Skip to main content

Friends of the Truth

stein We normally don’t spotlight our comments section: that’s your area to have at the topics addressed on the blog without a lot of pushback from us – though we’ll drop in to clarify a point now and then. But we were struck by the comments left by Nick Berning of Friends of the Earth about our post below:

Contrary to your post's assertions, our release was clear that not all of the $50 billion is necessarily going to the nuclear industry. What we said is "much" of the money is "likely" to go to a nuclear industry bailout. The veracity of this claim is underscored by your organization's interest in ensuring the bailout is included in the final bill.

This is a real head-scratcher, since Berning seems to think that weasel words like “much” and “likely” mitigates the actual quote from their President. Take it away, Brent Blackwelder:

"Senators are supposed to be fixing the economy but instead they’re offering the nuclear industry a $50 billion gift that will create virtually no near-term jobs. It's unconscionable.

Well, is it $50 billion or “likely” “much” of it or, as we said, split between a smorgasbord of energy-related industries? We think we “likely” come “much” closer to the reality. Berning and Blackwelder should get together and decide just how villainous the nuclear energy industry is and the nature of the villainy, then try again.

Let’s see if we can help them. Berner considers it damning that NEI and the industry wanted nuclear energy to be included, but so did every other industry that was (and some that probably weren’t) included. We’re reasonably sure FOE has things they’d like to see in the stimulus and advocate vociferously for it, as well they should. But good infrastructure and workforce build out projects are exactly what this bill is supposed to be about and what the nuclear industry can contribute. It doesn’t prove the veracity of FOE’s claim at all.

FOE simply wants to paint the nuclear industry as blackly as possible under the guise of an inexact populist outrage and a shaky grip on an easily verifiable truth. FOE seems to believe nuclear energy is so wicked, no precision in their arguments (“Bail-out!” Fah!) is necessary as long as it vanquishes the wickedness. But, in this case, to quote Gertrude Stein: There is no there there.

Picasso’s portrait of Gertrude Stein. Stein also said, “Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense.” And she has a plate of brownies she’d like you to try.

Comments

Anonymous said…
And for a different perspective on the LG's.

I started to leave a comment in the responses to the last blog and it quickly turned into a treatise. So since we have our own blog at Heritage I just posted it there. But in a nutshell, I argue that while limited LG's and other subsidies can have a role in overcoming some initial uncertainty, the move now to expand them is detrimental to tax payers, consumers and the long-term competitiveness of the energy industry. To me, the question is not whether or not nuclear should get LG's but to what extent any energy source (or industry) should be allowed to build its long-term business plan around permanant subsidies. What are the ramifications for such a policy? Does it benefit the consumer? The tax payer?

Also, we get so cought up in who pays for the subsidy or LG, we forget that there are real costs outside of the administration of the program.

These are real questions that need to be debated.

We seem to be entering a whole new era where business models are based more on subsidies, preferences, and protections rather than on providing consumers with the best product for the best price.

I know that we all need to advance our own interests and I am all for that. But it seems to me that the consumer is sometimes left without representation and he's the one that will end up paying the bill.

Another treatise. Sorry.

Popular posts from this blog

An Ohio School Board Is Working to Save Nuclear Plants

Ohio faces a decision soon about its two nuclear reactors, Davis-Besse and Perry, and on Wednesday, neighbors of one of those plants issued a cry for help. The reactors’ problem is that the price of electricity they sell on the high-voltage grid is depressed, mostly because of a surplus of natural gas. And the reactors do not get any revenue for the other benefits they provide. Some of those benefits are regional – emissions-free electricity, reliability with months of fuel on-site, and diversity in case of problems or price spikes with gas or coal, state and federal payroll taxes, and national economic stimulus as the plants buy fuel, supplies and services. Some of the benefits are highly localized, including employment and property taxes. One locality is already feeling the pinch: Oak Harbor on Lake Erie, home to Davis-Besse. The town has a middle school in a building that is 106 years old, and an elementary school from the 1950s, and on May 2 was scheduled to have a referendu

Why Ex-Im Bank Board Nominations Will Turn the Page on a Dysfunctional Chapter in Washington

In our present era of political discord, could Washington agree to support an agency that creates thousands of American jobs by enabling U.S. companies of all sizes to compete in foreign markets? What if that agency generated nearly billions of dollars more in revenue than the cost of its operations and returned that money – $7 billion over the past two decades – to U.S. taxpayers? In fact, that agency, the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank), was reauthorized by a large majority of Congress in 2015. To be sure, the matter was not without controversy. A bipartisan House coalition resorted to a rarely-used parliamentary maneuver in order to force a vote. But when Congress voted, Ex-Im Bank won a supermajority in the House and a large majority in the Senate. For almost two years, however, Ex-Im Bank has been unable to function fully because a single Senate committee chairman prevented the confirmation of nominees to its Board of Directors. Without a quorum

NEI Praises Connecticut Action in Support of Nuclear Energy

Earlier this week, Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed SB-1501 into law, legislation that puts nuclear energy on an equal footing with other non-emitting sources of energy in the state’s electricity marketplace. “Gov. Malloy and the state legislature deserve praise for their decision to support Dominion’s Millstone Power Station and the 1,500 Connecticut residents who work there," said NEI President and CEO Maria Korsnick. "By opening the door to Millstone having equal access to auctions open to other non-emitting sources of electricity, the state will help preserve $1.5 billion in economic activity, grid resiliency and reliability, and clean air that all residents of the state can enjoy," Korsnick said. Millstone Power Station Korsnick continued, "Connecticut is the third state to re-balance its electricity marketplace, joining New York and Illinois, which took their own legislative paths to preserving nuclear power plants in 2016. Now attention should