[NukeNet] Victory!--of a sort...climate bill fails, "Ostrich Society" lives, but no nukes either

[Michael Mariotte]

CLIMATE BILL FAILS; NUKE AMENDMENTS NOT VOTED ON

 

THE REAL CLIMATE TEST WILL COME NEXT YEAR

 

 

June 6, 2008

The Senate this morning effectively killed the Lieberman/Warner climate change bill after a vote to continue debate on the bill failed by 12 votes to obtain the 60 votes needed to continue. The final vote was 48-36 in favor of moving forward on the bill.

 

The nuclear amendments planned to be added to the bill by Sens. Lieberman and Isakson were not considered or voted on. However, we do know many Senate offices received a lot of phone calls against the proposed amendments-thank you for all your calls and outreach!

 

While NIRS opposed the Lieberman/Warner bill for several reasons, most notably because it was simply inadequate to address the climate crisis, it is nonetheless disquieting that nearly ½ the Senate-and the vast majority of Republicans-did not want to even consider the climate bill and still refuse to address the most important issue of our time. Instead, the Republicans fell back on procedural maneuvers like requiring the entire bill to be read aloud in the Senate (a process that took 10 hours) rather than even debating the merits of the legislation and ways to improve the bill. Perhaps we should call the 36 who voted against even continuing debate the "Ostrich Society," since they clearly have their heads in the sand.

 

Still, in many ways this was a victory for the environmental and safe energy movement. There is virtually no doubt that a climate bill will be approved and signed next year, and the potential is there for a far better bill to be produced and enacted. Senators were served notice that the idea of adding nuclear subsidies to a climate bill will engender a lot of public opposition and, with some of the Senate's most stalwart nuclear supporters leaving this year (e.g., Sens. Domenici, R-NM, Craig, R-ID, Warner, R-VA), many of the industry's most important backers will be gone from next year's debate.

 

It clearly won't be easy, but with the groundwork we have laid, and many more months to build upon that groundwork, we're optimistic a good and very necessary climate bill can pass the next Congress and be signed by the new president.

 

A couple notes and updates:

 

*Our apologies to everyone who tried to contact us by e-mail over the past 48 hours. A severe storm that came through the Washington area Wednesday afternoon knocked out NIRS' internet access and, for at least a couple hours, even our phones. And yes, the symbolism of a storm unleashing five reported tornados in the Washington area (40 years ago, the area might experience one tornado per decade) just as Senate Republicans were working to prevent consideration of climate legislation is not lost on us.....

 

*We will be posting the latest information on the accident at the Krsko reactor in Slovenia on our website (www.nirs.org <http://www.nirs.org/> ) this weekend. At this point, the situation seems stable, but numerous questions remain about how severe this accident was. A team from Global 2000 in Vienna, Austria was prevented from taking radiation measurements at the cooling water discharge pipe at the reactor site, but reported no increased radiation levels at other spots around the reactor.

 

Again, thank you all for all of your calls and e-mails to the Senate, and for all your great outreach efforts. Together, we will build a nuclear-free, carbon-free energy future!

 

Best wishes,

 

Michael Mariotte

Executive Director

Nuclear Information and Resource Service

nirsnet at nirs.org

www.nirs.org <http://www.nirs.org/> 

301-270-3477

 

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Please consider making an extra $30 donation (or $300 or $3,000, if you can!)-in honor of NIRS' 30th anniversary this year-on our secure website here. <https://secure.campagne-online.com/registrant/donate.aspx?EventID=2927&LangPref=en-CA>  Help kick off our next 30 years, and our work to build a nuclear-free, carbon-free energy future, with your most generous contribution possible.

 

And if you haven't done so yet, don't forget to sign the statement on nuclear power and climate at www.nirs.org <http://www.nirs.org/>  (but please don't sign more than once!). If you've already signed, please ask your friends and colleagues to sign! You can send the petition to your friends by going to: http://www.nirs.org/petition2/thanks.php?id=829fcdea1bbbd9dd6b66683d5f10eb88

We've passed 7750 7830 7930 signatures, let's get to 10,000 this month!

 

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