SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Can "Emergency" New Nuke Loans Be Stopped Despite Cover of War?
Amidst
a grassroots uproar over funding for the military, the nuclear power
industry has again forced $9 billion in loan guarantees onto an
"emergency" war appropriations bill for Afghanistan and Iraq.
Citizen
opposition helped delay a similar vote scheduled last month. Now green
energy advocates are again asked to call Congress immediately.
Jul 01, 2010
Amidst
a grassroots uproar over funding for the military, the nuclear power
industry has again forced $9 billion in loan guarantees onto an
"emergency" war appropriations bill for Afghanistan and Iraq.
Citizen
opposition helped delay a similar vote scheduled last month. Now green
energy advocates are again asked to call Congress immediately.
The move
comes as part of a larger push for federal funding for a "new
generation" of reactors.
Because independent investors won't
fund them, the reactor industry has spent some $645 million in the last
decade lobbying Congress and the White House for taxpayer money.
This
$9 billion is for two new reactors proposed for the South Texas site,
on the Gulf of Mexico, and another at Calvert Cliffs, Maryland.
Continued
operations of the two reactors now at South Texas are threatened by oil
gushing from BP's Deepwater Horizon. Calvert Cliffs is just 40 miles
from the nation's capital.
French and Japanese companies are
among the leading candidates to profit from the loans. "Nearly all the
major parts that would go into new reactors will be built overseas,"says the
Nuclear Information & Resource Service.
Last month the
Southern Company officially accepted $8.33 billion in federal loan
guarantees to build two new reactors at the Vogtle site in Georgia.
Georgia regulators are allowing ratepayers to be charged for
construction as it proceeds.
In Florida, despite vehement
protests, commissioners who voted against a massive rate hike to build
new reactors were removed from the Public Service Commission by a
utility-controlled legislative panel. The move, said the ousted
commissioners, was "pay back" for the opposition to the rate hikes.
The
maneuvers surrounding the "emergency" war funding vote have been
exceedingly complex. A major grassroots campaign is being waged to
muster as many NO votes as possible against prolonging the
campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Appropriations Chair
David Obey (D-WI) has linked war spending to cutbacks on salaries for
teachers, among other things. He and others are believed to be opposed
to using the bill as a vehicle to foist liability for new reactor
construction onto the rate payers.
Committee members are listed
below. They can be reached via (202)224-3121. Call them NOW!
House
Appropriations Committee members: Democrats:
David R. Obey, Wisconsin, Chairman
Norman D. Dicks, Washington
Alan B. Mollohan, West Virginia
Marcy Kaptur, Ohio
Peter J. Visclosky, Indiana
Nita M. Lowey, New York
Jose E. Serrano, New York
Rosa L. DeLauro, Connecticut
James P. Moran, Virginia
John W. Olver, Massachusetts
Ed Pastor, Arizona
David E. Price, North Carolina
Chet Edwards, Texas
Patrick J. Kennedy, Rhode Island
Maurice D. Hinchey, New York
Lucille Roybal-Allard, California
Sam Farr, California
Jesse L. Jackson, Jr., Illinois
Carolyn C. Kilpatrick, Michigan
Allen Boyd, Florida
Chaka Fattah, Pennsylvania
Steven R. Rothman, New Jersey
Sanford D. Bishop Jr., Georgia
Marion Berry, Arkansas
Barbara Lee, California
Adam Schiff, California
Michael Honda, California
Betty McCollum, Minnesota
Steve Israel, New York
Tim Ryan, Ohio
C.A "Dutch" Ruppersberger, Maryland
Ben Chandler, Kentucky
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Florida
Ciro Rodriguez, Texas
Lincoln Davis, Tennessee
John T. Salazar, Colorado
Patrick J. Murphy, Pennsylvania
Jerry Lewis, California, Ranking Member
C.W. Bill Young, Florida
Harold Rogers, Kentucky
Frank R. Wolf, Virginia
Jack Kingston, Georgia
Rodney P. Frelinghuysen, New Jersey
Todd Tiahrt, Kansas
Zach Wamp, Tennessee
Tom Latham, Iowa
Robert B.Aderholt, Alabama
Jo Ann Emerson, Missouri
Kay Granger, Texas
Michael K. Simpson, Idaho
John Abney Culberson, Texas
Mark Steven Kirk, Illinois
Ander Crenshaw, Florida
Dennis R. Rehberg, Montana
John R. Carter, Texas
Rodney Alexander, Louisiana
Ken Calvert, California
Jo Bonner, Alabama
Steven C. LaTourette, Ohio
Tom Cole, Oklahoma
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Harvey Wasserman
Harvey Wasserman is an activist and author. His first book "Harvey Wasserman's History of the United States" was published in 1972. Harvey edits www.nukefree.org.
