"Day Against Denial" actions (Mon., Jan. 9), and Resisting Trump’s Corporate Cabinet

On Thursday, January 5, at 3 pm Eastern, the Climate Reality Check team* held the latest in their series of national conference calls to help strengthen community organizing on climate, entitled:

"Day Against Denial" day of actions, and Resisting Trump’s Corporate Cabinet

[Recording: https://www.freeconferencecallhd.com/playback_rudd/?n=O3J5d/uBSpX ]

Donald Trump is putting together a cabinet of greedy corporate shills and climate deniers.

[Beyond Nuclear has focused on the nomination of former Texas governor Rick Perry, due to his blatant conflict of interest involving the Waste Control Specialists, LLC radioactive waste dump in Andrews County, TX. See Beyond Nuclear's article, Radioactive Waste is Good for You, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Rick Perry as Energy Secretary.]

In fact, Trump’s cabinet, if confirmed, will be unparalleled in its ties to Big Polluters and massive corporations.

But it is not a done deal.

A broad coalition of allies are joining the campaign to stop these dangerous picks from being confirmed.

They were joined by Everette Thompson of 350.org and Ben Schreiber of Friends of the Earth who led the discussion on the mobilization to block Trump’s dangerous cabinet. The discussion included:

• The goals of the Day of Denial action on January 9.
• How the confirmation process for cabinet nominations works.
• The paths and possibilities for blocking key nominations.
• How to plug into the various efforts to resist Trump.

More about the presenters:

Ben Schreiber is the climate and energy program director at Friends of the Earth.  Before heading the climate and energy team, Ben previously served as the climate and energy tax analyst at Friends of the Earth. Prior to joining Friends of the Earth, he was a staff attorney at Environment America where he focused on energy issues.  Ben received a B.A. in sociology from the University of Chicago and a J.D. from Washington University in St. Louis

Everette R.H. Thompson has over 15 years of experience in community organizing, organizational development and movement building.  He is Southerner by birth and choice and has dedicated his career to strengthening organizational infrastructure in the South.   Everette has served as the National Field Director for the Rights Working Group a national coalition of over 300 community-based groups and policy organizations dedicated to ending racial and bias profiling across the country.  He also served as the Regional Director of Amnesty International USA’s Southern Regional Office, which was based in Atlanta, GA and covered a region comprised of eleven states in the Southeastern U.S.  As Regional Director, Everette provided the overall strategic vision to meet AIUSA’s campaign goals in the South, traveled extensively throughout the South building strategic partnerships and coalitions and served as the lead spokesperson for AIUSA South. Everette currently serves as the National Equity & Justice Coordinator for 350.org.

Take Action:

Join the Trump Resistance Rapid Response Team [and see the update below, posted as a follow up]

As mentioned on the call members of the Climate Reality Check network are organizing a rapid response effort (on the call it was referred to as a war room) to coordinate action and messaging around a variety of threats coming from the Trump Administration.  Please sign-up below if you are interested in connecting with this effort. 

Sign-up here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1P89R9uN9rUoFmsBRCSpyKpZ1EovYiwHrxBu9qyX1HVY/edit?ts=586fccea

Join a Day Against Denial action this MONDAY, Jan 9.

As stated on the call, we want to have actions in all our states and currently we need folks to sign-up for actions in the following states: Alabama, Alaska, Kansas, Louisiana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, West Virginia  and Wyoming.

 

January 9th #DayAgainstDenial 

The info about the Jan, 9 #DayAgainstDenial is pasted in below. Thanks to the many of you who are already involved. If you're still looking to plug in, see below, or email duncan@350.org for more info.

 

There are dozens of events already registered in nearly all 50 states. We would love it if you or one of your local members is able to anchor a new event in a state where we don't have one yet. Your help spreading the word about all the events is hugely helpful as well. 

DC Actions During Next Week's Hearings 

For DC actions, we're hosting an action training / meet-up to plug people into a variety of appointee actions on Tuesday, Jan 10 in the evening. Please encourage more people to attend -- it's a great place to plug into teams that are taking action on Tillerson and more. 

