Pillsbury Attorneys Successfully Argue for Suspension of Nuclear Waste Fees

Siding with the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), the Nuclear Energy Institute and a group of individual utilities, the court said that the government cannot charge disposal fees until it finds a viable storage alternative for the canceled Yucca Mountain facility. “It cannot renounce Yucca Mountain and then reasonably use its costs as a proxy. The government was hoist on its own petard,” the judges noted in their decision.

Washington, D.C.-based energy partner Jay Silberg and counsel Tim Walsh are representing the Nuclear Energy Institute and individual utilities.

Silberg, who argued the case before the court for NARUC, commented, “We made the argument to court that the fund is growing by a billion-and-a-half a year just from interest, and without showing they need more money, we should take a pause because we don’t have a (disposal) program.”

He explained that the Energy Department has 45 days to ask for a re-hearing on the decision, after which time it must submit a proposal setting the fee at zero to Congress. Lawmakers have 90 days to act on the request.