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.

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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?

‘Tornado Alley’ reactor not fully twister-proof – Yahoo! News

27 May

WASHINGTON – The closest nuclear power plant to tornado-ravaged Joplin, Mo., was singled out weeks before the storm for being vulnerable to twisters.

via ‘Tornado Alley’ reactor not fully twister-proof – Yahoo! News.

Surprise, surprise! How many US nuclear reactors will be in the way of major storms in the next 3 months, 6 months, year?

Tyson Slocum: Chevron Banks on Profitable Political Agenda

26 May

Signed, sealed, and delivered:

Chevron’s lobbyists are a Who’s Who of former government officials. DC’s rule of thumb: corporations ensure better access to lawmakers when they put their former colleagues from government on their payroll. Chevron pays the Breaux Lott Leadership Group of the law firm Patton Boggs $135,000 every three months to lobby members of Congress. That means former Senators John Breaux and Trent Lott hobnob with their Senate contemporaries, and ask whatever Chevron tells them to ask for. Chevron has lobbyist Richard Hohlt on retainer, close friend of Karl Rove, and the kingmaker of a monthly gathering of GOP leaders inside DC called the “Off the Record Club.” Chevron pays the law firm Akin Gump $90,000 every three months to take advantage of the firm’s Democratic stars, including Al From, and former top staffers to Senator Max Baucus and Rahm Emanuel.

via Tyson Slocum: Chevron Banks on Profitable Political Agenda.

Light Catchers

26 May

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Obama Subtly Shifts War Aims in Libya – NYTimes.com

26 May

Obama’s legacy: A third war we have no business fighting. Perhaps he’s merely trapped in the iron logic a half-century old military-industrial complex.

But Mr. Obama suggested on Tuesday that the objective had broadened. “The goal is to make sure that the Libyan people can make a determination about how they want to proceed, and that they’ll be finally free of 40 years of tyranny and they can start creating the institutions required for self-determination.” That is quite parallel to the objective the United States set in Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003.

via Obama Subtly Shifts War Aims in Libya – NYTimes.com.

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Never mind Medicare. What about the economy? – 2012 Elections – Salon.com

25 May

We’re not talking double-dip recession yet, but the warning signs are too numerous to ignore. It’s difficult to see how the modest gains in the labor market we’ve seen over the last six months can continue if jobless claims remain elevated and GDP growth continues to slacken.

But ignoring the problem is exactly what both the White House and Congress appear to be doing. There are absolutely no plans afoot to address unemployment or slowing economic growth. The notion that sharp cuts in spending will spur growth is absurd — Europe’s austerity binge offers the most obvious counter-example.

via Never mind Medicare. What about the economy? – 2012 Elections – Salon.com.

Yale Environment 360: U.S. Spent Nuclear Fuel Pools Pose Catastrophic Risks, Report Claims

25 May

Of the 65,000 metric tons of highly radioactive spent fuel generated by U.S. reactors, about 75 percent is kept in cooling pools. According to Robert Alvarez, a senior policy advisor in the U.S. Department of Energy in the Clinton administration and co-author of the report, those pools were not designed for the amount of fuel — or the level of radiation — they are holding and are vulnerable to the type of events that crippled the Fukushima plant in Japan in April.

That is to say, the US nuclear establishment – industrialists, businessmen, politicians, and bureaucrats – poses a catastrophic risk to the nation.

via Yale Environment 360: U.S. Spent Nuclear Fuel Pools Pose Catastrophic Risks, Report Claims.

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A link between climate change and Joplin tornadoes? Never! – The Washington Post

24 May

Sounds like weather particles have caucused and are in a conspiracy against us. Or maybe it’s just anthropogenic climate change. We’re conspiring against ourselves.

Because if you asked yourself what it meant that the Amazon has just come through its second hundred-year drought in the past five years, or that the pine forests across the western part of this continent have been obliterated by a beetle in the past decade — well, you might have to ask other questions. Such as: Should President Obama really just have opened a huge swath of Wyoming to new coal mining? Should Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sign a permit this summer allowing a huge new pipeline to carry oil from the tar sands of Alberta? You might also have to ask yourself: Do we have a bigger problem than $4-a-gallon gasoline?

via A link between climate change and Joplin tornadoes? Never! – The Washington Post.

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