Washington, D.C. — The U.S. Senate today rejected 50-48 an amendment to strike the nuclear loan guarantees from S. 14, the Energy Policy Act of 2003. Senate Energy Committee Chairman Pete Domenici hailed the vote as a victory for American consumers. Senator Domenici’s statement: “This vote today is critical to America’s future supply of clean, reliable and affordable electricity. This victory is a victory for American consumers. It is a victory for families and small businesses that worry about the cost of lights, heat and air conditioning. It is a victory for industries that have, increasingly, felt the impact of rising natural gas prices on their bottom line. It is a victory for the tens of millions of Americans concerned about our environment and our climate. “Nuclear energy is clean, affordable and reliable. It emits no airborne emissions. It doesn’t dirty our air or our water. It offers a potential and promise for this country and the rest of the world that I believe we have never really tapped. “We face a looming natural gas crisis in this country that could wreak havoc on our economy. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan testified on that pending crisis today before the House Energy & Commerce Committee. My nuclear provision can help us avert that crisis. We must diversify our sources of electricity. We cannot keep building one natural gas plant after another when our demand is already outstripping our supply. America must, once again, start building nuclear power plants, using state-of-the-art nuclear technology that this country has never seen. “This provision allows industry to build advanced lightwater nuclear reactors that are smaller, safer and more efficient than the plants we built 30 years ago. The electricity they produce costs less than electricity from coal or natural gas. I predict we will one day look back and wonder what took us so long to realize the promise nuclear energy offers us.” ###