As the new home of NJPIRG's environmental work, Environment New Jersey can be contacted regarding this news release.
TRENTON—With Senators
John McCain and Joe Lieberman introducing a new global warming bill late yesterday
afternoon that includes incentives for nuclear power, NJPIRG voiced its extreme
disappointment and announced that it opposes the bill.
“Global warming is
the most serious environmental threat facing the planet today. We can significantly
reduce global warming pollution and save consumers money by increasing energy
efficiency and shifting to clean renewable sources of energy,” stated Energy
Advocate Emily Rusch
NJPIRG had supported the
previous version of the bill, the Climate Stewardship Act (S.342), as a good
first step in meeting this challenge. The bill would cap global warming emissions
at 2000 levels by 2010.
The bill introduced today, the Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act, includes
more than $5 billion in federal subsidies for new nuclear power plants. The
bill provides a wide range of subsidies, including subsidies for engineering
and design costs, loans and loan guarantees for building new plants, and direct
financial awards for new projects. The bill also includes extensive subsidies
for new coal plants.
“There is no need to
jeopardize our health, safety, and economy with increased nuclear power when
we have cleaner, cheaper, and safer solutions to reduce global warming pollution,”
said Rusch.
Rusch noted that we can
meet our future electricity needs and reduce global warming pollution far beyond
the goals in the Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act without increasing our
reliance on nuclear power. For example, a 2004 study by Synapse Energy Economics
found that America could reduce its emissions of carbon dioxide from electricity
generation by 47 percent by 2025 compared to business as usual and meet projected
electricity demand, while saving $36 billion annually in electricity costs and
cutting our reliance on nuclear power by nearly half.
“We continue to support the original Climate Stewardship Act, as a good
first step in tackling the challenge of global warming. We do not support this
new bill, which adds expensive and unnecessary subsidies for dangerous nuclear
power plants,” said Rusch.
