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The Texas-based Uranium Energy Corporation posted up in the exhibition hall of the annual conservative confab this week, where it courted conservative activists, radio hosts, and at least one senior White House official with its pitch to crack down on foreign competition in the name of national security.

Specifically, the company is pressing the Department of Commerce to impose quotas on uranium imports that would carve out a quarter of the market purely for domestic producers. The department is scheduled to present its findings to President Trump in April, when he will decide whether to invoke his authority to impose “national security” trade restrictions.

UEC’s pitch isn’t just boilerplate national security or protectionist rhetoric. It has something most other companies vying for attention at this year’s CPAC do not: an opponent that’s been repeatedly called out and demonized by President Trump and his allies—Uranium One.

A Canadian company, Uranium One is a major uranium importer to the U.S., which pits it against UEC’s policy agenda. It is also a boogeyman for conservatives, who believe that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shepherded its acquisition by Rosatom, a nuclear energy company owned by Russia’s state atomic energy agency, after Uranium One’s chairman donated millions of dollars to her family’s foundation.

The conspiracy theory fails to account for the fact Clinton was just one of a board of nine federal officials who signed off on the deal. But that didn’t stop Scott Melbye, UEC’s executive vice president of Uranium Energy Corp, from warning about it while manning the company’s booth at CPAC……..

The UEC company’s presence at CPAC underscores the ways in which private interests frequently attempt to leverage the conference, and its influential attendees, often by tailoring communications and advocacy strategies to the pet issues and causes that animate the moment’s conservative voters, activists, and officials.

UEC wasn’t listed on the conference’s website as either a sponsor or an exhibitor. But a source familiar with its work there said it signed on late as an exhibitor—the lowest level of CPAC sponsorship—which comes at a $4,000 price tag.

Helping to organize UEC’s CPAC presence was Alexandra Preate, a public relations executive who works closely with former White House strategist and leading protectionist Steve Bannon, who formerly ran the pro-Trump website Breitbart. Also mulling about UEC’s exhibit was Matt Boyle, Breitbart’s political editor. ……….

UEC is using the access CPAC offers its sponsors and exhibitors to pursue a strategy tailor-made for Trump-era conservatives. https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-nuclear-energy-industry-goes-maga-to-win-over-t