Urgent: Take Action Now to Stop Dirty Energy Bank

January 27, 2009
Dear Friends:
We have just learned that Senate Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman is circulating a "Dear Colleague" letter to other Senators, seeking their support for his Clean Energy Development Administration (CEDA) concept. At first, the idea sounds great: who could oppose a bank to support clean energy projects? And, at this writing too many Senators seem willing to sign on without looking at the details.
Please tell your Senators NOT to sign Sen. Bingaman's letter and to oppose the CEDA legislation.
Because here are the details: Sen. Bingaman's CEDA would allow UNLIMITED taxpayer loan guarantees for construction of new nuclear reactors and "clean coal" projects. A nine-member unelected board of directors would determine which projects CEDA would fund--with no Congressional or public oversight. Unlike some other clean energy bank proposals, there would be no limit on how much money any single technology could receive, and no requirement that those technologies that offer the fastest, most cost-effective carbon reductions get funded first.
Indeed, the real intent of Sen. Bingaman's CEDA is to provide massive new taxpayer funding for nuclear power and coal--not genuinely clean, safe and cost-effective renewables and energy efficiency projects. CEDA is simply another taxpayer bailout for giant dirty energy interests. It must be stopped.
Please ask your Senator now to oppose CEDA, and certainly not to sign on to Sen. Bingaman's "Dear Colleague" letter.
Bingaman is taking this step to try to show support for CEDA, and to try to add it to a jobs bill, or any other legislation possible. We need to show Bingaman and the rest of the Senate that a dirty energy bank--no matter how he and the nuclear industry try to describe it--is not what our nation needs. One would think the Senate has learned recently that the American people are tired of taxpayer bailouts of huge corporations. Let's tell them again now.
And please ask your friends and colleagues to act too, and help us publicize this on your blogs, Facebook pages, etc. We need to act fast, and, if we're going to stop this thing, we all need to act now. Here is the link to the action page: http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5502/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY...
Thanks for all you do,
Michael Mariotte
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
[email protected]
www.nirs.org
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