Facebook invite here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1833573293525829

Sign up here: https://goo.gl/forms/yIZHCHSe7kct9QEv1

If you have any questions about any of the actions in D.C., please email Deirdre Shelly, deirdre@350.org.

You can also contact your U.S. Senators via a Food & Water Watch action alert (Worst. Cabinet. Ever. Trump Is Building a Cabinet Full of Corporate Control. Tell Your Senators: Block These Appointments!)

*The CRC team is Allison Fisher, Public Citizen, Nancy LaPlaca, NC WARN, Jean Su, the Center for Biological Diversity and Ted Glick, Beyond Extreme Energy and movement builder.

Have an idea or speaker for a call?  Email Allison at afisher@citizen.org

Update on January 7, 2017 by admin

As reported by the Washington Post: "Ethics official warns against confirmations before reviews are complete."

Update on January 8, 2017 by admin

Dear Friends,

It is urgent that we RESIST Donald Trump and his dangerous agenda to rollback and blunt our climate and progressive protections.

Join the Network: Sign-up to join the Resist Trump Network

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1P89R9uN9rUoFmsBRCSpyKpZ1EovYiwHrxBu9qyX1HVY/edit?ts=586fccea

Who we are:

We are climate activists who are committed to standing together to RESIST Donald Trump’s pro-fossil fuel, anti-climate policies. Those of us concerned about climate change also recognize that we cannot RESIST Donald Trump alone.  We need to stand together in support of racial, social, environmental, and economic justice for all. If the Progressive community is allowed to fracture, then all of our causes will be lost.

What we are:

The RESIST TRUMP Network is a rapid response network of grassroots and grasstops climate activists primed to take local and national action to combat key actions under the Trump Administration that gravely threaten our climate and environment as well as issues undermining the greater Progressive community.

How we will do it:

• We will hold weekly 30-minute calls on Monday’s at 3 pm ET/12 pm PT to inform you of the pressing federal matters of the week.  The first call will be held Monday, January 9.

• We will discuss and ask that you deploy rapid response efforts on the ground to combat these actions--including LTEs, calling your Congressmen, setting up in-district meetings with your Congressmen, and organizing actions.

• We note that there may also be the possibility of emergency calls that warrant immediate response to sudden actions.

Join our first kick-off call:

Sign-up today to join our first call on Monday, January 9 at 3 pm ET/noon PT

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1P89R9uN9rUoFmsBRCSpyKpZ1EovYiwHrxBu9qyX1HVY/edit?ts=586fccea

These weekly rapid response calls will be organized by Public Citizen, Friends of the Earth, and the Center for Biological Diversity. However, we will draw from the actions, toolkits, and work of our allies in both the climate and other progressive movements.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to any of us.

Thanks,

Allison, Ben, and Jean

Allison Fisher (afisher@citizen.org)

Ben Schreiber (bschreiber@foe.org

Jean Su (jsu@biologicaldiversity.org)

Update on January 17, 2017 by admin

See this reference provided by Food & Water Watch: Corporate States of America: Industry Ties to Trump's Cabinet Nominations, Food & Water Watch, January 6, 2017.

Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant to Close by 2020-2021

As reported by the New York Times.

However: 

...Richard Azzopardi, a spokesman for the governor, cautioned that nothing had been finalized.

“There is no agreement — Governor Cuomo has been working on a possible agreement for 15 years and until it’s done, it’s not done,” he said. “Close only counts for horseshoes, not for nuclear plants.”

(As reported by Westchester Magazine, "We should find out the fate of our next-door neighbor soon; Cuomo is scheduled to deliver the third of six regional State of the State speeches in Westchester on Tuesday.")

And the NY Times article added:

The agreement also provides for flexibility if the state cannot find a replacement for Indian Point’s energy: The deadlines in 2020 and 2021 can be pushed to 2024 and 2025 if both the state and Entergy agree.

The NY Daily News quoted NY State AG Schneiderman:

“If we can shut down Indian Point under an agreement that enhances public safety and kick-starts investment into safer and more reliable renewable energy sources, that will be a major victory for the millions of New Yorkers who live in the region,” he said.

