Search
JOIN OUR NETWORK

     

     

 

 

ARTICLE ARCHIVE

Nuclear Costs

Estimates for new reactor construction costs continue to sky-rocket. Conservative estimates range between $6 and $12 billion per reactor but Standard & Poor's predicts a continued rise. The nuclear power industry is lobbying for heavy federal subsidization including unlimited loan guarantees but the Congressional Budget Office predicts the risk of default will be well over 50 percent, leaving taxpayers to foot the bill. Beyond Nuclear opposes taxpayer and ratepayer subsidies for the nuclear energy industry.

.................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Saturday
Jun152019

No On HB6 Rally and People's Hearing in Cincinnati on Monday!

On Monday morning, June 17th, Cincinnatians will convene at Stanbery Park, in Senator Wilson's district for a rally and people's hearing on HB6! Visuals include a giant inflatable pig, courtesy of Ohio Citizen Action, and signs.
During the rally Mayor Cranley will speak about the City of Cincinnati's resolution against the bill and Rep. Denson will speak about why he voted no.
This will be followed by a people's hearing during which community members will speak about the problems with HB6, and in particular how the Cincinnati area's air quality is impacted by the Clifty Creek coal plant in the neighboring state of Indiana and the injustice of this community being forced to pay to bail out the plant that pollutes their air. 
If you would like to speak at the hearing please let me know (especially if you're in Wilson's district). We will open it up to attendees at the end if time allows, but we'd like to have a good slate of speakers signed up in advance. 

I am also looking for volunteers to help with photos, video, and social media. If you are coming to the hearing and are able to help with these things, please let me know! If you're not in the area, but would like to help, there will be some things you can help with remotely.

If you're on Facebook, please invite your Cincinnati area contacts to the event! thttps://www.facebook.com/events/2154659258159344/  

Later, Ohio Citizen Action will be touring the inflatable pig to two additional rallies in target senate districts:

Medina Public Square in Medina, OH, Tues., June 18th at noon
Wooster Green in Bowling Green, OH at 3:30pm

Becca Pollard

Ohio Associate Organizing Representative

Sierra Club, Beyond Coal

503-756-2598

Saturday
Jun152019

Before the Ohio State Senate: Opponent Hearings on House Bill 6, the Nuclear Bailout Bill

Thank you to Ned Ford in Ohio, and Becca Pollard of Sierra Club, for sharing this news:

As indicated [below], Opponents [to House Bill 6 next] Tuesday, at 9:30 [a.m., oppoent testimony] and all parties [(opponent, proponent, and interested party testimony)] Wednesday after Session (correct me if I'm wrong but I think the earliest this could be is 3:00, and more likely a little later, but we don't know.)

Do not forget to forward the witness slip if you intend to testify.

- Ned

Good afternoon,

Please see the attached Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee notices for next week. We will be meeting on Tuesday, June 18th at 9:30am and Wednesday, June 19th after session. All committee meetings will take place in the Finance Hearing Room.

All testimony and completed witness slips [linked below] should be submitted to the Chairman’s office no later than 24 hours prior to the scheduled committee time. Please send your testimony and completed witness slip to Libby.Hildebrandt@ohiosenate.gov. The Chairman reserves the right to limit the length of testimony. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to our office.

Thanks and have a great weekend!

Libby

Libby Hildebrandt
Senior Legislative Aide
Senator Steve Wilson – 7th District
(614) 466-9737| Libby.Hildebrandt@ohiosenate.gov

Link to 6.18.2019 Notice

Link to 6.19.2019 Notice

EPU Witness Slip

Saturday
Jun152019

Harvey Wasserman, Solartopia: TV, Radio & Print on Ohio Nuke Bailout

Ohio bailout debate on RT-TV:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=934hOf9-VTg&list=PLagVUKF7CUTTtjJqFw6JvO14pG6Z1RBmv

 

Radio Tutorial on Ohio Bailout:

Dick Munson/Kevin Kamps/Tim Judson/Harvey Wasserman one-hour PRN.FM Solartopia show on Ohio bailout:

 https://greenpowerwellnessshow.podbean.com/e/solartopia-green-power-and-wellness-hour-atomic-thievery-in-ohio/

 

Ohio's "Chernobyl Socialism" Would Hand $20 Million to Seven Utility Scammers

By Harvey Wasserman, Reader Supported News

10 June 19

 

https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/57020-rsn-ohios-qchernobyl-socialismq-would-hand-20-million-to-seven-utility-scammers

 huge proposed bailout of two Chernobyl-in-progress Ohio nukes (plus two old coal burners) would put $20 million directly into the pockets of seven utility executives. Their bankrupt company last year spent $3 million “lobbying” the legislature. 

Akron’s bankrupt FirstEnergy (FE) owns the Perry nuke, east of Cleveland, which in 1986 became the first US reactor damaged by an earthquake. Critical pipes and concrete were cracked, as were nearby roads and bridges. A top-level state study showed soon thereafter that evacuation amidst a major accident would be impossible. 

