The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday approved a bill that would ban imports of Russian uranium by 2028, sending the measure to the House floor.
Most Democrats on the committee opposed H.R. 1042, which passed by a vote of 29-21. In testimony to the committee this month, Jennifer Granholm, the secretary of energy, signaled that the White House opposes Republicans’ plan to resuscitate domestic production of uranium fuel for nuclear power plants by choking off the Russian supply and lighting a fire under U.S. industry.
The White House wants to invest another $2 billion in the domestic uranium industry before banning Russian fuel, Granholm testified May 11. Republicans on Wednesday discounted that argument again, voting down a Democratic amendment that would have paired the ban approved Wednesday with financial aid for industry.
“Nuclear fuel is not like natural gas,” committee chair Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) said during Wednesday’s markup. “The nuclear industry has long-lead fueling practices and large inventories of fuels available, including government inventories and enables protection from disruptions for many years.”
Watch the full committee debate over H.R. 1042, the Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act, on YouTube.
The bill “[p]rovides certainty that Russian fuels won’t be able to flood the market any time soon,” Rodgers said.
The House and Senate have now each sent bills to the floors of their respective chambers that would ban imports of Russian uranium. Neither bill was scheduled for a floor vote as of Thursday.
The uranium ban pending in the Senate, which would ban imports from Russia in a matter of months rather than years, is even stricter than the measure now awaiting a vote in the House.
