Opposition to HB 104, the "ANTHEM Act," as Ohio Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee set to hold hearing

Here is the link to the Nov. 29, 2020 organizational coalition letter of opposition.

The letter is addressed to Members of the Ohio Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee, expressing opposition to House Bill 104 (HB 104), Ohio's "Advanced Nuclear Technology Helping Energize Mankind Act" (the "ANTHEM Act"). On very short notice -- over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend -- the committee has announced a hearing on the bill for Tuesday, December 1, 2020.

The letter of opposition is signed by Toledo, Ohio-attorney Terry J. Lodge, and endorsed by 56 environmental, safe energy, and public interest organizations.

Its section titles include:

I. The Thorium Fuel Cycle Fuels the Spread of Nuclear Weapons;

II. Molten Salt Reactors Pose Serious Nuclear Waste Disposal and Contamination Problems;

III. Reprocessing Technology Is Messy, Dangerous, Expensive, and Foolish;

IV. The Nuclear Development Authority Cannot Serve Both as a Regulator and as a Nuclear Chamber of Commerce;

V. A State Agency Partnering with Private Corporations May Be Forced to Share Liability, Jeapordizing Taxpayer Funds;

VI. Who Pays in the Event of a Nuclear Catastrophe?

The letter will be submitted as opposing testimony to HB 104 by Lodge.

Lodge encourages individuals who oppose HB 104 to consider using the coalition letter as a model, to help prepare their own comments for submission to the Ohio Senate committee. Lodge suggests this simple template, for any individuals who wish to express their opposition to HB 104, by submitting this statement to the proper Ohio Senate Committee staff person, in PDF form, as explained below:

"I have read and agree with the combined Sierra Club/organizational coalition letter of opposition to HB 104, submitted by Pat Marida, Terry Lodge and 56 safe energy, environmental, and public interest organizations."

Or, Lodge also points out, you can use the coalition letter to prepare your own, more detailed comments for submission. Anyone should feel free to cut and paste from the letter verbatim, or to use the coalition letter in any way that is helpful.

Opponents' testimony re: HB 104 must be submitted by 4:30 PM Eastern on Monday, November 30, 2020. In order to do so:

Fill out a witness slip https://static1.squarespace.com/static/568c2a10c647ad1e5182756c/t/5fa5d95d92c73f09399b3b44/1604704605547/Senate+Energy+Witness+Slip.pdf?mc_cid=3e45bac853&mc_eid=0386ef85d2 and attach it, with your testimony (attach testimony as a PDF file), to the email to Ohio Senate committee staff person John Wells (don't write testimony directly in the email to him), an aide to Ohio State Senator Steve Wilson, Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee Chair, at john.wells@ohiosenate.gov.  

Patricia Marida of the Ohio Sierra Club Nuclear-Free Committee has also prepared a concise Opponents' Analysis of HB 104. It contains numerous links for additional information, as well as contact information for Ohio state legislators and Ohio state legislative committee members who you can contact directly to express your opposition to the bill, an additional action you can take besides submitting testimony to the committee. You can also use the backgrounder's helpful points to prepare your own comments for submission to the committee as official oppositional testimony, per above.

Update on November 29, 2020 by admin

NEWS FROM BEYOND NUCLEAR For immediate release, November 29, 2020 Contact: Pat Marida, patmarida@outlook.com, (614) 286-4851 Connie Kline, klineisfine@aol.com, (440) 946-9012 Terry Lodge, tjlodge50@yahoo.com, (419) 205-7084 Lee Blackburn, leeblackburn@live.com, (614) 216-0010 Kevin Kamps, kevin@beyondnuclear.org, (240) 462-3216

OHIO NUCLEAR POWER PLANT LEGISLATION ASSAILED BY SAFE ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS

Dirty, Dangerous, and Expensive HB 104 Contains not only Statewide, but also Regional and National Risks

