Photo Credit: Alex Milan Tracy
Tell Oregon’s Ways and Means Co-chairs: Vote No on HB 4046 and Keep Oregon Nuclear-Free.
This “study” bill is not about an honest look at the pros and cons of nuclear power. It’s a vehicle for the nuclear industry and their Big Tech backers to get a foothold in Oregon and lay the groundwork to come back in future sessions with more proposals like those in 2025 to exempt Umatilla County from our statewide moratorium on new nuclear reactors, or to dismantle the moratorium itself.
Sign our petition to the Oregon Ways and Means Co-chairs and tell them: Nuclear “Study?,” No Thanks!
To: Oregon’s Joint Ways and Means Committee Co-chairs Senator Lieber and Representative Sanchez:
I am urging you to not move HB 4046, the nuclear “study” bill out of the ways and means committee.
This “study” bill is not about an honest look at the pros and cons of nuclear power. It’s a vehicle for the nuclear industry and their Big Tech backers to get a foothold in Oregon and lay the groundwork to come back in future sessions with more proposals like those in 2025 to exempt Umatilla County from our statewide moratorium on new nuclear reactors, or to dismantle the moratorium itself.
Concerns about the bill include:
- Private and federal funding would pay for the study. This opens the door for private funders with a financial interest in nuclear projects — like big tech, nuclear corporations, and the nuclear safety-slashing Trump administration — to pay for the study they want, not a study we can trust.
- Affected communities are left out. Shutting meaningful community input out of the process will not create a robust and trustworthy study.
- Federal nuclear safeguards are being thrown out the window. In recent weeks, the federal government has accelerated its efforts at destroying national safety standards for nuclear development in the U.S. This includes secretly rewriting nuclear safety rules with industry involvement, exempting new nuclear projects from National Environmental Policy Act rules, and more. The federal government’s recent actions prompted Washington legislators to stop a nuclear “study” bill, and Oregon should follow their lead. We must protect ourselves.
Please do not move HB 4046 from the ways and means committee and Keep Oregon Nuclear-Free.