By Matt Smith/msmith@trcle.com
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U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards said Friday that a proposal by his Republican opponent, Bill Flores, would kill a planned expansion of Comanche Peak nuclear power plant and cost thousands of area jobs.
Edwards, D-Waco, and Flores are pitted against one another for the Congressional District 17 seat in the November election. The district includes Johnson County as well as Somervell County, home of the nuclear power plant in Glen Rose.
“Mr. Flores’ plan to end federal loan guarantees for nuclear plant construction would kill the Comanche Peak plant expansion in its tracks,” Edwards said. “It is an outrageous job-killing plan that would take away thousands of jobs for Somervell, Hood and Johnson counties, and I will do everything I can to ensure that Mr. Flores’ proposal never becomes law.”
Edwards said Flores made the proposal earlier this year while speaking to a group but did not elaborate further on exactly when or to whom Flores made the proposal.
Flores’ campaign issued a statement on Friday, saying the allegations are nothing more than “desperate and dishonest claims” and an attempt by Edwards to distance himself from President Obama and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Furthermore, the campaign said, Flores reiterated his support Thursday for expansion of Comanche Peak.
But Edwards’ campaign cast doubt on that assertion by rebutting with an audio clip of Flores saying it wasn’t the federal government’s role to build or loan money for the plants.
Luminant, which operates Comanche Peak, estimates that about 5,000 jobs will be created during the five-year construction of proposed expansions in addition to more than 500 full time at the plant thereafter, Edwards said.
Economist Ray Perryman estimated that the expansion will create 2,847 permanent jobs in the Somervell County area and 6,264 permanent jobs throughout Texas.
The expansion, Edwards estimated, would provide power to an additional 1.7 million Texas homes.
Luminant is presently applying to the Federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission to construct two new 1,700 watt reactors. The company estimated that it will spend about $15 billion to build the new reactors. Should the loan guarantees gain approval, Luminant hopes to begin construction in 2013.
Edwards called the planned expansion one of the most important economic development projects for the state of Texas, but especially for the Somervell, Johnson and Hood county areas.
Edwards said he wrote the NRC in 2008 in support of Comanche Peak’s application, and voted in support of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which created the Nuclear Loan Guarantee Program.
That program allows the secretary of energy to make loan guarantees to qualified projects in the belief that accelerated commercial use of new or improved technologies helps to sustain economic growth, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s website.
Companies pay fees on the loan guarantees, which means the program is a source of revenue that will help reduce the federal deficit, Edwards said.
Edwards serves as vice chairman of the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, which funds the Department of Energy’s nuclear loan guarantee program.
Halting plans to expand Comanche Peak would also hamper economic growth in Texas for years to come, Edwards said.
“Perhaps if Mr. Flores had not been working in Houston for the past 20 years or so, he would have had a better understanding of the importance of the Comanche Peak plant to the future of Somervell, Hood and Johnson counties,” Edwards said. “If Mr. Flores believes his job-killing plan is a good way to introduce himself to voters in our area, he is woefully out of touch.”
Flores campaign manager Matt Mackowiak said Edwards’ charges are an attempt to hide his association with the Obama administration, which, he said, has embraced energy policies that will cost District 17 residents.
“Edwards campaigned for and asked voters to support Barack Obama because, as Edwards stated, Barack Obama had ‘the solid judgment our citizens want.’” Mackowiak said. “Apparently, Edwards thinks sky-rocketing energy rates is solid judgment and, in fact, voted to allow the Cap and Trade bill to come to the House floor for a vote in 2009. If Edwards was so committed to expanding energy development in America, he would have fought tooth and nail to stop Cap and Trade from being voted on.”
Flores, Mackowiak said, is the only candidate in the race who has directly called for vastly growing our nuclear power facilities.
“Bill Flores has laid out a comprehensive national energy plan, which specifically includes the expansion of nuclear power,” Mackowiak said.
“Federal loan guarantees are a vital tool for existing nuclear power plants, like Comanche Peak, and Bill supports their use.”
Moments later, Edwards’ campaign fired back with a Youtube link to a Flores quote delivered at a Feb. 20 Waco Tea Party Hob Nob.
“It’s not the federal governments responsibility to be building those plants or even to be loaning the money for those plants or to be guaranteeing the debt on those plants,” Flores said in the clip to a woman who asked about Comanche peak.
Mackowiak on Friday said Flores modified that stance because of circumstances, which he blamed on Democratic leadership that consistently blocked efforts to pass a comprehensive energy plan.
“As a result of their lack of leadership, federal loan guarantees are now necessary to finance some nuclear power plant projects,” Mackowiak said. “Following the Waco Tea Party event held this past February, Flores learned about this situation during discussions with power companies that own nuclear facilities.
“Flores will continue to support federal loan guarantees until such time as Congress finally passes a comprehensive national energy plan, which will be one of my priorities in Congress.”
