Skip to main content

More Democrats Supporting Nuclear Energy

By Eric McErlain
From Sunday's edition of the Cedar Rapids Gazette (archive link not available):
A core group of Iowa Democrats deserves praise for rejecting decades-old stereotypes about nuclear power and coming out strongly in favor of expansion of nuclear energy in the United States. Their involvement should help bolster support for nuclear energy, and possibly even lead someday to a new Iowa nuclear plant — and the great-paying jobs and substantial capital investment that would come with it.

That nuclear energy is on the cusp of a resurgence has been apparent since President Bush made nuclear expansion a key part of his energy policy. And while that energy bill attracted some Democratic support, many Democrats have always been wary of nuclear energy because of the party’s close association with environmentalists who generally despise nuclear power.

When the national Clean and Safe Energy Coalition was launched in spring, it was a good bet that its early inroads would be with Republicans, even though it intended to be a bipartisan group. Yet when coalition co-chairman Patrick Moore stopped in Palo on Thursday at the Duane Arnold Energy Center, the roomful of coalition members had a distinctly Democratic flavor.
The tide is turning. To join the CASEnergy Coalition, click here.

Technorati tags: , , , , , , ,

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hi,

Who were the democrats anyways or do they prefer their support to remain anonymous?

Gunter, NIRS
October 10, 2006 at 10:29 AM
David Bradish said…
According to the Cedar Rapids Gazette paper only one name was mentioned. From the article, the main person who rallied the Dems was Rep. Phil Wise, D-Keokuk. Here's the link (pdf).

Also, here's a list of the individuals on the CASE Coalition where you can find the rest of the names. I counted 12 state representatives from Iowa. It doesn't state which party each person belongs to though. But you could assume they are all Dems since the article has a sentence that the Reps are not yet on the roster.
October 10, 2006 at 1:37 PM
Anonymous said…
The FDR Democratic Club in Los Angeles, an official Party club organized by the LaRouche Youth Movement (LYM), is supporting nuclear power. Ninety people attended a club meeting Sept. 14 to hear the featured speaker, Ken Schultz from General Atomics, who, in the words of one LYM member gave a "refutation of every myth known to man concerning nuclear energy."

The LYM website has many basic articles on nuclear energy.

Note to blog author: My last comment on Albert Wohlstetter the antinuke never got posted. Was it received?
October 10, 2006 at 5:16 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fluor Invests in NuScale

By
You know, it’s kind of sad that no one is willing to invest in nuclear energy anymore. Wait, what? NuScale Power celebrated the news of its company-saving $30 million investment from Fluor Corp. Thursday morning with a press conference in Washington, D.C. Fluor is a design, engineering and construction company involved with some 20 plants in the 70s and 80s, but it has not held interest in a nuclear energy company until now. Fluor, which has deep roots in the nuclear industry, is betting big on small-scale nuclear energy with its NuScale investment. "It's become a serious contender in the last decade or so," John Hopkins, [Fluor’s group president in charge of new ventures], said. And that brings us to NuScale, which had run into some dark days – maybe not as dark as, say, Solyndra, but dire enough : Earlier this year, the Securities Exchange Commission filed an action against NuScale's lead investor, The Michael Kenwood Group. The firm "misap...
1 comment
Read more

Wednesday Update

By
From NEI’s Japan micro-site: NRC, Industry Concur on Many Post-Fukushima Actions Industry/Regulatory/Political Issues • There is a “great deal of alignment” between the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the industry on initial steps to take at America’s nuclear energy facilities in response to the nuclear accident in Japan, Charles Pardee, the chief operating officer of Exelon Generation Co., said at an agency briefing today. The briefing gave stakeholders an opportunity to discuss staff recommendations for near-term actions the agency may take at U.S. facilities. PowerPoint slides from the meeting are on the NRC website. • The International Atomic Energy Agency board has approved a plan that calls for inspectors to evaluate reactor safety at nuclear energy facilities every three years. Governments may opt out of having their country’s facilities inspected. Also approved were plans to maintain a rapid response team of experts ready to assist facility operators recoverin...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nuclear Utility Moves Up in Credit Ratings, Bank is "Comfortable with Nuclear Strategy"

By
Some positive signs that nuclear utilities can continue to receive positive ratings even while they finance new nuclear plants for the first time in decades: Wells Fargo upgrades SCANA to Outperform from Market Perform Wells analyst says, "YTD, SCG shares have underperformed the Regulated Electrics (total return +2% vs. +9%). Shares trade at 11.3X our 10E EPS, a modest discount to the peer group median of 11.8X. We view the valuation as attractive given a comparatively constructive regulatory environment and potential for above-average long-term EPS growth prospects ... Comfortable with Nuclear Strategy. SCG plans to participate in the development of two regulated nuclear units at a cost of $6.3B, raising legitimate concerns regarding financing and construction. We have carefully considered the risks and are comfortable with SCG’s strategy based on a highly constructive political & regulatory environment, manageable financing needs stretched out over 10 years, strong partners...
Post a Comment
Read more