mason University. It found 79% of Americans support placing renewable energy projects on public land; 78% support federal funding to make residential buildings in low-income communities more energy efficient; and 76% support tax incentives or rebates to homeowners, landlords, and businesses to buy appliances that can be powered without burning fossil fuels (such as heat pumps, electric water heaters, induction cooktops).

In all those cases and others that the two polls explored, large percentages of surveyed Republicans are included in the overall majorities.

Edward Maibach, director of the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication

But Republicans in Congress are another matter. The fossil fuel industry’s marionettes in the GOP have done their best over the years to make their string-pullers happy by parroting the climate science denial disinformation campaigns funded by ExxonMobil, Koch Industries, and other purveyors of lies and smears. Today there are 149 Republicans in the Senate and House who have rejected what climate scientists are telling us. Many have moderated their “it’s a hoax” version of denial, which has become increasingly difficult to maintain with a straight face even for them.

There are, however, some holdouts. And they are causing headaches for prominent party members who are trying to develop coherent climate policies as a counterpoint to those of the Democrats they have voted against in the past. Here’s Tigue:

… as Republican leaders attempt to revamp the party’s climate image, they’re running headlong into resistance from a small but vocal group of far-right lawmakers who are touting extreme views of global warming and making it far more difficult for the GOP to establish a unified platform. In fact, Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert will help to kick off the Heartland Institute’s 15th annual climate change conference this week, where the event’s prevailing message is that “there is no climate crisis.”

Longtime science rejector Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin is also a featured speaker.

The 39-year-old Heartland Institute has a lifelong history of spreading denialist manure about climate. It labels legislation to deal with climate as “boondoggles.” Though some of its donors have stopped sending cash, there’s still plenty coming in for the institute to stay on its barely modified mission, which, instead of saying climate change isn’t happening now just seeks to persuade people it’s no big deal.

Having the likes of Boebert serving on the House Committee on Natural Resources would be bad enough. But most of the committee’s Republicans are resistant to doing anything effective to deal with climate. Same goes for the House Energy Committee. Republicans who want to do at least something on climate are going to have a rough go of it.

Edward Maibach, director of Center for Climate Change Communication, told Tigue in an email interview: “They need to look beyond the hostile members of their own caucus and look to their voters. Our polls show that Republicans who are willing to stand tall for climate action will have a better chance of winning in their general election because large majorities of voters favor climate action.”

GREEN RESOURCES & ACTION

In observance of Black History Month, Yale Climate Connections is following up its January bookshelf on climate advocacy with a selection of new titles on climate and environmental justice. Together, these books make the case that climate action can only win widespread and durable support if it is just. Inequities of the past and the present must be addressed by policies and programs offered for a sustainable future. This month’s list begins with the nonprofit Green 2.0’s annual report on representation in environmental nongovernmental organizations and foundations, then turns to two deeply personal books by Black environmental activists.

ECOPINION

The coastline is at risk from rising seas, and we’re making more of it. By Doug Johnson at Ars Technica. “Each year, humans add a little more land to their coastlines, slowly but surely encroaching on the sea and filling up smaller coastal bodies of water with new developments. This encroachment typically comes as luxury waterfronts are added and ports extended farther out to sea. In all, since 2000, coastlines around the world—specifically in urban areas—grew a whopping 2,530 square kilometers [977 square miles], according to a new paper. A press release about the research notes that this is around 40 Manhattans, while the paper itself points out that this is roughly the size of Luxembourg. The paper—which claims to be the “first global assessment of coastal land reclamation"—looked at how human development built land in, or filled parts of, coastal zones. This includes wetlands, which play various important roles like slowing erosion, protecting areas further inland from flooding and sea level rise, and acting as habitats for myriad species.”

’Black Girl Environmentalist’ rejects climate ‘doomism.’ By Ayurella Horn-Muller at Axios. “Climate ‘doomism’—fatalistic messaging that nothing can be done to reverse climate change on a global scale is easy to find on outlets like TikTok, where the baseless argument has gone viral in recent years. Why it matters: Organizations like Black Girl Environmentalist are challenging the disinformation that feeds the argument, which they say can lead to a loss of power for the communities bearing the brunt of climate impacts. The backstory: In 2021, Wanjiku "Wawa" Gatheru founded Black Girl Environmentalist (BGE), which seeks to empower Black girls, women and non-binary peoples in climate action by facilitating increased representation within environmental disciplines.”

The FDA needs to start protecting us from obesity-promoting food chemicals. New report finds the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is not testing food, additives, or packaging for chemicals that cause obesity or disrupt our metabolism. By Jerrold J. Heindel at Environmental Health News. “The Western diet is a triple threat for causing obesity: the diet itself, the additives used in the food processing and the chemicals used in the food packaging are all culprits, according to a new report from the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The center is a science-based consumer advocacy organization that studies nutrition and health, so the focus on nutrition’s role in obesity is not surprising. What is surprising is a report on the role of environmental chemicals, obesogens, in causing obesity. Obesogen science proposes that humans are exposed to chemicals (obesogens) that stimulate the formation of fat cells and fat disposition, disrupt metabolism and energy, and regulate appetite and weight gain, which results in obesity. The new report examined how much evidence supports the obesogen hypothesis, and how researchers, health advocates and government should respond. It found the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is failing us.”

