Hightower Lowdown

Like some B-movie space alien, "The Thing" is back. And this time, it's ...the nuclear-power industry.

After the meltdown at the nuclear plant at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania, in 1979, nuke power finally seemed to be dead in America. Fission plants were too expensive to build, the multibillion-dollar taxpayer subsidies were ridiculous, the potential for atomic catastrophe was chilling, and the unresolved question of where to put tons of radioactive waste was damning.

Yet, like a grotesque phoenix, here nuclear power comes again. Why? One word: BushCheney. The big utilities, along with such powerhouse nuclear equipment makers as General Electric, were generous funders of George W's run for the White House--and their payback was the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which pumps the nuke-power biz full of new government subsidies.

This bill offers $125 million in tax breaks for each new nuclear plant, plus loan guarantees of 80 percent of a plant's cost (including cost overruns). Utilities also receive exemptions from legal liability in case of catastrophic incidents. And these megacorporations won't be held responsible for the disposal of the nuclear waste!

Our tax dollars should be invested in safe, clean, renewable energy and in conservation.