A request for $125,000 will soon be delivered to the state legislature by the Corporation Commission to help complete its nuclear energy feasibility study. The money would be used to hire a firm to create a report on the subject.
A working group of Oklahoma researchers and utilities has been assembled to gather information ahead of the study. The OCC partnered with the Hamm Institute for American Energy and identified nuclear energy experts from the University of Oklahoma.
The participants are working as volunteers, said Mark Argenbright, director of the OCC’s public utility division. He said Enercon Services, which completed Michigan’s nuclear feasibility study, is among the potential companies eyed for the task.
The request comes as the agency reports funding challenges and staffing shortages.
“ We're unable to fill them because we cannot pay the salaries commensurate to draw people to these jobs,” Commissioner Todd Hiett said. “And so, we're already cutting and operating very thinly already, and maybe to the legislature, a couple hundred thousand dollars doesn't sound like much, but in our world, that's quite a bit.”
The agency could continue its information gathering without hiring a firm, though Argenbright said the product wouldn’t be as comprehensive.
“ We'll create a report regardless of how we deal with the consultant issue,” he said. “But it will be at a different level than it would be with a consultant, where we would have a much deeper dive and a broader range of information that would be able to bring to bear on the report.”
The agency could also use money pulled from its assessment fees of utility companies. Chairman Kim David said that the option would result in higher costs for Oklahoma utility customers.
“ I'd like to make a motion that we requested supplemental appropriation for the $125,000 for the report and put it back in their lap,” David said of the state legislature. “We have a lot of different people that have given a lot of time and effort and energy into this.”
In response to Hiett voicing support for completing a study that the state can one day use, Commissioner Brian Bingman said the OCC should continue its report without hiring a third-party firm.
“ I kind of disagree because I just don't think the legislature is serious about this,” he said.
David and Hiett voted in favor of the motion to request funds and Bingman voted against it.
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