COLUMBUS, OHIO -- On November 29, 2020, 56 local, regional and national environmental, public health and safe energy organizations blasted proposed House Bill 104, the “Advanced Nuclear Technology Helping Energize Mankind Act” (“ANTHEM Act”) pending in the Ohio General Assembly. Calling the proposal a “radioactive taxpayer giveaway,” the groups, representing hundreds of thousands of people, filed written testimony for a December 1 Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee hearing along with a one-page overview with 10 reasons to oppose HB 104. The activists warn that building state-sponsored small modular nuclear power reactors (SMRs) “will break the bank and destroy Ohio’s chances for a clean and safe energy future" especially given COVID-related budgetary constraints and that ANTHEM could cause nuclear weapons proliferation, threats to public health and safety, radioactive contamination, and require huge, undetailed governmental subsidies. House Bill (“HB”) 104 is being pushed by eGeneration Foundation, a Cleveland company that envisions thorium and molten-salt nuclear power reactors, which have never gotten beyond small-scale experiments and show few prospects of commercial success. The company will not say where it would build several full-scale SMRs. There are no provisions for community or public involvement in the creation of an Ohio Nuclear Development Authority (NDA) to issue taxpayer-backed bonds for reactor construction. The NDA would be governed by a board of nuclear industry insiders within the Ohio Department of Commerce. In the House committee hearings Rep. Dick Stein, HB 104’s sponsor, could not answer the question of who the Authority would be responsible to.   HB 104 has passed the Ohio House and may be discharged from the Senate committee on Tuesday for a floor vote in December, as the legislature resumes its “lame duck” session. Location of the agency within the Ohio Department of Commerce would mean that nuclear promotion, not regulation of health and safety, would be the priority, and that Ohio taxpayers would be liable for cleanup and dismantling when reactors close – or worse, after spills and accidents. The bill also allows for eminent domain. Only New York State has ever set up a state nuclear development agency, which resulted in construction of a disastrous nuclear waste reprocessing plant at West Valley, New York in the 1960's. The venture has so far cost $600 million in cleanup and partial remediation, and tens of billions of dollars more will be needed for future cleanup costs to keep radioactive contamination from spreading. “Enacting this self-inflicted fiscal nightmare in the midst of a pandemic will surely crimp provision of existing services by the government,” said Pat Marida, chair of the Ohio Sierra Club’s Nuclear Free Committee. “This untried technology will swallow up major financing that must instead be made immediately available to build genuine safe energy options to reduce the worst effects of climate chaos.” “eGeneration won't admit the potential for deadly accidents from operating test reactors and from the dirty, radioactive-waste-producing processes to extract enriched uranium and plutonium (one of the most toxic substances on earth) from radioactive waste,” said Connie Kline, past Chair of the Ohio Sierra Club Nuclear Committee. “This bill creates national security concerns about the spread of nuclear weapons. The fuel required by these reactors are literally thermonuclear bomb ingredients that will command hefty prices on global black markets.” “Hasn’t the General Assembly learned any lessons from the corruption around HB 6, the coal and nuclear bailout?” asked Lee Blackburn of the Sierra Club’s Nuclear Free Committee. “ANTHEM is a classic corporate welfare response for ideas too risky and half-baked to work in the so-called ‘free market,” offered Terry Lodge, Toledo attorney. “Why should billions more public dollars be risked on experiments that haven’t perfected these dangerous processes in the last 55 years?” "Reprocessing is environmentally ruinous," said Kevin Kamps, radioactive waste specialist at Beyond Nuclear. "As shown in France, the U.K., upstate New York, and other places, plutonium and uranium extraction from high-level radioactive waste inevitably results in large-scale releases of hazardous, long-lasting ionizing radiation into the air and surface waters, such as the Great Lakes or Ohio River, that threaten people downwind, downstream, up the food chain, and down the generations." -30-

Beyond Nuclear is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit membership organization. Beyond Nuclear aims to educate and activate the public about the connections between nuclear power and nuclear weapons and the need to abolish both to safeguard our future. Beyond Nuclear advocates for an energy future that is sustainable, benign and democratic. The Beyond Nuclear team works with diverse partners and allies to provide the public, government officials, and the media with the critical information necessary to move humanity toward a world beyond nuclear. Beyond Nuclear: 7304 Carroll Avenue, #182, Takoma Park, MD 20912. Info@beyondnuclear.org. www.beyondnuclear.org.