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Yakuza labor structure formed base of nuclear industry – AJW by The Asahi Shimbun

5 Feb

Many jobs in the Japanese nuclear industry are controlled by Yakuza, Japanese gangsters.

Crime syndicates and illegal businesses flock to nuclear plants where workers toil under harsh conditions. But the problem does not stop there.

“The disguised subcontract has thrived at nuclear plants across Japan because the power utilities, which wish to save on personnel expenses, have turned a blind eye to the picture,” said Masahiko Yamamoto, a 54-year-old former nuclear plant worker in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, who is engaged in campaigns against nuclear power.

via Yakuza labor structure formed base of nuclear industry – AJW by The Asahi Shimbun.

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Indian Point Fire Safety Plan Rejected by Regulators – NYTimes.com

2 Feb

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Wednesday that it had rejected some of the Indian Point nuclear power plant’s procedures for assuring fire safety, noting that its two reactors lacked some equipment that was typically used to meet the commission’s regulations.

via Indian Point Fire Safety Plan Rejected by Regulators – NYTimes.com.

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In Defense of Clean Energy – NYTimes.com

29 Jan

The lengthy Republican investigation into the failure of a single solar energy company, Solyndra, has already raised doubts about the value and integrity of a multibillion-dollar federal program designed to support renewable energy development. Mr. Obama had the right response: The failure of some public investments to pan out was not reason enough to abandon clean energy or “cede the wind or solar or battery industry to China or Germany.” It’s an argument he will have to keep making.

via In Defense of Clean Energy – NYTimes.com.

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The real beneficiaries of energy subsidies – Big Oil – Salon.com

18 Jan

In 2010, Bloomberg News released a report showing that global governmental support “for fossil fuels dwarf support given to renewable energy sources.” The numbers led one financial expert to note that while “mainstream investors worry that renewable energy only works with direct government support,” the truth is that “the global direct subsidy for fossil fuels is around ten times the subsidy for renewables.”

According to data compiled by the Environmental Law Institute, the United States is a big contributor to this global subsidy imbalance, “provid(ing) substantially larger subsidies to fossil fuels than to renewables.” In practice, some of the biggest of those U.S. subsidies come in the form of special tax breaks for oil and gas development, and in direct taxpayer funding of multinational corporations’ foreign mining projects (yes, you read that right — your tax dollars go to fund fossil fuel development overseas).

via The real beneficiaries of energy subsidies – Energy – Salon.com.

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Fracking: Anatomy of a Free Market Failure « Real Climate Economics

16 Jan

Right now everybody knows that energy sources are key to our economic future, but nobody knows what sources will turn out to be the “winners” or “losers” in the short, medium, or long-run. Unless renewable sources dominate in the long-run, most knowledgeable observers believe we are in a lot of trouble. But what energy sources will dominate in the medium and short-run is very much up in the air. Again, scientists may tell us that unless renewables are playing a dominant role in the medium-run, and a much more important role in the short-run than they currently do, we are in more trouble than we should find comfortable. But betting odds on whether that will prove to be the case are much less certain than scientific opinion about what needs to happen.

What role does natural gas play in this scenario? To make a long story short: Oil has peaked, coal is plentiful but most likely to lead to cataclysmic climate change, and natural gas is cleaner than coal but a fossil fuel nonetheless. Which is what makes betting odds on the role natural gas will – as opposed to should play – in our energy future so difficult to predict. If wise political forces seize control over energy policy it will play a limited role, and only as a “bridge technology” as renewables replace all fossil fuels ASAP. If the fossil fuel industry continues to exert as much political power as it has over the past hundred years, natural gas may become the new “king” for many decades.

via Fracking: Anatomy of a Free Market Failure « Real Climate Economics.

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New Texas Rule to Unlock Secrets of Hydraulic Fracturing – NYTimes.com

15 Jan

Starting Feb. 1, drilling operators in Texas will have to report many of the chemicals used in the process known as hydraulic fracturing. Environmentalists and landowners are looking forward to learning what acids, hydroxides and other materials have gone into a given well.

But a less-publicized part of the new regulation is what some experts are most interested in: the mandatory disclosure of the amount of water needed to “frack” each well. Experts call this an invaluable tool as they evaluate how fracking affects water supplies in the drought-prone state.

via New Texas Rule to Unlock Secrets of Hydraulic Fracturing – NYTimes.com.

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Our looming energy wars – Energy – Salon.com

10 Jan

The Strait of Hormuz is, however, only one of several hot spots where energy, politics and geography are likely to mix in dangerous ways in 2012 and beyond. Keep your eye as well on the East and South China Seas, the Caspian Sea basin and an energy-rich Arctic that is losing its sea ice. In all of these places, countries are disputing control over the production and transportation of energy, and arguing about national boundaries and/or rights of passage.

via Our looming energy wars – Energy – Salon.com.

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A College Campus Offers a Glimpse of a Geothermal Future – Technology – The Atlantic Cities

9 Jan

Officials from schools and towns all over the country have been traveling to Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., to look at, well, nothing. The school is halfway through the construction of the largest geothermal district heating and cooling system in the country. By the time it’s done, the system will heat and cool the entire campus, completely replacing the university’s ancient coal-fired boilers, and it will serve as one of the best testaments yet to the promise that larger communities – even whole towns and one day cities – could go geothermal in the future as well.

via A College Campus Offers a Glimpse of a Geothermal Future – Technology – The Atlantic Cities.

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Over Half of Germany’s Renewable Energy Owned By Citizens & Farmers, Not Utility Companies : TreeHugger

8 Jan

Germany now produces slightly over 20% of all its electricity from renewable sources.

The thing that got me though, other than the huge lead in solar PV installations Germany has over the US … is what slightly over half of renewable energy being owned not by corporations but by actual biological people means—obviously a democratic shift in control of resources and a break from the way electricity and energy has been produced over the past century.

A good thing: Decentralized power generation, more relocalization and reregionalization of economic activity, the world getting smaller while more connected and therefore in a way bigger at the same time… taking a step backwards, and perhaps sideways, while moving forwards.

via Over Half of Germany’s Renewable Energy Owned By Citizens & Farmers, Not Utility Companies : TreeHugger.

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On Shale Gas, Warming and Whiplash – NYTimes.com

7 Jan

Setting aside the fights between environmentalists and industry, the picture emerging in the science is of an initial assertion in an area with inadequate data (largely because of the industry’s proprietary bent) that is — unsurprisingly — being challenged. I encourage you to look back at Gavin Schmidt’s “Fracking Methane” post from last year at Realclimate, which I feel nailed the nuances. I hope he will take a look at the new work, too.

Unfortunately, when research on tough questions sits under the microscope because of its relevancy to policy fights, the impact on the public can be a severe case of whiplash. Journalists and campaigners succumbing to “single-study syndrome” in search of a hot front-page headline or debating point threaten to alienate readers seeking some sense of reality.

via On Shale Gas, Warming and Whiplash – NYTimes.com.

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