Before being sworn in as deputy energy secretary in March 2005,
Sell, a lawyer whose roots extend to Bush's home state of Texas, was a
White House lobbyist working on energy issues. He had also participated
in secret meetings with Cheney's Energy Task Force.
In April,
Sell and Cheney had both met with NRC officials to sign off on the
final regulatory policies related to new nuclear reactors. Following
the meeting, Sell had alerted a group of energy companies they could
begin to take advantage of the faster application process, NRC
officials said.
NRC officials said that Cheney has expressed a
desire to see applications for nuclear reactor projects approved by the
NRC when he and Bush leave the White House in January 2009.
The
energy corporations Cheney and Sell have been personally lobbying the
NRC on behalf of this year have advised the vice president and his
staff on energy policy in a way that would boost their companies'
profit margins. These corporations have also donated millions of
dollars to President Bush's and Cheney's past presidential campaigns.
One
of the cornerstones of President Bush's National Energy Policy,
released in May 2001, but never wholly adopted, was "the expansion of
nuclear energy in the United States as a major component of our
national energy policy." Cheney said that reviving the nuclear power
industry would be long-term solution to the country's increasing thirst
for electricity.
At a time when public awareness surrounding
renewable energy resources, the devastating effects of global warming
and the importance of conservation is at an all-time high, the Bush
administration has steered tens of billions in taxpayer dollars toward
revamping the dormant nuclear power industry, touting it as the only
proven technology to combat climate change.
Behind the scenes,
Cheney and Sell have worked in tandem with the Nuclear Energy Institute
(NEI), a powerful industry organization whose members include some of
the country's largest energy corporations, to get the NRC to rewrite
long-standing environmental review policies and limit oversight of new
nuclear projects, thereby simplifying the application process, and
significantly cutting down the time it takes to get new nuclear
projects off the ground, an NRC official said.
The Nuclear
Energy Institute spent $680,000 during the first half of 2007 lobbying
the White House, Congress, the Department of Energy, and other federal
agencies, according to a disclosure form posted online August 13 by the
Senate's public records office. Cheney's longtime friend, Tom Loeffler,
a former lobbyist and Republican congressman, represented the NEI.
Loeffler's former aide, Nancy Dorn, worked as a Congressional liaison
for Cheney, and later became a lobbyist for General Electric.
Cheney
and Sell's behind-the-scenes efforts have been a boon for the nuclear
energy industry - and to Westinghouse Electric, a nuclear reactor
designer whose AP1000 reactor unit was certified by the Department of
Energy. The company stands to earn tens of billions of dollars in
profit through the sale of just a few of its nuclear reactor units.
Cheney has said publicly he wants to see dozens scattered across the US.
In
September, Princeton-based NRG Energy Inc., having emerged from
bankruptcy proceedings, became the first company in 30 years to submit
an application to build two new General Electric-designed nuclear
reactors at its Bay City, Texas, nuclear power plant facility, a move
that came as a direct result of several private meetings NRG lobbyists
and executives held with Cheney and Sell, according to company
officials. NRG's former president, David Peterson, traveled to
Washington on two occasions in 2001 to help Cheney's Energy Task Force
shape the country's energy policy, according to government records.
Prior
to NRG's application, there had not been a filing for a new nuclear
power plant in the United States since before the Three Mile Island
nuclear reactor meltdown three decades ago.
NRG Chief Executive
David Crane told investors recently that massive federal tax incentives
and federal loan guarantees included in the Energy Policy Act of 2005
was the deciding factor in steering the company toward the $6 billion
nuclear project.
- "The whole reason we started down this path was the benefits written into the [Energy Policy Act] of 2005," Crane said.
That
legislation calls for upwards of $125 million in annual tax credits for
a nuclear plant, in addition to loan guarantees that would cover about
80 percent of construction costs. Furthermore, the federal government
provided $2 billion in risk insurance for application costs, thereby
protecting energy companies in the event they would not be able to
finance a nuclear project due to regulatory obstacles.
The
federal loan program automatically requires taxpayers to cover any
defaults on the loans. In a February report to Congress, the Government
Accountability Office said failure to properly account for default
risks in the loan program was one factor that "could result in
substantial financial costs to the taxpayer."
A 2003
Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report said the risk of utilities
defaulting on loans for new nuclear plants is "very high - well above
50 percent."
