US Asset Managers Have ‘Significant Investments’ in Nuclear Weapons and Cluster Bombs: Analysis

“Many investors, given a choice, would not want to profit from companies that manufacture weapons of mass destruction,” said As You Sow’s Andrew Behar.

By Brett Wilkins / Common Dreams  https://scheerpost.com/2023/07/19/us-asset-managers-have-significant-investments-in-nuclear-weapons-and-cluster-bombs-analysis/

Amidst what the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists calls “an exceedingly dangerous nuclear situation” facing humanity today, the largest U.S. mutual funds—which manage the retirement and other savings of tens of millions of Americans—are profiting from investments in nuclear weapons, cluster munitions, and other banned or controversial arms, an analysis by a leading shareholder advocacy group revealed Tuesday.

Measured by dollars invested, the top 25 U.S. asset managers “all earn a D grade or worse, with significant investments in arms manufacturers and major military contractors, including companies involved with nuclear weapons and controversial weapons like cluster munitions, anti-personnel landmines, incendiary weapons, and depleted uranium,” Berkeley, California-based As You Sow said in its new report.

Some of the largest corporate 401(k)s like American Funds, John Hancock Funds, and Franklin Templeton Investments were among the most heavily invested in these armaments, while “fund managers that focus on sustainable investing have less exposure to military weapons, on average.”

Seven funds profiled in the analysis—Eventide Funds, Ecofin, New Alternatives, Vert Asset Management, Aspiration Funds ,Thrivent, and Kayne Anderson—held no investments in the controversial weapons.

“Many investors, given a choice, would not want to profit from companies that manufacture weapons of mass destruction,” As You Sow CEO Andrew Behar said in a statement. “Yet nearly every retirement plan has nuclear and other controversial weapons embedded in their plan. Our new ratings empower investors with the tools to know what they own so they can invest their money in alignment with their values.”

As You Sow’s mutual fund ratings are part of the group’s Weapons Free Funds investment tool, “built to help responsible investors prioritize peace and people over war and violence.”

Nuclear weapons, landmines, and cluster munitions are all banned under international law. However, the United States is not a signatory to any of the bans, and none of the world’s nine nuclear powers have signed the landmark Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Common Dreams reported last month that nuclear-armed nations spent $82.9 billion on their arsenals last year, with the United States accounting for more than half of the global total, according to the Nobel Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

Meanwhile, U.S. House Republicans last week blocked a bipartisan amendment to the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act that would have banned the export of cluster munitions. This, as the Biden administration was giving final approval to transfer cluster bombs to Ukraine’s military—which, like its Russian enemy, has used the weapons during the ongoing war with devastating effects.

July 20, 2023 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

Michigan ratepayers will foot the bill for Resuscitation of Palisades Nuclear Reactor

What changed? Holtec saw an opportunity to feed from the public trough by getting billions of dollars of corporate welfare, from both the state and federal government, to raise Palisades from the dead.

CounterPunch, BY JEFF ALSON, 12 July 23

The 52-year old Palisades nuclear power plant near South Haven, Michigan, on the shore of Lake Michigan near both Chicago and Grand Rapids, is one of the oldest and most degraded reactors in the country. In 2006, Palisades’ original owner, Consumers Energy, cited a wide range of major safety concerns when it sold the plant to Entergy, including that Palisades had one of the most embrittled reactor vessels in the country, needed a new reactor vessel head and steam generator, and had suffered from control rod drive mechanism seal leaks since it first opened.

As natural gas, and then wind and solar, became cheaper and cheaper, Palisades’ electricity became increasingly uncompetitive. Michigan ratepayers subsidized its electricity for years, sometimes paying as much as 57% above market rates. Trying to minimize additional costs, Entergy refused to invest in the most important safety repairs.

In 2018, Entergy announced it would sell the old and dangerous plant to Holtec, a decommissioning company, and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved. The plant was formally closed on May 20, 2022, nuclear fuel was removed on June 13, and the plant was sold to Holtec on June 28, 2022.

The NRC then terminated Palisades’ operating license.

For four years, from 2018 through 2022, every major stakeholder—Entergy, the NRC, the Michigan Public Service Commission, energy and environmental NGOs, groups representing electricity consumers, and, notably, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer—agreed that Palisades should be shut down.

The Governor’s own MI Healthy Climate Plan, released in April 2022, appropriately ignored Palisades’ imminent closure, since there are far cheaper and safer alternatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

What changed? Holtec saw an opportunity to feed from the public trough by getting billions of dollars of corporate welfare, from both the state and federal government, to raise Palisades from the dead.

Holtec has requested a $300 million subsidy from Michigan taxpayers and in late June got a $150 million blank check from the Michigan legislature added to the current state budget without any public debate whatsoever. More ominous, Holtec also wants Michigan ratepayers to, once again, be forced to buy electricity at above-market prices that could significantly raise Michigan’s electricity rates, already the highest in the Midwest.

