Tens of Billions of Taxpayer Dollars for the Nuclear Power Industry’s Expansion: Nuclear power plants generate radioactive waste that we cannot store safely and permanently, are a target for terrorist attacks, and are very expensive and time-consuming to build. The majority of Americans oppose increasing our country’s use of nuclear power. But earlier this year, those lobbyists convinced the Senate to pass an energy bill that provided up to $50 billion in loan guarantees for the construction of new nuclear energy plants. The nuclear energy industry plans to use tens of billions of taxpayers’ money to build 28 new nuclear reactors at a cost of approximately $5 billion each. [MIT, 2007; NYT 07/31/2007]
The Nuclear Energy Industry Has an Army of Lobbyists: The energy and nuclear power lobbying force is the seventh largest in Washington with more than 17,000 registered lobbyists. Since 1998, the Nuclear Energy Institute – an industry organization – and other companies in the power industry have spent over $51 million on lobbying. Last year alone, they spent nearly $16 million on campaign contributions. [CPR, 2007]
John Edwards Will Reject Nuclear Power and Invest in Renewable Energy: Edwards opposes the construction of new nuclear power plants with taxpayer subsidies. He believes that, with a president who asks Americans to be patriotic about something other than war, we can build a New Energy Economy and achieve energy independence.
To read more about John Edwards’ plan to build the New Energy Economy, please visit http://johnedwards.com/issues/energy/.
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