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President Obama the nuclear industry’s Golden Boy

Obama’s Nuclear Dreams: Resurrecting a Noxious Industry, He may soon be called the nuclear industry’s Golden Child. t r u t h o u t |, 10 March 2010, No president in the Obama’s Nuclear Dreams: Resurrecting a Noxious Industrylast three decades has put more taxpayer dollars behind atom power than Barack Obama. And there may be good reason why the president is salivating over the prospect of building new nuclear power plants around the country. …
In 2006 Obama took up the cause of Illinois residents who were angry with Exelon, the nation’s largest nuclear power plant operator, for not having disclosed a leak at one of their nuclear plants in the state. Obama responded by quickly introducing a bill that would require nuclear facilities to immediately notify state and federal agencies of all leaks, large or small.

At first it seemed Obama was intent on making a decent change in the reporting protocol, even demonizing Exelon’s inaction in the press. But Obama could only go so far, as Exelon executives, including Chairman John W. Rowe, who serves as a key lobbyist for the nuclear energy lobby, have long been campaign backers, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars dating back to Obama’s days in the Illinois State Legislature.

Despite his initial push to advance the legislation, Obama’s office eventually rewrote the bill, producing a version that was palatable to Exelon and the rest of the nuclear industry. “…

Inevitably, the bill died a slow death in the Senate. And like an experienced political operative, Obama came out of the battle as a martyr for both sides of the cause. His constituents back in Illinois thought he fought a good fight, while industry insiders knew the Obama machine was worth investing in.

t r u t h o u t | Obama’s Nuclear Dreams: Resurrecting a Noxious Industry

March 10, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear secrecy, nuclear spin, nuclear weapons, radioactive, reactor