Jeremy Corbyn Explains Why He Can’t Envisage Using Nuclear Weapons, HuffPost UK, 14 May 17, May’s closeness to Trump is the real ‘coalition of risk and insecurity’Jeremy Corbyn has signalled he can’t envisage ever using nuclear weapons because to do so would mean the world had already suffered a “cataclysmic failure”.
The Labour leader said that nuclear warfare would mean “the indiscriminate killing of millions of people” and risk long-lasting radiation that would wipe out all life across much of the planet.
In a keynote speech on defence and security at the Chatham House think tank, Corbyn stressed that his “first duty” would be to protect Britain by using diplomacy and defusing tensions around the world.
He also said that the UK’s Trident nuclear deterrent would be renewed by Labour and then placed into a strategic defence review to look at new, long-term threats such as cyber warfare.
Corbyn also said that he wouldn’t “take any lectures” from the Tories on humanitarian intervention after the Thatcher government refused to apply sanctions on South Africa in the wake of apartheid shootings of children in Soweto.
And he claimed that the Conservatives were the party putting Britons in danger as “Theresa May seeks to build a coalition of risk and insecurity with Donald Trump”.
A Labour government would “step back, learn the lessons of the past and find new ways to solve and prevent conflicts”, he said.
And it would seek to build cooperation with China and India, unlike the Prime Minister, who in January said that the two Eastern giants were threatening to ‘eclipse’ the West in military terms.
Corbyn, a long-time advocate of unilateral nuclear disarmament, said earlier this year that his instructions in any nuclear conflict would be to “follow orders when given”, rather than writing a letter automatically granting prior authority to fire off missiles.
May 15, 2017
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South Africa to Sign New Nuclear Power Pacts After Court Ruling https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2017-05-13/south-africa-wont-appeal-judgment-blocking-nuclear-power-deal May 13, 2017, JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa plans to sign new, more transparent nuclear power agreements with five foreign countries after a high court blocked a deal with Russia due to a lack of oversight, the energy ministry said on Saturday.
South Africa signed intergovernmental agreements with Russia, France, China, South Korea and the United States in 2014 as part of plans to build a fleet of nuclear power plants at a cost of between $30 billion and $70 billion.
Many investors view the scale of the nuclear plan as unaffordable and a major risk to South Africa’s financial stability, while opponents of President Jacob Zuma say the deal will be used as a conduit for corruption. Zuma denies allegations of wrongdoing.
State energy firm Eskom says nuclear power should play a role in South Africa’s energy mix and will help reduce reliance on coal.
The Western Cape High Court found last month that the agreement with Russia lacked transparency and offered Moscow favorable tax rules while placing heavy financial obligations on South Africa. The energy ministry said it had “major concerns” about the court judgment but would not appeal the ruling. It will continue with nuclear energy plans adhering to stricter procedural guidelines, including consulting parliament.
“There is no intention to table the current agreements but (we) will embark to sign new agreements with all five countries and table them within reasonable time to parliament,” the ministry said in a statement.
Eskom on Friday reinstated its former chief executive Brian Molefe, a Zuma ally who has supported the nuclear power plan.
Molefe stepped down five months ago after being implicated in a report by the country’s anti-graft watchdog into alleged influence-peddling. He denied any wrongdoing.
Some analysts say former finance minister Pravin Gordhan was fired partly because he resisted pressures from a political faction allied to Zuma to back nuclear expansion.
New Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba has said nuclear expansion will only be pursued if it is affordable. (Reporting by Joe Brock; Editing by Mark Potter)
May 15, 2017
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Nuclear deal back on the agenda, says minister http://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/nuclear-deal-back-on-the-agenda-says-minister-9121358, 1
4 May 2017, Siyabonga Mkhwanazi Cape Town – Energy Minister Mammoloko Kubayi has confirmed the nuclear deal is back on the agenda.
Kubayi said this on Saturday after she announced she would not appeal the Western Cape High Court decision to halt the nuclear process.
