[NYTr] Obama's Nuclear Ambitions
by way of NY Transfer News <nyt@viola.tamara-b.org>
Counterpunch - Jul 4, 2007
http://www.counterpunch.org/stclair07042007.html
Barack Obama's NuclearbAmbitions
Another Automaton of the Atomic Lobby
By JEFFREY ST. CLAIR and JOSHUA FRANK
It is fast becoming one of the most important issues of the 2008
presidential campaign. Oil prices are expected to rise to even higher
levels as the United States dependence on foreign crude is becoming
increasingly unstable. And the perceived threat of global warming is
making even the most skeptical of politicians nervous. The future of
planet Earth, they claim, is more perilous than ever. Al Gore has made
an impact.
But the Gore effect is like a bad hangover: all headache no buzz. The
purported solution to the imminent warming crisis, nuclear technology,
is just as hazardous as our current methods of energy procurement. Al
Gore, who wrote of the potential green virtues of nuclear power in his
book Earth in the Balance, earned his stripes as a congressman
protecting the interests of two of the nuclear industry's most
problematic enterprises, the TVA and the Oak Ridge Labs. And, of
course, Bill Clinton backed the Entergy Corporation's outrageous plan
to soak Arkansas ratepayers with the cost overruns on the company's
Grand Gulf reactor which provided power to electricity consumers in
Louisiana.
The Clinton years indeed saw an all-out expansion of nuclear power, not
only in the US, but all over the globe. First came the deal to begin
selling nuclear reactors to China, announced during Jiang Zemin's 1997
visit Washington, even though Zemin brazenly vowed at the time not to
abide by the so-called "full scope safeguards" spelled out in the
International Atomic Energy Act. The move was apparently made over the
objections of Clinton's National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, who
cited repeated exports by China of "dual use" technologies to Iran,
Pakistan and Iraq. The CIA also weighed in against the deal, pointing
out in a report to the President that "China was the single most import
supplier of equipment and technology for weapons of mass destruction"
worldwide. In a press conference on the deal, Mike McCurry said these
nuclear reactors will be "a lot better for the planet than a bunch of
dirty coal-fired plants" and will be "a great opportunity for American
vendors" -- that is, Westinghouse.
A day later Clinton signed an agreement to begin selling nuclear
technology to Brazil and Argentina for the first time since 1978, when
Jimmy Carter canceled a previous deal after repeated violations of
safety guidelines and nonproliferation agreements.
In a letter to congress, Clinton vouched for the South American
countries, saying they had made "a definitive break with earlier
ambivalent nuclear policies." Deputy National Security Advisor Jim
Steinberg justified the nuclear pact with Brazil and Argentina as "a
partnership in developing clean and reliable energy supplies for the
future." Steinberg noted that both countries had opposed binding limits
on greenhouse emissions and that new nuclear plants would be one way
"to take advantage of the fact that today we have technologies
available for energy use which were not available at the time that the
United States and other developed countries were going through their
periods of development."
The atom lobby during the 1990s had a stranglehold on the Clinton
administration and now they seem to have the same suffocating grip
around the neck of the brightest star in the Democratic field today:
Barack Obama.
Barack, for the second quarter in a row, has surpassed the fundraising
prowess of Hillary Clinton. To be sure small online donations have
propelled the young senator to the top, but so too have his connections
to big industry. The Obama campaign, as of late March 2007, has
accepted $159,800 from executives and employees of Exelon, the nation's
largest nuclear power plant operator.
The Illinois-based company also helped Obama's 2004 senatorial
campaign. As Ken Silverstein reported in the November 2006 issue of
Harper's, "[Exelon] is Obama's fourth largest patron, having donated a
total of $74,350 to his campaigns. During debate on the 2005 energy
bill, Obama helped to vote down an amendment that would have killed
vast loan guarantees for power-plant operators to develop new energy
projects the public will not only pay millions of dollars in loan costs
but will risk losing billions of dollars if the companies default."
"Senator Obama has all the necessary leadership skills required to be
president,'' says Frank M. Clark, chairman of Exelon's Commonwealth
Edison utility.
These gracious accolades come from one of Exelon's top executives,
despite the fact that Obama proposed legislation in 2006 that would
require nuclear plant operators to report any hazardous leaks. While
introducing the legislation Obama noted the failure of Exelon to report
a leak of radioactive tritium into groundwater near one of their
Illinois plants. But the senator's criticism of nuclear power goes only
so far.
During a Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works hearing in
2005, Obama, who serves on the committee, asserted that since Congress
was debating the negative impact of CO2 emissions "on the global
ecosystem, it is reasonable -- and realistic -- for nuclear power to
remain on the table for consideration." Shortly thereafter, Nuclear
Notes, the industry's top trade publication, praised the senator. "Back
during his campaign for the U.S. Senate in 2004, [Obama] said that he
rejected both liberal and conservative labels in favor of 'common sense
solutions.' And when it comes to nuclear energy, it seems like the
Senator is keeping an open mind."
Sadly for the credibility of the atom lobby, some of their more
eye-grabbing numbers don't check out. For example, as noted in a report
by the Nuclear Energy Institute, the nuke industry claims that the
world's 447 nuclear plants reduce CO2 emissions by 30 percent. But the
true villain behind global warming is carbon. Existing nuclear plants
save only about 5 percent of total CO2 emissions, hardly a bargain
given the costs and risks associated with nuclear power. Moreover, the
nuclear lobby likes to compare its record to coal-fired plants, rather
than renewables such as solar, wind, and geothermal. Even when compared
to coal, atomic power fails the test if investments are made to
increase the efficient use of the existing energy supply. One recent
study by the Rocky Mountain Institute found that "even under the most
optimistic cost projections for future nuclear electricity, efficiency
is found to be 2.5 to 10 times more cost effective for CO2-abatement.
Thus, to the extent that investments in nuclear power divert funds away
from efficiency, the pursuit of a nuclear response to global warming
would effectively exacerbate the problem."
Clearly Senator Obama recognizes the inherent dangers of nuclear
technology and knows of the disastrous failures that plagued Chernobyl,
Mayak and Three Mile Island. Yet, despite his attempts to alert the
public of future toxic nuclear leaks, Obama still considers atomic
power a viable alternative to coal-fired plants. The atom lobby must
certainly be pleased.
[Jeffrey St. Clair is the author of Been Brown So Long It Looked Like
Green to Me: the Politics of Nature and Grand Theft Pentagon. His
newest book is End Times: the Death of the Fourth Estate, co-written
with Alexander Cockburn. St. Clair's new book on the environment, Born
Under a Bad Sky, will be published in December.
Joshua Frank is co-editor of Dissident Voice and author of Left Out!
How Liberals Helped Reelect George W. Bush (Common Courage Press,
2005), and along with Jeffrey St. Clair, the editor of the forthcoming
Red State Rebels, to be published by AK Press in March 2008.
They can be reached at: si...@comcast.net]
*
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