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As debate over President Obama’s economic stimulus package turns to the Senate, more than two hundred groups are calling for at least one provision in the bill to be removed. Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved an amendment proposed by Republican Senator Robert F. Bennett calling for the allocation of fifty billion dollars in federal loan guarantees for nuclear and so-called clean coal projects. In a letter dated Tuesday, environmental groups, small businesses and concerned citizens urged Senators to reconsider saying that the inclusion of such a provision will prove to have no stimulative effect on the economy in the time frame set out by the plan. If kept, the fifty billion dollars would expand funding for technologies included in the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Detractors of the provision, which was not part of the House version of the economic stimulus package, say that most of the money will go to the construction of new nuclear and coal projects. Organizations such as the Natural Resources Defense Council, Friends of the Earth and the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research cite estimates made by the Congressional Budget Office that say more than half of such loans would be at risk for default.

GUEST: Michael Mariotte, Executive Director of Nuclear Information and Resource Service