Late last night, we got word that the $50 Billion in taxpayer loan guarantees for new nuclear reactors and "clean coal" plants has been stripped from the final economic stimulus bill!
Your actions made a huge difference.
To recap, you:
*sent more than 7,600 letters to your Senators in one week
*sent more than 3,000 letters to your Representatives in the House in three days
*sent more than 1,100 letters to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid just yesterday afternoon (unfortunately, most letters to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were blocked; we'll work on that problem with our Congressional database service).
*made thousands of phone calls to your Senators and Representatives
*brought needed attention to the issue through your blogs, letters to the editor, your Facebook and Myspace pages, and much more.
The final bill should be voted on in the House later today, and in the Senate probably tomorrow.
The final bill almost certainly will pass, and there will be no amendments on this final bill, so the taxpayer money for the dirty and dangerous nuclear/coal industry will stay out of the bill.
Take a moment to celebrate today!
But make no mistake: the nuclear industry and its Congressional backers will try again, and sooner rather than later. Two days ago, for example, they began a new push to have nuclear power declared a "renewable" energy source in Senate Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman's (D-NM) upcoming Renewable Portfolio Standard bill, which is intended to increase renewable energy production in the U.S. (although first indications are that the bill is much weaker than it should be). This is likely to become a major issue in March.
And there will be new efforts to set up a federal "clean energy bank" to finance nuclear reactors with taxpayer dollars in the coming weeks and months.
In other words, we'll have to stay vigilant and active, and continue growing this movement if we are to attain the safe, clean, nuclear-free, carbon-free energy future our nation and planet needs.
You have now proven your effectiveness, but we can and must do even more. President Obama's campaign was successful in large part because of the support of a constantly growing number of ordinary people, taking action and making small donations, that built into an enormous political force. We are taking the same approach: in the past three months, NIRS contact lists have grown by more than one-third–a key element of today's success. Let's continue building this movement!
Please make a small donation on our secure servers so we can continue our outreach and build on this success. Your support is gratefully appreciated and every penny is used as wisely as possible.
And from all of us at NIRS: THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO!!!!
Michael Mariotte
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
nirsnet@nirs.org
www.nirs.org
Another Spectacular $50 Billion No Nukes Victory for the Forces of Solartopia
By Harvey Wasserman
For the third straight year, against all odds, a national grassroots No Nukes campaign has stripped out of the federal budget a proposed $50 billion boondoggle for new atomic reactors.
The victory gives a giant boost to solar, wind, efficiency, mass transit and other Solartopian technologies that can solve global warming, sustain real economic growth and bring us a truly green-powered Earth.
This latest victory came Wednesday, February 11, as a top-level Congressional conference committee ironed out the last details of the Obama stimulus package. The loan guarantee scam was slipped into the Senate version by Republican Bob Bennett (R-UT) in cooperation with Democrat Tom Carper (D-DE). The loan guarantees would have backed a Department of Energy program supporting new reactor construction, despite a report from the Government Accountability Office warning that such projects would bankrupt more than half the utilities that might undertake them.
A national grassroots campaign involving virtually all major environmental organizations dealing with energy once again underscored the overwhelming green opposition to atomic power. The Nuclear Information & Resource Service, Beyond Nuclear, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Environment America, NukeFree.org, Greenpeace, the Natural Resources Defense Council, IEER, Center for American Progress, Taxpayers for Common Sense, Friends of the Earth, Sierra Club, Rainforest Action, Rainforest International and more than 200 national and local environmental and taxpayer organizations joined in opposition to the guarantees.
It is not yet clear but seems likely key impetus on the Hill may have come from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NM) and House committee chairs Henry Waxman (D-CA), David Obey (D-WI) and Ed Markey (D-MA), among others. Gestures of thanks are being widely encouraged.
A similar victory was won in the fall of 2007 when a $50 billion loan guarantee was slipped into the national energy bill by then-Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM). The campaign prompted a song from Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, Ben Harper and Keb Mo posted at www.nukefree.org. With the help of Moveon.org, it delivered more than 120,000 signatures to Congress in less than three months.
In 2008 the industry was forced to withdraw a blank check loan guarantee program when the banking system collapsed.
This year's attempt came in the dead of night, with virtually no public knowledge. Only Amy Goodman's DEMOCRACY NOW! Gave it national television coverage, while Richard Greene's CLOUT on Air America and the Peter B. Collins show featured national radio play. No significant story about the plan appeared in the New York Times, USA Today or other major media outside Washington.
The No Nukes victory came within hours of the passing of Guy Chichester, a legendary founder of the Clamshell Alliance and National Green Party. Chichester helped lead the mass demonstrations at the Seabrook (NH) nuclear site that thrust the atomic power issue into the global limelight. In the 1977 LAST RESORT (www.gmpfilms.com) Guy became one of the first to speak on film about a green-powered Earth, arguing that the money being squandered on Seabrook should instead go to renewable energy which would create thousands of jobs and save the planet. As a green pioneer, Chichester's innumerable---often humor-filled---non-violent arrests were matched only by his great heart and loving spirit.
Ironically, this latest push for reactor subsidies coincides with what may be a death blow to the proposed Yucca Mountain radioactive waste dump. Opposed by both Reid and President Obama, the multi-billion-dollar project may be defunded. After a half-century, the US has no high level nuke waste repository, and none planned.
No one expects an end to the industry's relentless assault on the taxpayer trough. New reactor cost estimates have tripled since 2007 and are likely to at least double again. Michael Mariotte of NIRS says pro-nukers now want atomic energy labeled "green" in a national renewable energy standard. As Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear points out, additional attempts to get money are likely to follow in upcoming debate on an Energy Bill and other legislation.
But as renewables and efficiency and the movement supporting them surge ahead, the Solartopian vision of a truly green planet, free of fossil/nuke power, becomes ever more real.
Fossil Fuel
NoNukes
