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Russia’s Aggression Prompts Calls to Rethink U.S. Uranium Imports

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WASHINGTON — As Western leaders have raced to reply to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with steps to cut back imports of Russian fossil fuels, U.S. lawmakers and officers are confronting a thorny dilemma over one other supply of vitality: the Russian uranium that powers many American nuclear vegetation.

Whereas President Biden banned imports of Russian oil, fuel and coal final month, his administration didn’t instantly transfer to halt uranium imports from Russia. The US relied on Russia for about 16 p.c of its uranium in 2020, with one other 30 p.c from two of the nation’s shut companions, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, in line with the U.S. Vitality Info Administration.

Russia’s exports of oil and fuel have obtained outsize consideration as Western nations have sought to impose financial penalties on the nation. However the invasion of Ukraine has additionally put a highlight on Russia’s sale of uranium to the USA, the world’s largest shopper of the steel, the place nuclear energy accounts for about 20 p.c of electrical energy technology.

Dismay over the struggle has given frequent objective to vitality officers who view nuclear energy as key to Mr. Biden’s long-term imaginative and prescient for decreasing carbon emissions and to members of Congress who’ve argued for years to scale up home uranium manufacturing and enrichment. To each camps, Russia’s aggression provides urgency for the USA to cut back its dependency on imported uranium and put money into home suppliers that would assist energy the subsequent technology of nuclear vegetation.

Senator John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming, launched a invoice in March to ban imports of Russian uranium, and an identical, bipartisan invoice was launched within the Home final week.

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“Whereas banning imports of Russian oil, fuel and coal is a vital step, it can’t be the final,” Mr. Barrasso mentioned in a press release. “Banning Russian uranium imports will additional defund Russia’s struggle machine, assist revive American uranium manufacturing and improve our nationwide safety.”

At her affirmation listening to final month, Kathryn Huff, Mr. Biden’s decide to steer the Vitality Division’s Workplace of Nuclear Vitality, mentioned the invasion of Ukraine demonstrated the nuclear business’s vulnerabilities and highlighted the necessity to improve home manufacturing.

“It’s critically essential that we wean ourselves off unstable, untrustworthy sources of our important fuels, together with uranium,” she mentioned.

The US has sought to handle its reliance on Russian uranium for the reason that finish of the Chilly Warfare. Underneath an settlement reached with Russia’s Ministry for Atomic Vitality in 1992, the USA sought to restrict purchases of Russian uranium to about 20 p.c of its whole want. An modification to that settlement, signed in 2020, aimed to additional scale back imports to fifteen p.c by 2028.

However as of 2020, near half the uranium used for gas in the USA was imported from Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The amended settlement approved the USA to buy as a lot as 24 p.c of its nuclear gas from Russia subsequent 12 months.

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Additional complicating issues, the Vitality Division introduced plans in 2020 to speculate as much as $3.2 billion within the improvement of a brand new technology of superior reactors — together with one devised by TerraPower, an organization co-founded by Invoice Gates — that depend on a extra enriched number of uranium that’s solely produced at business scale by Russia.

Home suppliers have been hesitant to put money into producing that gas — high-assay, low-enriched uranium, or HALEU — because the superior reactors that would use it are nonetheless years from completion.

“It’s not that anybody thinks we are able to’t make it,” mentioned Matt Bowen, a analysis scholar on the Middle on International Vitality Coverage at Columbia College’s College of Worldwide and Public Affairs. “However it might contain prices, and none of them have been prepared, I believe for very comprehensible causes, to make that funding as a result of they aren’t positive if these reactor initiatives are actually going to occur.”

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The brand new reactors have been designed to be cheaper, safer and extra environment friendly than older ones. They’ve been proposed within the hope of changing a few of the 93 reactors which might be at present in operation throughout the USA, a lot of that are greater than 40 years outdated and nearing the tip of their meant life spans.

However in gentle of Russia’s actions, TerraPower and different corporations growing new reactors have mentioned they won’t use the extra enriched gas from Russia, regardless that no business different exists.

As growing old nuclear vegetation are progressively retired, renewable sources similar to wind and solar energy must be drastically elevated to fill the hole in carbon-free energy manufacturing if new nuclear vegetation should not constructed.

In current hearings on Capitol Hill, some senators have mentioned asking the Vitality Division to assist create gas that’s wanted for superior reactor initiatives within the brief time period. The division maintains restricted inventories of enriched uranium that may be “down-blended,” or combined with unenriched materials to provide gas that’s usable in superior reactors.

