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For Immediate Release: 9:30 am Eastern October 11, 2007 Contact:
Initial petition signers include Ben Harper, Natalie Maines and Emily Robison of the Dixie Chicks, Melissa Etheridge, Maroon 5, Keb’ Mo’, Patti Smith, Pearl Jam, Herbie Hancock and dozens of others. Already the Natural Resources Defense Council, Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters, U.S. PIRG, Environmental Working Group, TrueMajority.org and Working Assets Wireless have joined the effort. The musicians are urging the public to sign the petition. The Senate version of the Energy Bill, currently before Congress, authorizes the Department of Energy to provide virtually unlimited loan guarantees for funding of new nuclear reactors. The nuclear energy industry has already indicated it wants $25 billion in guarantees for 2008, and another $25 billion for 2009, with untold billions more to come after that. The petition states: “We ask that all members of Congress join us in working to remove from the pending Energy Bill massively expensive loan guarantees---potentially a virtual blank check from taxpayers--- for the building of many more nuclear power plants. We strongly support those parts of this Energy Bill that advance Renewable Portfolio Standards, increased fuel efficiency for automobiles, and other safe, clean solutions to global warming.” The YouTube video, produced by Robert Greenwald's Brave New Foundation, integrates an adapted version of the Stephen Stills song, “For What It’s Worth,” with information about both the problems of nuclear power and the potential of safe, green energy, including: -The vulnerability to attack, or accident, of both the reactors and the thousands of shipments of radioactive nuclear waste moving through neighborhoods across the country. -How subsidies to nuclear power would depress investment in sustainable safe sources of energy. -The global warming pollution produced in reactor construction, and in the mining, milling and transport of nuclear fuel and waste. Graham, Bonnie and Jackson worked, with many others, on the issue of nuclear power throughout the 1970’s, culminating with the 1979 series of five “No Nukes” concerts at Madison Square Garden. The Rally, feature film and triple album based on those concerts along with the ongoing work of grassroots organizations helped catalyze overwhelming public opposition to nuclear power. There have been no new atomic reactors ordered and built in the U.S. since then. Instead of new nuclear reactors, the artists are urging Congress to get behind those parts of the Energy Bill that advance safe, economically viable solutions to global warming. PETITION TO STOP THE NUCLEAR BAILOUT
We ask that all members of Congress join us in working to remove from the pending Energy Bill massively expensive loan guarantees---potentially a virtual blank check from taxpayers--- for the building of many more nuclear power plants. We strongly support those parts of this Energy Bill that advance Renewable Portfolio Standards, increased fuel efficiency for automobiles, and other safe, clean solutions to global warming. The tragedies of September 11th, 2001, underscore how vulnerable atomic
reactors are to terror attacks by airplanes and missiles. Chernobyl and
Three Mile Island remind us that major nuclear accidents can also be caused
by human error.
Huge quantities of energy are used for nuclear fuel enrichment, transportation, construction and waste storage. This is no solution to global warming. Reactors in Alabama and France have already shut because they are super-heating nearby rivers and streams. The "new generation" nuclear plant now being built in Finland is already 18 months behind schedule and $900 million over budget. This is a design planned for our country. If construction begins here, tax and ratepayers will be stuck with the bill. The Senate version of the Energy Bill could authorize the Department of Energy to provide virtually unlimited guarantees for backers of new reactors. The industry indicates it wants $25 billion in guarantees for 2008, and another $25 billion for 2009, with untold billions more to come after that. The industry wants these subsidies because after fifty years, atomic power has been rejected by the marketplace. The first commercial nuclear reactor opened in 1957. But after fifty years of proven failure, Wall Street will not independently invest in more of them, and still no private insurance company will underwrite the possibility of a major reactor disaster. In fact, nuclear power has been left behind by a profitable revolution in safe, clean, renewable energy sources, and in energy efficiency. Wind, solar, bio-fuels, geothermal, ocean thermal and more are shaping a green-powered Earth that produces jobs and sustainability. This is the true solution to global warming. These wasteful reactor loan guarantees would siphon away resources better spent on truly competitive sources of power. So we ask that they be removed from the Energy Bill. Higher auto mileage standards, biofuels, energy efficiency and requirements for renewable energy are what we need to survive and prosper, not more taxpayer bailouts for the proven failure that is atomic energy. Sincerely,
Jackson Browne, Musician/Activist
Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility
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