House Passes Price-Anderson Act; Help Stop it in Senate!
Dear Friends:
The U. S. House of Representatives passed HR 2983, The Price Anderson Act Reauthorization, without any debate, without a recorded vote and with a scant number of Representatives present. Yet another example of how nuclear power and democracy cannot co-exit. We are now fighting reauthorization of the Price Anderson Act in the Senate. Price Anderson subsidizes the liability insurance costs of the commercial nuclear industry and caps their liability in the case of a catastrophic accident. The nuclear industry has already gotten enough subsidies and Price Anderson would continue to subsidize a technology which is extremely appealing to terrorists—for national security concerns, it deserves a rigorous debate. Democratic Senators are under pressure to add Price Anderson to their version of the Senate Energy bill rather than make it a separate bill, for which there could be a full and open debate.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Tell your Senators that you don't want Price Anderson added to the Democrats' Senate Energy bill.
TELL THEM TO OPPOSE PRICE ANDERSON REAUTHorIZATION IN ANY ForM.
SET UP MEETINGS WITH YOUR SENATorS WHILE THEY ARE HOME For THE HOLIDAYS.
Please fax/email or call your representative's DC office. Mail has been sketchy and we don't recommend it.
Please also fax/email your local offices as well.
We don't have Senate recess dates yet. As soon as we know, you'll know.
REASONS TO OPPOSE PRICE ANDERSON (PA)
1) PA provides a 3.4 billion dollar annual insurance subsidy to the nuclear power industry, a developed mature industry which should be able to hold its own in a supposed free-market economy.
2) Current reactors are covered by PA whether or not it is reauthorized. The only incentive for voting to extend PA coverage is for a NEW generation of INHERENTLY UNSAFE reactors such as the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) which are designed without a containment building. Because of public opposition to nuclear power, "new" reactors will most likely be built on existing reactor sites. Even Vice-President Cheney admits that without Price-Anderson there would likely be no new nuclear reactors in the US because of liability concerns.
4) Terrorist attacks on nuclear power facilities are a glaring concern in light of September 11, 2001 and a reactor without containment in an unnecessarily tempting target—no matter how well-guarded.
5) Price-Anderson would cap nuclear liability at about 10 Billion while the US Government estimates a reactor accident can cost from 24 Billion to 590 Billion dollars.
*After you've contacted your member, please contact your friends and colleagues and urge them to do the same. The key is to organize, organize, organize. If your representatives are not hearing from you--they will certainly vote for the industry.
*Contact your local media and let them know this is going on. A sample letter to the editor (and sample letter to congress members for fax/e-mail) is posted on NIRS' website (www.nirs.org).
*Continue to collect signatures on the Petition for A Sustainable Energy Future. And, again, make sure
your local media are following and understand this story.
CONTACT INForMATION: The Capitol Switchboard is 202-224-3121--you can reach any member of Congress with this number. Local Congressional offices are usually found in the blue pages of local phone books. If you can't find your local number, call NIRS, we have them.
House and Senate fax and e-mail information plus a comment section can be found at
http://capwiz.com/ombwatch/dbq/officials/
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