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Archive for the ‘Nuclear’ Category

Smitty’s statement on former PEC/AE GM Juan Garza’s new nuclear job

Posted in Co-op Reform, Efficiency, Energy, Global Warming, Nuclear, Renewables, tagged , , , , , on September 21, 2010 |

Statement of Tom “Smitty” Smith:

We are shocked to hear the news that former Austin Energy and Pedernales Electric Cooperative General Manager Juan Garza has taken a job promoting nuclear power with New Jersey-based NRG Energy. While Garza rightfully acknowledges the danger climate change poses to Texas, nuclear power’s life cycle carbon footprint, exorbitant cost and extreme construction time belie the claim that nuclear is a solution to the climate crisis.

Numerous independent analyses warn that new nuclear reactors are too expensive, including consultants to the City of Austin who twice recommended the city pass on investment in the proposed South Texas Project units 3 and 4 due to high risk and cost. San Antonio’s CPS Energy has cut off investment in the project. Municipal utilities and electric cooperatives should take heed of the nuclear industry’s poor track record of delivering new reactors on time and on budget. The cost of these reactors has more than trebled in three years and when we built the first two units they were 6 times over budget and 8 years late. There are cheaper, cleaner, faster ways to meet new power needs in a carbon-constrained world.

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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

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Human error causes a partial shutdown of Texas nuclear plant

Posted in Energy, Nuclear, tagged , , , , , , , , , on August 27, 2010 |

STP

South Texas Project

Human error appears to have caused a partial shutdown last Friday at the South Texas Project, one of the state’s two nuclear plants.

Last week, prices spiked in the wholesale electricity market.  On Monday the 16th,  wholesale electricity, which had been selling for less than $30 per megawatt-hour spiked to more than $2,000.  That’s an increase of more than 7,000 percent. Prices also spiked several times to the $1,000 level. A price spike of $2,200 is especially startling, given that the regulatory cap is set at $2,250. That is, the wholesale prices legally could not have gone much higher.  At the same time, according to the Electric Reliabiilty Council of Texas (ERCOT), who manages the Texas electricity grid, a new record for statewide power use was set.

Then, to top off the week, Unit 1 of the South Texas Project apparently tripped off (also known in the industry as a SCRAM – an acronym for safety control rod axe man but which is essentially an emergency shutdown of a nuclear reactor).

The event, first reported in a trade journal SNL Power Daily, was apparently caused by human error. “The NRC said in its Aug. 23 event report that the unit experienced an automatic reactor trip that was caused by an inadvertent turbine signal initiated during testing,” reported SNL’s Jay Hodgkins, citing the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The publication reported that power was restored by Monday. It’s unclear whether the outage contributed to the price spikes, although that seems likely.

I guess I’ll take a contribution to a price spike over a meltdown any day, but still kind of scarey!

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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

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Federal Investigation of Texas’ Radioactive Waste Dump Urged

Posted in Nuclear, tagged , , , , , , , , , on August 11, 2010 |

No Radioactive WasteNRC and EPA called upon to examine radioactive waste site and licensing process, risks of groundwater contamination and potential risks to the Ogallala Aquifer, which lies beneath eight states

AUSTIN – Environmental groups today asked the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to investigate the radioactive waste storage and disposal programs administered by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for the West Texas radioactive waste site owned by Waste Control Specialists (WCS).  The groups say the TCEQ has failed to protect public health, safety and the environment by repeatedly and brazenly abusing its legal authority and disregarding warnings of its technical staff about the site’s hazards. Further, citizens have not had adequate opportunities to participate in the licensing processes.

The groups are calling on the NRC to consider terminating or suspending the TCEQ’s authority to regulate the storage and disposal of low-level radioactive waste and radioactive byproducts in Texas. The groups also are asking the EPA to review the potential impact on the water supply and take action if necessary.

Read the full release, the request to NRC and EPA,and supporting documents online at www.TexasNuclearSafety.org. The request was filed by Public Citizen and the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, along with State Representative Lon Burnam (Texas House District 90), and individuals from Andrews, Texas and Eunice, New Mexico, who live near the WCS facility in Andrews County. The matter is urgent because WCS has been pushing the Texas Low Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission to let it import radioactive waste from at least 36 other states.

Some of the hottest radioactive waste that exists, including nuclear reactor containment vessels and poison curtains that absorb reactor radiation, could be buried in the proposed radioactive waste dump. There is not a single radionuclide that can’t go to the so-called ‘low-level’ site, and many of them remain hazardous for literally millions of years.

Radioactive waste dumps around the country have leaked. Cleaning up contaminated groundwater is difficult and expensive. Texas taxpayers could be on the hook for clean up costs if the site and groundwater become contaminated or if there are transportation accidents.

