CALL STENY HOYER, THEN YOUR OWN CONGRESSMEMBERS!

 

NO TAXPAYER LOAN GUARANTEES FOR NEW REACTORS!

 

House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) is the second-ranking House Democrat, behind Speaker Nancy Pelosi. While he is not as well known nationally as some other House members, his position ensures that he plays a major role in national politics and issues.

 

Unfortunately, Hoyer is an enthusiastic supporter of loan guarantees for new reactors—mostly because he wants Constellation Energy to receive taxpayer-backed loans for a new reactor at Calvert Cliffs, Maryland, which is in his district. Constellation officials have been quoted in both the New York Times and Washington Post as saying they will not build a new reactor without taxpayer loan guarantees. “Without the federal loan guarantees, this whole thing will come to a stop,” a Constellation executive told the Post.

 

Language in the Senate-passed energy bill could open up huge amounts of money—the nuclear industry says it wants $50 Billion or more—for new taxpayer loan guarantees for nuclear utilities. Note: the provision could also clear the way for massive taxpayer subsidies for coal-to-liquid and other polluting energy projects as well. Taxpayer funds should go only to non-polluting, renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies! A critical need in the upcoming Senate-House conference committee on the energy bill is to remove this Senate language. But Hoyer may be standing in the way. As House Majority Leader, representing all Democrats across the country, Hoyer should be working for the nation, not his local nuclear utility!

 

Actions: Call Rep. Hoyer at 202-225-4131 and let him know you oppose taxpayer support and new loan guarantees for all unnecessary and dangerous atomic reactors, and for a new reactor at Calvert Cliffs in particular. Let’s keep Hoyer’s phones ringing off the hook with calls from people from all over the country!

 

Then, call your own Congressmembers (Capitol Switchboard, 202-224-3121) with the same message on loan guarantees.

 

Conferees for the upcoming Senate-House conference committee have not yet been named. By calling all Congressmembers now, you’ll be helping to lay the groundwork for a more concerted and targeted effort later. We will alert you once we know who the conferees will be, and how you can take further effective action.

 

A note to our fellow Marylanders: we have a special responsibility to call Rep. Hoyer, not only because he is a Maryland representative, but also because a new reactor at Calvert Cliffs would affect the safety, health, security and bank accounts of all of us. Let’s make sure all of us, and our friends, neighbors and colleagues, call Rep. Hoyer this week!

 

Thanks for all you do!

 

Michael Mariotte

Executive Director

Nuclear Information and Resource Service

September 10, 2007

——————————————————————————————————

 

Don’t forget to Sign the Simple Statement on Nuclear Power and Climate: “We do not support construction of new nuclear reactors as a means of addressing the climate crisis. Available renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies are faster, cheaper, safer and cleaner strategies for reducing greenhouse emissions than nuclear power.”

 

Join Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, The Indigo Girls, Graham Nash, Ani DiFranco, Ed Asner, Peter Coyote, Mike Farrell, and Greenpeace, Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and hundreds of other organizations and thousands of individuals! Sign now at: http://www.nirs.org/petition2/index.php and pass the word to your friends, colleagues, mailing lists, networking sites, etc. And please copy the graphic below and put it on your websites, myspace and facebook pages, and anywhere else you can think of! Just link it to the petition url.