Amidst
a grassroots uproar over funding for the military, the nuclear power
industry has again forced $9 billion in loan guarantees onto an
"emergency" war appropriations bill for Afghanistan and Iraq.
Citizen
opposition helped delay a similar vote scheduled last month. Now green
energy advocates are again asked to call Congress immediately.
The move
comes as part of a larger push for federal funding for a "new
generation" of reactors.
Because independent investors won't
fund them, the reactor industry has spent some $645 million in the last
decade lobbying Congress and the White House for taxpayer money.
This
$9 billion is for two new reactors proposed for the South Texas site,
on the Gulf of Mexico, and another at Calvert Cliffs, Maryland.
Continued
operations of the two reactors now at South Texas are threatened by oil
gushing from BP's Deepwater Horizon. Calvert Cliffs is just 40 miles
from the nation's capital.
French and Japanese companies are
among the leading candidates to profit from the loans. "Nearly all the
major parts that would go into new reactors will be built overseas,"says the
Nuclear Information & Resource Service.
Last month the
Southern Company officially accepted $8.33 billion in federal loan
guarantees to build two new reactors at the Vogtle site in Georgia.
Georgia regulators are allowing ratepayers to be charged for
construction as it proceeds.
In Florida, despite vehement
protests, commissioners who voted against a massive rate hike to build
new reactors were removed from the Public Service Commission by a
utility-controlled legislative panel. The move, said the ousted
commissioners, was "pay back" for the opposition to the rate hikes.
The
maneuvers surrounding the "emergency" war funding vote have been
exceedingly complex. A major grassroots campaign is being waged to
muster as many NO votes as possible against prolonging the
campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Appropriations Chair
David Obey (D-WI) has linked war spending to cutbacks on salaries for
teachers, among other things. He and others are believed to be opposed
to using the bill as a vehicle to foist liability for new reactor
construction onto the rate payers.
Committee members are listed
below. They can be reached via (202)224-3121. Call them NOW!
House
Appropriations Committee members: Democrats:
David R. Obey, Wisconsin, Chairman
Norman D. Dicks, Washington
Alan B. Mollohan, West Virginia
Marcy Kaptur, Ohio
Peter J. Visclosky, Indiana
Nita M. Lowey, New York
Jose E. Serrano, New York
Rosa L. DeLauro, Connecticut
James P. Moran, Virginia
John W. Olver, Massachusetts
Ed Pastor, Arizona
David E. Price, North Carolina
Chet Edwards, Texas
Patrick J. Kennedy, Rhode Island
Maurice D. Hinchey, New York
Lucille Roybal-Allard, California
Sam Farr, California
Jesse L. Jackson, Jr., Illinois
Carolyn C. Kilpatrick, Michigan
Allen Boyd, Florida
Chaka Fattah, Pennsylvania
Steven R. Rothman, New Jersey
Sanford D. Bishop Jr., Georgia
Marion Berry, Arkansas
Barbara Lee, California
Adam Schiff, California
Michael Honda, California
Betty McCollum, Minnesota
Steve Israel, New York
Tim Ryan, Ohio
C.A "Dutch" Ruppersberger, Maryland
Ben Chandler, Kentucky
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Florida
Ciro Rodriguez, Texas
Lincoln Davis, Tennessee
John T. Salazar, Colorado
Patrick J. Murphy, Pennsylvania
Jerry Lewis, California, Ranking Member
C.W. Bill Young, Florida
Harold Rogers, Kentucky
Frank R. Wolf, Virginia
Jack Kingston, Georgia
Rodney P. Frelinghuysen, New Jersey
Todd Tiahrt, Kansas
Zach Wamp, Tennessee
Tom Latham, Iowa
Robert B.Aderholt, Alabama
Jo Ann Emerson, Missouri
Kay Granger, Texas
Michael K. Simpson, Idaho
John Abney Culberson, Texas
Mark Steven Kirk, Illinois
Ander Crenshaw, Florida
Dennis R. Rehberg, Montana
John R. Carter, Texas
Rodney Alexander, Louisiana
Ken Calvert, California
Jo Bonner, Alabama
Steven C. LaTourette, Ohio
Tom Cole, Oklahoma
Harvey Wasserman
Harvey Wasserman is an activist and author. His first book "Harvey Wasserman's History of the United States" was published in 1972. Harvey edits www.nukefree.org.
