Comment: We do not want our tax money to go toward Nuke Power and the French are involved in the push for Nuke Power in America! In addition, the Nuke dude from the Dem side is pushing for nuke plants! The question is why - the nuke corporations like it because to them it is free. The taxpayers PAY for the nuke plant, the taxpayers pay for the insurance, the taxpayers suffer from exposure to uranium mining and milling so the nuke corporations walk away with all the money! STOP PAYING FOR NUKE PLANTS WITH OUR TAX MONEY; MAKE THE NUKES PAY FOR THEIR OWN NUKE PLANTS NOW! DEMAND OUR GOVERNMENT TO STOP PAYING FOR NUKE PLANTS NOW!
By Brian Parkin and Jeremy van Loon
Sept. 3 (Bloomberg) -- German taxpayer subsidies that keep nuclear plants running belie the image that atomic power is too cheap to be phased out, a study commissioned by Greenpeace said.
Direct and indirect aid from 1950 to 2008 was 165 billion euros ($235 billion) and 92.5 billion euros more will be given through 2021, when the reactors are set to close, the Amsterdam- based environmental advocate said today, citing research showing aid fails to appear in federal subsidy reports.
“Nuclear energy is subsidized to the hilt, is not cheap and squeezes out aid that could be used to support developing renewable energy,” Greenpeace energy spokesman Andree Boehling told reporters in Berlin. “The shroud that’s been drawn over the real costs of subsidizing atomic power is a scandal.”
Atomic energy is on the minds of German voters. Chancellor Angela Merkel has pledged to review the phase-out of Germany’s 17 reactors, introduced in 2002 by the previous Social Democrat government, if she wins the Sept. 27 federal election.
Merkel said she may extend the life of the reactors to blend affordable power with costlier output from renewable plants. She’s ruled out building new reactors.
Germany, Europe’s biggest economy and power market, generates about 28 percent of its electricity through nuclear fission. The country may be able to get almost half of its electricity from renewable sources such as wind and solar energy by 2020 from about 15 percent today, according to Bundesverband Erneubare Energie, the umbrella organization for Germany’s renewable energy groups.
Taxpayers Pay
The bill for taxpayers to clean up a radioactive waste dump in a former salt mine used by power companies in the 1970s may be as much as 4 billion euros, Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on July 10. Utilities have contributed less than 1 million euros of the “billions” in costs to pay for nuclear waste disposal, the minister added at the time.
Greenpeace and auditors FOES, a Berlin-based independent non-profit group, today claimed that their study is the closest yet to accurately assess nuclear energy subsidies while granting that relevant data such as aid from Germany’s 16 states was not accessed.
The study incorporates direct budget finance including research and indirect support such as tax breaks, FOES said. The subsidies mean taxpayers pay some 4 cents extra per kilowatt of power at 2008 prices.
Officials at the environment ministry, which oversees the reactors, weren´t immediately available to comment.
Almost two-thirds of Germans are in favor of closing the country’s 17 nuclear power plants, according to a Forsa survey commissioned by the environment ministry.
To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Parkin in Berlin at bparkin@bloomberg.net. Jeremy van Loon in Berlin at jvanloon@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: September 3, 2009 10:37 EDT
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601130&sid=aeu3Q6i0rAlQ
By Brian Parkin and Jeremy van Loon
Sept. 3 (Bloomberg) -- German taxpayer subsidies that keep nuclear plants running belie the image that atomic power is too cheap to be phased out, a study commissioned by Greenpeace said.
Direct and indirect aid from 1950 to 2008 was 165 billion euros ($235 billion) and 92.5 billion euros more will be given through 2021, when the reactors are set to close, the Amsterdam- based environmental advocate said today, citing research showing aid fails to appear in federal subsidy reports.
“Nuclear energy is subsidized to the hilt, is not cheap and squeezes out aid that could be used to support developing renewable energy,” Greenpeace energy spokesman Andree Boehling told reporters in Berlin. “The shroud that’s been drawn over the real costs of subsidizing atomic power is a scandal.”
Atomic energy is on the minds of German voters. Chancellor Angela Merkel has pledged to review the phase-out of Germany’s 17 reactors, introduced in 2002 by the previous Social Democrat government, if she wins the Sept. 27 federal election.
Merkel said she may extend the life of the reactors to blend affordable power with costlier output from renewable plants. She’s ruled out building new reactors.
Germany, Europe’s biggest economy and power market, generates about 28 percent of its electricity through nuclear fission. The country may be able to get almost half of its electricity from renewable sources such as wind and solar energy by 2020 from about 15 percent today, according to Bundesverband Erneubare Energie, the umbrella organization for Germany’s renewable energy groups.
Taxpayers Pay
The bill for taxpayers to clean up a radioactive waste dump in a former salt mine used by power companies in the 1970s may be as much as 4 billion euros, Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on July 10. Utilities have contributed less than 1 million euros of the “billions” in costs to pay for nuclear waste disposal, the minister added at the time.
Greenpeace and auditors FOES, a Berlin-based independent non-profit group, today claimed that their study is the closest yet to accurately assess nuclear energy subsidies while granting that relevant data such as aid from Germany’s 16 states was not accessed.
The study incorporates direct budget finance including research and indirect support such as tax breaks, FOES said. The subsidies mean taxpayers pay some 4 cents extra per kilowatt of power at 2008 prices.
Officials at the environment ministry, which oversees the reactors, weren´t immediately available to comment.
Almost two-thirds of Germans are in favor of closing the country’s 17 nuclear power plants, according to a Forsa survey commissioned by the environment ministry.
To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Parkin in Berlin at bparkin@bloomberg.net. Jeremy van Loon in Berlin at jvanloon@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: September 3, 2009 10:37 EDT
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601130&sid=aeu3Q6i0rAlQ
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