She would instead stick to the judgment by following all the processes in the procurement of nuclear power. She said South Africa needed nuclear power as part of the energy mix programme of the government.
Kubayi said the process would start from scratch. From next month, new, standardised agreements would be signed with Russia, China, the US, South Korea and France.
This came after the court nullified three of the agreements last month.
Kubayi said the government couldn’t estimate the cost of nuclear power, but the process would start from scratch.
“We have to start fresh and do new determinations and issue requests for information.
“That is important because it will assist us on the cost.”
However, the government’s push for a nuclear programme has been questioned, with opposition parties warning of high costs and threats of legal action if proper processes are not followed.
The court halted the nuclear programme last month, saying processes had not been followed.
The DA, IFP and ACDP said the government had not come clean regarding the costs.
One of the civil society groups that took the government to court on the nuclear deal said on Saturday it would keep an eye on the process. The Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute said it wanted Kubayi to follow the law.
Co-ordinator for energy and climate programme at the institute Liz McDaid said it wanted to ensure everything was done according to the book. “We are glad the minister has chosen to follow the law because the previous process was found to be illegal. We will need to study whatever steps she puts on the table.
“If they are going to follow the process, it will show we don’t need nuclear. Today we have organisations like the CSIR (the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) who say that we don’t need nuclear. It is research institutions who say these are the numbers,” said McDaid.
DA spokesperson on energy Gordon Mackay said the party welcomed the fact that Kubayi would follow the process.
However, the party was concerned the government was intent on pushing ahead, despite concerns about costs.
Mackay said the decision was not sound if it was not based on the Integrated Resource Plan of 2016. He warned the party would interdict the minister if she started the process without the plan.
IFP chief whip Narend Singh also expressed concern about the costs. He said nuclear was unaffordable for South Africa at this stage and the government would have to prove in Parliament that nuclear was affordable.
Steve Swart, of the ACDP, said the party was concerned that nuclear was unaffordable for the country.
“The ACDP notes that Minister Kubayi has decided not to appeal the Western Cape High Court decision. This means she will have to comply with the stringent process set out by the court regarding openness and transparency and the role of Parliament in evaluating the desirability and costing of the nuclear project,” he said.”
May 15, 2017
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Southern to Take Over Westinghouse Georgia Nuclear Project https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-13/southern-to-take-over-georgia-reactor-projects-from-westinghouse by
Stephen Cunningham and Tiffany Kary May 14, 2017,
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Westinghouse bankruptcy threw fate of reactors into question
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Southern has appealed to Trump administration for help
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Utility owner Southern Co. has agreed to take the lead on building two nuclear reactors at its Vogtle power plant in Georgia from bankrupt contractor Westinghouse Electric Co. as soon as next month.
The Atlanta-based utility owner said in a statement late Friday that an interim contract with Westinghouse will be extended to June 3 while the companies finalize and gain approval for a new service agreement. Just last week, Southern Chief Executive Officer Thomas Fanning said Toshiba Corp.’s Westinghouse unit had “given every indication” it wanted out of the pact to build reactors but was refraining from a decision under the contract that was due to expire Friday.
- Westinghouse’s bankruptcy in March threw into question the fate of four U.S. nuclear reactors — the two at Southern’s Vogtle plant and another two being built at Scana Corp.’s V.C. Summer station in South Carolina. The projects were the first to gain U.S. approval for construction in more than 30 years and were once seen as ushering in a new wave of nuclear generation in the country. Fanning has said his company could take over the work at Vogtle if Toshiba provides $3.7 billion to finish it as promised. The deal is said to also depend in part on Scana agreeing to follow suit, so the two companies will be able to share resources.
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The companies reached an agreement in principle that “allows for the transition of project management from Westinghouse” to Southern once their current engineering and construction contract is rejected in Westinghouse’s bankruptcy case, Southern said in its
statement. “During this time, work will continue at the site and an orderly transition of project management will begin.”
