New Nuke Coalition in Town

There's a new advocacy coalition in town, and it's dedicated to making people think positive thoughts about expanded use of nuclear energy, National Journal's Lisa Caruso reports today.

The Clean and Safe Energy Coalition is being founded by the nuclear industry trade group, the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), and is co-chaired by ex-EPA Adminstrator Christie Todd Whitman and Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore (nice "gets" on the coalition's part). NEI did not disclose the coalition's budget or what they're paying Whitman's consulting firm.

So what will the coalition do? Looks like they already have a pretty robust website up, and NJ reports that while they don't plan to run ads, they will have town hall meetings and press events this fall in New Hampshire, Iowa, Illinois and Michigan. My guess is that they're trying to get some of those early '08 primary and caucus voters interested, so those ordinary citizens can in turn go press people like McCain, Hillary, Mark Warner, etc on their thoughts on nuclear power.