GANG OF 10 BILL: BIGGEST GIVEAWAY TO NUCLEAR POWER INDUSTRY EVER
NATIONAL CALL-IN DAY: WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17
This is it. In the mainstream media, the Gang of 10 (actually, now it’s the Gang of 20) energy bill is all about offshore oil drilling. And, to be sure, there’s lots of that in the bill, which is expected to come up in the Senate late next week. But the bill would also be the biggest giveaway to the nuclear power industry ever.
Unlimited loan guarantees for construction of new atomic reactors. That’s right, unlimited. As much money-hundreds of billions of dollars–as everyone in the nuclear industry wants, when it wants, for as long as it wants.
I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how that would absolutely destroy our ability to effectively address the climate crisis and what a disaster that would be for our economy, for our nation, for our planet.
How do these Senators think they can get away with this? Because they’re not hearing from enough of us, often enough. They think this is a popular stand. We all need to stand up now and be counted.
That’s why NIRS, Physicians for Social Responsibility and other national groups are putting out the word for a National Call-In Day to the Senate on Wednesday, September 17. We need at least 10,000 phone calls to the Senate on Wednesday. We need the phones there to be ringing non-stop from dawn to dusk. Will you help?
Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121
*Please call both of your Senators that day with a very simple message: Take taxpayer loan guarantees for nuclear power out of the Gang of 20 energy bill. (note: the bill does not yet have a number. It’s called the New Energy Reform Act of 2008, but everyone will know what you are talking about if you just say “Gang of 20 energy bill.”)
*Please forward this Alert to any and all of your mailing lists.
*Please print this Alert and take it to any public meetings and gather places you go to between now and Wednesday. Post it at food co-ops and other central locations.
*Please talk to your friends and colleagues, congregations this Sunday, PTAs next week. Spread the word.
*If you want to e-mail your Senators, please do (you can do so from this link; NIRS’ new e-mail-from-our-Alerts set-up still has some bugs, so we can’t quite offer that yet). But also call! It is important to keep those phones ringing all day long!
*Call even if you think your Senator(s) are hopeless. Everyone walking in the halls of the Senate should hear phones ringing everywhere, all day long.
We can’t let the nuclear industry get away with this. All that can stop it now are your actions. If we all just sit back and wait for someone else to take action, we will lose. If we all make those two calls-one to each Senator, and ask each of our friends and colleagues to make those two calls, we can show the Senate what the American people really think. And we can win.
It is up to each of us. It’s that simple, and that stark.
Please take five minutes to make two phone calls Wednesday. And please drop us an e-mail and let us know you called (we’ll be looking for 10,000 e-mails in our inbox by Thursday morning!).
Thank you for all that you do.
Michael Mariotte
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
nirsnet@nirs.org, www.nirs.org
301-270-6477
September 12, 2008
P.S. For those who want more information:
You can read a Physicians for Social Responsibility analysis of the nuclear provisions in the Gang of 20 energy bill here. The bill includes not just loan guarantees, but also more “risk insurance” for new nukes, construction of a reprocessing plant, and much more.
You can read a longer article on the issue I wrote for DailyKos here.
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You can help support the Nuclear Pushback Campaign on our secure website here. Your tax-deductible contributions will help us take action to turn around the current energy debate! Please make a donation of $5, $10, $25 or any amount you choose-your donations will be put to good use!
And if you haven’t done so yet, don’t forget to sign the statement on nuclear power and climate at www.nirs.org (but please don’t sign more than once!). If you’ve already signed, please ask your friends and colleagues to sign!
We’ve passed 7750 7830 7930 8,130 8,330, 8400, 8,630 signatures, let’s get to 10,000! And just let us know at nirsnet@nirs.org if you want more paper copies of the statement to gather signers at events, concerts, conferences, etc. We’re adding paper signers as fast as we can (but seem to be always a few hundred behind..).