Energy Department scraps millions in fees for nuclear loan guarantee

[Geee]

Washington Examiner:

The Energy Department didn't have to pay millions of dollars in fees designed to prevent risk for taxpayers when it approved $6.5 billion of loan guarantees for a nuclear project in February, the agency confirmed Tuesday to the Washington Examiner.

The DOE calculated a zero dollar "credit subsidy fee," which protects taxpayers if developers default, for electric utility Georgia Power -- a subsidiary of Southern Co. -- and Oglethorpe Power Corp. to spur completion of two large, next-generation nuclear reactors at the Vogtle power plant in Waynesboro, Ga. Energy & Environment Publishing's Greenwire first reported the story.

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Dawn Selak, a spokeswoman with the DOE's loan program office, said the agency calculated little risk of default based on a methodology devised by the White House Office of Management and Budget.