The Daily News also quoted [f]ormer Westchester Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, a longtime proponent of closing the plant, [who] said: "It's about damn time. The plant isn't safe, it isn't economical and it's falling apart."

More media coverage.

Nuclear Power, Debated

In response to a pro-nuclear power op-ed in the New York Times, a number of letters to the editor have been published.

Anti-nuclear letters were provided by Friends of the Earth and Gayle Greene, author of The Woman Who Knew Too Much: Alice Stewart and the Secrets of Radiation, a biography of the pioneering radiation epidemiologist.

Another writer calls for the unique, and massive, Price-Andersen nuclear power liability insurance subsidy -- the risk borne by taxpayers -- be ended.

Yet another submission, from someone who agrees with the pro-nuclear message, warns that under a President Trump and Energy Secretary Rick Perry, "Chernobyl here we come," due to short cuts on safety and regulatory rollbacks.

One of the pro-nuclear letters was submitted by Tyson Smith, an attorney at Winston & Strawn, with whom Beyond Nuclear has tangled in its fight against the proposed new reactor at Fermi 3 in Michigan. Smith is lead attorney for Detroit Edison, the license applicant.

Environmental coalition defends its legal appeal, seeks to block Fermi 3 proposed new reactor in Michigan

Terry Lodge, legal counsel for the environmental coalition resisting Fermi 3

An environmental coalition, including Beyond Nuclear, is entering its 10th year of resistance (2008-2017) against Detroit Edison's proposed new Fermi Unit 3 reactor in southeast Michigan on the Great Lakes shoreline.

On Dec. 23rd, Toledo-based attorney Terry Lodge filed a Reply Brief, in defense of a legal appeal originally filed in October, at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the second highest court in the land, just below the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Reply rebuts challenges to the appeal brought by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and Detroit Edison (DTE).

The appeal challenges NRC's exclusion of the transmission line corridor from the Environmental Impact Statement, a violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The appeal also challenges DTE's violations of NRC's quality assurance (QA) regulations (Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Associates, Inc. serves as the coalition's QA expert).

More.

U.S. looks for potential issues linked to falsified French nuclear documents

As reported by Reuters, and Tweeted by Scott Stapf of the Hastings Group: Nine U.S. reactors linked to French scandal over falsified documents over nuclear parts.

The Reuters article mentions one U.S. nuclear power plant by name:

One U.S. plant with parts from Le Creusot is Dominion Resource Inc's Millstone station in Connecticut, which has had a pressurizer from the French forge in service in Unit 2 since 2006.

Dominion spokesman Ken Holt said that when Areva manufactured the pressurizer for Millstone they performed some additional heat treatment, but did not tell Dominion.

Another U.S. nuclear power plant that may be implicated, according to the article, is FirstEnergy's Beaver Valley in Pennsylvania:

Another plant that may be affected is FirstEnergy Corp's Beaver Valley station in Pennsylvania. Beaver Valley has steam generators and reactor vessel heads manufactured by Spain's Equipos Nucleares SA, or ENSA, which FirstEnergy said may contain some subcomponents from Le Creusot.

The article also reports:

There are nine U.S. plants with parts from Le Creusot, but the NRC did not immediately name them.

No explanation is given for why NRC will not name th implicated nuclear power plants, other than the obvious -- to save the plants bad publicity, and increased public and media scrutiny. 

Such a lack of transparency and accountability by the NRC -- an agency largely to entirely captured by the industry it is supposed to regulate -- is a key part of the collusion that the Japanese Parliament concluded in 2012 was the root cause of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe in that country. But such collusion exists in spades in the United States, as well. 

The Wall Street Journal has also reported on this story, in an article entitled "Coverup at French Nuclear Supplier Sparks Global Review."

Mycle Schneider, lead author of the annual World Nuclear Industry Status Report, was quoted by the Wall Street Journal, warning “Likely we have seen only the tip of the iceberg.”

Update on December 22, 2016 by admin

In June 2016, Greenpeace France published a briefing, providing an overview of the international nuclear safety implications of the document falsification and defective equipment scandals. It is entitled "Anomalies and Suspected Falsifications at Areva's Creusot Forge Site."