NEI Nuclear Notes

CNN has been soliciting a lot of op-ed style pieces to promote its showing of Pandora’s Promise . As Eric points out in the post below, CNN has really done a good job gathering this material, though both pro- and anti-nuclear energy advocates often use their space to make clear their talking points, assuming – probably correctly – that many people have not been engaged in their somewhat internecine arguments. Still, Rachel Pritzker, president of the Pritzker Innovation Fund , tries an interesting approach . It is time for policymakers to recognize that nuclear power must be a robust part of our nation's energy plan to reduce carbon emissions. These may seem like strange words coming from a liberal whose family has been active in progressive politics, and who grew up on a Wisconsin goat farm in a home heated by wood fires. Like many of my fellow progressives, I care deeply about the environment and the future of our planet, which is precisely why I do not think we sho...

While reading The Chicago Tribune's coverage of the super-important, fun-and-sun drenched Nuclear Energy Assembly, this paragraph stuck out: Dave Kraft, director of the Nuclear Energy Information Service in Evanston, views this as further evidence that the free components of a summer weekend—sunshine and a cool breeze—will be better energy sources. "Those are far superior choices and they can come online much faster than new nukes," Kraft said. "The nuclear industry is well overplaying their hand." We've got nothing against our friends in the solar and wind business, but "far superior?" I guess the article - which is more a roundup of what prominent attendees are thinking about nuclear these days rather than direct coverage of the conference - demanded a he-said, she-said approach, but from our perspective, it felt like the writer, Joshua Boak, had dropped a spider on the valentine. So what is the Nuclear Energy Information Servic...

Here's a funny clip from late last week where CNN's Glenn Beck weighs in on the return of the musicians from the "No Nukes" era :

Kyle Woodlock, the grad student at Georgia Tech who kicked off his YouTube career with a rebuttal to Harvey Wasserman and his "No Nukes" compatriots , has just published a new video where he makes a fair comparison between nuclear energy and renewables : I'm anxious to see the next video.

In today's edition of the Washington Times , Jack Spencer of the Heritage Foundation takes on Bonnie Raitt and friends over their new music video .

In our final installment on nuclear energy and loan guarantees, Richard Myers, NEI's Vice President of Policy Development , explains why subsidies aren't a four-letter word in American political history. Subsidy Is Not A Four-Letter Word Can we talk about subsidies? In our last post , we took issue with the anti-nuclear refrain – “massive subsidies for the nuclear power industry” – and showed that the energy loan guarantee program is self-financing and clearly not a subsidy. But this unrestrained use of the word “subsidy” troubles me. I can’t think of another word in the English language that is so overused or so misused. Overused to the point of being meaningless, misused as a slur, and employed selectively when it suits the user’s narrow self-interest. Think about it: Is there anything in American life that is not subsidized, and appropriately so? We subsidize higher education and production of agricultural products. We subsidize home ownership thro...

Yesterday, I forwarded a note from Richard Myers, NEI's Vice President of Policy Development , concerning nuclear energy and loan guarantees , the issue that Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne and Graham Nash came to Washington to agitate about earlier this week . But while emotional rhetoric is one thing, the facts are another. Here's Part II: The Loan Guarantees Authorized by the Energy Policy Act Are Not a Subsidy For the past few weeks, we’ve been regaled with horror stories about the loan guarantees for new nuclear power plants authorized in the 2005 Energy Policy Act . The story line from the anti-nuclear groups goes like this: “huge bailout” and “a blank check for the nuclear power industry” and “massive subsidies for the nuclear power industry.” Here are the facts. First, the Energy Policy Act authorizes loan guarantees for a portfolio of 10 clean energy technologies. New nuclear power plants are just one of the 10. Here’s the list, verbatim from th...

Over the past few days, I've run into more than my share of angry and exasperated colleagues here at NEI . The reason: All the attention being given to the musicians who hit town yesterday to attack nuclear energy . Don't get me wrong, everyone understands that Americans have a right to speak their minds on the issues of the day. But what's bugging us is that -- with a few notable exceptions -- the press is giving these musicians a free pass when it comes to what they're saying about the industry, in particular about nuclear energy and loan guarantees. Richard Myers is NEI's Vice President of Policy Development . Over the next few days we'll be featuring a series of posts from him that will help cut through the propaganda and misinformation. Part I follows: We Know What They’re Against, But What Are They For? For the last 10 days or so, I’ ve watched the anti-nuclear groups (and their rock star friends) attacking nuclear power , and the use of federal lo...

