September 9, 2008

Dear Sustainable Energy Activist:

The U.S. Senate is expected to vote next week on the “Gang of 10” proposal to encourage new offshore oil drilling. As we explained in the Alert we sent last week, this proposal also includes billions of dollars in support for the nuclear power industry, including unlimited taxpayer loan guarantees for new atomic reactors.

We have not yet seen the actual legislative language in this proposal, so it may change somewhat by the time it reaches the Senate floor. However, we can’t wait that long to begin acting. NIRS and other national groups will be setting up a National Call Congress Day next week, and we’ll let you know which day, and the latest news we can as soon as we can.

In the meantime, below is a sample Letter to the Editor you can use for your local newspapers, blogs, and other media outlets. Feel free to use it as is (though put in the names of your Senators!) or adapt it any way you’d like, or write something completely different. But do send in something! We obviously can’t wait for the mainstream media to realize on its own that this proposal would be a huge boon for the nuclear industry—and a huge boondoggle for the taxpayer. Let’s get the word out now about this proposal and just how dangerous it is!

And please e-mail us a note (to nirsnet@nirs.org) about where your letter has been submitted and whether it is published.

Thanks for all you do,

Michael Mariotte

Executive Director

Nuclear Information and Resource Service

nirsnet@nirs.org; www.nirs.org

301-270-6477

Dear Editor,

We’ve all heard by now the “Drill baby, Drill” approach some members of Congress are taking to sensibly-banned offshore oil drilling in this election year. It now appears that the U.S. Senate next week will consider a proposal from the so-called “Gang of 10” to allow some new offshore drilling.

What hasn’t been well-reported is that the Gang of 10 proposal would do much more than lift a ban on oil drilling. In fact, their proposal would force taxpayers to put billions of their hard-earned dollars at risk on behalf of the nuclear power industry. Instead of keeping the current cap of about $20 billion in taxpayer loan guarantees for new nuclear construction, this proposal would make such loan guarantees unlimited—placing hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money at risk of the same type of default and construction mismanagement that plagued the nuclear industry 20 years ago. And, with construction cost estimates for new reactors skyrocketing (they currently range from $7 to $12 Billion for a single reactor, according to Wall Street analysts), it wouldn’t be long before our electric rates begin soaring as well.

Senators  blank and blank should vote against the Gang of 10 proposal. We need a forward-looking energy policy that leads us to a clean, cost-effective carbon-free, nuclear-free future, not more radioactive waste, nuclear accidents, and a return to the failed energy approaches of the 1970s.