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Used with permission of politicalcartoons.comThe Kerry-Lieberman Senate "climate" bill (Graham has sort of-kind of withdrawn his support for now), to be unveiled on May 12th, incredibly still supports an expansion of offshore oil drilling, despite the still-unfolding BP oil spill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 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              (202) 224-3121      end_of_the_skype_highlighting 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 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              (202) 456-1111      end_of_the_skype_highlighting: 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?"

Stephanie Cooke's "In Mortal Hands: A Cautionary History of the Nuclear Age" book talk at Busboys and Poets in Washington, D.C. on May 18th

Stephanie Cooke has covered the nuclear industry for almost thirty years. She is currently the editor of Uranium Intelligence Weekly, and a contributor to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. She will discuss and sign her new book, In Mortal Hands: A Cautionary History of the Nuclear Age, on Tuesday, May 18th at 6:30 p.m., at Busboys and Poets “Langston Room,” 14th and V Streets, NW, in Washington DC. From the Manhattan Project to the present energy crisis, Stephanie Cooke's provocative history of our failure to manage the power of the atom is perfectly timed. The mistakes of the past are on the verge of being repeated. Cooke's work is a call for everyone to understand and respect the power held in mortal hands. Beyond Nuclear is sponsoring this event. For more information, contact Beyond Nuclear’s Kevin Kamps at kevin@beyondnuclear.org, or (301) 270-2209 ext. 1.

Illinois votes to reverse ban on new reactors

With little debate, according to news reports, and even less press coverage, the Illinois State Senate voted to reverse a ban on building new nuclear power plants in the state. Illinois is already the state with the most reactors - 11 - in the country. There was a loan vote against the reversal from Sen. Jeff Schoenberg, D-Evanston. The condition of the original ban was that no new nuclear plants could be built "until such time as the federal government has an operational disposal facility for the dangerous and long-lived high-level radioactive wastes (HLRW) they would generate," according to Dave Kraft of Nuclear Energy Information Service. Kraft decried the vote, stating: "Beware the Ides of March – and the ignorance of the some Illinois legislators on nuclear matters."

Alec Baldwin says "no" to new nukes

Writing in the Huffington Post, Alec Baldwin decries the Obama decision to fund construction of new reactors an gives a tip of his hat to Beyond Nuclear board member, Karl Grossman.