Fukushima linked to Obama's campaign contributors



RT in the above video links the apparent complicity of the Obama administration to the worsening Fukushima crisis to reported ties to nuclear industry financial backers.

U.S. Republicans have long championed nuclear power, putting forward legislation that would call for the construction of 100 new nuclear plants in the next two decades. But the nuclear lobby's most ambitious goals were often stymied by Democrats in Congress—until Obama was elected and his administration began the push for climate bill.

It's worth remembering that the Obama camp has long-standing ties to the nuclear industry. As a senator, Obama wrote an unsuccessful bill that would have required nuclear power plant owners to notify state and local authorities of small radiation leaks—but then watered down the legislation significantly at the industry's behest. And nuclear interests have been keen boosters of his political career: Executives and employees of Exelon, the Illinois-based utility that produces approximately 20 percent of the country's nuclear power, donated nearly $210,000 to Obama's presidential campaign, according to CQ Moneyline. In fact, Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, helped broker the merger of two utiltilies to form Exelon in 2000 when working as an investment banker at Wasserstein Perella & Co. Obama's chief political strategist, David Axelrod, consulted for an Exelon subsidiary periodically between 2002 until he started working on the Obama campaign.

Exelon officials Frank M. Clark and John W. Rogers Jr. have been among his biggest fundraisers, and Obama has also received donations from John Rowe, Exelon's chairman. Rowe also heads NEI, is a key player in a business-environmental coalition pushing for climate legislation, and has been selected to serve on the DOE's panel on nuclear waste.

Exelon and its employees were the seventh-largest source of campaign money for Obama while a US Senator, contributing more than $71,800, according to the Washington-based Center for Responsive Politics. "When he ran for president, the company’s employees gave at least $200,000, and board member John Rogers Jr., chairman of Chicago-based Ariel Investments LLC, was a top Obama fundraiser. " Source.


Internet site reference: http://motherjones.com/environment/2010/02/obamas-nuclear-giveaway


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