Go to www.TexasNuclearSafety.org to learn more.

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Press Release: Perry Government Mishandles Programs that Benefit Consumers, Groups Say

Posted in Coal, Consumers, Efficiency, Energy, Global Warming, natural gas, Nuclear, Renewables, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 4, 2010 |

Public Citizen, Environmental Defense Fund Call for Independent State Agency to Coordinate State’s Energy Efficiency Efforts

AUSTIN – In response to the Public Utility Commission’s (PUC) planned adoption of new energy efficiency goals, Public Citizen and Environmental Defense Fund today called for sweeping changes to the way Texas runs its energy efficiency programs. The groups said that a single independent state agency would better serve Texas because it could coordinate programs currently regulated by multiple agencies and reduce agency overlap.

“We have no confidence in the Public Utility Commission process,” said David Power, deputy director of Public Citizen’s Texas office. “The time has come to change the way Texas saves energy because the current setup is ineffective. It is time for the Legislature to take control and create a new state agency that can put consumers first and save more money.”

The groups plan to send a letter to state Sen. Troy Fraser, chair of the Senate Natural Resources Committee, and state Reps. Jim Keffer and Burt Solomons, chairs of the House Energy Resources and State Affairs Committees, asking them to support legislation in the upcoming session to create an independent efficiency agency.

Under current law, the PUC, the agency in charge of regulating most of the state’s “poles and wires” companies, is supposed to review and approve the energy efficiency programs of the utilities. But other state agencies oversee efficiency programs too, including the Department of Housing and Community Affairs and State Energy Conservation Office. Housing the coordination of these efforts under one roof would help streamline state regulation and create more savings potential for Texans, the groups said.

“Several agencies either run or oversee similar programs,” said Kate Robertson, energy efficiency specialist with Environmental Defense Fund. “In some instances, like market outreach, a single state agency could coordinate the activities of all efficiency programs instead of multiple people doing the same thing for their own programs.”

The groups also criticized the PUC’s negative attitude toward energy efficiency. Over the past year and a half, agency staff had been developing plans to increase the state’s goal for energy efficiency. On Friday, however, the three commissioners appointed by Gov. Rick Perry slashed the proposal dramatically, ostensibly for cost reasons, reducing the efficiency goal from 1 percent of peak demand by 2014 to a third of the growth in demand by 2013 – a much smaller increase. The PUC even has proposed curtailing the amount utilities can spend on efficiency measures.

“It is baffling to us that the commission thinks energy efficiency is not worth the cost,” said Matthew Johnson, a policy analyst with Public Citizen’s Texas office. “Ratepayers’ utility bills pay primarily for fuel like natural gas and coal, power plants and the grid infrastructure. Energy efficiency costs around a dollar per month on a typical $100 electric bill and it pays for itself by reducing the need for new, costly power plants.” (more…)

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NRG Energy Scales Back Nuke Investment; Makes TPPF Look Bad

Posted in Consumers, Efficiency, Energy, Nuclear, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 2, 2010 |

In their recent report on how energy efficiency is bad for consumers in Texas, the Texas Public Policy Foundation took some time to tout nukes.

To distinguish the development of new nuclear reactors from the previous generation which was frought with cost overruns and delays, they claim the following (page 7-8):

“But unlike consumers from the 1980s, today’s consumers won’t be taking on the risk of cost overruns. In fact, they won’t be taking any risk at all. Once the new nuclear plants are complete, the price of the electricity sold from the plants will be determined by market forces. If the price is higher than the cost of the electricity, the plants will be profitable. If not, the plants will lose money. But it is the investors–not consumers–who will bear that risk.”

The investors will bear all the risk? Really? Well, published today is a report from Forbes.com that, in addition to announcing NRG’s dramatic scaling back on nuclear development (by some 95%) quotes NRG Energy’s CEO David Crane as saying he is:

“more comfortable when someone else takes risk.” (as in, the citizens of San Antonio?)

Ouch! I encourage y’all to read the full Forbes article and this one from last December, which notes that a major part of NRG’s strategy is to sell to municipally-owned utilities and electric cooperatives. They are medicine for those that think new nuclear is cost-competitive because they’re all about how dependent nuke developers are on federal loan guarantees (aka subsidies).

