Black & Veatch Survey Notes Industry's "Optimistic" Views on Nuclear Power, Strong Support for Coal

SUGAR LAND--February 17, 2010--Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--"Fiscal realities" in the electric-utility business will lead to the construction of new coal-fired electric power generation, despite concerns about climate change and the strong opposition of environmentalists, according to a recently released survey of U.S. energy-industry officials from Black & Veatch (Overland Park, Kansas), the global engineering, construction and consulting firm. More than 75% of 329 energy-industry officials agreed that coal has a future in the U.S., once these realities were fully considered. Regarding nuclear power, Black & Veatch noted some "optimistic" projections from respondents. More than one-third of those surveyed (35%) predicted that nuclear power's proportion of the U.S. electricity mix would double to 40% by 2050.