ACT NOW: Stop the Nuclear Bailout and Save the Climate!

BREAKING NEWS: West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin has reportedly reached a deal with Congressional Democrats on a sweeping climate and energy package to address the climate crisis, now called the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA). This bill is our best – and maybe our only – chance to make real progress on fighting climate change and creating the just environmental and economic future the Biden administration promised voters.

This bill could be a major success for climate policy, thanks to tireless activists who have held Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer accountable to get Sen. Manchin to the table on climate.

But, among the desperately needed progressive measures in the IRA are hundreds of billions of dollars in poison pills – handouts to fossil fuels, false climate solutions, and Big Nuclear. These provisions would profit dirty and polluting energy industries at the expense of taxpayers, environmental justice, and TRUE investment in the 100% renewable, just, and sustainable energy future we deserve. 

Of the $369 billion dollars, over $50 billion is slated for subsidies to aging nuclear reactors— a wasteful expenditure that will not create a single new job, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by any amount, nor make any progress towards climate action. The measure is nothing more than a corrupt bailout scam by the nuclear industry and their cronies in Congress.

We must ensure the Inflation Reduction Act is truly a strong package for climate, the economy, and for environmental justice. Now that negotiations are open, demand that Congress and the Biden administration eliminate the poison pills that will undo all the good promised by the IRA and invest billions MORE in climate solutions and environmental justice.

Speak up today! Tell Your Senators: Don’t Waste our Climate Future on False Solutions

Background

• Center for Biological Diversity: Manchin Poison Pills Buried in Inflation Reduction Act Will Destroy Livable Climate

• Bloomberg: Manchin Just Gave Biden a Path for His Green Goals: ‘I’m Big on Nuclear’

• New York Times: ‘Build Back Better’ Hit a Wall, but Climate Action Could Move Forward

• Bloomberg: Manchin Rakes In Cash From Energy Industry, Some GOP Donors

• REPORT - Dr. Mark Cooper: Building a 21st Century Electricity System

• Reuters: U.S. eyes nuclear reactor tax credit to meet climate goals -sources

• Friends of the Earth: Biden backs $195 billion nuke bailout

• US Climate Action Network: Vision for Equitable Climate Action

• Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung-NYC: Nuclear Power and Climate Action

NIRS

• MEMO: Cost of Proposed Nuclear Energy Subsidies: Inflation Reduction Act of 2022
• Blog: Billions for Nuclear R&D Could Cost Us the Climate
• Blog: Dirty Money, Dirty Energy, Dirtier Politics — Big Nuclear and Sen. Joe Manchin’s Power Grab 
• Blog: Nuclear Power Runs on Dirty Money: The Corporate Scandal of the Proposed National Nuclear Subsidy
• Cooper Report: Building a 21st Century Electricity System
• Too Big to Bailout: The Economic Costs of a National Nuclear Power Subsidy
• Nuclear Reactor Closures: Practical, Cost-Effective Solutions for Communities and the Climate
• Time to get off the fence on nuclear
• The Global Nuclear Waste Crisis
• Nuclear Power Violates Climate Justice, Human Rights