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ILLINOIS ENERGY TRANSFORMATION #26: BEWARE THE POST-COP-26 NUCLEAR HUCKSTERS Nov. 22, 2021

ILLINOIS ENERGY TRANSFORMATION #26:

BEWARE THE POST-COP-26 NUCLEAR HUCKSTERS

Nov. 22, 2021

COP-26 and its aftermath have seen a dramatic rise in nuclear power being marketed as a “solution” needed to fight climate disruption.  A “devils in the details” analysis of these claims and a candid review of the history of nuclear power reveal them to be false – little more than marketing hype, aimed at syphoning funds and resources better spent on truly effective and sustainable climate fighting resources like renewables, energy efficiency, energy storage and improved transmission. Read more

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PRESS RELEASE: CANCER RATE IN GRUNDY COUNTY, SITE OF DRESDEN NUKE PLANT, AMONG HIGHEST IN ILLINOIS, WORST FOR RADIATION-SENSITIVE CANCERS

CANCER RATE IN GRUNDY COUNTY, SITE OF DRESDEN NUKE PLANT, AMONG HIGHEST IN ILLINOIS, WORST FOR RADIATION-SENSITIVE CANCERS

Embargoed until September 30, 2021, 10 a.m. Central Standard Time

Contact: Joseph Mangano, (484) 948-7965; David Kraft, (773) 342-7650; neis@neis.org

The current [**2014-2018] cancer incidence rate in Grundy County, the site of the Dresden nuclear plant, is 22%** above the state rate, the 9th highest** of all 102 Illinois counties, and one of the highest in the United States, according to a new report** released today. Read more

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PRESS RELEASE: Build Back Better Act: Climate Salvation? Or Trojan Horse? –details reveal massive spending on “false climate solutions”

PRESS RELEASE

Build Back Better Act: Climate Salvation? Or Trojan Horse?

Devils in the details reveal massive spending on “false climate solutions,” safe-energy advocates reveal

WASHINGTON, D.C.:  Close inspection of the mark-up language being proposed in parts of the “Build Back Better” Reconciliation package has uncovered large hidden subsidies and loopholes that benefit Big Dirty Energy, including approximately $50 billion in subsidies for existing nuclear power plants. Read more

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PRESS STATEMENT: NATIONAL DAY OF PROTEST AGAINST NUCLEAR POWER BAILOUTS

PRESS STATEMENT: NATIONAL DAY OF PROTEST AGAINST NUCLEAR POWER BAILOUTS

Monday, September 13, 2021

Chicago – Today, hundreds of citizens around the country are contacting their elected representatives to Congress to urge them to remove any funding for nuclear power plant bailouts from the Reconciliation and Infrastructure bills, expected to be voted upon later this week. Read more

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PRESS RELEASE: National Day of Opposition to Nuclear Bailouts in Chicago  

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Sept. 13 , 2021 

Chicago – On a day that saw the Illinois legislature approve another $694 million in nuclear power bailout money to profitable Exelon corporation, safe-energy activists in cities all over the country conducted actions and wrote to their members of Congress, urging them to remove an estimated $46 billion  in proposed nuclear subsidies from the upcoming Reconciliation legislation. Read more

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PRESS RELEASE: 240+ Organizations Sign Letter Opposing Subsidies for Nuclear Power in Infrastructure Bills

WASHINGTON, D.C — Over 240 organizations, including Friends of the Earth, Indigenous Environmental Network, Food & Water Watch, The League of Women Voters, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Public Citizen, Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) and hundreds more sent a letter to Congressional leaders telling them to reject all proposals in infrastructure bills that subsidize nuclear energy, and to instead invest in a just and equitable transition to safe, clean renewable energy.

The letter opposes proposals in both the energy legislation for the larger reconciliation package (S.2291/H.R.4024) and the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which together would grant up to $50 billion to prop up aging, increasingly uneconomical nuclear reactors for the next decade.

The letter highlights climate, economic, and environmental justice concerns with proposed nuclear subsidies, in addition to evidence that nuclear power is too dirty, dangerous, expensive, and slow to be a viable solution to the climate crisis.

