Alaska Public Radio Network:
Senator Lisa Murkowski is complaining about what she calls a lack of progress by the Obama Administration on certain energy issues. In a Senate floor speech on Thursday Murkowski said the President's budget does NOT do enough to support nuclear energy or fossil fuel development. She says that runs contrary to the President's pledge during his recent State of the Union speech to support nuclear and new oil and gas development. Murkowski's criticism comes despite President Obama's move to triple the loan guarantees available to the nuclear industry. He wants to boost it from $18 billion to $54 billion. Murkowski admits she approves of that, but still chided Obama for scrapping the nuclear waste site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, and for not helping finance a nuclear project in its first year in office. She says while the Administration is making what she called "some progress" on nuclear, she does not see it doing so on oil and gas development.
You can listen to the audio here.
Source: By Libby Casey. Originally broadcast by the Alaska Public Radio Network on February 13, 2010
