As President Obama guarantees $8 billion in loans to build the first U.S. nuclear power plant in nearly three decades, states are getting into the act, too.

Here in Wisconsin, nuclear power is tucked into state legislation called the Clean Energy Jobs Act.

“About 95% of the bill is great. The major portion of the bill talks about setting the first ever energy efficiency standards for Wisconsin and also boosting the use of renewable energy sources in the state,” says Diane Farsetta, the Carbon Free, Nuclear Free campaign coordinator with the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice.

“The problem is it would also gut the protections that we have had on the books for twenty-five years.”

Currently, Wisconsin law says that new nuclear reactors can’t be built here unless there is a federally licensed repository to permanently store the toxic radioactive waste that nuclear reactors produce. That type of facility doesn’t exist, so radioactive waste is piling up at the two working and one defunct nuclear reactor sites. Changing this law could allow more nuclear waste to pile up.

The Clean Energy Jobs Act is based on recommendations of the Governor's global warming task force. “Here in Wisconsin giving support to new nuclear reactors is a way to get Republican votes,” says Farsetta. “It's a political gamble. It's not based on the science, it's not based on the actual merits of this power source.”

“The people who are crafting the bill thought, hey, maybe we can get some votes that we wouldn't get otherwise, if we add that language in there,” she says. “We're saying, that's not good enough. That's not good enough to put communities across the state at risk to becoming de facto nuclear waste dump sites.”

Farsetta says there’s no need to pretend we have to choose between building more coal plants or building new nuclear reactors. Renewable energy costs are decreasing while storage systems for renewable power are becoming stronger.

“Nuclear power is just a dangerous and costly distraction from doing that,” says Farsetta.

On Tuesday February 23, the Carbon Free, Nuclear Free campaign is organizing a lobby day at the state capitol. Proponents of the bill hope it will pass by Earth Day.

“We have a window of opportunity now,” Farsetta says. She encourages people to call their representatives and say I'm really glad Wisconsin is considering a bill about climate change, but the nuclear power language needs to be taken out of it.

For more information contact the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice Carbon Free, Nuclear Free campaign at www.wnpj.org.

Elizabeth DiNovella is Culture Editor of The Progressive magazine. To subscribe for just $14.97 a year, just click here.