A mining giant in bed with Boxer, Kerry (uranium mining)

Comment:  No to Nuke Plants, No to Uranium Mining!

By: Timothy P. Carney
Examiner Columnist
November 12, 2009

When a mainstream publication reports on “strange bedfellows” supporting a government regulation, you can be sure that the tryst in question is between some sort of liberal “public interest” group and a company standing to get rich off the proposed regulation — probably at the expense of consumers, taxpayers and small businesses.

Rio Tinto is a leading mining company, which is probably why the Economist reported the company’s support for a cap-and-trade scheme on climate change in a piece titled “Strange Bedfellows.”

As the U.S. Senate has taken up the climate legislation sponsored by Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and John Kerry, D-Mass., Rio Tinto has taken to Capitol Hill to rally behind the legislation.

This is the standard explanation offered by climate bandits: We need regulation because climate change is so real, so certain and so bad that it will hurt everybody, including us. The upshot is that Rio Tinto isn’t seeking any special favors. But, of course, it is.

Rio Tinto stands to profit in many ways from Boxer-Kerry, often in ways that provide no real benefit to consumers or the environment, while increasing costs for everyone.

In 2008, Rio Tinto mined more uranium than any company in the world, according to Chiaro. Uranium is the feedstock for nuclear power plants. Litigation and regulation have for decades blocked the expansion of nuclear power, and many companies see robust climate legislation as the way to knock down the regulatory barriers.

Nuclear power produces basically no carbon dioxide or methane, and the greenhouse gas it does produce — water vapor — is negligible in its warming impact.

Being much more proven and efficient than wind, solar or other low-GHG power sources, nuclear is the natural choice in a carbon-constrained economy.

So climate legislation could create more demand for Rio Tinto’s uranium business.

But Rio Tinto also sees profit in Boxer-Kerry in ways that harm the consumer.

So there’s nothing strange about Rio Tinto getting in bed with Kerry and Boxer’s push for climate legislation.

But taxpayers and consumers will be regretting it in the morning.

Click Title or Link to whole post:
http://www.sfexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Timothy_Carney/69942747.html