Nuclear Industry Moves to Hijack Obama’s Climate Bill
Republicans in Congress have teamed up with the nuclear industry to create an alternative climate change bill that would double the number of nuclear reactors in the US by 2030. However, saying it’s a ‘climate change’ bill is a bit of an exaggeration: climate change is only mentioned in it one time. The spoiler bill is all about getting the nuclear industry a giant piece of the green economy pie.
From The Guardian:
“If you care about climate change … 100 new nuclear power plants is the place to start,” said Lamar Alexander, a Republican from Tennessee who is the strongest proponent of nuclear power in the Senate.
Another crucial element of the Republicans’ “nuclear renaissance” are two rival proposals for a “clean energy bank” now before Congress. One version, under consideration by the Senate, envisages almost unlimited federal loan guarantees to encourage wind and solar power and, nuclear proponents hope, new reactors.
Ellen Vancko, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, said: “The nuclear industry would like to be able to finance the next generation of nuclear reactors using the faith and credit of the US taxpayer to underwrite the expansion. They don’t want to be responsible for any risk of financing these plants and neither do their lenders.”
The cost of each new nuclear plant ranges between $5 billion and $12 billion dollars – no chump change, especially compared to other sources of renewable energy. Another problem is the fact that there’s still no place to permanently store nuclear waste.
Republicans just. Don’t. Get. It.
Link The Guardian
Photo credit: Flickr user christian.senger
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- Could Senator Spector’s Party Switch Aid a Cap-and-Trade Bill?
- Which Members of Congress Caved to Special Interests on Climate Bill?
- More Climate Bill Forgery: Big Oil Lobbyists Fake Public Opposition
This entry was posted on Saturday, June 13th, 2009 at 11:00 am and is filed under Consciousness, Green Living, Health, Science, Spirituality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
