Archive | May, 2011

NY Attorney General Sues Feds to Force Fracking Study | The EnvironmentaList | Earth Island Journal | Earth Island Institute

31 May

New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman filed a lawsuit against the federal government today for its failure to review the environmental impacts of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the Delaware River Basin.

The Delaware River Basin includes a portion of the New York City watershed that provides most of the drinking water used by over nine million New York residents.

via NY Attorney General Sues Feds to Force Fracking Study | The EnvironmentaList | Earth Island Journal | Earth Island Institute.

Who knows, maybe fracking in the Delaware Basin is part of a conspiracy by the brothers K to poison all those pesky liberals living in New York City.

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Nuclear Fuel Maker Resumes Production After Scathing Review – Jeff McMahon – The Ingenuity of the Commons – Forbes

30 May

One of the curious features of the modern civilized world is that the health, safety, and lives of the MANY are put at risk to salve the egos of the FEW.

“The training wheels are off!” promised the admiral at the helm of a Tennessee company that has resumed production of nuclear fuel for the Navy after two incidents in 2009 shut the plant down.

Subsequent inspections turned up falsified inspection records and “multiple and repetitive performance issues.”

via Nuclear Fuel Maker Resumes Production After Scathing Review – Jeff McMahon – The Ingenuity of the Commons – Forbes.

Germany to abandon nuclear power by 2022 – USATODAY.com

30 May

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s coalition government agreed early Monday to shut down all the country’s nuclear power plants by 2022, the environment minister said, making it the first major industrialized power to go nuclear-free since the Japanese disaster.

via Germany to abandon nuclear power by 2022 – USATODAY.com.

Remembered

30 May

Membered

Cycle of Life

30 May

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Appeals Court: No Dancing Allowed at Jefferson Memorial – The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times

29 May

Whoops! Gotta’ be careful about those propensities!

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said expressive dancing “falls into the spectrum” of prohibited activities—including demonstrations, picketing and speechmaking—at the memorial. The rules, the court said, ban conduct that has the “propensity” to draw onlookers. The court’s ruling is here.

via Appeals Court: No Dancing Allowed at Jefferson Memorial – The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times.

Promise and Peril in Chicago Utilities’ Smart Grid – NYTimes.com

29 May

There are significant privacy issues. A system that knows when people turn down their thermostats can surmise when they have left town, creating a theft risk. A savvy divorce lawyer may discover a wayward spouse recharging her electric car at the home of a man not her husband. …

Now utilities, which are not accustomed to handling data in the way Google and Facebook have, will know a great deal about people’s lives. They might let the information leak. They might package and sell it. They might leave it open to hackers or stalkers.

“Just because I’m getting electricity in my house should not mean everything going on inside my house is going to be exposed,” said Lee Tien, an expert in smart-grid privacy at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

via Promise and Peril in Chicago Utilities’ Smart Grid – NYTimes.com.

Nuclear Power Plant Safety Act of 2011

28 May

Dear Rep. Chris Murphy:

Representative Edward Markey (D-MA) is introducing new legislation – the Nuclear Power Plant Safety Act of 2011.

As your constituent, I am writing to urge you to co-sponsor his bill to ensure a safer future for all Americans. Rep. Markey said:

A nuclear disaster could happen here in America just as it has in Japan, our technological equal. This legislation will ensure that the lessons to be learned from the nuclear meltdown in Japan are incorporated into U.S. regulations to ensure the safety of our nuclear power plants in the United States.

As these catastrophic events have unfolded, it has become clear that the meltdown did not occur primarily because of earthquake-related damage; rather, it occurred because of a prolonged loss of electricity to the reactor cores and their spent nuclear fuel pools. Such events could be caused not just by earthquakes or tsunamis, but by severe storms, terrorist attacks or other events.

The Nuclear Power Plant Safety Act of 2011 will impose a moratorium on ALL new reactor licenses, reactor designs or license extensions until new safety requirements are in place.

If you or your staff have questions or need more information – or if you would like to cosponsor the legislation, please contact Dr. Michal Freedhoff of Markey’s staff at 202-225-2836.

Here’s the full Markey bill.

Yours truly,

Charlie Keil

PS: People in Connecticut will be chernobylized and fukushima’d by Indian Point, geologically the most dangerous nuke plant in America! There are plants on fault lines in California that are less likely to “blow” or go “china syndrome” than Indian Point. Haven’t heard you say one mumblin word about the dangers of Indian Point. Do you know which way the wind blows most of the time? From the West to the East?

Don’t think I will vote for a Senator or a Congressman who doesn’t know which way the wind blows.

Oil in Shale Sets Off a Boom in Texas – NYTimes.com

28 May

You know what they say, oil and water don’t mix. Who knows, maybe this boom in oil fracking  will destroy all the water in South Texas & they can use the newly fracked oil to burn it to a crisp:

But water remains a key issue. In addition to possible contamination of surface and underground water from fracking fluids, the sheer volume of water required poses challenges, especially in South Texas, which faces a severe drought and rapidly diminishing water levels in the local aquifer.

At the rate wells are being drilled, “there’s definitely going to be a problem,” said Bay Laxson, a local water official.

Dave Thompson, regional production superintendent for the oil company SM Energy said the industry knew that water issues were “an Achilles heel.” He said his company was building a system to reuse water in the field.

via Oil in Shale Sets Off a Boom in Texas – NYTimes.com.

The Tea Party Cashes Out

27 May

The Tea Party is going up-scale with the same Big Biz Money that owns everyone else in Washtington:

But when the base also realizes that the Tea Party Republicans they elected last November are already pocketing huge amounts of cash from the same bailed-out firms they once railed against, the sense of betrayal among the ranks could become venomous.

via The Tea Party Leads a Revolution Against Itself | The Nation.

Truth and Traditions anyone?