Amidst
a grassroots uproar over funding for the military, the nuclear power
industry has again forced $9 billion in loan guarantees onto an
"emergency" war appropriations bill for Afghanistan and Iraq.
Citizen
opposition helped delay a similar vote scheduled last month. Now green
energy advocates are again asked to call Congress immediately.
The move
comes as part of a larger push for federal funding for a "new
generation" of reactors.
Because independent investors won't
fund them, the reactor industry has spent some $645 million in the last
decade lobbying Congress and the White House for taxpayer money.
This
$9 billion is for two new reactors proposed for the South Texas site,
on the Gulf of Mexico, and another at Calvert Cliffs, Maryland.
Continued
operations of the two reactors now at South Texas are threatened by oil
gushing from BP's Deepwater Horizon. Calvert Cliffs is just 40 miles
from the nation's capital.
French and Japanese companies are
among the leading candidates to profit from the loans. "Nearly all the
major parts that would go into new reactors will be built overseas,"says the
Nuclear Information & Resource Service.
Last month the
Southern Company officially accepted $8.33 billion in federal loan
guarantees to build two new reactors at the Vogtle site in Georgia.
Georgia regulators are allowing ratepayers to be charged for
construction as it proceeds.
In Florida, despite vehement
protests, commissioners who voted against a massive rate hike to build
new reactors were removed from the Public Service Commission by a
utility-controlled legislative panel. The move, said the ousted
commissioners, was "pay back" for the opposition to the rate hikes.
The
maneuvers surrounding the "emergency" war funding vote have been
exceedingly complex. A major grassroots campaign is being waged to
muster as many NO votes as possible against prolonging the
campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Appropriations Chair
David Obey (D-WI) has linked war spending to cutbacks on salaries for
teachers, among other things. He and others are believed to be opposed
to using the bill as a vehicle to foist liability for new reactor
construction onto the rate payers.
Committee members are listed
below. They can be reached via (202)224-3121. Call them NOW!
House
Appropriations Committee members: Democrats:
David R. Obey, Wisconsin, Chairman
Norman D. Dicks, Washington
Alan B. Mollohan, West Virginia
Marcy Kaptur, Ohio
Peter J. Visclosky, Indiana
Nita M. Lowey, New York
Jose E. Serrano, New York
Rosa L. DeLauro, Connecticut
James P. Moran, Virginia
John W. Olver, Massachusetts
Ed Pastor, Arizona
David E. Price, North Carolina
Chet Edwards, Texas
Patrick J. Kennedy, Rhode Island
Maurice D. Hinchey, New York
Lucille Roybal-Allard, California
Sam Farr, California
Jesse L. Jackson, Jr., Illinois
Carolyn C. Kilpatrick, Michigan
Allen Boyd, Florida
Chaka Fattah, Pennsylvania
Steven R. Rothman, New Jersey
Sanford D. Bishop Jr., Georgia
Marion Berry, Arkansas
Barbara Lee, California
Adam Schiff, California
Michael Honda, California
Betty McCollum, Minnesota
Steve Israel, New York
Tim Ryan, Ohio
C.A "Dutch" Ruppersberger, Maryland
Ben Chandler, Kentucky
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Florida
Ciro Rodriguez, Texas
Lincoln Davis, Tennessee
John T. Salazar, Colorado
Patrick J. Murphy, Pennsylvania
Jerry Lewis, California, Ranking Member
C.W. Bill Young, Florida
Harold Rogers, Kentucky
Frank R. Wolf, Virginia
Jack Kingston, Georgia
Rodney P. Frelinghuysen, New Jersey
Todd Tiahrt, Kansas
Zach Wamp, Tennessee
Tom Latham, Iowa
Robert B.Aderholt, Alabama
Jo Ann Emerson, Missouri
Kay Granger, Texas
Michael K. Simpson, Idaho
John Abney Culberson, Texas
Mark Steven Kirk, Illinois
Ander Crenshaw, Florida
Dennis R. Rehberg, Montana
John R. Carter, Texas
Rodney Alexander, Louisiana
Ken Calvert, California
Jo Bonner, Alabama
Steven C. LaTourette, Ohio
Tom Cole, Oklahoma
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.