The group, Friends of the Earth, says Buffett told CNBC last month that the future of nuclear reactor construction is “dead” because of the crisis in Japan. Yet MidAmerican Energy, a holding of Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, is proposing to build a new Iowa nuclear plant, it says.
The Iowa Legislature is considering a bill aimed at spurring the development of the MidAmerican plant, which would become the second nuclear plant in the state.
The bill, which passed the Iowa House on Tuesday, would allow Mid-American to begin billing customers in advance for the estimated $1 billion cost of developing one or more small, modular nuclear reactors that could go on line as early as 2020.
Friends of Earth published an advertisement Wednesday in The World-Herald that criticized MidAmerican for wanting to “raise Iowans’ electricity rates to fund a new reactor that might never get built.”
“Mr. Buffett, Iowa ratepayers should not be paying up front for a project you don’t think will ever be completed,” the group’s ad said.