Nuclear subsidies a questionable investment

Environment Groups to Senate: Reject Amendments Promoting More Subsidies for Nuclear Power in Proposed Climate Bill

WASHINGTON, DC - June 4 - Environmental, science and public health groups today commended the Senate for beginning debate on the most comprehensive legislation to date addressing climate change and urged lawmakers to reject adding nuclear power subsidies to the bill.

According to the organizations, the Climate Security Act of 2008 (S. 3036) -- sponsored by Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Ct.) and John Warner (R-Va.) -- potentially offers an opportunity to put our nation on the path to avoid the worst consequences of global warming. But they voiced concerns that some senators will attempt to attach amendments to the bill that would give the nuclear power industry billions of dollars in unwarranted taxpayer subsidies at the expense of conservation, efficiency and renewable energy sources that could be deployed much more quickly.

The groups pointed out that the nuclear industry already has benefited from more than $100 billion in taxpayer subsidies over the past half century, billions more in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (more than $13 billion), and even more in the Omnibus Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2008 (more than $18 billion in federal loan guarantees). Despite this support, just this week Moody's Investor Service stated that a utility's credit rating could be undermined by building a new nuclear power plant due to the skyrocketing cost of new reactors. The price tag for just one reactor could exceed $7,000 a kilowatt, far more than many preferable low-carbon options.

Continued here. Groups who signed this statement are below:

Clean Water Action
Environment America
Environmental Working Group
Greenpeace
Natural Resources Defense Council
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
Nuclear Policy Research Institute/Beyond Nuclear
Physicians for Social Responsibility
Public Citizen
Sierra Club
Union of Concerned Scientists