They need the next generation to take over. A good looking interesting young women needs to become the next NEI CEO.
US
nuclear power trade group head to retire in 2016
By Steven Dolley and William Freebairn
| December 18, 2015 06:00 AM
A new leader will head the US
nuclear power industry’s powerful trade group when Marvin Fertel, president and
CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute since 2008, retires at the end of 2016.
The nuclear industry, facing
escalating economic challenges and rising operating costs, could tap an
executive with Exelon, the largest merchant nuclear plant operator, to succeed
him, Fertel said. He first revealed his retirement plans in an exclusive
interview with Platts December 16.
Fertel, 69, said NEI’s board of
directors has been notified of his decision and a search firm will provide a
list of candidates for his replacement to the group’s executive committee.
Maria Korsnick, NEI’s chief
operating officer since mid-2014, “will be certainly one of the prime
candidates in that search,” Fertel said.
“I’m getting tremendous benefit from
having her here working with me,” he said.
“It’s a great asset to this
organization having Maria work with us now, and it will be a tremendous asset
if she gets the job, in that she’ll have so much experience with what NEI does,
as well as all the great background that she has,” Fertel said. “We look at it
as a really good thing.”
Fertel noted, however, that he will
not make the decision on his successor.
Natural gas brings
clear benefits to New England Massachusetts’s 1970s moment (ANGA)
Massachusetts’s 1970s moment
On April 18, 1977 America was in the midst of
an energy crisis and President Jimmy Carter delivered a televised speech
encouraging energy conservation. It was a smart idea, and he famously wore a
cardigan sweater on-air to drive home the point that even the White House was
turning down the heat.
How times have changed. Thirty-eight years
later, America largely controls its own energy future. In fact, American
produced energy has changed the global energy picture in a fundamental way
– thanks to innovations that tapped our abundant natural gas supplies –
lowering costs for consumers, reinvigorating American manufacturing and
reshaping how our leaders think about generating the energy we’ll need for
continued economic growth.
The magnitude of economic growth, specifically
in the New England region, relies largely on how this clean-burning natural gas
will be transported from the Pennsylvania shale fields to the region’s
consumers and businesses. The governors of the six New England states
understand this, and are rowing in the same direction, strongly supporting
efforts to get new, much needed pipeline infrastructure built in the region.
Which is why it’s curious that Massachusetts
Attorney General Maura Healey took a trip in the way-back machine to grab a
page from the 1970s energy playbook last month. That’s when Healey released the
results of a study she commissioned finding that Massachusetts didn’t need
additional natural gas infrastructure but instead could make due by increasing
energy efficiency and encouraging electricity customers to scale back their
use. The Attorney General appears to argue that Massachusetts doesn’t need more
natural gas infrastructure and instead should don the proverbial cardigan, turn
down the heat and conserve more.
The Attorney General’s report, and her
position against the need for more natural gas infrastructure, is troubling for
several reasons. First, the study only looked at the electric power
market, ignoring the needs of local natural gas utilities struggling to meet
increased demand for natural gas from residents and businesses seeking to
switch from oil to natural gas.
Second, the Attorney General’s report appears
to ignore the environmental benefits that natural gas is bringing to the
region, and will continue to do so. That’s because Massachusetts and regional
utilities are meeting clean air targets by replacing coal and oil fired power
plants with cleaner burning natural gas plants. But the lack of pipelines to
get the natural gas where it’s needed will force Massachusetts to delay the
opportunity for cleaner burning energy to keep up with freezing temperatures.
While everyone supports energy conservation –
after all, it’s good for both our planet and our wallets – we also must
allow for continued economic growth. The good news is that with natural
gas we don’t have to choose between the two. Greater use of natural gas is
reducing emissions and driving more efficient manufacturing while lowering
energy costs for businesses and homes alike.
The reality is that businesses that can
relocate or expand outside of New England are warning that the region’s high
energy costs jeopardize their continued operations. High energy costs also can
result in manufacturers shutting down or curtailing operations, and consumers,
who have seen household incomes stay flat for a decade, are being hit by energy
prices that are increasingly difficult to afford.
The benefits of
natural gas for New England are clear: more energy, fewer emissions, more
jobs and lower energy costs. Fortunately, New England governors are working
together to promote greater prosperity in the region by advancing infrastructure
investment to get more natural gas to consumers. A more constructive option for
the Massachusetts Attorney General, therefore, would be to join with other New
England leaders to advance the region’s shared economic, energy and
environmental goals with new natural gas infrastructure and other transmission
projects
Prior to joining NEI, Korsnick was senior vice president of Exelon’s
Northeast operations and acting chief executive officer and chief nuclear
officer of Constellation Energy Nuclear Group. She is also executive director
of the US nuclear power industry’s Fukushima Steering Committee, which is
responsible for coordinating with the NRC the industry’s activities in response
to lessons learned from the Fukushima I accident in Japan in 2011. Korsnick
joined NEI in 2014.
Before Fertel joined NEI’s predecessor organization, the US Council for
Energy Awareness, in 1990, he held positions at Ebasco, Management Analysis
Company and Tenera.
He became vice president of nuclear economics and fuel supply at NEI when
the organization was formed in 1994, and he was named senior vice president and
chief nuclear officer in 2003. Fertel became acting president and CEO in 2008
before being elected permanently to the position by NEI’s board in 2009.
During Fertel’s tenure, among other efforts, NEI has supported the licensing
and construction of five new nuclear power units in the US. After the Barack
Obama administration canceled in 2010 DOE’s project to build a geological
repository for spent fuel and nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, NEI
successfully sued the department in federal court to halt the collection of a
fee imposed on nuclear-generated electricity to build the Nuclear Waste Fund
that would have been used to pay for that project.
NEI has also advocated for low-carbon portfolio standards and other policies
to assist merchant nuclear power plants facing economic challenges from low
natural gas and power prices, and coordinated enhancements of nuclear power
plants’ ability to mitigate severe accidents similar to that at Fukushima under
its Flex initiative.
Fertel took the helm of NEI at the height of talk about a “nuclear
renaissance” in the US, spurred by expectations of strong growth in demand as
well as government support for new plants. Fertel saw those hopes sharply
diminished as an economic contraction followed by a historic drop in the price
of natural gas sent power prices plunging and reduced the need for new
generation. In the past three years, Fertel and NEI have faced announcements that
seven nuclear units in the US would shut. Just this year, Entergy has said it
will close its Pilgrim and FitzPatrick units in Massachusetts and New York,
respectively, because of financial challenges faced by merchant nuclear plants.
Those units rely on wholesale market rates for electricity, which have tumbled,
to make profits.
The support for Korsnick, an executive at the largest US merchant nuclear
unit operator, reflects the importance that the problems of the merchant fleet
represents for the industry.
She has recently been at the forefront of industry efforts to spread
awareness of the issues facing the industry, and earlier this month she
outlined an industry-wide initiative to improve the economics of nuclear plants
by reducing costs and increasing revenue.
Fertel’s departure from NEI had been rumored for years.
