In addition to its core mission, NEI also sponsors a number of public communications efforts to build support for the industry and the expansion of nuclear energy, a number of which have come under attack from environmentalists and anti-nuclear activists. In 2006, NEI founded the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition (CASEnergy) to help build local support around the country for new nuclear construction. The co-chairs of the coalition are early
Greenpeace member
Patrick Moore and former
United States Environmental Protection Agency Secretary and New Jersey Governor
Christine Todd Whitman. As of April 2006, CASEnergy boasted 427 organizations and 454 individuals as members. In April 2004, the Austin Chronicle reported that NEI has hired the Potomac Communications Group to ghostwrite pro-nuclear op-ed columns to be submitted to local newspapers under the name of local residents. In 2003 story in the Columbus Dispatch, NEI said that it engaged a public affairs agency to identify individuals with technical expertise in the nuclear energy industry to participate in the public debate. However, as many of these individuals have little experience in opinion writing for a non-technical audience, the agency provides assistance if requested, a common industry practice. In 1999,
Public Citizen filed a complaint with the
Federal Trade Commission charging that an NEI advertising campaign overstated the environmental benefits of nuclear energy to consumers living in markets where sales of electricity had been deregulated. In a ruling the following December, the FTC rejected those claims concluding: NEI did not violate the law; agreed that the advertisements were directed to policymakers and opinion leaders in forums that principally reach those who set national policy on energy and environmental issues, and therefore did not constitute "commercial speech"; noted that in different circumstances, such as direct marketing of electricity, such advertising could be considered commercial speech and be subject to stricter substantiation. NEI ran other ads with similar content, most recently one released in September 2006 touting nuclear energy's non-emitting character and the role it can play in reducing American dependence on foreign sources of
fossil fuels like oil and natural gas. In 2008,
Greenpeace criticized NEI's public relations efforts and suggested that NEI's advertising about nuclear power was an example of
greenwashing. In the first quarter of 2008, NEI spent $320,000 on lobbying the US federal government. Besides
Congress, the nuclear group lobbied the
White House,
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, departments of Commerce, Defense, Energy and others in the first three months of the year. The NEI spent $1.3 million to lobby the federal government in 2007. In 2012, NEI quoted Kathyrn Higley, professor of radiation health physics in the department of nuclear engineering at Oregon State University, who described the health impact of the
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident to be "really, really minor", adding that "the Japanese government was able to effectively block a large component of exposure in this population". == Advocacy ==