Dept of Energy to Guarantee Nuclear Power Plants-Email White House and Congress

[Guest guest]

_Nuclear Information and Resource Service_

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ENERGY DEPARTMENT WOULD INCREASE TAXPAYER RISK ON LOAN GUARANTEES FOR NEW

NUCLEAR REACTORS

 

COMMENT NOW: TELL DOE TO PUT TAXPAYERS FIRST, NOT THE NUCLEAR INDUSTRY

 

September 16, 2009

 

Dear Friends,

 

The Department of Energy has issued a proposed rule that would actually

increase risk to taxpayers from loan guarantees for construction of new

nuclear reactors.

 

It is embarrassing and outrageous that President Obama's Energy Department

would propose to place the interests of the nuclear power industry and

foreign export-import banks above the interests of the American public--yet

that's exactly what DOE is suggesting.

 

_Please take a moment to send your comments to the Department of Energy

and the White House here._

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Since the Department of Energy may not listen to you, send a copy of the

letter (you can select it and copy and paste) sending to your Representative

at _www.house.gov_ (http://www.house.gov) and your 2 senators at

_www.senate.gov_ (http://www.senate.gov)

 

 

Background

DOE's nuclear loan guarantee program was set up by Congress in 2005 and

funded in 2007 at $18.5 billion for new reactors and $2 billion for new

uranium enrichment plants (additional funds are available for renewable and

coal technologies).

 

DOE has narrowed the first round of applicants for this money to four

utilities seeking to build a total of seven reactors: UniStar Nuclear (Calvert

Cliffs), Southern Company (Vogtle), NRG Energy (South Texas) and SCANA

(Summer).

 

But apparently DOE is having trouble actually giving out these guarantees

because of the corporate structures of some of the projects and because

foreign export-import banks (and perhaps some other potential investors) that

would provide additional funds for them are concerned about the level of

risk involved.

 

Both the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and Government Accountability

Office already have warned that the loan guarantee program carries

substantial risk to the taxpayer. For example, the CBO says the risk of default

by

nuclear utilities is about 50%.

 

Yet, rather than trying to reduce this already significant risk, DOE is

proposing to expose taxpayers to even greater risk. A key part of their

proposed rule, for example, removes DOE's right to a " first lien " on these

projects--in other words, an assurance that taxpayers would be the first to be

repaid. Instead, DOE would have to stand in line with other lenders to be

repaid--particularly significant in the event of default, when full

repayment would not be expected.

 

The proposal also makes other changes to the program, with no

justification other than to do the nuclear industry's bidding.

 

For those of you who want to wade into the details of this rather

technical and complicated proposal, the DOE's proposed rule is here:

_http://www.nirs.org/neconomics/doeloanguaranteeforcomment9809.pdf_

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_For those of you who just want to let your voice be heard, you can send

a comment letter to DOE-and the White House-here_

(http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2 & c=vjfcloJMpgsd+FyGwhnUF2EQO\

lD6UV1g) . Use our

sample, or write your own.

 

Truth be told, no taxpayer money should be used for new reactor

construction and this program shouldn't even exist. But at long as it does, it

is

unconscionable for DOE to be considering making this program even riskier for

taxpayers.

 

Meanwhile, DOE continues to provide virtually no public information about

the loan guarantee program. You'd think after the financial crises of the

last couple of years DOE would have learned that risky, secretive

investments lead to enormous financial losses and taxpayer bailouts. Let's all

tell

DOE to stop playing these kinds of games with our money.

 

And please, pass this on now to anyone and everyone who may be

interested--everyone who wants to protect taxpayer dollars. Comment deadline is

midnight, September 22 so we all need to act quickly to ensure the strongest

possible public comment to defeat this proposal.

 

Thanks for all you do,

 

Michael Mariotte

Executive Director

Nuclear Information and Resource Service

_nirsnet_ (nirsnet)

_www.nirs.org_

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P.S. Your tax-deductible financial support for our campaign to end

taxpayer subsidies for the nuclear power industry is always very gratefully

appreciated. If you can make a small donation this week, _please do so here_

(http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2 & c=iKgpxnNExvEF0BkdQE1T9WEQO

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P.P.S. Thanks to the more than 1,000 of you who signed the statement on

nuclear power and climate in the past week! And more than 100 new

organizations have signed too! Keep it up! Keep passing this around to every

organization and friend you can think of. The statement is on the front page of

our

website at _www.nirs.org_

(http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2 & c=q2GsJMfnDIB7T4Rl4pLj4GEQO\

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and international organizational signers there too.

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