Today is National Call-In Day to End Nuke/Coal Subsidies

From: Nuclear Information and Resource Service

Dear Friends,

Today is National Grassroots Call-In Day to stop taxpayer subsidies for nuclear power and coal! Please take a moment to call your Senators and Representative and let them know billions of dollars of your money in subsidies for new nuclear reactors and coal plants are simply an unacceptable choice for our energy future and our planet.

Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121.

And please take a moment to also send a letter to your Senators and Representative.

You can send a letter to both of your Senators here.

You can send a letter to your Representative here.

The basic phone message is simple: No Nukes, No Coal, No Kidding! Congress must support renewable energy and energy efficiency programs, not waste more taxpayer money on dangerous, dirty and extraordinarily expensive nuclear power and coal technologies.

Your support and actions are critical. To give you an idea what we’re up against in Congress, here is an excerpt from today’s Environment and Energy Daily:

House supporters of the nuclear industry are pushing House leaders to treat nuclear power as a clean energy source in climate legislation this year, hoping their numbers are enough to overcome the political influence of nuclear power’s environmental opponents.

A score of House members, led by House Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), met with industry and labor officials yesterday to make the case for nuclear power. “We’ve got the ability to do something to affect the agenda,” said Rep. John Spratt Jr. (D-S.C.), chairman of the House Budget Committee.

“Nuclear has to be part of the mix if we’re going to be serious about this,” said Rep. Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.).

The focus of recent negotiations, according to some congressional sources, has been the renewable electricity standard legislation that House and Senate committee leaders have proposed. Nuclear power advocates, particularly from the Southeast, are reportedly urging that new nuclear plants or increased capacity at existing plants be treated in the same way that new hydroelectric plants or upgrades to existing hydro plants are handled in pending legislation.

In that case, a utility could deduct new nuclear or hydro capacity from its total baseline electricity demand, reducing the portion of its supply that would have to come from wind, solar or other designated renewable power sources when the renewable standard is applied. That would lessen any penalties utilities would face if they failed to meet the renewable standards.

…..At yesterday’s House nuclear power caucus, sponsored by the Nuclear Energy Institute, Clyburn, Spratt and Wamp were joined by labor leaders, pro-nuclear environmentalist and Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore, and industry officials, all of whom called for nuclear power to be placed alongside renewables as a carbon-free energy source.

The industry is spending millions on their lobbying effort to include nuclear power in the Senate Energy bill and House climate bill. It will take all of us working together to counteract that!

Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121.

Again, please forward this Alert as widely as possible, please make sure all your friends and colleagues know about it and can participate. Post the info on your websites, blogs, Facebook & MySpace pages, Twitter it, spread the word! It will take many thousands of us to overcome the nuclear and coal industry’s lobbying efforts. But we CAN do it!And please support our campaign with your contribution here. Your donations of any size are gratefully appreciated and are needed to keep this campaign going.

We know we’ve been asking a lot of you already this year, but we’re asking again now because your actions have made the difference all year long and can do so again.

We will keep you posted on the progress of the Senate Energy Bill and House Climate Bill. But please send your letters in, call today, and spread the word! And after you’ve called, please send us a note and let us know if you got through and any response you received.

Thanks for all you do!

Michael Mariotte

Executive Director