Kerry-Lieberman "climate bill" still supports offshore oil drilling and atomic energy

Used with permission of politicalcartoons.comThe Kerry-Lieberman Senate "climate" bill (Graham has sort of-kind of withdrawn his support for now), to be unveiled on May 12th, incredibly still supports an expansion of offshore oil drilling, despite the still-unfolding BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. It also supports unlimited  loan guarantees for the buildling of new atomic reactors and uranium enrichment facilities, as well as additional givewaways to the nuclear power industry. One thing the bill does not do, despite its name and supposed intent, is adequately protect the climate. Phone your Senators via the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and urge them to oppose taxpayer-backed subsidies, tax incentives, financial risks, and other giveaways to the already filthy rich dirty energy industries under the guise of a "climate" bill. Then, phone the White House comment line at (202) 456-1111: urge that President Obama support truly clean, safe, and affordable energy efficiency and renewable sources like wind and solar, rather than dirty, dangerous and expensive fossil fuels and nuclear power.

Is the proposal for new reactors in Georgia environmental racism?

Bruce Dixon, co-founder of the Black Agenda Report, has an excellent article on the Huffington Post as well as the BAR Web site regarding the decision to award the first $8 billion in federal loan guarantees to the construction of two new reactors in a poor black community in Georgia that does not want the plant. As Dixon notes: "The Obama administration likes to call it "safe nuclear energy," often in the same breath as "clean coal." Both are colossal and equally transparent lies." And putting the lie to the nukes-will-bring-you-wealth myth, Dixon writes: "If leaky civilian and military nukes really are the job-creating answers to poverty, shouldn't Burke County, GA be one of the wealthiest, instead of the poorest places east of the Mississippi 25 years after its first civilian nukes, and six decades after neighboring towns, some of them all black on the South Carolina side of the river, were bulldozed to create the Savannah River nuclear weapons facility?"

Wind power - and soon solar - outpace nuclear energy in the U.S.

According to the International Energy Agency nuclear power can only reduce worldwide emissions of CO2 by 6% by 2050…..as opposed to 54% and 21% respectively for the energy savings and renewable energy.That's why the U.S. needs to be the leader in the promotion and development of sustainable energy, and reject nuclear power. This agenda is backed by two new analyses.

In a recent report by the US Energy Information Administration, the agency found that renewable energy represented 11% of American production in 2009, more than nuclear energy.  With 1210 mw of renewable energy installed, the total capacity added in 2009 reaches 4,000 mw. The United States is now the largest producer of wind energy in the world, ahead of Germany, according to the GWEC (Global Wind Energy Council), with a total capacity of 25,170 mw as opposed to 23,900 mw for Germany.  But remarkably the United States should this year also take the lead in the solar energy sector.  The American production of wind-energy electricity made possible a saving of 54 million tons of CO2 in 2009, reducing the carbon emission in the electricity sector by 2%, or the equivalent of the removal of 9 million cars, stated the AWAE. Read more.

Huge win in GA as judge declares permitting of new reactors illegal

A Fulton County, GA Superior Court judge ruled on April 30 that the Georgia Public Service Commission acted illegally in violation of Georgia state law in granting a permit to build two nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle. The court found that the Public Service Commission never outlined why the expansion is in the public interest, a requirement of Georgia law. The White house awarded $8 billion in federal loan guarantees for two new reactors at the site. But the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy challenged the PSC's licensing permit and won. The law suit "aimed to protect Georgians from unfair utility costs in connection with the proposed construction of two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle near Waynesboro, Georgia," according to the SACE press release.