Thursday, June 23, 2005
Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, mclarty@greens.org
Nancy Allen, Media Coordinator, 207-326-4576, nallen@acadia.net
GREENS TO SENATE: REJECT THE McCAIN-LIEBERMAN
ACT, WHICH WOULD SUBSIDIZE DANGEROUS NUCLEAR POWER
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party leaders are urging
the Senate to reject the McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act,
calling the bill an effort to subsidize nuclear energy as a way to
combat global warming.
The bill repeats earlier failed legislation that
would combine mandatory caps on carbon dioxide emissions with a
credit-trading system modeled after the Clean Air Act, and adds
incentives for nuclear development ($6.1 billion in the recently
passed House version; $4.3 billion in the Senate bill).
Greens have called market-based solutions to
global warming severely inadequate and warn that the dangers of
nuclear power are insurmountable.
"Democrats and Republicans have turned the
need for sound energy policy into a choice between suffering the
effects of catastrophic climate change and the massive accumulation of
deadly radioactive waste from nuclear power," said Jody Grage
Haug, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States. "The only
rational response to the threat of global warming is a plan that
phases out fossil fuel and nuclear power, develops clean, renewable
energy sources, and reduces energy consumption."
Greens, while criticizing the Kyoto Protocols'
modest measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, have called it an
important first step, and continue to urge the U.S. to sign on and
expand its goals.
"By ignoring energy conservation and
embracing nuclear power, Democrats and Republicans who say they care
about global warming have proved themselves only marginally better
than President Bush," said David Cobb, the Green Party's 2004
presidential candidate. "Nuclear power is expensive, it would
require the addition of 1,500 new plants worldwide to replace fossil
fuel energy, it would present an enormous security and public health
risk, and the storage of nuclear waste would be a permanent and
growing environmental crisis.
"Furthermore, nuclear power does nothing to
address the major source of CO2 emissions -- cars, trucks, and
airplanes," Mr. Cobb added. "But Congress and the White
House have refused to enact and enforce more stringent fuel economy
standards, such as the Corporate Average Fuel Economy [CAFE] rules, or
introduce consumer incentives to reduce demand, because of industry
pressure."
MORE INFORMATION
Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org
1711 18th Street NW
Washington, DC 20009.
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193
"Energy: Ignoring the Obvious Fix"
By Thane Peterson, Business Week, June 20, 2005
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/jun2005/nf20050620_6725_db045.htm
http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/062105EB.shtml