BELLEVUE — Hundreds of members of the state Democratic Party in Washington narrowly voted to take no formal position on nuclear power over the weekend at a convention near Seattle.
The state Democratic Party convention drew 703 delegates from across Washington to attend three days of political campaign events and training sessions at a convention center in downtown Bellevue. At the event, dozens of politicians gave speeches and discussed their plans to maintain political control of Washington through the upcoming November election, including state Gov. Jay Inslee, U.S. Reps. Suzan DelBene and Rick Larsen, and U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell of Spokane.
On the third and final day of the convention, delegates filed into a big event room at the Meydenbauer Center and spent roughly eight hours going through party business. In that time, the group voted on a handful of resolutions. The group narrowly rejected two resolutions stating that nuclear energy is “not the solution to climate change,” and that the state should not use funding for clean energy to support construction or expansion of small modular nuclear reactors.
The vote to reject that pair of nuclear energy resolutions passed on a razor-thin margin by 12 votes, with a tally that totaled 361 “do pass” to 373 “do not pass.”
During a public comment session, conference attendee Dan Lewinski was among a group of four people who separately addressed the large crowd. Current renewable energy options don’t generate enough electricity to power the Evergreen State, Lewinski cautioned, adding that nuclear energy is a clean alternative.
“Global warming caused by the burning of fossil fuels is the existential threat of our lifetimes,” Lewinski said. “We’re all in on all the renewables — as many of the renewables as we can possibly get as fast as possible, but even in the best-case scenarios, we need four times that amount of new, clean energy by 2050.”
Taking an opposite stance to Lewinski, Roxanne Thayer took the floor and argued solar energy has great potential and that the state should focus its attention toward that over nuclear energy.
“Close to one quarter of U.S. generating capacity is now from large and small solar,” Thayer said. “At this rate, solar will surpass natural gas capacity by 2026. There isn’t time for nuclear, and in addition to that, the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council recommendation on Justice40, I’m quoting, must include ‘taking bold action to sunset investment by 2030 in fossil fuels, plastics, dangerous chemicals, and nuclear energy to set requirements for 100% renewable electricity by 2030.’”
Justice40 is a policy of the Biden administration that 40% of the benefits of some environmental, housing other investments flow to disadvantaged communities that have historically been harmed by pollution.
Along with the nuclear energy resolutions, delegates voted to uphold a trio of resolutions concerning the war in Gaza, including a call for an immediate cease-fire and a call to stop all U.S. military aid to Israel.
