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Tell the White House and Congress:

Don’t Sacrifice Our Climate Future to a Nuclear Bailout

Proposed nuclear bailouts being pushed through Congress right now threaten to sacrifice our best opportunity to act on climate. Senators Cardin (D-MD), Whitehouse (D-RI), and Carper (D-DE) want Congress to include a massive subsidy for nuclear power plants in the infrastructure bill. The senators’ proposal would give as much as $50 billion to dangerous, expensive nuclear power plants. This would be a huge mistake and it would undermine the commitments leaders in Congress and the White House have made to climate action and environmental justice.

Nuclear power has no place in our clean energy future. We can’t let the nuclear industry impede actual climate solutions by diverting time and resources away from renewable energy development and decarbonization. We can’t let Congress continue to subsidize dirty and unjust energy systems while failing to enact the just transition we need and deserve. The choice to spend billions propping up aging, dirty, and dangerous nuclear infrastructure is the choice not to invest those billions in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and other climate solutions. We finally have the opportunity we have been working towards to make real progress in the fight against climate change. Nuclear bailouts undermine and obstruct climate solutions and only leave us further and further behind in the urgent race to solve climate change.

We can’t let our elected leaders sacrifice the climate to nuclear bailouts and forgo this opportunity to create a better, cleaner, more equitable energy future. Send a message to your members of Congress, President Biden, and Vice-President Harris telling them to say NO to nuclear bailouts and YES to climate solutions.

Tell President Biden, Vice-President Harris, and your representatives in Congress: “No Nuclear Bailouts in America's Clean Energy Plans – We Need 100% Renewable Energy by 2035!

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Background:

Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung-NYC: Nuclear Power and Climate Action

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

NIRS:

President and Vice President

Subject: Don’t Sacrifice the Climate to a Nuclear Bailout

Message:

Proposals from the White House and Congress would invest up to $50 billion dollars in subsidies for aging, uneconomical nuclear power plants over the next decade. The Biden Administration’s infrastructure bill is our chance to take real, effective action on climate, economic renewal, and a just future. We cannot afford to sacrifice our climate on bailouts for aging, uneconomical nuclear power plants, and I ask you to oppose these proposals. We simply must not waste the next decade and billions of dollars propping up old power plants instead of building the clean, safe, affordable renewable energy solutions that we need to address climate change. Sen. Cardin has introduced a bill, the "Zero-Emissions Nuclear Power Production Tax Credit Act of 2021," which would provide at least $5 billion per year to uncompetitive nuclear power plants. Over a ten-year period, that would add up to at least $50 billion, and could pave the way for including such a measure in legislation to enact President Biden's American Jobs Plan. Please oppose this bill. In addition, the bipartisan infrastructure bill includes at least $6 billion in subsidies for unprofitable nuclear reactors through 2030. In contrast, the bill would provide less than $500 million for all sources of renewable energy -- and then only for "demonstration projects." How can we possibly respond to the climate crisis with the scope and scale it requires if we spend twenty times more on bailouts for 40-years-old nuclear power plants than on building the new, renewable energy sources that will actually reduce emissions? Please work to ensure that nuclear subsidies are removed from the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Both of these bills represent completely misplaced priorities. We have less than a decade to respond to climate change with the scope and scale that is required to save our country and our planet. We cannot continue to make such poor choices. The American Jobs Plan could help us save the country and the world from the ravages of climate change we are already experiencing: unprecedented heat waves, cold-freezes, forest fires, droughts, mega-storms, crop failures, and flooding. But not if it includes bailouts for dirty, dangerous, unjust, uneconomical nuclear power. We must set the country on the path to 100% renewable energy by 2035 – fossil fuel-free and nuclear-free.

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US House of Reps

Subject: Don’t Sacrifice the Climate to a Nuclear Bailout

Message:

Proposals from the White House and Congress would invest up to $50 billion dollars in subsidies for aging, uneconomical nuclear power plants over the next decade. We cannot afford to sacrifice our climate on bailouts for aging, uneconomical nuclear power plants, and I ask you to oppose these proposals. We simply must not waste the next decade and billions of dollars propping up old power plants instead of building the clean, safe, affordable renewable energy solutions that we need to address climate change. H.R. 4024 would provide at least $5 billion per year to uncompetitive nuclear power plants through a 1.5 cents per kilowatt-hour tax credit. Over a ten-year period, that would add up to at least $50 billion, and could pave the way for including such a measure in legislation to enact President Biden's American Jobs Plan. Please vote "No" on H.R. 4024. In addition, the bipartisan infrastructure bill includes at least $6 billion in subsidies for unprofitable nuclear reactors through 2030. In contrast, the bill would provide less than $500 million for all sources of renewable energy -- and then only for "demonstration projects," nothing for the rapid expansion of solar, wind, and other renewable energy sources we need. How can we possibly respond to the climate crisis with the scope and scale it requires if we spend twenty times more on bailouts for 40-years-old nuclear power plants than on building the energy sources that will actually reduce emissions? Please work to ensure that nuclear subsidies are removed from the infrastructure bill. Both of these bills represent completely misplaced priorities. We have less than a decade to respond to climate change with the scope and scale that is required to save our country and our planet. We cannot continue to make such poor choices. The American Jobs Plan could help us save the country and the world from the ravages of climate change we are already experiencing: unprecedented heat waves, cold-freezes, forest fires, droughts, mega-storms, crop failures, and flooding. But not if it includes bailouts for dirty, dangerous, unjust, uneconomical nuclear power. We must set the country on the path to 100% renewable energy by 2035 – fossil fuel-free and nuclear-free.

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US Senate

Subject: Don’t Sacrifice the Climate to a Nuclear Bailout

Message:

Proposals from the White House and Congress would invest up to $50 billion dollars in subsidies for aging, uneconomical nuclear power plants over the next decade. We cannot afford to sacrifice our climate on bailouts for aging, uneconomical nuclear power plants, and I ask you to oppose these proposals. We simply must not waste the next decade and billions of dollars propping up old power plants instead of building the clean, safe, affordable renewable energy solutions that we need to address climate change. Sen. Cardin has introduced a bill, the "Zero-Emissions Nuclear Power Production Tax Credit Act of 2021," which would provide at least $5 billion per year to uncompetitive nuclear power plants. Over a ten-year period, that would add up to at least $50 billion, and could pave the way for including such a measure in legislation to enact President Biden's American Jobs Plan. Please vote "No" on this bill. In addition, the bipartisan infrastructure bill announced two weeks ago includes at least $6 billion in subsidies for unprofitable nuclear reactors through 2030. In contrast, the bill would provide less than $500 million for all sources of renewable energy -- and then only for "demonstration projects." How can we possibly respond to the climate crisis with the scope and scale it requires if we spend twenty times more on bailouts for 40-years-old nuclear power plants than on building the energy sources that will actually reduce emissions? Please work to ensure that nuclear subsidies are removed from the infrastructure bill. Both of these bills represent completely misplaced priorities. We have less than a decade to respond to climate change with the scope and scale that is required to save our country and our planet. We cannot continue to make such poor choices. The American Jobs Plan could help us save the country and the world from the ravages of climate change we are already experiencing: unprecedented heat waves, cold-freezes, forest fires, droughts, mega-storms, crop failures, flooding. But not if it includes bailouts for dirty, dangerous, unjust, uneconomical nuclear power. We must set the country on the path to 100% renewable energy by 2035 – fossil fuel-free and nuclear-free.

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Tell the White House and Congress:

Don’t Sacrifice Our Climate Future to a Nuclear Bailout

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