On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, Dr. Mark Cooper, a Senior Research Fellow for Economic Analysis at the Institute for Energy and the Environment, Vermont Law School, traveled to Iowa to speak about the negative aspects of MidAmerican Energy's proposed legislation to clear financial hurdles for investors to build a potential nuclear reactor in Iowa (HF 561 and SF 390). In what has become a controversial headline to a press release yesterday, Cooper asserted that Iowa rate payers could see utility rates increase by $50 per month. The Des Moines Register's Jason Clayworth posted an article about this on Thursday.

MidAmerican Energy was quick to respond, clarifying their proposal and its potential costs. Clayworth wrote a second article. The thing is, that the $7.60 per month charge by MidAmerican is the first time members of the public have heard an official figure from the utility. For opponents of the bill, this is like hitting pay dirt.

Not only is $7.60 much higher than the $5.00 per month figure quoted by MidAmerican President Bill Fehrman on March 17 to the Senate Commerce Subcommittee, if the repayment is over 40 years, as Fehrman indicated, it means a $3,650 amount for each of the utility's rate payers. Which Iowans can afford this during a recession, or anytime?

Rate payers would actually be better off in the long run at Cooper's $50 figure. Such a payment, while very high, would recover the construction costs before the nuclear reactor would be built, thus avoiding interest costs of an extended repayment plan as Fehrman proposed. Since MidAmerican's legislation would clear the hurdle for its parent company, Berkshire Hathaway, to receive full return on investment if it participated, these additional interest payments would accrue to a company owned by one of the richest men in America.

To our knowledge, no single document lays out all of the impacts of HF 561 and SF 390 to consumers and that's the point. The Iowa legislature needs to slow down, get the facts and then make a decision about nuclear power.

Others, including Exelon Corporation CEO John Rowe, America's largest operator of nuclear reactors, have said new nuclear power is too expensive when other options are available to meet our electricity needs over the next generation. Cheaper and cleaner alternatives exist. Iowa's legislature should consider them before gutting consumer protections against our electric utilities to favor nuclear power technology.