April 13, 2022
Dear Senators and Members of Congress,
Independent Women’s Voice, the leading national women’s organization dedicated to expanding support for common sense public policies among women, independents, millennials, and Gen Z, is proud to support the International Nuclear Energy Act of 2022.
The International Nuclear Energy Act of 2022 seeks to offset the growing influence of China and Russia on international nuclear energy development. This is an issue that the U.S. cannot afford to ignore. As our sister organization, IWF, has written previously, the U.S. must lead the world and export advanced nuclear technologies to developing nations, providing safe, reliable and affordable clean energy while preventing others, such as China and Russia, from exporting their own nuclear technology. This is especially important given the poor environmental, safety and human rights track records displayed by adversarial nations in recent months and years.
As Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who introduced the legislation with Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), put it: “We must not turn a blind eye as China and Russia aggressively use their state-owned and operated civil nuclear programs as coercive tools to the detriment of other nations’ energy security and our global nonproliferation efforts.” He continued: “The United States must be proactive in confronting these geopolitical threats, not only for our national security but also for the entire free world.”
If the coronavirus pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have taught us anything, it’s that we need to take energy security into our own hands and actively work to end the reliance on unfriendly nations for our critical energy needs.
We thank Senators Manchin and Risch for their leadership on this issue and urge you to join them in their efforts to ensure the U.S. leads on nuclear energy.
Respectfully,
Hadley Heath Manning
Director of Policy
Independent Women’s Voice