OPINION:
The U.S. Senate may at any moment take up the renomination of Jeff Baran for a third term as commissioner of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Should this vote take place, senators ought to turn down this latest in a long string of nominees who are not up to the task.
From his initial confirmation in 2014 through February 2020, Mr. Baran’s official NRC biography managed to wander through more than 340 words without ever mentioning the importance of designing and building advanced nuclear reactors. For those who care about such things, the official biography even managed to avoid mention of the role nuclear energy might have in addressing climate change.
Fortunately, there is always time to rewrite one’s personal history.
In early 2021, after the Biden administration passed over then-Commissioner Baran for the chairman’s seat, it was time for a makeover. In his revised biography, Mr. Baran indicated that he now believes that the NRC “has an important role to play in tackling climate change, including establishing the right regulatory framework for the safe licensing and operation of new technologies.”
It took him only seven years — after Congress had passed numerous bipartisan bills supporting advanced nuclear energy — to get around to this oblique reference to the importance of advanced reactors.
The bad news is that Mr. Baran was not yet done reinventing himself. A year later, he added to the biography that he “supports a strong focus on environmental justice.” Better late than never to nail down one’s leftist bona fides.
Our friends over at the Breakthrough Institute — hardly a bastion of right-wing thought — share our concerns about Mr. Baran. They note that “the recent nomination of Jeff Baran to a third term as commissioner at the NRC suggests that the Democratic Party’s about face on the nuclear question still has a way to go.”
The institute pointed to Mr. Baran’s service as a staffer to notorious nuclear foe Henry Waxman, who was at the time the senior Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The group also noted that Mr. Baran’s record “tells a different story” than the promises he made during confirmation hearings.
Mr. Baran has consistently voted to make designing, siting, and building nuclear power plants more difficult, more time-consuming and more expensive. Sens. Joe Manchin III, Mark Warner, Tim Kaine, Raphael Warnock, Jon Ossoff and other Democrats who have nuclear power plants in their states ought to think twice before handing a third term to someone so obviously hostile to the nuclear energy industry.
Millions of homes depend on these reliable power sources, and they will continue to prove even more critical as the administration continues its push for the installation of inefficient alternatives that falter when it’s dark out or the wind stops blowing.
Should Mr. Baran retake his seat at the NRC and continue to thwart development of advanced reactors, it is entirely possible that we all may find it harder to keep the lights on.
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