…………………………………. .Holtec will likely apply for multiple federal subsidies as well. To reopen Palisades, Holtec has already applied to the Department of Energy (DOE) for a billion dollar nuclear loan guarantee under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, and may apply for an additional $1.2 billion from the 2021 Infrastructure bill. Separately, Holtec has applied to DOE for $7.4 billion in loan guarantees under the 2005 Energy Policy Act for one or more future small modular nuclear reactors.

Michigan taxpayers and ratepayers have had too many nuclear white elephants:…………………………………………..

Of course, Michigan is not unique in this regard, as no U.S. nuclear power plants have been built on schedule or on budget in the last 50 years. In the wake of these and scores of other nuclear economic debacles across the country after Three Mile Island, Forbes business magazine concluded, “The failure of the U.S. nuclear power program ranks as the largest managerial disaster in U.S. business history….only the blind, or the biased, can now think that money has been well spent.”

…… A closed U.S. nuclear power plant has never been re-opened and would take, at best, many years. Investing in wind, solar, and battery storage provides much faster, cheaper, and more sustainable greenhouse gas emissions reductions. Of course, nuclear plants also entail unnecessary risks such as high-level nuclear waste, routine radiation releases, the potential for catastrophic accidents, and terrorist attacks…… https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/07/13/michigan-ratepayers-will-foot-the-bill-for-resuscitation-of-palisades-nuclear-reactor/

We must focus our state and federal resources on the most economical and sustainable climate energy solutions, and not squander more taxpayer and ratepayer funds on more misguided investment in nuclear power.

July 14, 2023 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA | Leave a comment

Holtec hogs the money, but Michigan ratepayers will foot the bill for reactor resuscitation.

  July 9, 2023 by beyondnuclearinternational By Jeff Alson

The 52-year old Palisades nuclear power plant near South Haven, Michigan, on the shore of Lake Michigan near both Chicago and Grand Rapids, is one of the oldest and most degraded reactors in the country. In 2006, Palisades’ original owner, Consumers Energy, cited a wide range of major safety concerns when it sold the plant to Entergy, including that Palisades had one of the most embrittled reactor vessels in the country, needed a new reactor vessel head and steam generator, and had suffered from control rod drive mechanism seal leaks since it first opened. 

As natural gas, and then wind and solar, became cheaper and cheaper, Palisades’ electricity became increasingly uncompetitive. Michigan ratepayers subsidized its electricity for years, sometimes paying as much as 57% above market rates. Trying to minimize additional costs, Entergy refused to invest in the most important safety repairs.

In 2018, Entergy announced it would sell the old and dangerous plant to Holtec, a decommissioning company, and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved. The plant was formally closed on May 20, 2022, nuclear fuel was removed on June 13, and the plant was sold to Holtec on June 28, 2022. 

The NRC then terminated Palisades’ operating license.

For four years, from 2018 through 2022, every major stakeholder—Entergy, the NRC, the Michigan Public Service Commission, energy and environmental NGOs, groups representing electricity consumers, and, notably, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer—agreed that Palisades should be shut down. 

The Governor’s own MI Healthy Climate Plan, released in April 2022, appropriately ignored Palisades’ imminent closure, since there are far cheaper and safer alternatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

What changed? Holtec saw an opportunity to feed from the public trough by getting billions of dollars of corporate welfare, from both the state and federal government, to raise Palisades from the dead.

Holtec has requested a $300 million subsidy from Michigan taxpayers and in late June got a $150 million blank check from the Michigan legislature added to the current state budget without any public debate whatsoever. More ominous, Holtec also wants Michigan ratepayers to, once again, be forced to buy electricity at above-market prices that could significantly raise Michigan’s electricity rates, already the highest in the Midwest.

For example, when operating properly, the 700 megawatt Palisades plant can generate about 6 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year. If this electricity were just one cent per kilowatt-hour more expensive than market prices, ratepayers would have to pay an extra $60 million per year. If it were five cents more expensive, the total subsidy would increase to $300 million per year. If Palisades operated for another 5 or 10 years, the total ratepayer subsidy could reach into the billions of dollars.

Holtec will likely apply for multiple federal subsidies as well. To reopen Palisades, Holtec has already applied to the Department of Energy (DOE) for a billion dollar nuclear loan guarantee under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, and may apply for an additional $1.2 billion from the 2021 Infrastructure bill. Separately, Holtec has applied to DOE for $7.4 billion in loan guarantees under the 2005 Energy Policy Act for one or more future small modular nuclear reactors.

Michigan taxpayers and ratepayers have had too many nuclear white elephants: ……………………………………………………………….

Jeff Alson is an Alliance to Halt Fermi 3 board member and an environmental engineer who worked on auto pollution issues for 40 years at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2023/07/09/holtec-hogs-the-money/

July 11, 2023 Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA | 2 Comments