Joe Barton: “Nuclear power must be a part of our future energy supply. Companies that are planning to build new nuclear plants…”

“Nuclear power must be a part of our future energy supply. Companies that are planning to build new nuclear plants estimate that they will request a loan of $20 to $25 billion in FY '08. The companies expect to complete loan guarantee agreements in FY '08 because they must have financing in place in order to maintain their current schedules. Without loan guarantees for new nuclear plants, we risk a delay in bringing more safe and emission free nuclear plants online at a time when we are trying to diversify our supplies of power as quickly as possible.”