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| Idaho Energy Update |
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A weekly summary of energy and climate issues. We feature updates from the Legislature and state agencies, Idaho's utilities and regulators, and topical clean energy developments in Idaho and the Northwest - all designed to help you follow and participate in Idaho energy issues.
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| Friday, July 23, 2010 |
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Let’s Get a New START!
By bbrailsford @ 1:35 PM :: 62 Views ::
0 Comments ::  :: Nuclear Weapons, Action Alert!
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In a handful of days, Idaho Senator James Risch can play a key role in ratifying the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty—New START—between Russia and the US to verifiably cut their nuclear arsenals. We will all be more secure if he does. And you can help—today!
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| Wednesday, June 16, 2010 |
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NRC: Listen to All of Idaho!
By bbrailsford @ 8:12 AM :: 256 Views ::
0 Comments :: :: Nuclear Power, Action Alert!
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The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will release the draft Environmental Impact Statement on the uranium enrichment plant Areva wants to build in eastern Idaho sometime in July. The NRC has already scheduled a hearing on the draft for August 12 in Idaho Falls. But it looks as if the NRC is going to ignore a request by many Idahoans, including the Mayor of Boise, that it hold an additional hearing on the draft EIS in Idaho’s capital city. You can help catch the NRC’s attention by contacting your Member of Congress right now.
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| Thursday, April 08, 2010 |
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Challenge a Nuclear Nation--DC Days Update
By lwoodruff @ 3:17 PM :: 526 Views ::
0 Comments :: :: Action Alert!
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The
nuclear debate in the United States is heating up, and there is real
danger that US officialdom will make choices that put at risk any
present hope for a nuclear-free future. The Snake River Alliance joined
fellow activists from across the country and met with Washington, DC,
decision-makers to try to stop bailouts for nuclear power and an
expanded US capacity to develop new or more nuclear weapons, which
undermines the goals of arms treaties. We also met with the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, a “regulator” that seems committed to greasing
the skids for all things nuclear.
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| Thursday, March 04, 2010 |
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AEHI and Nuclear Energy in Idaho: Still a Crazy Idea
By lwoodruff @ 1:25 PM :: 727 Views ::
0 Comments :: :: Action Alert!
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AEHI is continuing to advance their ill-conceived reactor proposal in both Elmore and Payette counties, and the Alliance continues to monitor the situation in both of these communities by staying in touch with community members and planning staff, testifying at hearings, and releasing information to the media to challenge AEHI’s claims about their proposal and nuclear power in general.
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| Thursday, March 04, 2010 |
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Don’t Bet the Farm: Tripling Nuclear Power Bailouts Triples the Risk and the Waste
By lwoodruff @ 1:20 PM :: 572 Views ::
0 Comments :: :: Action Alert!
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Don’t Bet the Farm: Tripling Nuclear Power Bailouts Triples the Risk and the Waste
Last June, Moody's Investment Service called investing in new nuclear power a "bet the farm" risk.
If the federal government gets its way, that risk will soon triple and companies that want to build either nuclear reactors or uranium enrichments plants will be swimming in taxpayer dollars. At the beginning of February, the Obama administration asked Congress to triple the pot of money available for new nuclear reactors to $54.5 billion. Later in the month, President Obama announced the Energy Department’s intention to give Southern Company $8.3 billion for two new reactors in Georgia. On the uranium enrichment front, the Department of Energy says it intends triple money available to new uranium enrichment plants—to $6 billion—by transferring money now slated for mixed energy efficiency, renewable energy, and fossil fuel projects.
The entire nuclear bailout program poses enormous risk to U.S. taxpayers. A new nuclear reactor costs $10 billion, and that price tag is steadily rising. So a $54.4 billion pot is good for only about 5 new reactors. Although the loan guarantees supposedly are not direct taxpayer funding of private utility companies, the Congressional Budget Office has predicted that more than half of new reactor owners will default on their loan repayments based on the industry’s history of cost overruns and plant cancellations.
Closer to home, forcing U.S. taxpayers to underwrite loans to back new uranium enrichment plants such as the one French government-owned Areva wants to build in eastern Idaho would be extraordinarily risky and wasteful. First, though Areva is the largest nuclear supplies in the world, with 2006 sales of $14 billion, it is seriously overextended as it tries to position itself to grab the lion’s share of the nuclear renaissance, even as the renaissance has failed to appear. In fact, an Areva spokesperson acknowledged in November that without cheap capital from U.S. taxpayers, the company would simply return to France. Second, it’s likely that, with $6 billion in underwriting (Areva wants $2 billion), we’ll build more worldwide uranium enrichment capacity than would be needed even if requirements grow, too.
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Thanks to our members, major donors, and these foundations for making our work possible: Edwards Mother Earth, Bullitt, Lightfoot, Patagonia, and New Belgium Brewing.
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