In policy reversal, Rick Perry opposes federal aid for Texas nuclear plants

[bananas]

http://blog.chron.com/rickperry/2011/10/in-rare-policy-reversal-rick-perry-says-he-now-opposes-federal-aid-for-texas-nuclear-plants-or-any-energy-projects/

In policy reversal, Rick Perry opposes federal aid for Texas nuclear plants
Posted on October 30, 2011 at 3:08 pm by Richard Dunham

Texas Gov. Rick Perry rarely concedes that he has reversed himself on a policy issue. But he did just that today when he said on national TV he had “changed my position” and now opposes any federal assistance for nuclear plants or other energy projects.

The flip-flop is significant because the current Republican presidential candidate asked the U.S. Department of Energy three years ago to approve a federal loan guarantee for the construction of a Texas nuclear power plant in Matagorda County.

<snip>

Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace challenged Perry’s consistency, noting that Perry in 2008 asked Bush administration Energy Secretary Sam Bodman to approve an application by NRG Energy Inc. for nuclear reactor construction. The company sought federal loan guarantees of the sort Perry has denounced this year on the campaign trail.

<snip>

For the past two months, Perry has been hammering Republican rival Mitt Romney for changing his positions for political reasons. Today, Romney aides quickly jumped on Perry’s pronouncements to highlight what they claimed to be Texas-sized flip-flops on subjects including energy subsidies, Social Security and immigration.

<snip>

Quick recap of the past several years:
Democrats wanted action on global warming, and sought compromise with Republicans.
Republican strategists thought they would use nuclear energy to divide Democrats.
But the Republicans based their strategy on bogus numbers from the nuclear industry.
The CEO of Entergy said "the numbers just don't work" for new nuclear.
Exelon, Constellation, and others came to the same conclusion.
Once it became clear that the numbers just don't work for new nuclear,
Republicans began backpeddling on global warming.
The final straw wasn't Fukushima - it was how the "nuclear village" tried to pretend that nothing bad happened.
That's what convinced people they just couldn't trust the nuclear industry - or the politicians who support it.

[kristopher]

1. Well put.

I'd add, however, that Rs at the Red state level are still wildly pronuclear.