FE’s uninsured Davis-Besse nuke, near Toledo, is a 42-year-old Three Mile Island clone. In 2002, boric acid ate through its head, threatening a Chernobyl-scale accident irradiating Toledo, Cleveland, and the Great Lakes. At FE’s request, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has exempted Davis-Besse from vital regulations for flooding, fire protection, earthquake vulnerability, and security. Its radiation shield building is literally crumbling. 

In 2003, when nearby power lines sagged onto tree limbs, FirstEnergy blacked out some 50 million people throughout the northeast and well into Canada. 

By then, FE had scammed Ohio for some $9 billion in “stranded cost” bailouts. The utility said “open market competition” would lower rates ... after it pocketed the public’s money. 

Now FE says its subsidized nukes can’t compete with gas and wind power. It wants $190 million/year or more from all Ohio ratepayers, even though most get zero nuke electricity. 

FE first said the money was for “clean air” and “zero emission reactors.” But all nukes emit heat, chemicals, radiation, Carbon 14, and more. Their cooling towers kill birds, their waste hot water kills marine life, their cores (at about 300 degrees Centigrade) heat the planet. 

The bailout bill, called HB6, attacks renewable and efficiency programs that have saved Ohio ratepayers billions of dollars and created thousands of jobs. A single sentence in the Ohio Code is blocking some $4 billion in turbine development. 

The breezy “North Coast” region along Lake Erie is crisscrossed with transmission lines and good sites near urban consumers. Farmers throughout the flat, fertile agricultural land desperately want the income turbine leases could provide. The new projects would create thousands of construction and maintenance jobs. They would feed Ohio’s manufacturing base, which produces a wide range of wind and solar components. By lowering electric rates, they would restore a competitive position long lost to high electric rates. Indiana, Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania all have at least double Ohio’s installed wind capacity. Texas has twenty times more. By 2022, Germany will be totally nuke-free. 

Ohio has just been shaken by findings that significant radiation has leaked from a dead uranium plant in southern Ohio, contaminating schools and terrifying local residents. 

Like that old “stranded cost” scam, FE’s new bailouts would suck desperately needed capital from Ohio’s faltering industrial base. The reactors are obsolete. The workforce is aging. The nukes will shut anyway … if they don’t blow up first. 

FE is really protecting its huge executive salaries. In 2018, it spent $3 million on “lobbying.” Its top seven officers, who bankrupted the company, were collectively paid more than $20,000,000, more than 10% of the proposed bailout: 

Charles E. Jones Jr., President & CEO: $9,858,109; 

Leila L. Vespoli, EVP, Corporate Strategy, Regulatory Affairs & Chief Legal Officer: $3,801,639; 

James F. Pearson, EVP, Finance: $3,840,576; 

Donald R. Schneider, President, FE Solutions: $2,343,232; 

Steven E. Strah, SVP & CFO: $2,798,523; 

Bennett L. Gaines, SVP, Corporate Services & Chief Information Officer: $1,442,149; 

Samuel L. Belcher, SVP & President, FE Utilities: $3,004,019. 

The Ohio House has already ignored extensive anti-bailout public testimony (see mine at https://ohiochannel.org/video/ohio-house-energy-and-natural-resources-committee-5-22-2019) and voted 53-43 to keep those executive handouts soaring.

The bill now moves to the Senate and its gerrymandered GOP majority. Ohio’s corporate-owned governor has assured FE he’ll approve their bailout. 

Ohio consumers may then join lawsuits against similar bailouts in New York, New Jersey, and elsewhere. A referendum, which they might well win, is also possible. 

Meanwhile, millionaire utility execs everywhere will see if the Buckeye State can be suckered again into bailing out two obsolete, cash-sucking nukes on the brink of catastrophic collapse. 

Stay tuned.

Harvey Wasserman's Green Power & Wellness Show is podcast at prn.fm; California Solartopia is broadcast at KPFK-Pacifica, 90.7 fm, Los Angeles. His book The People’s Spiral of US History: From Deganawidah to Solartopia will soon be at www.solartopia.org.

Saturday
Jun152019

Nuclear energy not emissions-free, too lethal 

Friday
Jun142019

No More Pork for FirstEnergy Solutions! Rally in Medina, OH, Tues., June 18th!

Ohio Citizen Action announcement:

[See the Ohio Citizen Action press release, here.]

No More Pork for FirstEnergy Solutions!

Giant Inflatable Pig Will Remind Medina Residents That FirstEnergy Solutions Wants to Break the Bank!

WHAT: Rally in Opposition to House Bill 6

Opportunity for Citizen Testimony on the Legislation

WHO: Ohio Consumers Power Alliance, Ohio Citizen Action

WHEN: Tuesday, June 18, 2019

12:00 to 1:00 PM

WHERE: Medina Public Square

Medina's Historic District

VISUALS:

25-foot tall inflatable pink pig

Signs, citizen activists

Area elected officials speaking

[See the Ohio Citizen Action press release here.]