(Rep) Hall then and now: Former nuclear critic still an activist in changing times [View All]

[Statistical]

Rep. John Hall, D-Dover Plains, a pioneer of the 1970s anti-nuclear movement as a rock star, and harsh critic of the Indian Point nuclear power plant as congressman, has voted for legislation that includes $7.5 billion for clean energy — including nuclear power.

Hall was, long before he got elected in 2006 to represent New York state's 19th Congressional District, a rock 'n' roll singer, songwriter and guitarist with the hugely successful Woodstock-based band Orleans. In 1979, Hall, along with fellow rockers Jackson Browne, Graham Nash and Bonnie Raitt, founded the organization MUSE — Musicians United for Safe Energy. The group staged the famous No Nukes concerts, five nights of music at Madison Square Garden in September 1979. The concert raised more than $1 million.

Three decades later, the longtime opponent of nuclear power voted in favor of the American Clean Energy and Security Act, which, according to a spokeswoman for the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, "establishes a self-sustaining Clean Energy Deployment Administration to promote the domestic development and deployment of clean energy technologies. (The administration) would be empowered to provide direct loans, loan guarantees, and other financial support to clean energy technologies that might otherwise be unable to secure financing, including nuclear power." A companion bill to the House legislation is working its way through the Senate.

"It's much easier being on the outside and being a protester than being on the inside and having to decide whether your vote goes yes or no," Hall said during a telephone interview with the Journal.

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During a news conference captured in the film "No Nukes," Hall spoke about his 5-week-old daughter. "We're very concerned," Hall said, "that she not be one of those pictures in the paper that you saw after ... the Three Mile Island accident, where the mother was holding a blanket over the child to protect it from radiation."

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A March 2009 Gallup Poll, three months before Hall voted to support the energy bill, found supporters of nuclear power as one means of generating electricity in the United States outnumbered opponents by nearly 2 to 1.

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20100315/NEWS01/3150325

Hall isn't pro nuclear but he is a realist. Realists tend to not be as cool as purists but they get the job done. The bill is a compromise and combats the true enemy GHG & fossil fuels by providing broad support to solar, wind, hydro, and nuclear.

I guess he is just another in the growing list of "nuclear shills" like President Obama, Patrick Moore, Stewart Brand, the IPCC, the Department of Energy, MIT, 52% of Democrats, etc.