Domenici Criticized for Slipping Nuclear Loan Provision into Farm Bill (x-post GD)

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http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/1108-16.htm

WASHINGTON - November 8 - Pointing to Senator Pete Domenici’s decision on Tuesday to attach his fiscally irresponsible energy loan guarantee provision to the Senate Farm bill (H.R. 2419), environmental and public interest groups today criticized the move as “a blatant attempt to exempt the nuclear industry from congressional oversight and saddle taxpayers with billions of dollars of potential liability.”

“The Farm bill is designed to address agricultural and food issues and it should not be used to hand out multi-billion dollar taxpayer subsidies to the already highly subsidized nuclear industry,” said Brent Blackwelder, President of Friends of the Earth.

While the amendment appears to address loan guarantees for “renewable fuels” it contains a massive expansion of the program for nuclear and other polluting technologies. This is the same tactic that Senator Domenici used in the Senate energy bill to avoid scrutiny.

“Under current law, congressional appropriators set an annual cap on the amount of energy loan guarantees the Department of Energy (DOE) can grant. Senator Domenici’s provision would cripple that authority and allow the DOE to provide the more than $50 billion in loan guarantees that the nuclear industry is seeking over the next two years,” added Alice McKeown, energy expert at Sierra Club.

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Rack up another GOP victory for nukes -2001 Cheney Energy Task Force, 2005 GOP Energy Bill, now this little POS...

[jpak]

1. Ah yes - the Nuclear Energy Institute...

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According to the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) the Domenici provision eliminates this key Congressional safeguard and ensures that “the high costs of these projects” are “not subject to a yearly appropriations battle.” In October 2007, Moody’s Investor Service concluded that reactor costs could be as much as $6 billion resulting in a "reasonably high likelihood” that the credit rating of utilities and merchant vendors “will also decline.”

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