East Palestine disaster shows how America’s railroad system is dangerously broken. By Andy Rowell at Oil Change International. “For years communities and railroad unions on the frontline of America’s creaking railroad network have warned of a ‘ticking time bomb’ on the railroads. They have repeatedly called for safety improvements because of derailment after derailment of toxic chemicals and crude oil. Their voices have been silenced in the pursuit of profit as costs are cut and regulations ripped up. Three weeks ago, one of those derailments on a Norfolk Southern train caused a catastrophic environmental disaster in Ohio. The company and authorities’ response has led to deep criticism: ‘We basically nuked a town with chemicals so we could get a railroad open,’ said Sil Caggiano, a hazardous materials specialist. Long-term health impacts of exposure to these chemicals for the local community and workers are unknown, especially the synergetic effect of the different chemicals.”

A rail employee works a Union Pacific Intermodal Terminal rail yard on November 21, 2022, in Los Angeles, California.

The Case for Nationalizing the Railroads. Workers say now is the time to do the impossible. By Kari Lydersen at In These Times. “The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) recently also issued a strident call for public ownership of railroads to protect the economy, workers, frontline communities and the environment. ‘We demand that Congress immediately begin a process of bringing our nation’s railroads under public ownership,’ reads the statement from the UE general executive board. The union, which represents electrical workers and other sectors, argues that the major railroad companies—like electric utilities—are ​’natural monopolies,’ and have an ​’endless thirst for profit.’ The union argues that nationalization is necessary both to protect workers and to fight climate change and railroad-related pollution that disproportionately impacts communities of color and low-income communities. The statement notes that in 2021, UE launched a Green Locomotive Project to promote zero-emissions electric locomotives in rail yards and cleaner diesel locomotives on the tracks. ​’Although the legislation our allies introduced in Congress would have provided generous financial incentives for the railroads to adopt this green technology, they opposed us every step of the way,’ the statement read.”

Integrated flat plate solar plans on a residential rooftop in Germany.

What Europe showed the world about renewable energy. It’s possible to do hard things for the climate—and the U.S. isn’t that far behind. By Rebecca Leber at Vox. “Before the Russia-Ukraine war, 40% of natural gas and 27% of oil imports to Europe came from Russia, and Europe lacked pipelines and terminals in locations that could distribute gas from other parts of the world like the U.S. After sanctions on Russian oil and gas, instability led to high price shocks, fuel shortages, and a brief uptick in coal usage this winter, it was hard to imagine that renewables in Europe could overtake oil and gas as a source of electricity. But they did. The fear had been that the EU would fill the gap left by Russian sanctions with coal, the most polluting fossil fuel. And while coal did briefly make a comeback—fossil fuel generation rose last year by 3%—it was a temporary increase. Moreover, solar energy especially is on an “unstoppable” track of growth, explained Dave Jones, an analyst at the global energy think tank Ember. Solar capacity in Europe doubled since 2018, and is on track to triple in the next four years.”

ECO-QUOTE

“Lead pipes do exist in high-income communities, but in high-income communities they have the income to fix it, which means that whether it gets fixed or not might be a function of how much money you have, And that’s not right.”—Vice President Kamala Harris

HALF A DOZEN OTHER THINGS TO READ (OR LISTEN TO)

Brian Deese.

On his Volts substack podcast, David Roberts has a conversation with Brian Deese, President Joe Biden’s top economic adviser and director of the National Economic Council. He writes: “In April of last year, Deese delivered some ‘remarks on a modern American industrial strategy’ that laid out a vigorous approach to investing in economic sectors deemed important to national and economic security. And by all accounts Deese played a pivotal role in seeing the strategy into law, through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, which together amount to the greatest reinvestment in U.S. infrastructure and manufacturing—and, specifically, clean energy industries—in generations. The pivot to unapologetic industrial policy is a big change for Democrats. Deese has moved in those circles for a long time—10 years ago he was a young wunderkind adviser to Obama, making The New Republic’s list of ‘Washington's most powerful, least famous people’—so as he prepared to depart the administration, Roberts was eager to talk with him about what the shift to industrial policy means, why the U.S. needs to onshore key supply chains, and the work ahead for Democrats in implementing their new laws.”

Rebecca Solnit.

Hope Amid Climate Chaos: A Conversation with Rebecca Solnit. By Stella Levantesi at DeSmog. “When we talk about any movement, including the push for climate action, we’re talking about a ‘zeitgeist, a change in the air,’ writer, historian, and activist Rebecca Solnit writes in her essay-turned-book Hope in the Dark, which focuses on the intersection of activism, social change, and hope. It’s this last element, hope, that can become ‘an electrifying force in the present,’ the 61-year-old Solnit writes, ‘a sense that there might be a door at some point, some way out of the problems of the present moment even before it is found or followed.’ As activists and others work toward this door, they do so with the belief that there is still time to act and that the climate is worth fighting for. These same convictions are at the core of Solnit’s and storyteller Thelma Young Lutunatabua’s most recent project, Not Too Late, which offers perspectives, resources, and ‘good paths forward’ for those who care about the climate. The pair are also transforming the project into a book, coming April 2023, with contributions by activists, authors, experts, journalists, and others from around the globe.”