EDITOR’S NOTE: Also of interest is an article from this morning’s NYTimes that shows the cost of solar is now cheaper than the cost of nuclear, and a hot-off-the-presses article from Greg Harman at the San Antonio Current saying that with NRG taking so much investment out of developing the plant, and the US gov’t balking at more subsidies for this nuclear pork behemoth, that the only way to make the deal work is to get the governments of France and Japan to also help bail out their investors with, you guessed it- more loan guarantees. How many countries and government bailouts does it take to build a nuke plant in Texas?  Three, apparently.  Ahhh, nuclear power- it’s like fiscal conservative kryptonite. One mention of it and any and all pretense of being pro free market just disappears as they can’t stop lining up to the gravy train of pork, loan guarantees and subsidies. ~~Andy

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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

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Smitty: Austin and San Antonio took different paths when choosing new electric utility management

Posted in Consumers, Efficiency, Good Government, Nuclear, tagged , , , , , , , on July 23, 2010 |

This is Andy checking in from Vegas and Netroots Nation: sheesh, we leave Texas for a few days and the wheels start to come off the bus, don’t they?  Of course, our fearless and tireless leader, Tom “Smitty” Smith is there to handle everything, as he has done for the last 2 and a half decades.

This ran in today’s Texas Energy Report, but want to give all of our Public Citizen Texas members and followers a taste if you’re not a subscriber to the Energy Report.

Tom Smitty Smith, Director of Public Citizen TexasSMITTY: TWO CITIES TOOK OPPOSITE PATHS IN SELECTING UTILITY GM

An Op-Ed by Public Citizen’s Tom “Smitty” Smith.

The recently announced new general managers for Austin and San Antonio couldn’t be more different, and may have huge economic repercussions for both cities.

Austin has chosen Larry Weis, a “green” general manager from Turlock, California, Irrigation District. San Antonio’s CPS Energy has chosen Doyle N. Beneby Jr., from Exelon Corp. While Mr. Weis opposes nuclear power due to its costs, Mr. Beneby comes from a utility that has the largest nuclear assets in the country.

The process that each city underwent in selecting their new managers stands in stark contrast with one another. Austin announced its finalists over a month ago and invited the public to question the candidates.

CPS kept its candidates secret. In light of this lack of information, I am left to wonder what San Antonio’s fate will be given the recent track record of Exelon. Could Mr. Beneby signal the re-nuclearization of San Antonio or does he represent a future of renewable energy and green power?

Although San Antonio is still reeling from the trebling of cost of expanding the South Texas Nuclear Project, the CPS board has chosen someone from Exelon, which has tried and failed to buy NRG Energy, CPS’s partner in the nuclear expansion project, while simultaneously trying to develop another nuclear plant near Victoria.

While Exelon does have a mix of fossil fuel, hydroelectric, solar, landfill gas and wind generation sources, it only amounts to a meager 7 percent of its generation assets. The other 93 percent is nuclear.

Since the public was not privy to the public utility’s selection process, we are left to speculate what Beneby ‘s plans are. (more…)

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Come See Us This Saturday in Houston at The Great Texas Clean Up!

Posted in Air Quality, Coal, Efficiency, Energy, natural gas, Nuclear, Renewables, solar, tagged , , , , , on July 22, 2010 |

The concert is FREE to the public and welcomes all ages.
The Sierra Club and Texas Environmental Justice are rolling out the Great Texas Clean-Up Festival, from 4-10 at the Discovery Green in Houston, an event expected to kick off a larger campaign to clean up Texas. Public Citizen is a coalition partner and will be there! Check out our booth!

Headlining the event is Dallas native Ray Johnston with the Ray Johnston Band, a groovy, rock soul act with plenty of attitude. Rounding out the event are Los Pistoleros de Texas, bluesman Mrs. Glass, and country western singer songwriter Robert Ellis.

Expect keynote speaker State Senator Rodney Ellis of Houston to give a rip-roaring speech, flanked by the impassioned Ana Hernandez, three term representative from district 143 of Houston.

About a dozen Houston-based artists are expected to showcase, including Lizbeth Ortiz, who created this piece, “Nurturing Hands”.

There will be a Kids’ Corner and plenty of political activism.

Check them out at www.cleanuptexasnow.org

Hope to see ya’ll there!

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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

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Take Action Today! Texas Representative Chet Edwards is pushing for $25 billion in US taxpayer backed loans for nuclear reactors

Posted in Global Warming, Good Government, Nuclear, tagged , , , , , , on July 14, 2010 |

On Thursday, July 15, the House Energy and Water subcommittee is scheduled to vote on $25 billion in loan guarantees for new nuclear reactors in the FY2011 Energy and Water Appropriations bill. Only last month, the House passed $9 billion in nuclear loan guarantees in the 2010 Supplemental Appropriations bill (it has not yet passed the Senate). Together with the Department of Energy’s existing nuclear loan guarantee authority, the US taxpayer’s burden would be tripled to an enormous $52.5 billion.