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Westinghouse has meanwhile already laid out plans to ditch the money-losing business of building reactors and instead focus on servicing and decommissioning work. It set up agreements with both Southern and Scana to give them more time to decide whether they wanted to continue construction.
In March, less than 24 hours after Westinghouse filed for bankruptcy, Southern’s Fanning said in a Bloomberg Television interview that he flewto Tokyo just to “look the CEO of Toshiba in the eye” and remind him that his company had a “moral commitment” to getting the Vogtle project done. Both Fanning and Georgia regulators have appealed to the Trump administration for help in finishing the project.
- In April, Scana and Westinghouse agreed to extend a review of the V.C. Summer nuclear project until June 26.
In Westinghouse’s bankruptcy, the most significant debts are held by Apollo Global Management LLC, which financed an $800 million operating loan, and parent Toshiba. The Chapter 11 case has moved slowly, with Westinghouse recently asking for a two-week delay until May 26 to file a full schedule of its assets and debts.
May 15, 2017
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NO PRICE TAG FOR NUCLEAR BUILD PROGRAMME YET http://ewn.co.za/2017/05/13/no-price-tag-for-nuclear-build-programme-yet The department of energy says it is yet to determine the cost of the nuclear build programme, while concerns were raised over a previous estimate of R1 trillion. Sifiso Zulu 14 May 17
JOHANNESBURG – The department of energy says it has not pronounced the cost of the nuclear build programme as it is considering funding options.
A price tag of up to R1 trillion previously reported to be the cost of nuclear power has raised concern over whether it is affordable
The department says it is negotiating with five countries that have signed intergovernmental agreements with South Africa in 2014 as part of plans to build a fleet of nuclear power plants.
The department’s Zizamele Mbambo says the price will only be determined once all consultations have been concluded
“We are not at the stage where we have determined what will be the actual cost of the programme because the procurement process has not started.”
The Western Cape High Court last month ruled that the decision to call for proposals for the procurement of nuclear energy is unlawful and unconstitutional
Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi has announced that she will not be appealing the ruling. (Edited by Masechaba Sefularo)
May 15, 2017
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Two experts resign from EPA posts to protest the agency’s science committee shake-up, WP By Chris Mooney May 12 In an expanding controversy over the role of science in the Trump administration, two expert advisers to the Environmental Protection Agency resigned Friday in protest at the dismissal of half of the members of a key science committee.
Carlos Martín, an engineer with the Urban Institute, and Peter Meyer, an economist with the E.P. Systems Group, an environmental and economic research firm, posted a joint resignation letter on Twitter, saying they were standing down to protest the agency’s decision to remove the scientists.
“We cannot in good conscience be complicit in our co-chairs’ removal, or in the watering down of credible science, engineering, and methodological rigor that is at the heart of that decision,” they wrote.
Martín and Meyer had advised the EPA science’s branch on research related to environmental contaminants and spills, the disposal of waste, and techniques for environmental cleanups.
The Trump administration has proposed to cut the budget of that branch, called the Office of Research and Development, by $233 million in 2018…….https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/05/12/two-experts-resign-from-epa-posts-to-protest-the-agencys-science-committee-shakeup/?utm_term=.65cba6cecfec
May 15, 2017
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Trump’s Expected Pick for Top USDA Scientist Is Not a Scientist, Sam Clovis likely to be named undersecretary of the USDA department that manages research on everything from climate change to nutrition. Pro Publica, by Jessica Huseman , May 12, 2017, The USDA’s research section studies everything from climate change to nutrition. Under the 2008 Farm Bill, its leader is supposed to serve as the agency’s “chief scientist” and be chosen “from among distinguished scientists with specialized or significant experience in agricultural research, education, and economics.”
But Sam Clovis — who, according to sources with knowledge of the appointment and members of the agriculture trade press, is President Trump’s pick to oversee the section — appears to have no such credentials.
