Lawmaker urges halt in payments to nuclear waste fund

While the legislature debates tax increases, one Minnesota congressman wants to give back money most of you have been paying in a hidden fee.

You can't find it on your Xcel Energy electricity bill, but you've been paying it for decades--all for something that hasn't even been used.

Plans introduced in Congress and here in Minnesota would scrap the fee and give you the refund.

Many of us use nuclear power generated at the state's two nuclear reactors in Monticello and Prairie Island, and we don't even know it. We also don't know about the fee we're paying.

Under a federal law, utilities nationwide pay one-tenth of a cent for every kilowatt-hour generated from nuclear energy. Since 1982, that has added up to $31 billion.

It’s all sitting in an account to pay for the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Storage Facility in Nevada. It’s supposed to be a graveyard for nuclear waste. But political, economic, and security concerns mean it's not even finished and may never be opened.

First-term Congressman Erik Paulsen, R-Eden Prairie, introduced a bill in Congress Tuesday to scrap the fee and refund the money.

One and a half million Minnesota customers pay about $8.66 a year—or $13 million total.

A state lawmaker, Rep. Joe Atkins, DFL-Inver Grove Heights, has introduced a similar bill. He figures a full refund would put about $550 in customers' pockets.