PEORIA -- Environmental groups are likely to oppose that 950-page energy bill now before Congress, because it has become so watered down, David Kraft of the Nuclear Energy Information Service told the Heart of Illinois Sierra Club on May 20.
Kraft compared President Barack Obama's campaign rhetoric with the proposals coming from the Obama administration. The reality now is not living up to the expectations of those who voted or campaigned for Obama, but not all is negative, he said.
On the plus side, the energy bill has $11 billion for a "smart grid" to deliver electric power more efficiently, but it also includes nuclear energy in a research section of the bill, he said.
The "cap and trade" section has been so diluted that most of the money goes to the polluters, he said, and as a result, won't stop global warming.
Once a bill is passed, energy issues and global warming may go on the back burner, he said, while those policies that are funded will become established, "institutionalized and take on a life of their own."
Thus, "a lot of environmental groups feel this bill should not be supported," and that it will, like the financial bailouts to banks, just prop up the status quo, he said.
The Obama administration is "fractured," he said. The Secretary of Energy, a scientist with a nuclear background, wants nuclear power but the waste storage at Yucca Mountain in Nevada has been canceled. So there is no way to build nuclear power plants without waste storage.
He attributed the Yucca Mountain cancelation to Carol Browner, who works in the White House and out ranks the Secretary of Energy.
At the same time the $23.6 billion 2010 budget for the Department of Energy has most of the money going to nuclear weapons or nuclear clean up, he said. Only 16 percent goes to energy supplies, research and development.
"A carbon-free, nuclear-free" future is the only way to solve global warming, he said.
Despite a new administration, Washington D.C. is still "business as usual," he said. "Power is so entrenched there."
The environmental movement has been quite passive, perhaps because many of its members believe in non-violence, he said. But he quoted filmmaker Michael Moore who has said "we are a nation of abused spouses," making excuses for the powerful. "We tolerate abuse. We don't have enough self respect to say 'no' and mean it."
That has to change, he said. Politicians must feel the heat from the public.
In Illinois, a moratorium on nuclear power plants continues, he said, because there's no where to store the waste. That issue must be watched, he said, lest it change. Nuclear energy "is like herpes," he said. "It's always there and comes back worse each time."
Meanwhile Argon Labs in Illinois should be working on energy efficiency and renewables, he said, a bipartisan issue which can appeal to all Illinois politicians.
Kraft warned about Cong. John Shimkus who represents part of Springfield and supports nuclear power. He is backing a bill to take away the tax exempt status of environmental groups including, of all groups, The Nature Conservancy, which avoids politics and advocacy. That must be stopped, he said, adding he hopes the coming redistricting of House districts will get rid of Shimkus.
-- Elaine Hopkins
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