However to create a gentle stream of uranium for present nuclear vegetation and future fashions, lawmakers have additionally known as for renewed funding for mines and enrichment services which have lengthy sat idle or lowered manufacturing.

The US has vital uranium deposits in states similar to Wyoming, Texas and New Mexico. However the troubled environmental historical past of some websites and the influence they’ve had on tribal lands have additionally revived longstanding issues about resuming large-scale uranium manufacturing domestically.

At a listening to on important mineral provide chains on Thursday, Senator Martin Heinrich, Democrat of New Mexico, cited the continued environmental challenges attributable to a mine within the Pueblo of Laguna, a Superfund website in his state that has defied cleanup efforts for many years.

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“Uranium mining and milling websites nonetheless leach radioactive waste into our groundwater,” Mr. Heinrich mentioned. “It’s nonetheless barely reclaimed.”

The query of the best way to assist the nuclear business whereas transferring away from Russian suppliers will probably be an pressing precedence for Dr. Huff, who may very well be confirmed by the Senate this month.

Final 12 months, the Vitality Division moved forward with plans to ascertain a nationwide reserve that will stockpile uranium bought from home producers partially to assist jump-start the business. Congress allotted $75 million in 2020 to assist fund the reserve, however no purchases have been made.

However the effort to start shopping for uranium for the reserve has been met by resistance from Democrats, together with Senator Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts. In a letter final 12 months, Mr. Markey and 5 Home members argued that the creation of the reserve posed “a severe risk to the well being of tribal and environmental justice communities, in addition to to the general surroundings.”

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Biden campaign spotlights massive June fundraising haul in 2024 election rematch with Trump

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Biden campaign spotlights massive June fundraising haul in 2024 election rematch with Trump

President Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign and the Democratic National Committee combined brought in over a quarter of a billion dollars in fundraising the past three months, Biden’s team announced early Tuesday.

And the campaign, in showcasing the $264 million raked in during the April-June second quarter of 2024 fundraising, noted that it pulled in $127 million in June alone, which it touted was the president’s best month of fundraising since he launched his re-election bid over a year ago.

The announcement comes as the Biden campaign tries to flip the script on a negative narrative coming out of last week’s first debate with former President Trump.

Biden’s June fundraising was up from the roughly $85 million the campaign and the DNC brought in during May. And the campaign spotlighted that their second quarter haul was $75 million more than they brought in during the first three months of the year.

BIDEN TRIES TO FLIP THE SCRIPT ON DISASTROUS NARRATIVE COMING OUT OF FIRST DEBATE

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President Joe Biden reacts after speaking at a campaign rally in Raleigh, N.C., Friday, June. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley) (AP Photo/Matt Kelley)

They also touted that they had a whopping $240 million cash-on-hand as of the end of June, up from $212 million a month earlier.

A sizable chunk of June’s haul was raked in at a star-studded fundraiser in Los Angeles with former President Obama, Hollywood heavyweights George Clooney and Julia Roberts, and late night TV talk show host Jimmy Kimmel. The campaign said after the event that it set a new Democratic Party fundraising record with a $30 million haul. 

DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION OF BIDEN IN VIRTUAL ROLL CALL COULD COME AS EARLY AS THIS MONTH

The president also brought in over $8 million a few days later at a fundraiser at the Northern Virginia home of former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, where Biden was also joined by former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State and former Sen. Hillary Clinton, who was the Democrats’ 2016 standard-bearer.

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But boosting the June fundraising to higher heights was the $33 million the campaign says was raised last Thursday through Saturday, the day of the first presidential debate and the following two days. And the Biden campaign showcased that their single best hour of fundraising this cycle came during the 11pm to midnight eastern hour on Thursday, immediately after the end of the debate with Trump in Atlanta, Georgia.

trump and biden

President Joe Biden (right) and former President Donald Trump participate in their first of two 2024 general election debates, on June 27, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

The Biden campaign has been spotlighting its pre- and post-debate fundraising as it aims to alter the brutal conversation coming out of last week’s showdown. This, after the 81-year-old president’s halting delivery and stumbling answers at the debate sparked widespread panic in the Democratic Party and spurred calls from political pundits, editorial writers, and some party politicians and donors, for Biden to step aside as the party’s 2024 nominee.

