Hey, it’s more than Bush and a GOP-majority Congress did... and he’s doing it in the face of his uber-Green supporters. I give him credit for this one... if it actually comes online... Heck, even if it doesn’t, it help future administrations lay the groundwork for more.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/24/business/energy-environment/24nuke.html
Energy Department plans to announce the first of $18.5 billion in loan guarantees for building new reactors.
The guarantees were authorized in a bill passed by Congress in 2005.
It has taken four years for the department to set up a system to evaluate applications and determine how much the borrowers will be charged for the guarantees to compensate the government for taking the risk.
The US Department of Energy (DoE) has invited applications for a total of up to $30.5 billion in federal loan guarantees for renewable energy, nuclear and front-end nuclear power facility projects.
Loan guarantees from the DoE are to encourage the commercial use of new or significantly improved energy technologies. The three solicitations are in the areas of energy efficiency, renewable energy and advanced transmission and distribution technologies (up to $10 billion); nuclear power facilities (up to $18.5 billion); and advanced nuclear facilities for the front-end of the nuclear fuel cycle (up to $2 billion).
The authority to issue loan guarantees amounting to these sums was provided to the DoE in the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2008 and is consistent with the Department’s FY2009 congressional budget request. The goals of the program are reducing reliance on imported sources of energy by increasing energy efficiency and diversifying the US energy mix, while improving the environment.
In the 2005 Energy Policy Act federal loan guarantees for clean energy sources were one of five initiatives supported. In October 2007, the DoE announced that it would guarantee the full amount of loans covering up to 80% of the cost of new clean energy projects including advanced nuclear power plants.