A Quiet but HUGE No Nukes Triumph

[ensho]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/A-Quiet-but-HUGE-No-Nukes-by-Harvey-Wasserman-091223-352.html


In the wake of Copenhagen, an unheralded but hard-fought No Nukes victory
has moved us closer to a green-powered Earth.

It has happened in upstate New York, where the Unistar Nuclear Energy
front group asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to delay its
application to build a reactor at Oswego, near Syracuse. Meanwhile, in
Texas, the San Antonio city council's deliberations over building two
new reactors has disintegrated into recriminations, resignations and
firings over a multi-billion-dollar price jump in projected cost
estimates, a furor that could doom reactor construction there as well.
And in Vermont, Entergy has threatened to shut its Yankee reactor if
the legislature does not approve a complex maneuver that would allow
its owners to escape certain financial liabilities.

Throughout the US, while the corporate media hypes a "renaissance" of
new nukes, facts on the ground say the opposite is happening. The
longer that trend continues, the more likely we are to win a world
powered by the Solartopian technologies that really work, including
wind, solar, geothermal, sustainable bio-fuels, increased
efficiency/conservation, and more.

-snip-

It is as yet unclear what new reactor funding will come from Washington
in the near future. There is still an $18.5 billion loan guarantee fund
left over from the Bush Era. But the Department of Energy has run into
serious political and procedural problems in administering the money.
It may soon announce one or more new reactor projects designated to get
the money, possibly including one in Georgia, where ratepayers have
been put on the line to underwrite construction even if the plant never
opens.

Republican proposals for virtually unlimited future loan guarantees are
now being targeted for a Climate Bill and other legislation that may or
may not make it through Congress in the coming months. Sen. John McCain
(R-AZ) and other industry supporters are pushing hard for major federal
financing. The Obama Administration has made some pro-nuclear
rumblings, but remains elusive in terms of firm commitments.
Because the reactor industry cannot get private financing for new
reactors, all the pro-nuke rhetoric in the world will mean nothing
without federal subsidies. After 50 years, the industry doesn't have
Wall Street's backing. Nor can it get private liability insurance in
case of a major disaster. And it still lacks a solution for its
radioactive waste problem.

-snip-

Throughout the world, the cost of renewables is plummeting while
reactor prices soar. So if America's thus-far successful grassroots
campaign against massive federal loan guarantees and other nuclear
bailouts can continue, we just might find ourselves on a parallel path
to a green-powered Earth.
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good

[snagglepuss]

1. I wonder how this will play out given Obama's ties to nuclear energy companies?

The following is copied and pasted from McCamy Taylor's post about Obama donors.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7319410




snip

Exelon is not just another energy company whose name begins with an “E”. Like Enron, Exelon has ties to a U.S. president.

Exelon and Obama go way back.

On July 4, 2007 , Jeffrey St. Clair & Joshua Frank wrote “Bartack Obama’s Nuclear Ambitions”


"The Obama campaign, as of late March 2007, has accepted $159,800 from executives and employees of Exelon, the nation’s largest nuclear power plant operator.

"The Illinois-based company also helped Obama’s 2004 senatorial campaign. As Ken Silverstein reported in the November 2006 issue of Harper’s, ' is Obama’s fourth largest patron, having donated a total of $74,350 to his campaigns. During debate on the 2005 energy bill, Obama helped to vote down an amendment that would have killed vast loan guarantees for power-plant operators to develop new energy projects … the public will not only pay millions of dollars in loan costs but will risk losing billions of dollars if the companies default.'"


http://dissidentvoice.org/2007/07/barack-obamas-nuclear... /


Exelon is the largest nuclear power company in the U.S. and the third largest in the world.

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf41.html


Those who knew about Obama’s ties to the company understood that he meant it when he professed to being a big advocate of nuclear power. The one form of protest which he did not tolerate at his primary campaign stops was that of the No Nukes crowd. They had their own “free speech zone”. And the internet was astroturfed with groups claiming to be minority voters for nuclear power. Because every minority community wants to have a radioactive waste dump next door.