Obama govt putting the brakes on nuclear loan guarantee program

Obama administration calls for no expansion to nuclear loan guarantee program in FY2013 budget!, Beyond Nuclear, 16 Feb 12, As reported in the Huffington Post, for the first time in three years, the Obama administration has not called for a major expansion in the nuclear loan guarantee program. In fact, it has called for no expansion at all.

In his Fiscal Year 2011 and Fiscal Year 2012 budget requests, fresh on the heels of explicitly promoting nuclear power in his State of the Union addresses, President Obama called for a major expansion of the nuclear loan guarantee program, to the tune of $36 billion. However, as a testament to people power over nuclear power, the nuclear lobbyists didn’t get away with it — we stopped them time and again on Capitol Hill, through tireless concerned citizen pressure! It’s a huge grassroots environmental victory!

The program already had $22.5 billion, however, mostly authorized during the George W. Bush administration, snuck through on December 23, 2007 when most Americans were more tuned into holiday celebrations with family and friends, rather than the backroom wheeling and dealing by dirty energy industry lobbyists on Capitol Hill. Of that $22.5 billion already authorized, $18.5 billion was set aside for new atomic reactors, while $4 billion was set aside for new uranium enrichment facilities……

The $4 billion set aside for new uranium enrichment plants was intended for Areva of France’s project in Idaho, and U.S. Enrichment Corporation’s project in Portsmouth, Ohio. Both proposals have hit snags.

On Feb. 15, Energy Secretary Chu visited the Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant, in a continuing sign of support by the Obama administration for new nuclear power expansion, despite its cancellation of the nuclear loan guarantee expansion. Chu is still requesting $770 million from Congress for promotion of nuclear power in the new fiscal year. Such subsidies would be in addition to the $13 billion authorized by the 2005 Energy Policy Act, and hundreds of billions of dollars in public subsidies provided by ratepayers and taxpayers to the nuclear power industry over the past 50 years.

Just last Friday, Chu warned the more federal energy loan guarantees could default, as did Solyndra. Vogtle is an ironic poster child for the “nuclear renaissance” (or relapse). Vogtle Units 1 and 2 came in 1,300% over budget. If Vogtle Units 3 and 4 default on their loan repayments, the American taxpayer could be left holding the bag for $8.3 billion — 15 times more than the $535 million recently lost to the Solyndra debacle.

As indicated in the Huffington Post article above, the Solyndra scandal could explain in large part why the Obama administration is backing away from a major expansion in the nuclear loan guarantee program in a presidential election year. A E&E Special Report on the Solyndra scandal, entitled “As controversy simmers, Obama seeks no new funding for DOE loan guarantees,” ran on Feb. 14th….. http://www.beyondnuclear.org/nuclear-loan-guarantees/2012/2/15/obama-administration-calls-for-no-expansion-to-nuclear-loan.html