If there's one media outlet that's gotten the story right over the online battle over nuclear energy and loan guarantees, it's Salon and reporter Katharine Mieszkowski. Go there right now to read, Nuclear War on YouTube . And be sure to watch the companion video that cuts all of the videos together in such a way that none of the anti-nuke charges goes unanswered. I hope the folks at our member companies are taking notice of this. If our industry is going to fight and win online the fight over this music video ought to serve as a blueprint for how we go forward. UPDATE : More from Rod Adams .

I was just taking a quick look around the Web when I found a USA Today piece on the "No Nukes" revival that arrived in Washington today. If the comments that are getting left there are any indication, the aging rockers aren't having much of an effect on the younger generation: Second Coming wrote: 46m ago hahahahahahahaha rofl "we will unite people who have never heard of us by screaming kumbaya to improvised riffs at concerts we expect a bunch of 60 year old's to show up at" Madd Maxx wrote: 1h 28m ago Baby boomers just hate to retire don't they? Their energy would be better spent holding a concert for . . . for . . . for anything else. Several things need fixing in this country. Hopped Up Harry wrote: 2h 24m ago These guys are idiots. Message to self important washed up rockers: Your fight was against OLD technology with your OLD music. The world has moved on. And so should you. More later. UPDATE: More of the same at the Treehugger Video Smackdo...

Today on Morning Edition, NPR has picked up on the "No Nukes" music video that a group of aging rockers released a little more than a week ago. To the credit of reporter Elizabeth Shogren, she took plenty of time to feature an audio clip from NEI's rebuttal . Elsewhere here in Washington, Bonnie Raitt will appear at a press conference on Capitol Hill this morning with Congressman Ed Markey. We should have a report later. More details, here .

Back at YouTube this weekend, anti-nuke activist Harvey Wasserman posted a video rebuttal to Elizabeth King's debut on YouTube last week . I was thinking about getting some folks together to rebut Wasserman, but as it turns out, someone else beat us to it . I'm guessing you might be familiar with his previous work : It's good to know the nuclear energy business has so many friends out there. Thanks for the assist. One final note: In the video, Wasserman charges that NEI "has lots of money" to produce video rebuttals, which gave me a pretty good laugh. For the record, our original video was shot with a Casio digital camera that you could fit in your pants pocket and a $50 tripod. We did our post-production -- if you could call it that -- on a Dell laptop using Windows Movie Maker. Altogether, the process took about 4.5 hours from start to finish. Which makes me wonder: Just how much money did Wasserman and his friends spend on their original video? Something...

University of Wisconsin student Nathan Braun watched last week's "No Nukes" video and came away less than impressed : While it is admirable to see celebrities and potential role models passionate about a cause, these statements demonstrate what’s wrong with anti-nuclear sentiment in America. They could be described as misinformed at best, fear-mongering at worst. Nuclear power is not perfect, but under the right circumstances it can be not only clean and safe, but also practical — the United States already gets 20 percent of its electricity from nuclear power; France gets 80 percent, mostly because political opposition isn’t as strong. Be sure to read the rest, as they say, right now.

Shortly after we posted a video response by Elizabeth King to a new appeal from the "No Nukes" crew , we saw a number of other folks hop onto YouTube to post their own responses. One person posted the audio of a Dennis Miller interview with Dr. Patrick Moore . Someone else posted a clip from Penn & Teller's Showtime program on nuclear energy . But best of all, a computer science student posted a point by point counter to the original video : It's always good to find out that you're not alone out there. In the meantime, be sure to stop by the YouTube page where the original "No Nukes" video is hosted and be sure to leave a comment. UPDATE : Rod Adams recorded a video of his own .

I'm sure by now many of you have seen the video produced by NukeFree.org , starring Bonnie Raitt, Graham Nash and Jackson Browne -- some original no-nukers -- asking Congress to alter language in legislation that makes provisions for loan guarantees supporting new nuclear plant construction. Click here for a CNN op-ed. Here at NEI we had a good laugh over some of their claims and decided to do something about it. So I got together with Elizabeth King, NEI's manager for economic policy -- it's safe to say she's a loan guarantee expert -- to record the following video response : Perhaps we should be cheered that others have seen the video, and are less than impressed . UPDATE : More folks who are less than impressed with what they've seen: The Fourth Checkraise The Pajamahadin Instapundit We should probably note that it was Rod Adams who had us pegged first. Click here too. ANOTHER UPDATE : Here's an interesting wrinkle: The CNN.com commentary that the musi...