The Gang of 20 Energy Bill Will Not Be Introduced!
THANK YOU!
And some very good news below...
A huge THANK YOU! to everyone—individuals and organizations--who participated in Wednesday’s National Call-In Day against unlimited taxpayer loan guarantees for new nuclear reactors!
The day was a tremendous success. We heard directly from hundreds of you, and indirectly from many more. Several Senate offices reported very large volumes of calls, especially Massachusetts (where there was a report that Sen. Kerry received 30 calls from a single zipcode!), Illinois (where Sen. Obama’s office switched to a machine saying they had a high volume of calls), Vermont, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Washington, New York, North Carolina, and others. We heard from at least one person in every state except Alaska.
Especially gratifying was the large number of people who told us it was the first time they had ever called a Senate office. Now that you know how easy and fun it is, we hope you’ll do it again!
Now for the good news:
THE GANG OF 20 ENERGY BILL WILL NOT BE INTRODUCED!
This is because of your efforts, and the fact that the federal government has put several hundred billion taxpayer dollars at risk bailing out Freddy Mac, Sallie Mae and AIG, not to mention that the parent (Constellation Energy) of the first company (UniStar) to apply for a loan guarantee collapsed this week and was purchased by Warren Buffett’s MidAmerican Energy for less than 25% of its value of this past January. Given the economic reality and the strong opposition you showed to unlimited loan guarantees, even the pro-nuclear Senate is having second thoughts about the wisdom of that idea.
Instead of the Gang of 20 bill, which essentially collapsed just yesterday and at this point is probably the Gang of 13 or 14, its backers say they will release a statement of “principles” that should guide our energy policy, probably later today.
If those principles aren’t nuclear-free and carbon-free (and they won’t be...), we’ll be fighting them all the way, and we will keep you posted on all important new developments and when and how you can help.
Again, thank you to everyone who called. The response was just tremendous, and it made a real difference.
For a nuclear-free, carbon-free energy future,
Michael Mariotte
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
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