The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is poised to create a so-called clean energy bank that would funnel billions of dollars in loan guarantees to the nuclear and coal industries instead of supporting truly clean and less risky renewable energy technologies that will reduce global warming emissions at the lowest cost.

This Thursday, May 26, senators will vote on legislation that would create a huge new government loan program called the Clean Energy Deployment Administration (CEDA). As drafted, CEDA would put taxpayers on the hook for hundreds of billions of dollars in loans to established industries that are too risky for the private sector to finance while doing little to finance clean energy technologies.

Although CEDA is intended to support the commercialization of innovative clean energy technologies like renewable energy and energy efficiency, the nuclear industry sees it as a permanent financing mechanism for conventional nuclear reactors. CEDA would disproportionately favor large, costly projects over many other cost-effective, low-carbon options, thus giving large-scale conventional energy technologies an advantage at the expense of truly clean innovative alternatives.

The Senate vote on this risky loan program will happen this Thursday. Please call IMMEDIATELY and urge your senator not to support a CEDA that can give out unlimited loan guarantees and does not have strong congressional oversight.

Please Call –  http://action.ucsusa.org/site/R?i=5SoGsDDgou0iXy0q3NOhEQ..  

Sincerely,

Megan Rising

National Field Organizer

UCS Climate and Energy Program