Interview with Frank Bowman (CEO of Nuclear Energy Inst)

[phantom power]

What is driving the resurgence in interest in nuclear?

Bowman: It's is a confluence of factors. There are important leaders in the country who used to think that there was no room for nuclear who are now realizing that in this era of climate change, global warming and greenhouse gas concerns, nuclear does in fact deserve a seat at the table.

There is concern about the very high volatility of natural gas prices in this country, the recognition that nuclear is operating safely and productively, the fact that we are looking for energy security.

I won't use the word energy independence because I don't think the country will ever really get to energy independence, but secure is a different matter. The fuel necessary for nuclear generation comes either domestically or from friends like Canada, Australia--not exactly the same group of people that provide (fossil fuels).

This is not an all-in love affair. They all have, not all, but many have legitimate concerns. And it's my position that we (the nuclear power industry) owe it to these people who have devoted their entire careers to public service, or to ordinary citizens who are concerned about these issues, to talk to them factually, adult to adult, and not be arrogant about it.

http://news.zdnet.com/2008-9595_22-6212838.html

[jpak]

1. The Nuclear Energy Institute loves them some Dick Cheney

Nuclear Power Convention Applauds Cheney, Energy Program

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0523-01.htm



The nuclear power convention sported the bold slogan "A Flourishing Renaissance," and Vice President Cheney went before the reactor executives yesterday to accept their adulation and underline the administration's enthusiasm for nuclear power.

The energy policy President Bush released last week includes promises to speed up relicensing for safe and efficient nuclear reactors and take a number of other steps to encourage production of nuclear power. The report refers to it as a "clean and unlimited source of energy."

Cheney was the policy's architect, and was greeted by two standing ovations from the crowd of 375 at the Nuclear Energy Assembly. The annual conference is sponsored at a Washington hotel by the industry's major trade group, the Nuclear Energy Institute.

Cheney said the nuclear industry is allowing electricity to be generated "efficiently, safely, with no discharge of the greenhouse gases or emissions."

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Data Shows Industry had Extensive Access to Cheney's Energy Task Force

http://www.nrdc.org/media/pressreleases/020521.asp

WASHINGTON, DC (May 21, 2002) -- A close examination of more than 12,000 pages of documents provided by the Energy Department confirms that energy industry lobbyists enjoyed extraordinary access to Vice President Cheney's energy task force. NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) has finally compiled from Energy Department documents a comprehensive, quantitative analysis of outside contacts during formulation of the Bush administration's national energy plan. (Contact NRDC's press office for a copy.)

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"A year ago the Cheney task force issued recommendations that read like a wish list for energy companies," said NRDC senior attorney Sharon Buccino. "When it came to developing the administration's environmentally and fiscally reckless energy policy, it was all industry all the time."

The representatives tallying the most direct contacts with the energy task force were from some of the nation's largest and most influential energy companies and trade associations. Not surprisingly, these industries stood to benefit from the president's policies to boost domestic energy production. Some of them also are major donors to President Bush and Republican congressional candidates. For example:

Nuclear Energy Institute had contact with the task force 19 times. (NEI contributed $437,404 to Republican candidates and the GOP from 1999 to 2002.)

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[jpak]

2. What is driving the resurgence in interest in nuclear? (the Bush Cheney GOP 2005 Energy Bill)

and billions in subsidies...

It is no coincidence that the "resurgence" in nuclear plant license applications suddenly appeared after Bush signed this bill into law...

The Best Energy Bill Corporations Could Buy: Summary of Industry Giveaways in the 2005 Energy Bill

http://www.citizen.org/cmep/energy_enviro_nuclear/electricity/energybill/2005/articles.cfm?ID=13980

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NUCLEAR POWER SUBSIDIES: $12 BILLION

Section 1306
Production tax credit of 1.8-cent for each kilowatt-hour of nuclear-generated electricity from new reactors during the first eight years of operation, costing $5.7 billion in revenue losses to the U.S. Treasury through 2025. Considered one of the most important subsidies by the nuclear industry.

Section 638
Authorization of $2 billion in “risk insurance” to pay the industry for any delays in construction and operation licensing for six new reactors, including delays due to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission or state agencies, litigation, sabotage or terrorist attacks, or other events. The payments would include interest on loans, operation and maintenance costs, the price of power, and taxes.

<snip>.

Section 625
Exemption of construction and operation license applications for new nuclear reactors from an NRC antitrust review.

Title XVII
Unlimited taxpayer-backed loan guarantees for up to 80% of the cost of an “innovative” energy technology project, including building new nuclear power plants. Authorizes “such sums as are necessary,” but if Congress were to appropriate funding for loan guarantees covering six nuclear reactors, this subsidy could potentially cost taxpayers approximately $6 billion (assuming a 50% default rate and construction cost per plant of $2.5 billion, as Congressional Budget Office has estimated).

Title VI, Subtitle A
Reauthorization of the Price-Anderson Act, extending the industry’s liability cap to cover new nuclear power plants built in the next 20 years.

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[jpak]

3. and introducing the NEI's supah dupah ninja global warmin' fightah - Christie Todd Whitman (R-NJ)

The Other Half of the Nuclear Industry's Power Couple

http://www.counterpunch.org/farsetta08292007.html

Christie Todd Whitman's Nuclear Spinning Wheel

By DIANE FARSETTA

"Was it wrong to try to get the city back on its feet as quickly as possible?" an exasperated Christine Todd Whitman asked members of Congress. The occasion was Whitman's first appearance before the House subcommittee investigating her handling of New York air quality issues post-9/11, when she headed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

"Absolutely not," she continued. "Safety was first and foremost, but we weren't going to let the terrorists win."

There are many critics of the EPA's response to the admittedly unprecedented attacks. In August 2003, the EPA's own inspector general reported that there was not "sufficient data and analyses" to claim -- as Whitman did on September 18, 2001 -- that New York's air was "safe to breathe." The inspector general also found that EPA statements were confusing even to experienced toxicologists, and may have contributed to low rates of respirator use among Ground Zero workers. In February 2006, federal judge Deborah Batts called Whitman's statements post-9/11 "misleading" and "conscience shocking." In June 2007, the Government Accountability Office identified serious, continuing problems with how Whitman's EPA addressed indoor contamination in lower Manhattan.

<snip>

When the Nuclear Energy Institute -- with help from its PR firm, Hill & Knowlton -- launched the "Clean and Safe Energy Coalition" in April 2006, Christie Whitman was named its co-chair, a paid position. Since then, the industry-funded campaign to re-brand nuclear power as clean, green and safe has benefited from Whitman's communications skills, political connections and environmentalist image.

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So what the hell did Ms. T-W do to fight global warming when she was EPA Administrator????

NOTHING

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/hotpolitics/interviews/whitman.html

...and we are supposed to believe she now shills for the NEI because she wants to fight global warming???

I have this bridge in Brooklyn...