Mother blog The Locker Room explains Duke Power CEO Paul Anderson’s lust for a carbon tax. Roy Cordato concludes:
1. Duke wants to generate more of electricity using nuclear power i.e., build more nuclear power plants. Nuclear power emits no carbon and would go untaxed.
2. Duke Energy operates more than 17,500 miles of natural gas transmission pipeline with 250 billion cubic feet of natural gas storage capacity and, through its joint venture with ConocoPhillips, is the largest producer of natural gas liquids (NGLs) in North America.
Comment-Natural gas stands to benefit extensively from a carbon tax. This is why Enron was a big supporter of the Kyoto Protocol. According to the US Energy Information Agency, the price of natural gas will go up by 142 percent under Kyoto. This would be the result of people switching from high carbon oil and coal to the low CO2 emitting natural gas-talk about windfall profits.
Now if Duke and Anderson want to go ahead and build more nuke plants, great. Clean, safe energy. Go for it. But please do it without a government safety net. Or more accurately, a government ball-and-chain around your competitors.