The campaign also showcased its grassroots appeal, noting that nearly two-thirds of June’s haul came from small-dollar donors and that more than $30 million of the $38 million raised during the final few days of the month came from grassroots contributors.

“Our Q2 fundraising haul is a testament to the committed and growing base of supporters standing firmly behind the President and Vice President and clear evidence that our voters understand the choice in this election between President Biden fighting for the American people and Donald Trump fighting for himself as a convicted felon,” Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement.

President Biden and first lady Jill Biden in Raleigh, NC

President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden walk off the stage after a campaign event in Raleigh, North Carolina, on June 28, 2024. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

DNC chair Jaime Harrison noted that “grassroots donors across the country are chipping in every day because they know that this election will determine the course of history.”

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In announcing their May fundraising figures, the Biden campaign waited until June 20, the final day the presidential campaigns had to file their monthly fundraising figures with the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

But when it came to announcing their June and second quarter figures, the Biden campaign wasted no time in showcasing their numbers, announcing them just two days after the fundraising period ended.

Biden and the DNC enjoyed a large fundraising lead over Trump and the Republican National Committee earlier this year. But Trump and the RNC topped Biden and the DNC in fundraising for the first time in April.

And in May, the Trump campaign and the RNC, fueled in part by a fundraising surge following the former president’s history-making guilty verdicts in his criminal trial, combined hauled in a stunning $141 million, easily besting Biden and the DNC.

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Former President Donald Trump walks offstage after giving remarks at a rally at Greenbrier Farms on June 28, 2024, in Chesapeake, Virginia.  (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

The Trump campaign has until later this month to file its fundraising figures with the FEC and has yet to announce its June and second quarter hauls.

Fundraising, along with public opinion polling, is a key metric used to measure the strength of a candidate and their campaign. Money raised can be used to build up grassroots outreach and get-out-the-vote operations, staffing, travel and ads, among other things.

The Biden campaign has been using its funds to build up what appears to be a very formidable ground operation in the key battleground states and announced two weeks ago that they had hired their 1,000th staffer and had opened over 200 coordinated offices in the swing states. The Biden campaign enjoys a large organizational advantage over the Trump campaign when it comes to grassroots outreach and get-out-the-vote ground game efforts in the states that will likely decide the outcome of the election rematch.

“Team Biden-Harris grew its historic war chest while also significantly expanding its footprint and operations both in HQ and across the key states – the resources needed to win a close election,” the campaign highlighted in a release.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

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Biden denounces immunity ruling amid Democrats' doubts that he can beat Trump

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Biden denounces immunity ruling amid Democrats' doubts that he can beat Trump

Monday’s Supreme Court decision giving Donald Trump immunity for past and potentially future presidential acts gave Democrats more urgency to defeat him, just as new polling showed that last week’s debate intensified voters’ concerns that President Biden may not be the man to do it.

The dueling pieces of news underscored the conundrum the party has been staring down for months: Evidence that Trump will have unchecked power in a potential second term energizes the Democratic base. But the increasingly high import of the election makes the choice to stick with Biden appear all the more risky.

“You can’t afford to lose,” said Mark Buell, an influential Bay Area Democratic donor and fundraiser. “In either case, you’re still down to the risk assessment of who has a better chance — another candidate or Biden?”

In a brief televised address at the White House on Monday night, Biden said the Supreme Court decision on immunity meant “there are virtually no limits” on a president’s actions. “This is a fundamentally new principle. And it’s a dangerous precedent.”

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He said the public had a “right to know” Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, though a trial probably will not take place before the November election.

“I know I will respect the limits of presidential power as I have for the 3½ years, but any president, including Donald Trump, will now be free to ignore the law,” he said.

In denouncing the 6-3 decision, Biden concluded by saying, “May God preserve our democracy.”

Mark Gonzalez, the recently departed Los Angeles County Democratic Party chair and California state director for Biden’s 2020 campaign, said he spent the weekend calming nerves of fellow Democrats. The ruling Monday only reaffirmed the stakes to people who were concerned about Biden’s fitness for the job and poor political standing, he said. A CBS poll released Sunday showed a growing share of voters — 72% — say Biden does not have the cognitive ability to serve as president, compared with 49% who say that about Trump.

“The reality is that, whether they’re a delegate or an activist or a $5 donor, they’re afraid,” Gonzalez said of the people he spoke with over the weekend. “They are scared that we need a stronger person to represent the Democratic Party so that we can prevail in November.”

