Obama announces $8B for new nuke plant
LANHAM, Md., Feb. 16 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama announced $8 billion in loan guarantees for the first new U.S. nuclear power plant in almost three decades.
The facility in Georgia would create thousands of jobs during construction and about 800 permanent jobs, Obama told an audience at IBEW Local 26 headquarters in Lanham, Md.
U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Obama's energy adviser, Carol Browner, traveled with Obama to Maryland. The funding is available through the Energy Department.
"And this is only the beginning. My budget proposes tripling the loan guarantees we provide to help finance safe, clean nuclear facilities," he said, "and we'll continue to provide financing for clean energy projects here in Maryland and across America."
Noting that he expected criticism of the announcement from environmental groups, Obama said, "On an issue that affects our economy, our security and the future of our planet, we can't keep on being mired in the same old stale debates" between environmentalists and entrepreneurs.
"I know it's been long assumed that those who champion the environment are opposed to nuclear power," he said. "But the fact is, even though we've not broken ground on a new power plant ... in 30 years, nuclear energy remains our largest source of fuel that produces no carbon emissions."
The Georgia facility would cut carbon pollution by 16 million tons each year compared with a similar coal plant, Obama said.
To realize the nation's potential in clean energy, Obama said decisions must be made about opening up new offshore areas for oil and gas development, and investments in biofuels and clean coal technology.
"Whether it's nuclear energy, or solar or wind energy, if we fail to invest in the technologies of tomorrow, then we're going to be importing those technologies instead of exporting them," he said.
Obama also toured the IBEW facility's training center on various applications useful in clean-energy and low-carbon technologies, including the construction of nuclear power plants, the White House said.
Biden hails effects of Recovery Act
SAGINAW, Mich., Feb. 16 (UPI) -- U.S. Vice President Joe Biden visited Detroit Tuesday, part of the administration's nationwide recognition of the $787 billion stimulus act passed a year ago.
Biden visited a chemical processing training lab at Delta College, north of Saginaw, Mich., an area particularly hard hit by the economic recession and with a 14 percent unemployment rate, the Detroit Free Press reported.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act wasn't meant "to just merely drag us out of this ditch," Biden said. "When we got out of the ditch and we're on the road again, we'll have the biggest economic engine in the world. Second place is not an option for us."
Besides helping to prevent a depression, the economic stimulus package is "laying the foundation for long-term recovery in the future," Biden said. "It's taking a while to get out of this ditch, but it's working. It's helped in pulling us back from the brink."
While Democrats praised the stimulus act, Republicans were calling it a waste that swelled the national deficit and didn't create long-term jobs, the Free Press reported.
Since the Recovery Act was passed, "more than 162,000 jobs have been lost and unemployment is continuing to rise in Michigan," Republican National Committee spokeswoman Kirsten Kurkowski said.
At 14.6 percent, Michigan's unemployment rate is the highest in the nation. It spiked at 15.3 percent in September.
Administration marks stimulus act signing
WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- Administration officials plan to fan across the United States this week to survey $787 billion stimulus act's progress to date and push for more job creation.
To mark the anniversary, President Barack Obama will host an event Wednesday at the White House that will involve Americans who have benefited from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the White House said Tuesday in a release.
At the events in 35 communities across the United States, officials will discuss how the additional job creation proposals and the Obama administration's work to drive more economic growth, the White House said.
Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was signed into law Feb. 17, 2009. The administration cites public and private forecasters who estimate the program is responsible for about 2 million jobs, while Republicans and others characterize it as a boondoggle that added to the deficit and hasn't created many jobs.
Clinton: Evidence hints Iran wants nukes
JEDDA, Saudi Arabia, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton repeated concerns about Iran's nuclear intentions, hinting evidence pointed to the country's wanting nuclear weapons.
Speaking in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, near the end of her three-day visit to the region, Clinton said if Iran acquired a nuclear weapon, it would set up "quite dangerous" problems, potentially igniting a nuclear arms race, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
Clinton presented a laundry list of actions she said contradicted Iran's claims of peaceful intentions for its nuclear aspirations, including last year's revelation of a previously undisclosed nuclear facility near Qom.
"You have to ask yourself: why are they doing this?" Clinton said. "The evidence doesn't support" Iran's insistence that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the country has begun enriching uranium to 20 percent, to be used in a medical reactor in Tehran.
Clinton's remarks Tuesday follow an observation she made Monday in Qatar that Iran's Revolutionary Guard was supplanting the government and "moving the country toward a military dictatorship." Iran's foreign minister Tuesday said U.S. actions in the Middle East fit the description of a military dictatorship.
The United States has been pressing Western allies to back stiffer sanctions against Iran over its controversial nuclear program. In recent days, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev offered his observations.
"The international community needs to be certain that Iran's nuclear program is peaceful," a spokeswoman for Medvedev said, "but no one can rule out the use of sanctions if these obligations are not fulfilled."
Snow hits Midwest, New England
CINCINNATI, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- A mix of snow and bone-chilling temperatures in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and western Pennsylvania made driving hazardous Tuesday.
Snow also fell in upstate New York and much of New England. AccuWeather.com reported.
In the Midwest, the storm moved up the I-71 corridor from Louisville, Ky., toward Cleveland, the National Weather Service reported. Some areas in Ohio, like Springfield 45 miles west of Columbus, reported a foot or more of snow.
The new snow fell on top of snow still on the ground since Feb. 5 and 6, leaving most of the region with more than a foot of the white stuff on the ground. Temperatures in most of the region were in the 20s Tuesday with gusty winds.
Janet Walsh, a spokeswoman for the Cincinnati public schools, said the double whammy left many side streets almost impassible. Schools were closed Tuesday as a result.
"That means there are not only problems for the buses negotiating the streets, it also makes it really hazardous for children out at the bus stops or trying to walk to school," Walsh said. "It's just not safe out there."
In New York State and western Massachusetts, snow started falling Tuesday. AccuWeather predicted 6 to 10 inches in a band from western Massachusetts to southwestern Maine and 3 to 6 inches from New York State to the Maine coast.
