Government Documents for You

Falk, Justin. Nuclear Power’s Role in Generating Electricity. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Budget Office, 2008. SUDOC: Y 10.2/N 88/4

Concerns about the adequacy of electricity supply and the impact of greenhouse-gas emissions on the environment have prompted policymakers to reevaluate the role that nuclear power might play in the future in meeting the nation’s demand for electricity. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct) offers incentives for expanding utilities’ capacity to generate electricity using innovative fossil-fuel technologies and a new generation of nuclear reactors that are designed to decrease costs and enhance safety. In addition, policymakers are considering various proposals that would impose charges on entities that emit carbon dioxide, the most common greenhouse gas. Such policies could further encourage the use of nuclear power, which emits no such gases, by increasing the cost of generating electricity with competing fossil-fuel technologies.

At the request of the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) assessed the competitiveness of nuclear power when compared with other sources of new capacity to generate electricity, focusing on the possible effects of constraints on carbon dioxide emissions and the impact of EPAct incentives. In accordance with CBO’s mandate to provide objective, impartial analysis, this study makes no recommendations.

This document is available online: http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS93787

**Text taken from Preface of the document**