Pete Domenici
[edit]
The Nuclear Renaissance Man
In a five part series on the nuclear revival in the US in January 2007, MSNBC identified Domenici as the "Nuclear Renaissance Man" and Congress’ "chief nuclear apostle".
"If the renaissance that the U.S. nuclear power industry predicts for itself is indeed occurring, then Pietro “Pete” Vichy Domenici, the son of Italian immigrants, may be seen as both its Michelango and its Machiavelli" said the article, noting that the nuclear industry had "showered" him "with hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions".
The article highlighted how:
- Domenici worked "tirelessly as the chairman of two powerful Senate committees with direct control of federal spending on nuclear energy and regulation". However, with the Democrats taking control of Congress, he has now lost the chairmanships of the Energy Committee and the Appropriations Subcommittee on Water and Energy.
- He has been heavilly funded by nuclear companies. Since 1989, "Domenici has received $1.2 million in campaign donations from individuals and political action committees in the energy and natural resources sector, well over a tenth of the total $10.8 million he has raised for his Senate campaigns in that time, according to federal election records". Domenici’s campaign donors include at least three dozen members of the Nuclear Energy Institute.
- Whislt funded by the nuclear industry, he boasts "proudly of how he brought an 'adversarial' Nuclear Regulatory Commission to heel". In 1998 he threatened to slash the NRC's budget unless it became "friendlier" to the nuclear industry;
- Also whilst funded by the industry, the senator’s "signature achievement" was winning passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which contained $85 billion in subsidies and tax breaks across all energy sectors, including $13 billion for nuclear power.
- In the mid-1990s, Domenici attacked the US's retreat from nuclear after Three Mile Island and Chernobyl as based on “irrational fear,” and “deliberate misinformation” and “propaganda” from anti-nuclear activists.
- Dominici has championed a $1.5 billion uranium enrichment facility in his home state of New Mexico. The article notes that at the time the consortium sought NRC licensing, its partners included three of the top U.S. nuclear power plant operators — Exelon, Entergy and Duke and Westinghouse, which has since left venture. Also involced are the Shaw Group which is designing and engineering the plant and Areva which is handling waste from the facility.
- In the past eight years, "political action committees linked to those six firms spent more than $15 million trying to influence the outcome of U.S. elections, ... Domenici received nearly $38,000, well more than the per capita income in his state"
- As Dominici worked on the uranium enrichment project, "his top Energy Committee aide was Alex Flint, who had previously been a highly paid, registered lobbyist for nuclear interests, including Exelon, Westinghouse and Areva. Flint is now the nuclear industry’s top lobbyist at the Nuclear Energy Institute. [1]
[edit]
External Links
- Mike Stuckey, "Sen. Pete Domenici: Nuclear Renaissance Man - Long-Serving Lawmaker is Driving Force Behind US. Industry's Rebirth", MNSBC, January 24, 2007