For America's construction unions, Democratic President Barack Obama’s announcement of $8.3 billion in federal loan guarantees to speed the construction of a new nuclear power plant in Georgia means one thing: Jobs.
Obama said on the campaign trail and reiterated in his State of the Union address that nuclear power should be part of the mix that helps march the U.S. towards lesser dependence on imported foreign oil.
Advocates of nuclear power construction note that there are virtually no carbon emissions from nuclear plants, which now supply one-fifth of U.S. electricity. Foes cite the potential for a catastrophic accident and the dangers of storing radioactive waste.
The SMWIA has come down on the side of plant advocates. An added incentive: At a prior Building Trades Department conference in Washington, the head of the American Nuclear Energy Council -- the industry’s lobby -- said a proposed third nuclear power plant at Calvert Cliffs, Md., would be built and staffed all-union.
According to industry estimates, constructing the Georgia plant would bring several hundred permanent jobs to the area after 3,500 construction workers build it, including as many as 400 sheet metal workers.
Designing an energy policy that brings affordable energy to consumers and businesses, “can be met through development, installation and continued operation of energy technologies from a broad portfolio of energy resources – including nuclear power – which will have the added social benefits of contributing to the sustained creation of solid, well-paying middle class jobs and careers,” said BCTD President Ayers in a recent interview.