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ARTICLE ARCHIVE

Entries from November 1, 2009 - November 30, 2009

Friday
Nov272009

Nuke subsidies: "All risk, no reward, for taxpayers and ratepayers"

A new report, "ALL RISK, NO REWARD, FOR TAXPAYERS AND RATEPAYERS: THE ECONOMICS OF SUBSIDIZING THE 'NUCLEAR RENAISSANCE' WITH LOAN GUARANTEES AND CONSTRUCTION WORK IN PROGRESS," by Mark Cooper, Senior Fellow for Economic Analysis at the Institute for Energy and the Environment of the Vermont Law School, shows that the American public could face trillions of dollars of financial risk and added costs if a new generation of atomic reactors is built in the U.S.

Wednesday
Nov252009

Forbes strikes again!

As described in the current issue of Forbes magazine, federal nuclear loan guarantees would transfer the financial risks of the “nuclear renaissance” onto U.S. taxpayers. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that “well over half” of nuclear loan guarantees will default, leaving taxpayers to hold the bag for many billions of dollars per failed project. In February 1985, Forbes reported that “[t]he failure of the U.S. nuclear power program ranks as the largest managerial disaster in business history, a disaster on a monumental scale. The utility industry has already invested $125 billion in nuclear power, with an additional $140 billion to come before the decade is out, and only the blind, or the biased, can now think that most of the money has been well spent.” If Energy Secretary Chu rushes nuclear loan guarantees out the door by the end of the year, as he has threatened to do, this ugly history could easily repeat itself. Phone Energy Secretary Steven Chu at (202) 586-6210 (during business hours only), email him at The.Secretary@hq.doe.gov, write him a letter at U.S. Department of Energy/1000 Independence Ave., SW/Washington, DC 20585, or fax him at (202) 586-4403. Urge Secretary Chu to not rush granting $18.5 billion in nuclear loan guarantees to flawed, incomplete, uncertified, unsafe and financially risky new reactor designs.

Tuesday
Nov242009

Already 37,573 signatories to Don't Nuke The Climate! Sign the petition!

 

December 12, 2009 is the international day of action to support the Don't Nuke The Climate campaign and send a strong message to our leaders in Copenhagen. Please join the 37,573 signatories and counting of the Don't Nuke the Climate Petition. And please participate in the "Don’t nuke the climate!" day, slated to take place on the same date as the World Climate Day, on Saturday, 12 December 2009. Organise special events (street events, film projections, open debates, etc.) in your city or region. Ask your members and activists to organise events to express the world’s refusal to consider nuclear energy as a solution to climate change. Join the campaign, and please sign the petition.

Thursday
Nov192009

Beyond Nuclear letter to President Obama urges no more nuclear loan guarantees

A Nov. 16 environmental coalition letter to President Obama urges the administration not to expand the nuclear power loan guarantee program in its Fiscal Year 2011 budget request to Congress. Along similar lines, U.S. Representative Ed Markey (D-MA), chairman of the powerful Energy and Environmental Subcommittee in the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, has urged Energy Secretary Chu to not rush nuclear loan guarantees to flawed new reactor designs.

Monday
Nov162009

New Senate bill would expand nuclear energy, advance reprocessing

A bill proposed by U.S. Senators Jim Webb (Democrat from Virginia) and Lamar Alexander (Republican from Tennessee) seeks to double nuclear power in the U.S. over the next 20 years, and relapse further into radioactive waste reprocessing, at taxpayer expense to the tune of $100 billion, not to mention radiological risk. But Environment America expressed immediate opposition, urging resources be directed to cleaner, safer, and cheaper energy efficiency and renewable sources of electricity.