Sierra Club Weighs in on McCain Remarks on Energy at Albuquerque Rally

Note: Read the live blog at for more on the McCain-Palin appearance at the Albuquerque Convention Center last night (with photos). Also listen to Peter St. Cyr's audio of the short speeches by McCain and Palin.

Must Read: I just got this release from the Sierra Club NM Club NM and it tells the story so well, I'm going to publish it verbatim:

At a ‘Road to Victory’ rally in Albuquerque this evening, Senator John McCain advocated for the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel as a way to deal with the tons of high-level nuclear waste accumulating at reactors around the country. However, he failed to mention America’s troubled past with reprocessing – namely, tanks of liquid waste that are corroding and threatening nearby bodies of water (Columbia and Savannah Rivers as well as Snake River Aquifer). McCain also neglected to mention that France and the UK simply pipe their liquid wastes from reprocessing directly into the North and Irish seas to the ire of neighboring countries, and that reprocessing has not significantly reduced the need for a deep geological repository (Institute for Energy & Environmental Research, www.ieer.org/fctsheet/repro-intl.html).

McCain also advocated for greater solar power production, but failed to mention that he did not show up to any of the eight votes held this year on extending clean energy tax credits. About 2,000 construction jobs with the Solana concentrating solar project in McCain’s home state of Arizona are on hold as a result. Similarly, McCain’s opposition to a national Renewable Electricity Standard has cost New Mexicans at least 2,800 new jobs in the solar and wind industries, $200 million in lower electricity and natural gas bills by 2020 (growing to nearly $400 million by 2030), and another $100 million in income to farmers, ranchers, and rural landowners (Union of Concerned Scientists, Cashing in on Clean Energy in New Mexico).

Statement of Shrayas Jatkar, Sierra Club NM

“Despite efforts to claim that they are mavericks and agents of change, the McCain/Palin campaign continues to simply reach for the costly and dirty energy policies of the past.”

“It is highly irresponsible for the McCain/Palin campaign to advocate for the reprocessing of spent fuel when we have not yet dealt with the wastes generated by reprocessing in the past. New Mexicans defeated in 2007 a Bush Administration scheme to resume reprocessing - which listed two sites in southeastern New Mexico as potential hosts for a reprocessing plant – because no community can afford to sacrifice its public health and water sources for a dangerous, dirty, and costly technology.”

“The McCain/Palin campaign must stop misleading voters about their supposed support for clean energy development. Their voting record clearly shows a failure to stand up for the solar and wind industries – and the hundreds of thousands of workers in those industries – when it truly counts.”

Want to learn more facts about John McCain and his real views? Visit JustMoreoftheSame.com.

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