Excelon Corp - nuclear energy - top Obama contributor

[ProfessionalLeftist]

Excelon is a nuclear energy corp based in Chicago and was one of Obama's top contributors in the 2008 election and as a matter of fact, throughout his career:

http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cid=N00009638&cycle=2008

THIS is why we are spending $8 Billion on nuclear power in the US - regardless of the obvious idiocy and danger inherent in this type of energy. Obama has to remain loyal to those who bought him. One of his other biggest contributors is (surprise!) Goldman Sachs.

http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cycle=2008&type=C&cid=N00009638&newMem=N&recs=20

Excelon's website:

http://www.exeloncorp.com/Pages/home.aspx

Reference for the $8 Billion figure:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/16/obama-nuclear-plant-presi_n_463754.html

[msongs]

1. plus the $50+ billion in loans the Obama admin wants to give the nuke corporations nt

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

2. This hasn't been a secret here at DU.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

7. I didn't think so

however at this particular time, it's worth a reminder. :)

[TheWebHead]

3. the locational risk of exelon's reactors

versus those in japan are not comparable. Severe earthquake and tsunami risks in Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey are negligible. Unfortunately for Japan, their options for power in relation to how much they consume are limited. There's not enough land for solar (plus costs and uneven output), gas is difficult due to transportation, coal would be expensive without any domestic sources, and wind can't scale to their needs and has uneven output.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

6. Yes and earthquakes are the only disaster

that could possibly cause nuclear reactors to become unsafe -right. This is a form of energy production that cannot be made safe - ever - and the risks of it becoming unsafe are far and above the risks involved with the production of any other types of energy in severity, duration and scope. Reference: Chernobyl, Three-Mile Island. It hasn't been done. It can't be done. It's not a type of energy we need to be investing in at all. Well, except that Excelon paid for Obama's loyalty.

[LynneSin]

11. Please don't even link TMI with Chernobyl - those 2 have nothing in common

I grew up right by TMI, use to water-ski in the waters that flowed pass the plant (before AND after the accident). Although there was a threat of danger at the time from TMI, ultimately very little impact resulted from what happened there. And almost 35 years later TMI is still operational (and most of my family live within 5 miles of the plant).

I see no problem with Nuclear energy provided we aren't building these things on major fault lines.

[ProSense]

4. Wait,

$71,000 ($59,000 from idividuals) over the course of his career, 2003 to 2008? The links aren't even to the Presidential campaign.

[DURHAM D]

5. IOWs - They brought him to the dance in the first place. nt

[ProSense]

9. "IOWs"?

Do you even know if an employee that worked at exelon and contributed in 2003 still worked there in 2008?

So $70,000 in contributions from years ago means billions? It couldn't be part of an energy program?


Obama raised nearly $700 million in 2008. What did the individual donations from other organizations that amounted to millions get them?

The whole concept is ludicrous. There was a reason the President didn't take PAC money.

[DURHAM D]

10. I'll give it to you - you continue to work so hard as it becomes more and more difficult.

Have you conflated his presidential and senate campaign contributions?

[timo]

8. BOOYAHHHH!!!!!!

hahahahaahhhahahhahahahahahahaha HOOK LINE N SINKER

[LynneSin]

12. Not everyone at DU is anti-nuclear energy

so seriously, not sure what the excitement is about.

BTW ask me about my free week off of school during the TMI incident. I lived thru that and I still am not bothered by Nuclear energy.

[dzi]

13. Interesting....

....Indeed. Thanks.

[onenote]

14. A different story if you look at who the company's leaders supported

The company's website identifies 11 individuals as making up its leadership team. Of those 11, only seven made contributions to either Obama or McCain (or both) during the 2008 campaign. In 2008, only five of the 11 made contributions and they all donated to McCain. In early 2007, there were three donors that gave to both McCain and Obama, with more going to McCain, which raises the question of whether they were supporting Obama's efforts to get the nomination because they thought he'd be a weaker candidate in the general (remember, this is early 2007).

The fact that a Chicago-based company with a lot of employees had a lot of rank and file employees giving contributions to Obama is hardly a shock. If you look it up, you'll see that a lot of those contributions were $250, $500, etc.

As for the amount given during Obama's pre-presidential campaigns: I guess we should be terrified about the influence that the University of Chicago has since "they" donated twice as much as Exelon.