<jkotcon@wvu.edu>

Maybe we dodged a bullet.  Thank goodness for National Sierra Club staff, they
earned their salary on this one.

JBK

Lyndsay Moseley wrote:
> Economic Recovery Bill to exclude $50 billion in DOE Loan Guarantees 
>
> The conference agreement on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act 
> will not include a controversial $50 billion DOE loan guarantee program 
> that could have been used for liquid coal, coal gasification, and nuclear 
> power projects.  As you all
 know, the House version included funding for 
> loan guarantees only for renewable energy and efficiency projects, but 
> Senator Bennett (R-Utah) working with Sen. Dorgan (D-ND), inserted a 
> provision into the Senate bill authorizing $50 billion in additional loan 
> guarantees for all eligible projects listed in Title XVII of EPACT 2005 
> (including liquid coal, coal gasification and nuclear power projects as 
> well as renewable energy, efficiency, hybrid and advanced vehicles, etc.).

>  
>
> Mobilizing quickly, we worked with House and Senate leaders, especially 
> Speaker Pelosi and Rep. Waxman, as well as members of the new Sustainable 
> Energy and Environment Coalition (SEEC) in the House, to convey the 
> message that we should not undermine this historic investment in 
> clean/renewable energy by investing in high-risk, expensive energy sources

>
 that will do little to promote economic recovery, and take us backward in 
> the fight against global warming. 
>
> Given our overall support of the bill, our effort required a strategic and

> delicate lobbying and communications plan, but Sierra Club successfully 
> collaborated with taxpayer, environmental and health groups on extensive 
> lobbying, as well as rapid-response online and grassroots campaign to 
> eliminate the $50 billion DOE loan guarantee program from the bill. We 
> developed a community letter, fact-sheet, and made contact with over 200 
> offices in the House and Senate. The votes on final passage of the 
> American Recovery and Reinvestment Act are expected today in the House and

> today or tomorrow in the Senate. 
>
> Moving forward, we plan to work with DOE Sec. Chu and key members of 
> congress to ensure that funds from the DOE loan
 guarantee program are 
> directed toward clean energy. 
>
> Great work everyone!
> -Lyndsay
>
>
>
> Stimulus update: Adios to big nuke, coal assistance
> By: Bill Lambrecht
> Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau
> WASHINGTON ? Nuclear operators and clean-coal dreamers had better start 
> looking elsewhere to finance their plants.
> A $50 billion Senate provision boosting government loan guarantees for 
> energy projects was sliced away when House and Senate conferees pared down

> the economic recovery package to $789 billion.
> A conference report isn?t out yet but several sources tell us that the $50

> billion proved to be a target too fat to ignore.
> The cut is a blow to companies in the St. Louis region looking to build 
> so-called clean coal plants, like the $1 billion FutureGen project 
> proposed for southern Illinois
 seeking a Holy Grail of energy production: 
> burning coal with zero emissions.
> It?s also a bitter pill for companies like Illinois-based Exelon, the 
> nation?s biggest nuclear operator, and AmerenUE who eyed loan guarantees 
> to put some cash behind the frenzied planning in this era of worry about 
> global warming. AmerenUE is looking to add another reactor at its Callaway

> plant in Missouri.
> Financing an $8-10 billion nuclear plant is all but impossible in the best

> of times considering all the risks. That?s one reason we haven?t seen an 
> order for a new nuke plant in the U.S. for three decades.
> Budget hawks like Taxpayers for Common Sense are pleased at the reduction,

> noting that the loan guarantees are a chancy proposition for taxpayers, to

> say the least. The Government Accountability Office places the risk of 
> default of a new nuclear
 plant at 50 percent and worried in a report about

> DOE?s ability to oversee all that loan money.
>
> Lyndsay Moseley
> Washington Representative
> Sierra Club
> 408 C St. NE
> Washington, DC 20002
> tel: 202-548-4581
> fax: 202-547-6009
>
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