Republican lawmakers won a concession Thursday from Democrats in the Senate, inserting wording in the Senate's version of energy legislation that would make it easier for states and utilities that rely heavily on nuclear power to comply with the bill's proposed renewable energy standard.  The energy bill, currently in markup in the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, would require electric utilities to generate 15% of their power from renewable sources such as wind, solar and hydro by 2021. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the ranking Republican on the committee, inserted wording that will remove any new nuclear capacity from the baseline against which the 15% renewable capacity would be calculated. The insertion would allow utilities such as Exelon ( EXC - news - people ), the country's largest nuclear operator, to add even more nuclear generation without the double burden of paying for more wind, solar or hydro power to compensate for the added capacity.  Somewhat minimizing the value of the victory is the fact that it's unlikely that any new nuclear plants will come online for at least a decade.  It also pales relative to the industry's larger goal of excluding all nuclear from the baseline. By removing existing nuclear capacity from the baseline--nuclear today accounts for 20% of U.S. electricity generation--less renewable generation would be needed.  "States that made investments in nuclear years ago are being punished," said Robert Dillon, Murkowski's spokesman, who says that those states should be rewarded for their investments in carbon-free generation via full recognition of their nuclear generation capacity.  "But [committee chair Jeff] Bingaman doesn't want this to be a carbon reduction bill, he wants it to be an incentive for renewables."  Indeed, the Senate is awaiting the outcome of the House of Representative's June debate on carbon cap-and-trade legislation--otherwise known as the climate bill--before addressing the issue itself.
Utilities won't have to add more wind or solar capacity if they build new nuclear plants under GOP modification of draft renewable energy standard.