[Sustain] Fwd: Nuclear In Climate Bill & Sign Statement Opposed

[Eric Brooks]

*Nuclear Information and Resource Service* 
<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=N1qNBk5d%2Fv8Xoc7wgrafuMwTilyuWmoI>

*MURKOWSKI, OTHER PRO-NUKE AMENDMENTS DEFEATED IN SENATE COMMITTEE*

*REVISED CLEAN ENERGY BANK APPROVED IN HOUSE COMMITTEE*

May 21, 2009

Dear Friends,

*Thank you to each of the thousands of you who have written and called 
your elected officials over the past couple of weeks. You are making a 
difference!*

Both the Senate Energy Committee, which is considering S. 949, the 
Senate energy bill, and the House Energy Committee, which is considering 
the Waxman-Markey climate change bill, are continuing to meet and mark 
up their respective legislation.

But we thought we'd give you a quick update on how things are going.

*First, the good news: *The Senate Energy Committee (very narrowly!) 
rejected Sen. Lisa Murkowski's (R-AK) amendment to support new nuclear 
reactors and radioactive waste reprocessing plants, and to provide 
bribes to local communities to accept "interim" storage of radioactive 
waste. The vote was 11-11, and Committee Chair Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) 
ruled it defeated. All Republicans on the committee plus Sen. Landrieu 
(D-LA) voted for the Murkowski amendment. All other Democrats except 
Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) (who voted present) voted against the amendment.

The committee also voted down pro-reprocessing, pro-waste amendments 
from Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Jeff Sessions (R-AL), also by very 
narrow margins.

We can expect to see some or all of these amendments again when the bill 
reaches the Senate floor.

*Now, the less-good, but still not necessarily bad news:* the House 
Energy Committee voted 51-6 in support of a compromise clean energy bank 
amendment offered by Reps. John Dingell (D-MI), Jay Inslee (D-WA) and 
Bart Gordon (D-TN). While the "clean energy" bank remains self-defeating 
in that it continues to allow support for dirty nuclear power and coal 
technologies, many of the excesses in earlier versions of the 
legislation were addressed.

For example, the version passed by the House Energy Committee does *NOT* 
allow unlimited loan guarantees to any technology. Instead, the amount 
of loan guarantees available would follow the current process, which 
requires annual Congressional authorization and appropriations. No 
single technology could receive more than 30% of the bank's overall 
funding. And priority is supposed to be given to those technologies that 
can provide the greatest greenhouse gas emission reductions within a 
reasonable period of time per dollar invested as well as the earliest 
reductions in greenhouse emissions.

All of these are improvements from the clean energy bank included in the 
Senate energy bill, which continues to have unlimited loan guarantees, 
does not limit the amount a single technology could receive, and does 
not provide any  priority in terms of efficiency or speed of reducing 
carbon emissions. We will soon post on NIRS website a more complete 
comparison of the two clean energy bank approaches.

Amendments to the Waxman-Markey climate bill are continuing in the House 
Energy Committee (the Republicans had prepared 450 amendments--most of 
which they know will be defeated and some of which are downright 
silly)--in an effort to delay the bill's passage out of the Committee. 
We will let you know if any significant amendments that affect nuclear 
issues are adopted.

It is likely that, as in the Senate, pro-nuclear amendments will be 
offered when the bill reaches the House floor. We will all need to be 
prepared to act accordingly.

We will keep you posted on developments as they occur; let you know when 
the bills are ready for consideration on the Senate and House floors; 
and when you can effectively take more action to stop taxpayer support 
for nuclear power and to promote clean, safe, and cost-effective 
renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. In the meantime, it 
is always helpful to keep your elected officials aware of your 
positions, and to keep organizing and reaching out to everyone around 
you. If you know people who want to be kept informed, please encourage 
them to join our e-mail Alert list by sending their name, city and state 
to nirsnet at nirs.org <mailto:nirsnet at nirs.org>.

And if you haven't yet signed the simple statement on nuclear power and 
climate, please do so on the front page of our website: www.nirs.org 
<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=NGdzb81rDbKg3YAz2Q0sMazKRju7N6rH>.

Thanks for all you do,

Michael Mariotte

Executive Director

Nuclear Information and Resource Service

nirsnet at nirs.org <mailto:nirsnet at nirs.org>

www.nirs.org 
<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=7jxsdL0MMFgqTC%2FAplsm%2F8wTilyuWmoI>

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