Every Coastal Home Is Now a Stick of Dynamite. Wealthy homeowners will escape flooding. The middle class can’t. By Jack Bittle at The Atlantic. “You can imagine each of the homes in [Norfolk, Virginia’s] Larchmont [neighborhood]—and elsewhere along the coast—as a stick of dynamite with a very long fuse. When humans began to warm the Earth, we lit the fuse. Ever since then, a series of people have tossed the dynamite among them, each owner holding the stick for a while before passing the risk on to the next. Each of these owners knows that at some point, the dynamite is going to explode, but they can also see that there’s a lot of fuse left. As the fuse keeps burning, each new owner has a harder time finding someone to take the stick off their hands. ... Meanwhile, the lowest-lying parts of Norfolk are roughly five to 10 feet above sea level, and climate scientists believe that sea levels in the city could rise by as much as two feet before 2050. How many more times will the dynamite change hands before it blows up?”

The Cheap, Powerful Climate Fix Energy Companies Are Ignoring. By Aaron Clark at Bloomberg Green. “Fossil fuel companies emitted more than 120 million metric tons of methane in 2022, just short of a record set in 2019. While very large leaks detected by satellite fell by 10%, global oil and gas operations still emitted the equivalent of the massive Nord Stream release on average every day, according to the IEA’s Methane Tracker. Most of that is a result of what’s known as ‘non-emergency’ releases that include flaring and is avoidable. Energy companies still routinely release natural gas, which is primarily composed of methane, during regular maintenance or combust it through a flare. But new and existing gas recovery technologies can vacuum up many planned emissions before they have a chance to enter the atmosphere, rendering the need for most releases obsolete. ‘Stopping all non-emergency flaring and venting is the single most impactful measure countries can take to reduce methane emissions from oil and gas operations,’ the IEA said in its annual report released Tuesday.”

About 80% of the options to reduce methane emissions from oil and gas globally could be implemented at no net cost based on surging natural gas prices last year, the International Energy Agency said.

Farmworkers Finally Won Overtime Pay. Now the Industry Wants to Repeal It. By Grey Moran at Civil Eats. “Along with domestic workers, farmworkers were exempted from overtime pay requirements under the New Deal’s Fair Labor Standard Act of 1938 to ensure Southern Democrats supported it. The exclusion was done to keep the Black people from overtime coverage without without saying so directly. ‘It’s hard to come by a more straightforward example of systemic racism, and we must not press forward with this. It’s time to absolutely eradicate it,’ said Andrea Schmitt, an attorney with Columbia Legal Services. Thanks to activists’ efforts, five states—California, Colorado, New York, Oregon, and Washington—have passed laws to include farmworkers in overtime pay, and are now at various stages of implementing them. The Biden administration favors an end to the 80-year-old federal exemption. But the agriculture industry is working to repeal the Washington law, the nation’s strongest for farmworkers, and the rest of these state laws, arguing that paying overtime will financially crush owners who are already under pressure from extreme weather as a result of climate change, rising costs of fertilizer and fuel, as well as rising cost of farmland that is partly a result of outside investors.”

New Orleans in 2019

Homes in flood zones are overvalued by billions, study finds. Jesse D. Gourevitch led a team of researchers in the study published in the peer-reviewed Nature Climate Change. “‘Unpriced climate risk and the potential consequences of overvaluation in U.S. housing markets’ found that climate change impacts threaten the stability of the U.S. housing market. In response to growing concerns that increasing costs of flooding are not fully captured in property values, the team quantified the magnitude of unpriced flood risk in the housing market by comparing the empirical and economically efficient prices for properties at risk. They discovered that residential properties exposed to flood risk are overvalued by $121–$237 billion, depending on the discount rate. In general, highly overvalued properties are concentrated in counties along the coast with no flood risk disclosure laws and where there is less concern about climate change. Low-income households are at greater risk of losing home equity from price deflation, the authors write. Consequences of these financial risks will depend on policy choices that determine who will be most burdened by the costs of the climate crisis. Among the potential risks: ‘If housing markets were to fully capitalize exposure to flood risk, the corresponding price deflation could negatively impact the revenues of local governments that depend on property taxes. Across the United States, many municipalities are heavily reliant on property taxes for revenue, with some locales receiving over 50% of total revenue from property taxes.’”

GREEN LINKS

Jimmy Carter, the president who tried to save the planet • Why it’s so hard to build new electrical transmission lines in the U.S. • The delicious, divisive, and surprisingly political world of contemporary home canning • Plastic Particles Are Filling the Skies • IRS releases guidance on low-income solar tax credit booster • Large study finds that air pollution speeds bone loss from osteoporosis • Botswana has seen a huge spike in rhinoceros poaching over the past 5 years • Jackson, Mississippi’s Water System Is Broken by Design • There’s No Such Thing as ‘Humane Slaughter’ of Livestock—Federal Records Prove It • EPA undoes Trump-era power plant rollback

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