Brandishing a petition of more than 8,000 signatures, an environmental activist dressed as Santa stood in the frigid morning cold Tuesday.
Constellation Energy Group made the naughty list this year, “Santa” proclaimed to passers-by hurrying to work, for its plans to build new nuclear power plants in Maryland and nationwide.
More than a dozen members of the Chesapeake Safe Energy Coalition braved icy temperatures outside Constellation headquarters in downtown Baltimore to protest the company’s partnership with French energy giant Electricite de France. The joint venture, UniStar Nuclear Energy, seeks to develop new nuclear plants including one at Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in southern Maryland.
EDF last week agreed to also buy 49.99 percent of Constellation’s nuclear business for $4.5 billion. That investment scrapped an existing $4.7 billion buyout of the entire company by Warren Buffett-controlled MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. The new deal also canceled a shareholder vote on the MidAmerican merger scheduled for Tuesday and which the group’s protest was originally geared toward.
“We were supporting, not robustly, but supporting the MidAmerican deal,” said Allison Fisher, energy organizer for Washington, D.C.-based Public Citizen. “One of the reasons we were putting our faith in Warren Buffett … was he made the decision in Idaho last year not to pursue nuclear energy [at one site].”
The protesters, including one dressed as Santa, had a “nice list” too — more than 8,000 signatures with comments urging Constellation to end its involvement with UniStar.
Members of the coalition attempted to deliver the signatures to the front desk of Constellation headquarters and also to employee Paul Adams near the building. Neither building security nor Adams would accept the package, which was left at Adams’ feet. Company spokesman Rob Gould later said the group could mail the signatures to the company. “The group is welcome to send their petition to the company, but to be clear, the company does not agree with their position,” Gould said in an e-mail. The coalition also opposed federal loan guarantees for the construction of the new plants, which could run as high as $10 billion. The guarantees are intended to spur private-sector investment in the projects by protecting investors from losses. But group members said the same financial uncertainties that made Wall Street back away from nuclear projects decades ago still exist. “We’re trying to warn these guys off,” said Paul Gunter of Takoma Park-based Beyond Nuclear. “Nothing has changed. It’s still the most expensive way known to man to boil water.” [email protected]