In October, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the
nation's largest public power provider, also filed an application with
the NRC for a license to construct and operate two new nuclear power
reactors in northern Alabama using General Electric's Westinghouse
AP1000 reactor units. The application was filed under the banner of
NuStart Energy, LLC, a consortium of electric utilities that joined
together in 2004 to test the NRC's streamlined nuclear reactor
licensing program. The licensing costs were paid for by the federal
government under an Energy Department program called Nuclear Power 2010
(NP2010), to promote construction of new nuclear power plants.
According
to the Department of Energy's web site, NP2010 was launched in 2002,
and "is a joint government/industry cost-shared effort that can help
provide solutions to meet future base load energy demand and address
climate change. Specifically, NP2010 seeks to: demonstrate new,
untested processes for licensing reactors in the United States;
identify sites for new nuclear power plants, complete first-of-a-kind
engineering of new reactor designs; develop and bring to market
advanced nuclear plant technologies, and evaluate the business case for
building new nuclear power plants."
Sell said TVA's application was a "a monumental step toward the rebirth of nuclear power in the United States."
He
also touted General Electric and Westinghouse's AP1000 reactor units as
cutting edge, which subsequently helped boost the stocks of both
companies. Sell said TVA's application lays the groundwork for dozens
of Westinghouse AP1000 reactors to be built in the United States.
General Electric had been one of the companies that advised Cheney on
the National Energy Policy.
Members of the NuStart consortium
include: Constellation Energy, Duke Energy, EDF International North
America, the US subsidiary of the French electric utility, Entergy
Nuclear, Exelon Generation, Florida Power & Light Company, Progress
Energy, South Carolina Electric & Gas, Southern Company and
Tennessee Valley Authority, Knoxville, Tennessee.
With the
exception of Progress Energy, South Carolina Electric Gas & Light
and EDF International, all of these companies participated in meetings
with Cheney's Energy Task Force and advised the vice president on
energy policy. Additionally, these corporations have said publicly they
intend to file applications for nuclear reactor licenses before the end
of 2008, the deadline to receive billions of dollars in federal
subsidies and tax credits. The NRC says it expects to receive as many
as 21 applications to build 32 new reactors before the end of 2008,
with most, if not all, expected to go online in 2015.
Since
2005, Sell has met with the corporate executives of the consortium at
least half-a-dozen times. He has relayed to top NRC officials the
group's concerns over the agency's decade-old regulatory policy related
to the lengthy review process of licensing nuclear power plants, and,
with Cheney's backing, urged the NRC to draft new rules that calls for
granting a combined construction and operating license, which will
essentially result in a decrease in oversight and public scrutiny,
according to three senior officials at the Energy Department.
In
an October 30, 2007 news release, the DOE said it "selected NuStart to
demonstrate the NRC's untested process for licensing new reactors in
the United States, and for obtaining regulatory approval of new reactor
designs."
Meanwhile, the Energy Department has undertaken a
massive public relations effort, expected to continue until the end of
2008, to promote nuclear energy as the new "green" energy.
Last
October, Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman, in a speech at a nuclear
power conference held at the Howard Baker Center for Public Policy at
the University of Tennessee, said nuclear energy is:
Cabot is the world's
largest producer of industrial carbon black, a byproduct of the oil
refinery process. Bodman is the wealthiest official in the Bush
administration. His net worth is estimated to be between $42 million
and $164 million, the bulk of it in Cabot stock, deferred compensation,
and other benefits.
Perhaps the thorniest issue neither Cheney,
Sell, Bodman nor the nuclear energy industry has yet to address is how
it plans to dispose of nuclear waste. The Department of Energy, the
agency largely responsible for monitoring nuclear waste, submitted an
application to the NRC recently to build a repository at Yucca
Mountain, the site of a former nuclear testing ground in Nevada, where
the agency has proposed burying the waste deep underground.
But
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the Democrat from Nevada, is opposed
to the DOE's plan, and has vowed to continue to cut funding for the
Yucca Mountain project.
- "In over 50 years of operating
experience, the nuclear industry still has not managed to solve the
problems of safety, security, and disposal of highly dangerous
radioactive waste," said Jon Block, nuclear energy and climate change
project manager for the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). "Until
that happens, we're much better off investing in safer, cleaner energy
sources such as renewable wind, geothermal, tidal, and solar projects."
Last
week, Nevada State Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto requested
that the NRC decline to register the license application or schedule
the matter for hearings, calling it "legally deficient."
Bodman
had earlier declared that the application, the first step in a
four-year review process, to build and operate the Yucca Mountain
repository "will stand up to any challenges from anywhere."
Writings 
While Dick Cheney has been talking tough about Iran's alleged nuclear activities, the vice president has been quietly pursuing nuclear ambitions of his own. 
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