Hope and Fail

Energy Department rejects loan to uranium facility the president promised to support

The Obama Energy Department rejected loan guarantees for the construction of an Ohio plant to produce uranium fuel for nuclear reactors. As a candidate, President Obama told Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland the plant had his full support and that he would push the loan guarantees through.

From The Washington Post:

Bethesda-based USEC on Tuesday accused President Obama of reneging on a campaign pledge after the Energy Department turned down the company’s request for $2 billion in loan guarantees for a new uranium enrichment project in Piketon, Ohio.

USEC, which operates the nation’s only uranium enrichment facility, said it would “demobilize” the new project, which it said could not obtain private financing without the federal loan guarantee. The company has already spent $1.5 billion on what it calls the American Centrifuge Plant, but USEC says the final price tag could reach $3.5 billion, 1 1/2 times as much as it estimated two years ago.

Instead of the loan, the Energy Department is offering USEC $45 million for research.

According to a letter from USEC President John Welch, on Sept. 2, 2008, then-candidate Obama sent a letter to Gov. Stickland that said:

Under my administration, energy programs that promote safe and environmentally-sound technologies and are domestically produced, such as the enrichment facility in Ohio, will have my full support. I will work with the Department of Energy to help make loan guarantees available for this and other advanced energy programs that reduce carbon dioxide emissions and break the tie to high cost, foreign energy sources.

Now Welch is being forced to shut the whole project down, costing Ohio and other states thousands of “green” jobs.

What’s more, the plant received bipartisan support in Ohio. According to the Chillicothe Gazette:

Thursday, Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, sent a letter to Steven Chu, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy requesting a meeting to ask him to approve the loan.

“We are writing to express our concern that the loan guarantee application made by USEC Inc. for the American Centrifuge Plant has not received a conditional commitment,” the letter read.

… Wednesday 18th District (including Ross County) Rep. Zack Space, D-Dover, joined 2nd District (including Pike County) Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Miami Township, in announcing their support for the loan.

“There are thousands of jobs at stake, and the Department of Energy needs to get serious about sitting down with USEC to iron out details so it can issue a loan guarantee with reasonable conditions,” Space said.

Moe Lane points out that in 2007, Obama “made a promise to stop the production of nuclear fissile material, you see: so technically that one took precedence.”

But this is clearly a case of making a direct campaign promise to win support in Ohio, and then completely ignoring it once taking office. It’s also a slap in the face to all those who thought Obama was going to create “green” jobs.

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