Nuclear Information and Resource Service

Take Action: Keep Nuclear Power out of House Climate Bill

The House Energy and Commerce Committee is taking up the Waxman-Markey climate change bill. Deliberations on this bill are expected to take a couple of weeks.

Please send the letter below to your Representative to encourage him/her to keep taxpayer subsidies for nuclear power out of the climate bill. Please feel free to edit the letter to reflect your own concerns, highlight issues in your state, etc.

And please call your Representative (Capitol Switchboard, 202-224-3121) on Thursday, April 30--National Grassroots Call-In Day--to express these principle directly to his/her office.

Thank you for taking action!

February 09, 2010

Subject:

Dear Representative,

As the House Energy Committee begins its consideration of its legislation to address our climate crisis, as your constituent I urge you to fight for these principles in this bill, whether in the committee or when it reaches the House floor:

*Nuclear Power does not belong in a Renewable Electricity Standard. Not only is nuclear power not a renewable energy source, but including it in an RES would grossly distort the goals of such a program, which must be oriented toward encouraging truly clean, renewable sources of electricity generation. Nuclear power is dangerous and dirty--its radioactive emissions may be invisible, but as the National Academy of Sciences has determined, there is no safe level of radiation exposure.

*Nuclear Power must not be included in any Clean Energy Bank or similar funding mechanism. Again, nuclear power is "clean" only because its toxic emissions are invisible. If the radiation released every day from nuclear reactors were the color and texture of oil, there would never even be consideration of construction of another nuclear reactor. "Clean Energy Bank" or similar funds must be directed only to genuinely clean technologies such as renewable energy and energy efficiency programs.

*No other taxpayer support or subsidies for nuclear power--especially any expansion of the existing, bloated nuclear loan guarantee program--must be included in a House climate bill.

*Finally, our energy policy must be based on implementing the fastest, cheapest, cleanest and safest solutions to our climate crisis. Nuclear power and "clean" coal technologies do not meet these criteria. We need--and can achieve--a nuclear-free, carbon-free energy future

Please act strongly and responsibly to ensure a safe, clean and renewable energy future for the United States. Please inform me of the steps you will take to do so.

Thank you.

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