Despite feeding at the pork trough, nuclear left behind by wind and soon solar

According to the International Energy Agency nuclear power can only reduce worldwide emissions of CO2 by 6% by 2050…..as opposed to 54% and 21% respectively for the energy savings and renewable energy.That's why the U.S. needs to be the leader in the promotion and development of sustainable energy, and reject nuclear power. This agenda is backed by two new analyses.

In a recent report by the US Energy Information Administration, the agency found that renewable energy represented 11% of American production in 2009, more than nuclear energy.  With 1210 mw of renewable energy installed, the total capacity added in 2009 reaches 4,000 mw. The United States is now the largest producer of wind energy in the world, ahead of Germany, according to the GWEC (Global Wind Energy Council), with a total capacity of 25,170 mw as opposed to 23,900 mw for Germany.  But remarkably the United States should this year also take the lead in the solar energy sector.  The American production of wind-energy electricity made possible a saving of 54 million tons of CO2 in 2009, reducing the carbon emission in the electricity sector by 2%, or the equivalent of the removal of 9 million cars, stated the AWAE. Read more.

Huge win in GA as judge declares permitting of new reactors illegal

A Fulton County, GA Superior Court judge ruled on April 30 that the Georgia Public Service Commission acted illegally in violation of Georgia state law in granting a permit to build two nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle. The court found that the Public Service Commission never outlined why the expansion is in the public interest, a requirement of Georgia law. The White house awarded $8 billion in federal loan guarantees for two new reactors at the site. But the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy challenged the PSC's licensing permit and won. The law suit "aimed to protect Georgians from unfair utility costs in connection with the proposed construction of two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle near Waynesboro, Georgia," according to the SACE press release.

New York tells Indian Point to retrofit cooling towers

In a huge victory for environmentalists, the State of New York has ordered the Indian Point nuclear power plant to retrofit cooling towers or shut down because the present "once-through" cooling system is too destructive to the Hudson River ecosystem. The State said that the Indian Point plant, just 35 miles from midtown Manhattan and situated on the shores of the Hudson river, kills so many fish, and consumes and contaminates so much water, that it violates the federal Clean Water Act. Indian Point owners, Entergy, already embroiled in a license extension battle in Vermont where the State recently voted not to extend its Vermont Yankee plant's operating license beyond the March 2012 expiry, may fight the New York decision in court. The company faces the prospect of a more than one billion dollar bill to retrofit the plant and a long outage. Indian Point, like Vermont Yankee, has also leaked tritium (as well as Strontium 90) into the Hudson. The New York Department of Environmental Conservation said that the  power plant’s water-intake system kills nearly a billion aquatic organisms a year. The New York Times as well as other media outlets reported the decision in depth on April 3, 2010. For more about the damaging effects of the once-through system, see our landmark 2001 report, Licensed to Kill.

Effort to lift ban on new nukes in Minnesota stalls out

The Minnesota Energy, Utilities, Technologies and Communications Senate committee tabled a bill which would have repealed the current ban on new nuclear power plants in the state until the nuclear waste issue is addressed. You can watch the repeal go down in flames here demonstration that Minnesota remains increasingly skeptical of President Obama's call for more nuclear power.

Manufacturers in retreat from nuclear power

A front page story on the March 2, 2010 Washington Post describes how businesses and other electricity users "aren't buying" pre-financing extremely risky new nuclear power ventures.