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Gonzalez said Monday “is a good reminder that we need to be able to … be prepared, and know that the other side is going to do everything that they can to take us down. We cannot afford to lose democracy because of mistakes at this one debate.”

The Biden campaign scheduled a media call within minutes of Monday’s ruling in hopes of shifting attention from the president’s poor debate performance on Thursday to Trump, whom they characterized as a singular threat to democracy. The ruling that he could not face prosecution for official acts would only embolden him to carry out threats to prosecute enemies and act like a dictator on his first day in office if he wins a second term, officials argued.

“This is not a drill,” said Harry Dunn, a police officer who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 and has become a surrogate for Democrats. “Donald Trump is the single greatest threat to the United States of America in a generation. We can’t let him anywhere near the Oval Office again.”

Quentin Fulks, principal deputy campaign manager for Biden-Harris 2024, pointed to a new Jan. 6-focused advertisement the campaign released Monday and to heightened efforts to organize volunteers in battleground states.

But many Democrats have urged the president to appear at more rallies and give more adversarial media interviews to demonstrate his vitality. Fulks, asked during the call whether Biden had any plans to increase his public engagement schedule with town halls and other unscripted encounters, said he had no changes to announce.

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A USA Today poll conducted Friday through Sunday found 54% of registered voters want Biden to be replaced as the nominee, compared with 37% who want him on the ballot. For Trump, the split was 51% to 46% in favor of removing him from the ballot, despite Trump’s record as a convicted felon who remains unwilling to concede that he lost the 2020 election.

Trump, 78, had stronger support within his own party than Biden, 81, did in his. The best news for Biden is that the question was a virtual tie among independent voters — with 64% saying they wanted Biden replaced and 63% wanting Trump replaced.

Despite growing concerns among allies, Biden has shown no signs he is willing to step aside and party rules would make it almost impossible to remove him from the ballot without his consent. A source familiar with a weekend Biden family summit held at Camp David confirmed reporting that the president’s family is determined that he remain in the race, calling it “a united front.”

Buell, who has been vocal about the need to assess swing state polls in the coming days, believes there is still a chance Biden would agree to withdraw if the data suggest it’s the best way to defeat Trump.

“The people around Biden, they may privately see it that way, but publicly of course they’re all singing the song that he’s fine,” Buell said. “And I think they have to until such time as he says he wants to pull the plug.”

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Still, some of the party faithful are undaunted. Susan Reina, an activist in the Antelope Valley who oversees voter registration efforts in a competitive congressional district, said it was essential to remind voters that it comes down to a binary choice. Division within the Democratic Party plays into the hands of Republicans who have circled the wagons around Trump, she said.

Monday’s court decision gave Trump yet another political advantage. It all but guaranteed delay past November of Trump’s trial on accusations that he and his political associates worked to subvert the 2020 election.

For Reina and others, this means that beating the former president at the ballot box is even more essential “so that we in this country have the freedoms that we have today.”

This article includes reporting from the Associated Press. Bierman reported from Washington, Oreskes from Los Angeles.

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Video: Supreme Court’s Immunity Decision Sets ‘Dangerous Precedent,’ Biden Says

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Video: Supreme Court’s Immunity Decision Sets ‘Dangerous Precedent,’ Biden Says

new video loaded: Supreme Court’s Immunity Decision Sets ‘Dangerous Precedent,’ Biden Says

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Supreme Court’s Immunity Decision Sets ‘Dangerous Precedent,’ Biden Says

President Biden spoke after the Supreme Court’s ruling that former President Donald J. Trump is entitled to substantial immunity from prosecution on charges of trying to overturn the 2020 election.

No one, no one is above the law, not even the president of the United States. But today’s Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity, that fundamentally changed. For all, for all practical purposes, today’s decision almost certainly means that there are virtually no limits on what the president can do. This is a fundamentally new principle and it’s a dangerous precedent, because the power of the office will no longer be constrained by the law, even including the Supreme Court of the United States. The only limits will be self imposed by the president alone. Now, the American people will have to do what the courts should have been willing to do, but would not. The American people have to render a judgment about Donald Trump’s behavior. The American people must decide, do they want to entrust the president once again — the presidency — to Donald Trump now knowing he’ll be even more emboldened to do whatever he pleases whenever he wants to do it.

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