Nuclear Power Will Set Us Back in the Race to Curb Global Warming
Media Contacts
Environment America
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz announced final approval for $6.5 billion in loan guarantees for Southern Company to build two more reactors at the Vogtle nuclear site in Georgia. In 2010, when these loan guarantee was first proposed, Environment America released a critical report: The Nuclear Bailout: President Obama’s high risk gamble on new reactors undermines the fight against global warming.
Anna Aurilio, director of Environment America’s D.C. office issued the following statement in response:
“We are disappointed that the Department of Energy wants to gamble billions of taxpayer dollars on dangerous and dirty nuclear power. When it comes to curbing global warming, time and money are of the essence and nuclear power fails on both counts.
“Since these loan guarantees were proposed four years ago, truly clean energy sources such as solar and wind have made great headway. In Georgia alone, solar power jobs have more than doubled over the past year.
“Meanwhile, underscoring the enormous environmental threat from nuclear power, radiation continues to leak into the Pacific Ocean from the worst nuclear accident ever at the Fukushima Daichi plants.
“It’s absurd to risk our health and environment when we can do so much better with efficiency, wind and solar power.”