The additional $25 billion in nuclear loan guarantees comes at the behest of Rep. Chet Edwards (D) to fund two proposed reactors at Comanche Peak in his district in Texas.  The proposed new reactors have an uncertified and untested design, and are years away from licensing approval. There are also two reactors proposed for the South Texas Project site in Bay City, Texas.  

Putting another $25 billion into costly, economically risky and polluting new reactors will be at the expense of solving climate change with clean, renewable energy and efficiency.  Call or email your Representatives today and tell them that these subsidies are unacceptable! 

(Find out who represents you at http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us)

Feel free to use this message or edit as you’d like:
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Dear Representative __________________,

I am writing to urge you to oppose $25 billion in additional nuclear loan guarantee authority in the FY2011 Energy and Water Appropriations bill.  Given the nuclear industry’s inability to reduce the soaring capital costs of new reactors, assure the safety of its technology, or resolve radioactive waste storage issues, burdening U.S. taxpayers with tens of billions dollars of additional liability for new reactors is irresponsible.  

The Department of Energy currently has over $10 billion in unallocated existing authority. The House has passed an additional $9 billion in nuclear loan guarantees in its 2010 Supplemental Appropriations bill. Together, this would triple the nuclear loan guarantees to a massive $52.5 billion. Many of the proposed new nuclear projects even have designs that are certified.

Moreover, according to a recent Governmental Accountability Office (GAO) report, the DOE’s loan guarantee program does not even have a way to evaluate whether the program is meeting its goals.  GAO also found that DOE has provided preferential treatment to nuclear applicants that it has not given to renewable and efficiency applicants.  Additional nuclear funding will only exacerbate these structural problems.

Please oppose an additional $25 billion in nuclear loan guarantees in the FY2011 Energy and Water Appropriations bill.  US taxpayers should not be expected to bail out yet another industry.

Sincerely,

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South Texas nuke expansion project cuts staff

Posted in Nuclear, tagged , , , , on July 2, 2010 |

About 20 of the roughly 100 contractor personnel working on the proposed addition of two new 1,350-MW nuclear units at the South Texas nuclear station have been let go.

Nuclear Innovation North America (NINA), an 88/12 joint venture of NRG Energy and Toshiba, currently owns 92.35% of the planned expansion, and CPS Energy, the municipal utility in San Antonio owns the remaining 7.65%.   In May, NINA announced Tokyo Electric Power Co. plans to eventually take up to a 20% stake in NINA’s share, beginning with a 10% stake in that share–or a 9.235% stake in the  project itself–if a $7 billion federal loan guarantee is secured.

NINA has recently said it expects the project to cost about $13 billion, including $10 billion in “overnight” costs and $3 billion in financing costs. Although earlier cost projections have put the project coming in at $18 billion.

At this time, there is spectulation that the remaining loan guarantees will go to Calvert Cliffs in Maryland.  NINA has said they would not go forward with the expansion without the loan guarantees.  Could this be the beginning of the end for the STP expansion?  Stay tuned.

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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas

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NRC ACCEPTS APPLICATION FOR EARLY SITE PERMIT AT VICTORIA COUNTY SITE IN TEXAS

Posted in Nuclear, tagged , , , , , , on June 14, 2010 |

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has accepted for review the Exelon Nuclear Texas Holdings Early Site Permit (ESP) application for the Victoria County site near Victoria, Texas.

The application and associated information were initially submitted on March 25 and is available, minus proprietary and security-related details, on the NRC Web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/esp/victoria.html.

Exelon’s application seeks approval for safety and environmental issues for the site, approximately 13 miles south of Victoria.  If approved by the NRC this would give Exelon three to 20 years to decide whether to build a plant in Victoria County. It can be extended for another 20 years, giving the company up to 40 years to begin construction from the time that the NRC approves the permit.

Now the site permit application will undergo a three- to four-year review process by the NRC in which it will evaluate the project’s environmental impact and safety preparedness.

Water use figures prominently into the concerns of many. The Guadalupe River is the designated water source for the possible power plant, and Exelon has a water reservation agreement with the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority (GBRA) that expires in 2013. (more…)

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HEARING ON NUKE DUMP NOW SET FOR SATURDAY

Posted in Nuclear, TCEQ, tagged , , , on June 11, 2010 |

At a time when lax regulatory oversight has contributed to such catastrophic problems for our nation as the financial crisis and the BP oil spill, Texas may be in the process of setting itself up for a fiscally disastrous and environmentally catastrophic future – all because of a vote by an appointed committee taking place out on the dusty, lonely edges of West Texas.

