New subject: Stimulus update: Adios to big nuke, coal assistance - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

13 Feb 2009


      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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Re: [EC] Stimulus update: Adios to big nuke, coal assistance - St. Louis Post-Dispatch