Nuclear Welfare Queens

Well, it looks like the lobbiests slipped a provision in the Senate's energy bill allowing for the taxpayer to cover billions in loan guarantees for the Nuclear industry.

As before, the Department of Energy would be allowed to guarantee 100 percent of the loans and up to 80 percent of the total cost to build a reactor.

But the bill essentially allows the department to approve as many loan guarantees as it wants for both new reactors and plants that use other “clean” technologies.

That is a big change. Under current law, the government is only allowed to guarantee a volume of loans authorized each year by Congress. Last year, Congress limited the government to awarding just $4 billion in loan guarantees for clean energy projects during the 2007 fiscal year.

It's a big sloppy kiss for the Nuclear Industry.

Mr. Bingaman, the bill’s primary architect, said that he was aware of the provision but believed that it would apply only to reactors with fundamentally new technology.

“I would be amazed if this generic loan program applied to most of the plants that are being proposed, either for the nuclear industry or coal industry,” Mr. Bingaman said Monday night. “The idea of this is not just to help an industry build plants. It’s to demonstrate new technology that meets the nation’s energy needs.”

But industry officials say the measure would directly affect the reactors on the drawing board

Somehow, even if the law is written in the manner that Sen. Bingaman says, I think that the Bush Admin is going to engage in an orgy of loan guarantees, to ensure that 20 or 30 (at least) of these expensive white elephants are issued, on the theory that it guarantees profits for their friends, and consulting gigs for themselves after 2009.