How will midterm results impact nuclear energy

In the wake of last Tuesday's midterm elections and sweeping victories for Democrats across several levels of government, Nuclear News is probing how the results could impact those in and around the nuclear energy community.

Below, NN looks at the newly elected officials who flipped U.S. Senate and governor seats from red to blue to see what they've said or done regarding nuclear energy, as well as what to expect from Congress during the lame-duck session.

The data centers issue: The data center boom took center stage in races and ballot measures across the country. This topic was of great interest not just to the public but to the nuclear community, as some hyperscalers seek nuclear energy to provide clean power for their planned infrastructure.

According to the Data Centers on the Ballot tracker, voters rejected or were close to rejecting data centers in some form or another in 46 of 47 ballot measures (including referenda, petitions, advisory questions, and similar measures).

And based on election results, voter sentiment against data centers had a significant impact on candidates, depending on their stance. Some candidates, like Texas governor-elect Gina Hinojosa, may have been helped by her criticism of data centers.

"We will have laws to protect Texans, and we need to stop what we are doing with data centers until we have those protections," said Hinojosa in an interview following the election.

Troy Jackson, the winner of the Senate race in Maine, said during an October debate: "I want to make sure that we know what the data is. How they are using it, and there has to be real parameters, real guidelines to how we're going to do this," as reported by Newsweek. "I'm not really supportive of data centers, but I understand they're maybe something that we have to deal with."

The senators: As of Monday, seven Senate seats flipped from Republican to Democrat, with two more still to be decided. Some of the winners have weighed in on nuclear energy, either directly or indirectly.

James Talarico, who won the Senate seat in Texas, ran on an "all-of-the-above" energy platform that supports non-fossil fuel sources while still protecting the state's oil and gas industries, but his energy platform does not specifically mention nuclear energy. Annie Andrews, who won the Senate seat in South Carolina, also spoke in support of an all-of-the-above approach to energy sources, but she did explicitly list nuclear energy in an interview with WIS10. And Adam Hamilton, the Democratic candidate who won in Kansas and also supports an all-of-the-above approach, said in a debate that AI should be regulated similar to how the Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulates nuclear.

Josh Turek, the winner of the Iowa Senate race, said in an October debate on WHO13 that he opposed using taxpayer dollars to reopen the Duane Arnold nuclear power plant when most of the power generated from the Palo, Iowa, facility would go to Google.

Sherrod Brown, the winner of the Ohio Senate race, returns to Congress after he lost reelection in 2024. During his previous time in the Senate, Brown championed nuclear energy, as in 2023 when he cosponsored a bipartisan resolution supporting nuclear energy. Brown also spoke at a plenary session of the American Nuclear Society conference Nuclear and Emerging Technologies for Space 2022 in Cleveland, Ohio.

Roy Cooper, the former North Carolina governor-turned-senator-elect, ran on an energy platform to lower energy and utility costs by "ensuring that corporations pay for their fair share of the energy they use instead of passing that cost onto you and modernizing our energy grid." But as governor, Cooper vetoed a measure in 2023 that would have incentivized the development of nuclear power facilities in the state. (Legislators overrode the veto shortly after.)

The governors: As of Monday, five states flipped gubernatorial seats-and like in the Senate, the flips were from Republican to Democrat. The most high-profile of these flips is arguably in Texas, with Hinojosa becoming the first Democrat elected Texas governor since 1990. Hinojosa's energy platform did not specifically mention nuclear energy, but she said the state needed to improve its grid reliability to support adding on "wind, solar, and other clean and affordable energy" but that they "cannot simply trample on the rights of property owners to build 765 kV transmission lines in record time because high-load users demand it." Hinojosa has called for a moratorium on data center approvals once she takes office until the state legislature addresses the topic.

In Iowa, Gov.-elect Rob Sand said he supports the restart of Duane Arnold but added that data centers benefiting from the restart need to pay "their full freight on that and that they're taking care of it, that they are covering those costs. If they're going to build in Iowa, they need to be contributing to Iowans."

As Nevada's attorney general, Gov.-elect Aaron Ford led efforts addressing nuclear fuel and waste, including measures affecting the Yucca Mountain repository project. For instance, his office filed a motion in 2022 that would have lifted a stay on the Yucca Mountain licensing proceedings and could have permanently ended the project. And in 2019, his office filed a motion to stop future shipments of weapons-grade plutonium into the state after it was reported the Department of Energy had shipped a half-ton of plutonium one year earlier.

In Georgia, Gov.-elect Keisha Lance Bottoms's energy platform focused on data centers, reflecting her position that the boom needs to slow down and further assessment is warranted, "so families are not left with higher utility bills, strained water resources, and damage to surrounding communities."

In Ohio, Gov.-elect Amy Acton told the Dayton Daily News that nuclear power is in her vision for an all-of-the-above approach to energy for her state.

The lame-duck session: Tuesday's results won't impact just 2027. The lame-duck session commenced this week, and the turning political tide will impact this Congress as well.

Among the unresolved pieces of legislation is the bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act, which could overhaul the permitting process to expedite federal reviews of energy infrastructure projects, as well as require data centers to pay their share of transmission costs. The election results have some lawmakers pondering whether to wait until after the new year or push forward during the lame-duck session.

On Saturday, the bill sponsors released a substitute amendment that included clarifying, conforming, and technical edits to the bill originally introduced in September. The bill was on the Senate calendar for Monday, with news outlets reporting it is scheduled for a procedural vote.

"We have spent months working across party lines on both sides of Capitol Hill and with President Trump to deliver permitting reform that makes it easier to build in America . . . . Our permitting system takes too long, costs too much, and leaves too much uncertainty for the people trying to build what our country needs," said Sen. Mike Lee (R., Utah) in a statement.

The Democrat cosponsors of the bill said there would be no delay on their part. "This is the closest we have come to actually finding something that can get signed into law, and I'm not going to wait," Sen. Martin Heinrich (D., N.M.) told Reuters. That same article, however, said some House Democrats and environmental groups may be willing to wait and push "more ambitious legislation" come 2027.

Six pieces of nuclear-related legislation, meanwhile, are scheduled for the House floor, according to the congressional calendar. These permitting bills advanced out of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce during the summer:

• The Nuclear Recycling Efficient Fuels Utilizing Expedited Licensing (REFUEL) Act.
• The American Enrichment Deployment Act.
• The Efficient Nuclear Licensing Hearings Act.
• The Nuclear Advisory Committee Reform Act.
• The NRC Staff Pay Alignment Act.
• The Department of Energy Nuclear Transparency Act.