By Jeff Beattie
Amid deep concerns in the nuclear energy sector about the impending Obama administration, the industry’s top lobbyist–Nuclear Energy Institute President and Chief Executive Officer Frank “Skip” Bowman–resigned on Nov. 14 to let the organization pick a new chief to navigate the drastically changed political landscape in Washington.
In a Nov. 14 letter to John Rowe, NEI chairman and chairman and CEO of Exelon Corp., Bowman said he wanted to give NEI the chance to install new leadership early on in Obama’s transition in the interest of “organization continuity.”
NEI said Executive Vice President and Chief Nuclear Officer Marvin Fertel has assumed NEI’s top position in an acting capacity.
The trade group said nothing about its search for a permanent replacement for Bowman, but sources said a potential strong candidate for the NEI top job is Betsy Moler, Exelon’s executive vice president of government and environmental affairs and public policy.
Bowman, a retired four-star Navy admiral who headed nuclear Navy programs before coming to NEI in 2005, won praise at the trade group for helping to win congressional passage of financial incentives to support construction of new commercial reactors.
However, Bowman is leaving with nuclear industry clearly headed for rougher waters with the exit of President Bush, whose administration was unfailingly supportive of nuclear power.
As the Obama transition team gears up, nuclear industry officials have been eagerly looking for signs that Obama will be at least somewhat supportive of the U.S. nuclear industry’s recent rebirth, in which companies have recently filed applications at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build an astonishing 26 new reactors.
But Obama has given them little to cheer about, offering qualified support for nuclear power generally but pledging to kill a top industry priority, the planned repository for spent nuclear fuel in Yucca Mountain, Nevada.
NEI’s challenge will be to find a new leader who will have influence with the Obama administration and Congress, where Democrats strengthened their grip in the Nov. 4 election. A key problem is that the number of pro-nuclear, high-profile Democrats who might fill the slot is far smaller than the number of appropriate pro-nuclear Republicans.