Recent press reports indicate that the Administration and leadership on Capitol Hill have brokered a deal to add billions of dollars worth of loan guarantees for energy projects, including nuclear reactors, to the Emergency War Spending bill.  The emergency spending bill is supposed to address urgent, unforeseen war and disaster related items – adding risky loan guarantees for projects that won’t be built for years is little more than a cynical political ploy to jam it through Congress without adequate scrutiny.  

The loan guarantee program that DOE is showering cash on needs to get its fiscal house in order before doling out any more loan guarantees. In February, DOE offered Southern Company an $8.3 billion loan guarantee for a nuclear reactor project in Georgia.  But Southern hasn’t accepted, and DOE recently extended the deadline for Southern Co.’s decision, leaving the $8.3 billion taxpayer-backed offer dangling.   How much more is DOE willing to have taxpayers pony up? The for the money, including Southern, are facing numerous financial, legal and technical troubles and taxpayers should not be asked to back them. 

Taxpayers are already on the hook for $18.5 billion in Treasury-backed loan guarantees for nuclear reactors and this attempt to add new loan guarantee authority in an “emergency” spending bill not only flies in the face of the normal legislative process, it unnecessarily gives money to an ill-equipped program that is already sitting on billions.  Clearly, this program is not ready for prime time and certainly not in dire need of cash. The Administration and lawmakers on Capitol Hill need to retract this unjustifiable industry giveaway.