Voters gave 58 percent approval to Initiative 394, which required public utilities to get voter permission before building any power plant that would generate more than 250 megawatts. No public utility has built a power plant of that size since. But a bill that passed the Senate last week would change the law to require a public vote for nuclear projects only, allowing public utilities to build other power plants. Backers argue the initiative was targeting nuclear projects anyway and it prevents construction of sorely needed new generation. And though Clark Public Utilities recently built a plant that came in just under the 250-megawatt threshold, others don't because it's not efficient to build small plants.
Smaller units result in less competitively priced power.
It has stymied even the consideration of certain plants. The initiative also would force utilities to spend gobs of money to develop a proposal, which voters could then reject. And construction delays related to an election could alter a project's financial viability. Timing of these projects is important. Opponents of the bill make many of the same arguments they did two decades ago.