Trump plans to declare that Iran nuclear deal is not in the national interest

As reported by the Washington Post.

See Peace Action's alert, for what you can do!

Nuclear power & coal lobbyists cheer on Energy Secretary Perry's many money moves

Trump's DOE seeks to further heavily subsidize new and old atomic reactors, which would put renewables at a massive competitive disadvantage! On the very same day that Energy Secretary Rick Perry offered Southern Co. et al. additional billions of dollars worth of taxpayer-backed nuclear loan guarantees, to prop up two very troubled new reactors under construction at Vogtle, GA (see related entry, above), he also wrote the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), urging "compensation" to dirty, dangerous, and expensive coal burners and atomic reactors. His supposed rationale? To "compensate" these already long-massively subsidized industries, for their supposed electrical grid "reliability and resilience" benefits.  

 

As Dave Kraft of Nuclear Energy Info. Service in Chicago has pushed back, what about the nuclear weapons non-proliferation advantages of renewables, or the fact that they don't generate forever deadly radioactive wastes?! Perry's moves were loudly cheered by nuclear and coal industry lobbyists. But they were widely protested by renewable energy and other competitors, ratepayer, taxpayer, and free market advocates, as well as environmentalists. This latest proposed round of massive subsidies, if enacted, could end the competitive marketplace for electricity in the U.S., and would help prop up such dangerously age-degraded atomic reactors as Palisades in Michigan, Davis-Besse in Ohio (each of which put the drinking water supply for tens of millions of people, the Great Lakes, at risk), and dozens of others. Perry's polluting-industry-friendly moves come at the very same time that the Trump administration seeks to repeal the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan* (which sought to reduce global warming emissions, while doing few to no favors for the nuclear industry). Please contact your U.S. Rep., and both your U.S. Senators -- as via the Capitol Switchboard, 202-224-3121 -- and urge they do all they can to block these latest attempts to massively subsidize the nuclear (and coal) industry at public (taxpayer, and ratepayer) expense! More 

Update on October 9, 2017 by admin

*Trump's EPA Administrator, Scott Pruitt, has done the dirty deed. See the Washington Post's coverage: "EPA chief Scott Pruitt tells coal miners he will repeal power plant rule Tuesday: The war against coal is over."

Trump DOE ups nuclear loans to $12 billion despite multiple investigations

The Trump administration's Department of Energy (DOE) has, shockingly, just offered Southern Nuclear and its partners in the construction of the Vogtle 3 & 4 new reactors in Georgia a $3.7 billion (yes, with a B!) federal taxpayer-backed loan guarantee, in a bid to shore up the faltering new build project. This is on top of the $8.3 billion nuclear loan guarantee awarded by President Obama's DOE a few years ago, making a tidy $12 billion overall. That's more than half of the total approved for nuclear loan guarantees nationwide a decade ago during the George W. Bush administration. This is more than 22 times the amount of taxpayer money put at risk, than was lost in the Solyndra solar loan guarantee default several years ago, which congressional Republicans like U.S. Rep. Fred Upton (St. Joe, MI) made such a stink about at the time. It obviously puts all that federal taxpayer funding at very high risk of a loan default at Vogtle 3 & 4. Energy Secretary Rick Perry's largesse with taxpayer funds, to benefit filthy rich nuclear corporations, flies in the face of the cautionary tale at Summer nuclear power plant in South Carolina.

Multiple federal and state investigations are now under way, probing wrongdoing associated with the recent cancellation of two proposed new reactors of the same design as at Vogtle -- Toshiba-Westinghouse AP1000s. The bankruptcy of Westinghouse, announced on March 29th, has led to Summer 2 & 3's cancellation, representing a huge loss of billions of dollars of ratepayer funding. Westinghouse's historic bankruptcy was due to the massive cost overruns, and years-long schedule delays, at these four AP1000 new builds in the Southeast. Please contact your U.S. Rep., as well as both your U.S. Senators, via the Capitol Switchboard (202-224-3121), and urge them to do all they can to block this latest giveaway of taxpayer money to the nuclear power industry! (The image, above left, "Burning Money," is compliments of the late Gene Case, of Avenging Angels; it was featured on the cover of The Nation magazine in 2003, accompanying Christian Parenti's feature article about the nuclear power relapse, of which Summer 2 & 3, and Vogtle 3 & 4, are the dubious flagships.) More

Stop uranium mining in Tanzania

Sometimes the best way to spread the message and communicate the injustice of the nuclear industry is through music. Here are Hatutaki-Wakazi feat and Sophie & the Harmonies on uranium mining plans in Tanzania.

A serious threat to the survival of the flourishing U.S. solar industry

After declaring bankruptcy, Suniva, Inc. on April 26, 2017 led a petition with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) asking the government to put its thumb on the scale of the U.S. solar market. On May 25, SolarWorld Americas announced it had joined as co-petitioner. This case poses a major threat to the U.S. solar industry and its 260,000 workers according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.

Last month, the International Trade Commission, in a 4-0 voted, sided with the manufacturers who had filed a petition under Section 201 of the Trade Act seeking relief from foreign manufactured solar cells. The petition only had to show that the two companies could not compete because of the import of cheaper solar cells, mainly from China but also Mexico. They were not obliged to demonstrate malicious intent by their rivals.

Since the ruling, and a backlash from virtually every other quarter of the U.S. solar energy sector, Suniva  has backed down from its original 40-cent-a-watt tariff on CSPV cells to a tariff of 25 cents per watt. It has also reduced its demand for a 78-cent-a-watt floor on module prices, to 32 cents per watt. SolarWorld has also modified its position and SEIA has filed its own petition. (The SolarWorld and SEIA briefs were too large to upload here.)

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), estimates the ruling could “more than double the cost of solar and put 88,000 jobs at risk.”

THE SOLAR INDUSTRY’S STANCE

The imposition of tariffs and price oors would damage • the whole solar industry.

• According to ClearView Energy Partners and Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the proposed tariff and minimum pricing requirements would double the price of solar panels in the U.S.

• This would come after years of lowering solar costs to consumers through innovation, production scale, improved business practices and greater understanding of solar technologies.

• The rise in solar costs would slash demand. Solar project costs would rise dramatically for both rooftop and utility scale, and solar would become less competitive. Today, solar is one of the least expensive energy sources in America.

• The U.S. solar industry employs 260,000 Americans. This petition puts these jobs at risk and if successful, 88,000 jobs will be lost nationwide, including 6,300 jobs in Texas, 4,700 in North Carolina and a whopping 7,000 jobs in South Carolina.

• Today’s solar industry is a force in America’s economy. GTM valued the industry at $23 billion in 2016, and solar was the top source of new U.S. electricity generation last year. This incredible progress will be stopped in its tracks if the petition prevails.

The relief sought by Suniva and SolarWorld would exacerbate the underlying problem of an excess global supply of solar cells and modules by severely limiting the U.S. market. Raising trade barriers and inhibiting the import of fairly-traded goods will not jumpstart U.S. cell and module manufacturing.

• Manufacturers in other parts of the solar sector across the U.S., such as racking systems, have been adding jobs. Solar manufacturing already employs more than 38,000 Americans. The fact that petitioners are laying off employees doesn’t re ect the growth in American manufacturing jobs. 

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