nuclear-news

Deepwater Horizon Response, 100727-G-9091S-43, USCG Photo by Dave Silva. cleaning tar balls in Florida, Pensacola, FL

Dr. Brian Stacy, NOAA veterinarian, prepares to clean an oiled Kemp’s Ridley turtle, Photo Credit: NOAA and Georgia Department of Natural Resources

From Greenpeace:
“Trump’s Executive Order Spree Explained: From Monuments to Oil Spills by Cassady Craighill April 28, 2017

The latest moves by the Trump administration could open up protected areas to oil and gas drilling.
We may say this every Friday, but this time we really mean it — this has been one hell of a long week.

Trump marks his first 100 days in the White House this weekend, and in an attempt to squeeze in just a few more attacks on our communities and environment, he went on an Executive Order blitz.

It started on Wednesday when he signed an executive order that ordered the Interior Department to review…

From Human Rights Watch:
“APRIL 24, 2017 12:59PM EDT ‪Dispatches‬
You’d Never Guess 2017 is the ‘Year Of Ecology’ in Russia
21 Environmental Groups in Russia Have Now Been Branded ‘Foreign Agents’ By Anastasia Ovsyannikova, Natalia Estemirova fellow

Last Friday morning, Yuri Ivanov, a member and former director of Kola Environmental Center (KEC), arrived at his office and learned from the news that the Justice Ministry had listed KEC as a “foreign agent.” “It is not a big surprise for us,” sighed Ivanov when I called him. Indeed, anything is possible when it comes to the “foreign agent” hunt in Russia.

In 2012, the Russian government introduced a “foreign agents” law that uses the label to demonize independent groups who accept foreign funding and conduct very broadly defined “political activity.”

When the law came into force, ministry inspectors warned KEC that it was “on the verge” of violating the…

Opinion:

¶ “Hydropower boom in China and along Asia’s rivers outpaces regional electricity demand” • For the past two decades, China has been in an unprecedented dam-building boom, developing over 300 GW of hydropower. But is it too much? Probably, at least in the short to medium term. Installed hydropower far outstrips demand. [thethirdpole.net]

Xiaowan (Photo by International Rivers)

¶ “How A Professional Climate Change Denier Discovered The Lies And Decided To Fight For Science” • It might seem like an impossible transition, but Jerry Taylor, who used to be staff director for the energy and environment task force at the American Legislative Exchange Council and vice president of the Cato Institute, made it. [UPROXX]

¶ “Why nuclear power has no future in California or U.S.” • To those who have watched the nuclear industry collapse, the Westinghouse bankruptcy represents the final chapter in the 20th…

Protesting Russian State owned Gazprom; Albertina Museum in Vienna

Deepwater Horizon, BP oil spill, Gulf of Mexico
From the VOA:
“Trump Signs Order Opening Arctic for Oil Drilling
April 28, 2017 3:23 PM, Steve Baragona
WASHINGTON — 
President Donald Trump is re-opening for oil exploration areas that President Barack Obama had closed, a move that environmental groups have promised to fight.

In an executive order Friday, the president reversed the Obama administration’s decision to prohibit oil and gas drilling in the Arctic waters off Alaska.

The order also instructs the Interior Department to review current restrictions on energy development in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. In addition, it bars the creation or expansion of marine sanctuaries and orders a review of all areas protected within the last 10 years.
[…]
The action is the latest from the Trump administration aimed at boosting domestic energy production and loosening…