Analyses reveal tens to hundreds of billions in subsidies and giveaways for nuclear industry proposed in Senate bills

A recent analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists shows that the subsidies, tax breaks, etc. in the Kerry-Lieberman "American Power Act" (APA) and the Bingaman "American Clean Energy Leadership Act" (ACELA) proposed in the U.S. Senate could amount to a nearly $150 billion taxpayer giveaway to the over 50 year old, already heavily subsidized nuclear power industry. Another recent analysis of the Kerry-Lieberman APA, commissioned by Friends of the Earth and conducted by Doug Koplow of Earth Track, shows that the proposed tax incentives for new reactors alone could benefit the nuclear power industry by over $57 billion at taxpayer expense. As these bills could still reach the Senate floor yet this month, it is urgent that concerned citizens contact both their U.S. Senators as soon as possible to urge that they block any further subsidies for the nuclear power industry. Call your U.S. Senators via the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Given the short time frame, write your Senators via their webforms, or fax them a hand-written letter. Better yet, write a letter to the editor or opinion-editorial to your local newspapers, decrying any further taxpayer largesse for the atomic industry. And best of all, work with a coalition of concerned taxpayers and environmental groups in your state to request an in-person meeting with your Senators' staff, or even the Senators themselves, as soon as possible. Contact Kevin Kamps at Beyond Nuclear (kevin@beyondnuclear.org or (301) 270-2209 ext. 1) for help with any of these ideas. Finally, you can also sign Beyond Nuclear's "ActNow!" petition, and pass word of it on to everyone you know, and urge them to do the same!

U.S. House approves $9 billion in additional new reactor loan guarantees

Thank you to everyone who, for the past several weeks, has acted on our alerts to contact your U.S. Representative to urge that they block the $9 billion in added new atomic reactor loan guarantees snuck onto the Fiscal Year 2010 Supplemental Appropriations bill, a war funding and disaster relief bill. Unfortunately, late at night on July 1st, as the House was rushing to leave for its Independence Day holiday recess, it passed the bill, containing these new atomic reactor loan guarantees. The Declaration of Independence itself holds that when government becomes inimical to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, it is the right, indeed the duty, of U.S. citizens to either alter or abolish that government. The insatiable greed of the nuclear power industry, repeatedly fed by the Congress and White House at taxpayer expense, requires all of us to stand up and make clear that enough is enough! Check to see if your Representative voted in favor of this bill, and if they did, ask them why they would vote in favor of transferring $9 billion of financial risk for new reactors onto the backs of U.S. taxpayers. Call your U.S. Representative via the Capitol Switchboard, (202) 224-3121.

9 US Congress Members express opposition to $9 billion in expanded nuclear loan guarantees

Nine members of the U.S. House of Representatives -- Donna Edwards (D-MD), Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH), Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), John Hall (D-NY), Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Shelley Berkley (D-NV), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), and Peter Welch (D-VT) -- sent a letter to House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey (D-WI) on June 22nd, expressing opposition to the inclusion of $9 billion in expanded federal loan guarantees for new nuclear power reactors. The provision is attached as a rider to an emergency war funding bill, which the Members regard as improper. Please consider calling one or more of the signatories via the Congressional Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 to thank them for their good action to protect taxpayer pocketbooks from nuclear power's financial risks. The House Appropriations Committee may act on this issue by the beginning of its Independence Day recess which begins July 3rd, so phone your own U.S. Representative via the Switchboard number above as well, to urge them to express similar opposition to expanded nuclear power loan guarantees to Chairman Obey and other Members of the House Appropriations Committee.

Still time to block $9 billion expansion to nuclear loan guarantees -- call Congress today!

As Harvey Wasserman reports in "Apocalypse in the Gulf now (oil) & next (nukes)," we still have a week to urge our U.S. Representatives to remove $9 billion in new loan guarantees for atomic reactor construction from the emergency war and disaster relief funding bill before the U.S. House Appropriations Committee. See the environmental group coalition letter to House Members, as well Taxpayers for Common Sense's own letter to the U.S. House, objecting to these new atomic reactor loan guarantees. Check to see if your U.S. Representative serves on the Appropriations Committee. If they do, phone them via the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and urge them to do all they can to block this atomic industry give-away at taxpayer risk. Even if your U.S. Representative does not serve on that committee, call them anyway, and urge that they weigh in with their colleagues on the committee to oppose this massive subsidy. Also, call U.S. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey (D-WI) at (202) 225-2771 to urge this radioactive provision be removed from the bill. See Beyond Nuclear's earlier alert on this issue for additional background information, as well as our original post when Politico broke this story.

"Nuclear Expansion is a Proven Market Failure"

An op-ed with this title was penned by Mark Cooper, senior fellow at the Institute for Energy and the Environment at Vermont Law School, and Nancy Young Wright, an Arizona state representative (D-District 26) and was published in Arizona's American Forum.