nuclear power

February 28, 2013 - Taxpayers for Common Sense has given a tongue-in-cheek "Golden Fleece Award" to the U.S. Department of Energy for speculatively spending hundreds of millions of tax dollars on small modular reactors being sought by the Tennessee Valley Authority and Savannah River Site.

February 13, 2013 - As commissioners consider whether to approve Duke Energy's controversial electric generation plan, the legislature wants to fire all of them and let Gov. Pat McCrory appoint a new slate. But given McCrory's longstanding ties to -- and ongoing investments in -- the utility giant, watchdogs say that represents a serious conflict of interest.

January 31, 2013 - The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy fought the Obama administration in court to get it to disclose details about the $8.3 billion in loan guarantees it offered private companies to build two nuclear reactors at Georgia Power's Plant Vogtle. Though heavily redacted, the documents they got suggest there may be trouble for taxpayers if the deal is finalized as now structured.

August 20, 2012 - An energy watchdog group is running ads in newspapers across North Carolina demanding the power giant come clean on billions of dollars in planned nuclear improvements that could cost its customers dearly.

July 23, 2012 - The $2 billion to be poured into nuclear fleet upgrades turns the Duke-Progress merger into a public soaking instead of a public saving -- which violates the deal's key legal standard.

June 15, 2012 - The deal to combine the two North Carolina-based utility giants has won conditional approval from federal regulators, but could it fall apart over worries about Progress Energy's Crystal River nuclear debacle in Florida and other expensive problems?

May 31, 2012 - As the cost of proposed nuclear projects spirals out of control, regulated utilities across the Southeast turn to ratepayers for financing -- but they face growing resistance.