Energy Bill Aids Expansion of Atomic Power

[sabra]

Source: NYTimes

WASHINGTON, July 30 — A one-sentence provision buried in the Senate’s recently passed energy bill, inserted without debate at the urging of the nuclear power industry, could make builders of new nuclear plants eligible for tens of billions of dollars in government loan guarantees.

Lobbyists have told lawmakers and administration officials in recent weeks that the nuclear industry needs as much as $50 billion in loan guarantees over the next two years to finance a major expansion.

The biggest champion of the loan guarantees is Senator Pete V. Domenici of New Mexico, the ranking Republican on the Senate Energy Committee and one of the nuclear industry’s strongest supporters in Congress.

Senator Jeff Bingaman, Democrat of New Mexico and the energy bill’s author, has long argued that nuclear power plants do not need federal loan guarantees. Mr. Bingaman said that the industry was over-interpreting the provision and that it would provide loan guarantees for only the most innovative power plants.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/31/washington/31nuclear.html?_r=2&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1185894087-RDk97ejeaeD4lcYSx1xlgA

[Highway61]

1. Buried???

I am so sick of lawmakers that WE HIRED...not reading the BIG print(WMD'S in Iraq) to the fine print in laws like this. WTF is going on???????? Is it me or is this a particularly bad news day?

The "Simpson's" #1 movie in USA and we can't get Sicko in local theaters!
BP and Mercury in Great Lakes!
18 Hours to give the leader of the law of our Land to "clarify" his lie so we can go on vacation!

I'm not in a good mood today...gotta get off DU and go for a walk. My cup is running over with lousy news

edit for spelling :(

[MNWild]

2. Have they found a way to neutralize radioactive waste?

"Mr. Bingaman said that the industry was over-interpreting the provision and that it would provide loan guarantees for only the most innovative power plants."

If this is true,then we the happy taxpayers should be unburdened by the cost for cleanup and disposal of waste product that remain extremely poisonous for tens of thousands of years.

[donkeyotay]

3. Not one more dime

This is not representative government. One GOP crook can stick his lobbyist's legislation in and we're on the hook for "tens of billions of dollars in government loan guarantees...to finance a major expansion."

No debate. No honesty. Is this how the American people want to address global warming?

I wonder what Mr. Domenici's connections are with the big corps that are licking their chops over this. They tell us solar/wind and other new technologies shouldn't be subsidized. What do they call this?

Ever since someone let it slip on the business news that TXU was making a deal with Mitsubishi Heavy to handle their nuclear power plant business, I've known they're making plans, using global warming as their excuse.