All of the proposed subsidies (up to $50 billion) are predicted to go to reactors owned by only eight corporations and located in only 19 counties across eight states. Over 50 organizations in each of these states – Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas – signed the letter. Read more

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PRESS RELEASE — Nuke Bailouts Worsen Climate Change: REPORT

REPORT: $50 BILLION NUCLEAR BAILOUT WOULD UNDERMINE BIDEN CLIMATE AND INFRASTRUCURE GOALS

Economic Analysis Shows $10-50 Billion In Proposed Nuclear Subsidies Would Subvert Biden’s Infrastructure Plans; Best Investment for Jobs, Climate and the Economy is in Rapid Transition to Renewable Energy and Smart Electricity Grid, According to Expert

WASHINGTON, D.C.//July 15, 2021//A new report shows why the best infrastructure investment for U.S. jobs, the climate, and the economy is in a rapid transition to renewable energy and a 21st-century electricity system, and to phase out nuclear power and fossil fuels. While nuclear subsidy proposals in play as part of infrastructure negotiations like those from Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) would designate $6-$50 billion to bail out uneconomical nuclear power plants, the new economic analysis shows that subsidizing nuclear reactors would hobble the needed transition to a modern energy system and waste the economic and environmental benefits of renewable energy

The report by Dr. Mark Cooper, senior research fellow for economic analysis, Institute for Energy and the Environment, Vermont Law School, was released during a video news event featuring experts from the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS), Friends of the Earth, and the Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS) in Illinois. The report is available here.

Read more

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STATEMENT ON NEW EXELON BAILOUT RANSOM PROPOSAL

Illinois Legislators should oppose Exelon’s current $700 million nuclear ransom demand.  You can’t build an energy future by bailing out the past.

Recent revelations [1] that Exelon’s business partner EDF is curbing its enthusiasm for the creation of Exelon’s spin-off company “SpinCo” should warn Illinois legislators about the danger of granting the recently proposed nuclear bailout [4].

Earlier this year Exelon announced it would be splitting off and segregating its money-losing, unprofitable nuclear reactors into a separate entity called “SpinCo.” Read more

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STATEMENT ON ILLINOIS LEGISLATIVE INACTION ON ENERGY LEGISLATION

STATEMENT ON ILLINOIS LEGISLATIVE INACTION

 ON ENERGY LEGISLATION

Tick…tick…tick…

Everything in its own time.  Or so the old saying goes.  The Illinois Legislature demonstrated that old maxim once again by failing to vote before the end of Spring session on a critical piece of energy legislation designed to create Illinois’ energy future.

The Planet has its own schedule, too.  The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) frantically warned in October 2018 that we humans have at best 10 years left – until 2028 – to totally revamp our energy and economic systems, or risk an irreversible climate crisis that could threaten the very functioning of civilization as we have come to know it.  In this regard it’s important to recall another old maxim:  Nature bats last.

Like the grasshoppers in Aesop’s Fable, we, the Governor, and the Legislature ignore this imminent peril, and instead, content ourselves to “Count the victories,” as House Speaker Chris Welch, D-Hillside, advised yesterday as the clock stroked midnight.  Well, looks like it will now be easier to get to-go cocktails.  Come 2029 and beyond, we will need them, and much more. Read more

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TAIL WAGGING THE DOG AGAIN ON ENERGY LEGISLATION

Sunday, May 30, 2021

The last phase of Exelon’s “Nuclear Hostage Crisis” is playing out in the final legislative negotiations over a comprehensive state energy future.  Once again Exelon and its labor allies are the tail attempting to wag the dog by pushing for unrealistic nuclear bailouts as ransom for a clean energy future.

STOP Exelon’s “Nuclear Hostage Crisis”

Exelon’s 11th-hour intransigence comes after months of intense, painstaking negotiations among numerous interests to craft a comprehensive energy bill that sought to expand renewable energy, protect communities and workers adversely affected by plant closures, expand job and business equity and just-transitions, and address the climate crisis.

This last-minute impasse cause by Exelon and its labor allies threaten all of those goals. Read more

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