Maine Owl

Ms. Owl: But wind energy doesn't make the Republicans wet their pants.

She's got that right. This is why it's hard to imagine how a Republican president would be worse than Obama on energy.

Obama Nuclear Plant: President To Announce Loan Guarantee For More Than $8 Billion

With the nuclear industry poised to begin construction of at least a half dozen plants over the next decade, President Barack Obama announced the first loan guarantees Tuesday, casting them as both economically essential and politically attractive. He called nuclear power a key part of comprehensive energy legislation that assigns a cost to the carbon pollution of fossil fuels, giving utility companies more incentive to turn to cleaner nuclear fuel.

"This is only the beginning," Obama said in designating the new federal financial backing for a pair of reactors in Burke County, Ga., to be built by Atlanta-based Southern Co. Obama's budget would triple ? to $54.5 billion ? loan guarantees available for new nuclear construction.

The federal guarantees, authorized by Congress in 2005, are seen as essential for construction of any new reactor because of the huge expense involved. Critics call the guarantees a form of subsidy and say taxpayers will assume a huge risk, given the industry's record of cost overruns and loan defaults. Reports by Congressional Budget Office and Government Accountability Office have estimated that the risk of default for new nuclear reactors could be as high as 50 percent.

Two gigawatts of wind turbines probably would cost half that, using a guideline of $1.5 million to $2.0 million per megawatt for wind. And the taxpayer would not be responsible for nuclear waste.

Here in Iowa we have a couple of thousand wind turbines now, about the size of a couple of nukes. I'll take wind any day of the week.

Obama is leading a boondoggle. Shame.