Post by NFA on Aug 29, 2023 20:54:58 GMT 8
The Anti-Nuclear Industry Is A $2.3B-Per-Year Racket
And it’s outspending pro-nuclear groups 14 to 1!
And it’s outspending pro-nuclear groups 14 to 1!
Aug 24, 2023
Earlier this month, Ken Braun of the Capital Research Center, reported that the anti-nuclear industry in the U.S. is spending some $2.3 billion per year. Braun identified more than 200 anti-nuclear NGOs.
The list includes anti-industry behemoths like the Sierra Club ($151 million in revenue in 2021), League of Conservation Voters ($115 million), Environmental Defense Fund ($285 million), and Natural Resources Defense Council ($186 million) as well as smaller groups like Public Citizen ($8 million). Braun explains that his $2.3 billion figure is “a deliberately conservative estimate of the financial firepower of the American anti-nuclear movement. It includes only nonprofit groups with a known anti-nuclear position, and within that subset, only some of the anti-nuclear nonprofits. The real dollar figure is likely far higher.”
The list includes anti-industry behemoths like the Sierra Club ($151 million in revenue in 2021), League of Conservation Voters ($115 million), Environmental Defense Fund ($285 million), and Natural Resources Defense Council ($186 million) as well as smaller groups like Public Citizen ($8 million). Braun explains that his $2.3 billion figure is “a deliberately conservative estimate of the financial firepower of the American anti-nuclear movement. It includes only nonprofit groups with a known anti-nuclear position, and within that subset, only some of the anti-nuclear nonprofits. The real dollar figure is likely far higher.”
Braun’s report exposes the political power and massive fundraising capacity of what I call the anti-industry industry, which consists of hundreds of NGOs, many of them funded by dark money, that are actively working to undermine the nuclear and hydrocarbon sectors in the United States. As I wrote in these pages in “The Anti-Industry Industry”:
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The size and funding of the anti-industry industry represents a threat to the long-term prosperity of the United States. Its policies are already imposing regressive energy taxes on the poor and the middle class. The anti-industry industry is yet another sign of America’s decadence. It’s an unaccountable parasitic force that employs thousands of lawyers, strategists, pollsters, and fundraisers, many of whom will spend their careers treading the revolving door between academia, media, government, and the NGOs. It relies on technocrats who went to exclusive universities, live in heavily Democratic coastal cities, have never been to Branson, and don’t give a fuck about the people who live in flyover country, wear name tags at work, or turn wrenches for a living.
These numbers are relevant right now. On August 11, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker vetoed a bill that would have lifted a moratorium on new nuclear reactors in his state. Pritzker vetoed the measure even though the bill had broad support in both houses of the Illinois Legislature. Who cheered Pritzker’s veto? The Sierra Club, of course. So did the Illinois Environmental Council, which has a budget of about $1.6 million per year. It must be noted that the IEC was not included in Braun’s list of the 200 anti-nuclear groups in the U.S. On its website, the IEC lists its “lead affiliates.” That distinguished group includes — wait for it — Natural Resources Defense Council and Environmental Defense Fund.
A few days before Pritzker vetoed the bill, the Illinois Sierra Club and IEC sent the governor a letter urging him to spike the legislation. After Pritzker did their bidding, Sierra Club Illinois Director Jack Darin issued a press release saying new nuclear power plants in the state “would have opened the door to increased risk, negative environmental impacts, and higher costs for consumers.” All of those claims, of course, are false.
But then, the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the rest of the anti-industry industry have been, let me use the correct word here — lying — about nuclear energy for decades. Given their massive budgets, there’s little reason to expect them to stop now.
A few days before Pritzker vetoed the bill, the Illinois Sierra Club and IEC sent the governor a letter urging him to spike the legislation. After Pritzker did their bidding, Sierra Club Illinois Director Jack Darin issued a press release saying new nuclear power plants in the state “would have opened the door to increased risk, negative environmental impacts, and higher costs for consumers.” All of those claims, of course, are false.
But then, the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the rest of the anti-industry industry have been, let me use the correct word here — lying — about nuclear energy for decades. Given their massive budgets, there’s little reason to expect them to stop now.