McCain Tries to Classify Nuclear Power as Renewable Energy; Voted Down
Sunday, June 07, 2009
If you’ve wondered how life would be different if John McCain had won the 2008 presidential election, here’s one example of McCain supporting a policy that Barack Obama opposes.
At the urging of President Obama, members of the U.S. Senate are trying to craft a plan that would require utility companies to generate 15% of their power from renewable energy sources by 2021. During debate this week over what a Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) would encompass, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) tried to push through an amendment that would classify nuclear power as a renewable energy. “Reduced greenhouse gas emissions, have cleaner sources of energy and diversity: I certainly think nuclear power meets all of those definitions,” McCain told his colleagues, who rejected his proposal.
McCain isn’t the only senator trying to find a place for nuclear power in the current energy debate. Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) claims excluding carbon-free nuclear power from the renewable standard penalizes states in the Southeast that have invested heavily in nuclear power plants. Unlike the Midwest, which can turn to wind, or the Southwest, which has lots of sun, the South does not possess the same abundance of a natural renewable source of energy. But it does have the highest density of nuclear plants of anywhere in the country.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
US Lawmakers Seek More Nuclear Power in Bill (by Ayesha Rascoe, Reuters.)
Democrats Bar Nuclear Power From Renewable Electricity Standard (by Bill Murray, Energy Intelligence)
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