Obama Team Is Oddly Quiet About Evidence That Renewable Energy Beats Nuclear in Job Creation

[ProudDad]

On the heels of President Obama's big energy speech and in the wake of the ongoing nuclear disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, the Obama administration -- along with many members of Congress and the nuclear industry -- remains steadfast in its promotion of nuclear energy here at home.

With nationwide unemployment still hovering around 9 percent, job creation has been one of the leading support points for the so-called "nuclear renaissance."

But AlterNet has learned that University of Massachusetts researchers at the Political Economy Research Institute -- who are also consultants to the Department of Energy -- have provided data to the Obama administration that show investment in renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar and biomass, would generate far more returns in American jobs than would investment in building new nuclear power plants.
…
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Bingaman's top donor over his career has been the Los Alamos National Laboratory, birthplace of the atomic bomb. The Illinois-based Exelon Corporation, the nation's largest owner and operator of nuclear power plants, is another of Bingaman's major contributors and a prominent campaign contributor to President Obama.

http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/150546

Exelon and its employees were the seventh-largest source of campaign money for Obama, 49, during his four-year Senate career, contributing at least $71,850, according to the Washington-based Center for Responsive Politics.

When he ran for president, the company’s employees gave at least $200,000, and board member John Rogers Jr., chairman of Chicago-based Ariel Investments LLC, was a top Obama fundraiser.
Exelon “actively engages in the political process and supports candidates from both parties who we believe will support sensible energy policies,” company spokeswoman Judith Rader said yesterday in a statement.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-23/nuclear-illinois-helped-shape-obama-view-on-energy-in-dealings-with-exelon.html

[xchrom]

1. recommend

[polichick]

2. Gasp! You mean it's all about money?! No!

[frazzled]

3. The WH has been promoting renewable energy as job creation since Day 1

It was a major focus of the stimulus bill passed shortly after coming to office, and has been repeated in the budgets since. He mentions it in almost every speech, focused on it heavily in the State of the Union, and has traveled to a number of alternative energy companies in different cities to highlight this new source of both energy-savings and job creation. It has been a leitmotif of this administration.

I cry bull on this trumped-up meme.

[ProudDad]

4. I keep a sharp eye on this subject...

REAL renewables have been chipped away in favor of nuclear and "clean coal" and drill, baby, drill by the Obama admin. from the start...

Talk is NOT action!

[polichick]

5. This is my issue too - you're right; he talks a good game but his actions...

...favor status quo industries.