6930 Carroll Avenue, #340, Takoma Park, MD 20912; 301-270-6477; nirsnet@nirs.org; www.nirs.org
THE ELECTIONS: THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY
BUT WE'VE FACED BIGGER ODDS BEFORE....
TELL CONGRESS: NO NUCLEAR IN THE LAME DUCK, AND NOT NEXT YEAR EITHER!
November 4, 2010
Dear Friends,
By now you're probably as sick of election news, results and analysis as we are, but since we haven't seen anything useful specifically on the election's impact on nuclear power, we hope you'll bear with us. We'll keep it short!
THE GOOD: The leader in the Vermont legislature to permanently close Vermont Yankee, Peter Shumlin, will be the new governor of Vermont! Coincidence that the day after the election Entergy put the reactor up for sale? We think not. While the battle isn't over until Vermont Yankee is shut down and the key thrown away, its days are numbered.
Whatever else you may think of Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), his defeat would have brought new life to the scientifically-indefensible Yucca Mountain waste dump. With Reid re-elected, Yucca Mountain's most powerful foe remains in place, and the focus will be on the battle over a new radioactive waste policy for the U.S. That's a battle we can win.
THE BAD: We don't really have to go there, do we? But of particular note were the defeat of allies Rep. John Hall (D-NY) and Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.). They will be missed.
THE UGLY: The ugly is what comes after an election like this. Already the nuclear industry is salivating over the prospect of more taxpayer money to line its pockets. Here is an article from Bloomberg News yesterday that starts out, "Electricity producers such as NRG Energy Inc. and Southern Co. will benefit as Republicans who won control of the U.S. House yesterday promote nuclear power as part of clean-energy legislation."
And here is an article that says two of only five areas Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell sees for cooperation over the next two years are nuclear power and "clean" coal.
And President Obama said at his press conference yesterday, "There's been discussion about how we can restart our nuclear industry as a means of reducing our dependence on foreign oil and reducing greenhouse gases. Is that an area where we can move forward?"
In short, we're going to have our work cut out for us for the next two years, beginning with the lame duck session that starts November 15.
Start now by telling Congress not to mis-interpret the election results as support for nuclear power.
Indeed, a recent public opinion poll found that only 23% of the American people support loan guarantees for new reactors!
Truth is, we've faced bigger odds before. It wasn't that long ago that the most ardently pro-nuclear administration in history--the Bush-Cheney administration--was avidly promoting nuclear power, and they controlled both Houses of Congress at the time.
Yet, with your help, we still won most of our battles back then.
And we're much better positioned now. With your help and outreach, our membership and supporters have more than quadrupled since Bush left office. And since we've been around for more than 30 years, we weren't exactly starting out from scratch...and we're still growing!
So let's get to work. Tell Congress now: the election results don't mean more money for nuclear power, they mean: END taxpayer subsidies for new reactors!
Thanks for all you do,
Michael Mariotte
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
nirsnet@nirs.org
www.nirs.org
P.S. You can share this election update and Alert--and you'll be able to share the Action Page--on Facebook and just about any other networking site you use, with our handy new Share app above. We hope you will.
Please note: NIRS never sells, rents, trades, or otherwise makes our e-mail lists available to other organizations or individuals for any reason. If you would like to unsubscribe to NIRS list, click here to unsubscribe.
.gif)