In a survey released this morning by Scioto Analysis, 13 of 18 economists agreed that encouraging development of new nuclear power generation facilities will lead to lower energy prices in Ohio. This comes as Ohio’s energy demands are going to be increasing as data centers become a larger part of the economy. In order to meet these energy demands, Ohio is going to need to increase its energy production or face rising energy rates.
One caveat mentioned by some of the economists who agreed was that there would be downward pressures on energy prices was that the high upfront cost of nuclear development would make this development more difficult. As Faria Huq from Lake Erie College noted “Basic laws of demand and supply would suggest that in the face of increasing demand, supply needs to be increased in order to keep prices low. However, given the very large fixed costs associated with developing nuclear power generation facilities, there would need to be reliable projections of the specific energy needs of the data centers prior to investing in them. There should also be some form of commitment by the data centers to use the additional energy produced.”
David Brasington who was uncertain about the energy price impact also noted that these fixed costs might need to be passed on to consumers: “Larger supply could lead to lower prices, but the large fixed costs of a new source of energy would have to be passed on to customers, too.”
Additionally, 12 economists disagreed that encouraging development of nuclear energy facilities would substantially increase health risks for Ohio residents. As Jonathan Andreas from Bluffton University pointed out, current energy generation options already have some associated health risks: “Nuclear power has a long track record and Western plant designs have produced much, much lower rates of health problems for area residents than coal-fired plants which have killed hundreds of thousands of Americans due to pollution. Even the worst nuclear disasters in the West, Three-Mile Island and Fukushima, killed very few people directly although there were many indirect deaths caused by the evacuations. Those are the worst disasters in the entire global history of capitalist nuclear reactors, and the technology has been improving.”
The Ohio Economic Experts Panel is a panel of over 30 Ohio Economists from over 30 Ohio higher educational institutions conducted by Scioto Analysis. The goal of the Ohio Economic Experts Panel is to promote better policy outcomes by providing policymakers, policy influencers, and the public with the informed opinions of Ohio’s leading economists. Individual responses to all surveys can be found here.