The hearing on plans to expand the low-level radioactive waste facility in Andrews County, that was postponed last month because of the volume of comments for official review, has been rescheduled for Saturday, and opponents of the facility are stepping up their opposition. (more…)

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Ramming Nuclear Power Subsidies Into War Appropriations Bill Is Inappropriate and Should Be Blocked

Posted in Energy, Nuclear, tagged , on May 24, 2010 |

A Deal is Struck to Add $9 Billion in Risky Nuclear Loan Guarantees for Failing South Texas Nuclear Project.   

In a deal between the Obama administration and House of Representatives leadership, struck last week behind closed doors, taxpayers would be on the hook for lending $9 billion to build two new nuclear reactors at the South Texas Project site in Bay City, Texas. 

Nuclear Power in War Appropriations BillIt is highly inappropriate for the Obama administration to stuff subsidies for nuclear power into an emergency war appropriations bill and lawmakers should strip this nuclear utility pork out of the war funding bill.  Subsidizing new reactors that will take a decade or more to build cannot be considered an emergency and it is a stretch of the imagination to see how exactly it is related to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Public Citizen and the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED) Coalition are challenging the South Texas nuclear reactors’ license before the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, and Karen Hadden of the SEED Coalition said, “It is clear that the only emergency here is the fact that the South Texas plant doesn’t have sufficient investors to make this a viable project.”  

After the estimated cost of the project more than tripled in three years to a whopping $18.2 billion, the city of San Antonio wisely pulled out of 85 percent of its investment. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has since offered a measly 10 percent investment.  NRG, the primary stakeholder in the Texas project, has been financially shaky in recent years and filed for bankruptcy in 2003, making it incomprehensible how the U.S. government can justify backing this lemon of a project with $9 billion of taxpayer money. (more…)

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New study shows jobs from Kerry-Lieberman mostly in Nukes, CCS

Posted in Energy, Global Warming, green jobs, Nuclear, tagged , , , , , , , , , on May 21, 2010 |

One point we often forget when debating climate change strategies is the major economic case for changing our economy to new, clean technology.  A new study has been released on the impacts of the Kerry-Lieberman bill, which we’ve never been so hot on, but it shows that despite what the chicken littles at the Chamber of Commerce might spew about how a carbon cap is a jobs killer, it’s anything but.  From the NY Times articles on this story:

The Peterson Institute for International Economics said in its 18-page report that the bill from Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) creates the new jobs between 2011 and 2020 because of its mandatory limits on greenhouse gases, which will prompt $41.1 billion in investments per year as the nation shifts away from traditional fossil fuels like coal and oil and toward new nuclear power and renewables.

So, good news, right? 

Looking closer at the study itself, we see something very interesting.  Michael Levi of the CFR points out that it looks more like this is a nuclear jobs bill than a climate bill,  echoing what Public Citizen’s Tyson Slocum has said repeatedly about this bill.

And indeed, here is average ANNUAL net job creation by industry from 2011-2020 according to page 12 the analysis:

  • Nuclear: 165,000
  • CCS: 96,000
  • Renewables: 19,000

Yikes.  Overall, this is a bad deal. And, this assumes that carbon sequestration is economical, safe, and practical.  But more on that later.

The sad thing is, we know what we need to do to create more jobs in renewable energy.  (more…)

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Week in Review

Posted in Coal, Consumers, Efficiency, Energy, Global Warming, Good Government, green jobs, Nuclear, Renewables, solar, tagged , , , , , , on May 21, 2010 |

Busy, busy, busy. Public Citizen staff have been making the rounds this week, traveling all over Texas in order to educate, empower, and organize citizens. From Beaumont to Dallas. From tar sands to the Public Utility Commission, we are working to protect the economic and environmental well-being of all Texans.

The Week in Review: (more…)

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The Nuclear Energy-Promoting, Oil Drilling-Championing, Coal Mining-Boosting Gift to Polluters Bill

Posted in Coal, Efficiency, Global Warming, Nuclear, Renewables, solar, tagged , , , , , on May 12, 2010 |

[polldaddy poll=3193510]

After half a year of delay, Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) are set to release their nuclear energy/cap-and-trade bill today. Until we see legislative text, we can comment only on the broad outline made available yesterday and an additional summary being circulated among legislative staff.

It’s not accurate to call this a climate bill. This is nuclear energy-promoting, oil drilling-championing, coal mining-boosting legislation with a weak carbon-pricing mechanism thrown in. What’s worse, it guts the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) current authority to regulate greenhouse gases as pollutants under the Clean Air Act.

Here’s our take on what we know is in the new bill: (more…)

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