A bill that would require the Department of Energy and Natural Resources (DENR) to work with the Public Service Commission (PSC) on prioritizing domestic fuel sources in Louisiana advanced from House Appropriations on Tuesday.
After Sunday’s power outage in New Orleans, the bill’s author, Rep. Jacob Landry (R-Erath) said the state needs to have reliable back-up sources, like nuclear power.
“ We feel it's in the best interest of the state and the men and women of this state to you to look at what actually grid resilience is,” said Landry.
The fiscal note on HB 692 is more than $600,000 over a five-year period. Rep. Vanessa LaFleur (D-Baton Rouge) opposed the bill on the grounds it infringes on the authority of the PSC.
Rep. Kimberly Coates (R-Ponchatula) praised the legislation for including the option of nuclear energy.
“We're really trying to push that forward to get that here in Louisiana and actually get the PSC to also work on that and try to bring nuclear as clean energy here to Louisiana,” said Coates.
However, the rolling blackout on Sunday was caused by one nuclear plant being offline for maintenance and another experiencing a failure.