Clovis has never taken a graduate course in science and is openly skeptical of climate change. While he has a doctorate in public administration and was a tenured professor of business and public policy at Morningside College for 10 years, he has published almost no academic work.
Clovis is better known for hosting a conservative talk radio show in his native Iowa and, after mounting an unsuccessful run for Senate in 2014, becoming a fiery pro-Trump advocate on television……https://www.propublica.org/article/trumps-expected-pick-for-top-usda-scientist-is-not-a-scientist
May 15, 2017
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Jeremy Corbyn is still dodging the nuclear question, George Eaton political editor New Statesman, 12 May 17
The Labour leader came close but ultimately refused to say that he would approve the use of nuclear weapons. In the general election, the Conservatives aim to shoot to kill. By denouncing Labour as soft on defence, they believe they can win their first landslide victory since 1987 (when they similarly tormented the opposition over this issue)……
It is the gravest act of all – the use of nuclear weapons – that has proved most fraught for Labour in recent times. Though the party’s manifesto has committed to Trident renewal, Corbyn, a lifelong unilateralist, has long refused to say whether he would use the UK’s arsenal (and, indeed, has said he would not). Shadow defence secretary Nia Griffith, who has said she would, was not invited to the event and did not contribute to drafting the speech (seeing it for the first time at 11pm last night). At her insistence, a manifesto section warning any prime minister to be “extremely cautious about ordering the use of weapons of mass destruction” was removed.
But in his speech, Corbyn all but repeated it. “I am often asked if as prime minister I would order the use of nuclear weapons,” he said. “It’s an extraordinary question when you think about it – would you order the indiscriminate killing of millions of people? Would you risk such extensive contamination of the planet that no life could exist across large parts of the world?”
He added, however: “Labour is committed actively to pursue disarmament under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and we are committed to no first use of nuclear weapons
But let me make this absolutely clear. If elected prime minister, I will do everything necessary to protect the safety and security of our people and our country. That would be my first duty.”
That, however, fell short of explicitly stating he would use nuclear weapons (which Trident supporters regard as essential for deterrence)……….
As the event drew to a close, Corbyn was asked whether he supported the full renewal of Trident (encompassing four Vanguard-class submarines). Corbyn noted that while parliament had voted for a like-for-like replacement, Labour would hold a Strategic Defence Review, which he did not wish to pre-empt. Though aides subsequently stated that abolition was not an option, the possibility of downgrading the system remains. Labour’s nuclear headache will not end here…….
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/june2017/2017/05/jeremy-corbyn-still-dodging-nuclear-question
May 13, 2017
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Nuclear subsidies distort markets, hurt business, say FirstEnergy opponents http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2017/05/nuclear_subsidies_distort_mark.html By John Funk, The Plain Dealer on May 10, 2017 CLEVELAND, Ohio — Business and consumer groups joined forces Tuesday to oppose FirstEnergy’s plan to change Ohio law to create new subsidies for the power company’s nuclear power plants.
On the opposite side, supporting FirstEnergy, were unions, a contractor’s group, and the Perry local school district, which benefits from taxes from the Perry nuclear power plant.
The Ohio Manufacturers’ Association, the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel, the Lordstown Energy Center, Dynegy, now the state’s largest owner of coal-fired power plants, the American Petroleum Institute and the Electric Power Supply Association were among more than a dozen groups testifying against enabling legislation before the Ohio House Public Utilities Committee.
“House Bill 178 or the Zero Emission Nuclear credit bill would provide an enormous subsidy to one nuclear operator for units that they contend are no longer economic to operate,” said Robert Flexon, CEO of Houston-based Dynegy Inc.
“Our economy will not grow and prosper by artificially keeping alive business that can no longer compete in the marketplace through expensive subsidies,” he told lawmakers. “That has been the case throughout American history. Were that not so, we’d still have buggy whip and icebox manufacturers and teletype and elevators operators.”
Later in an interview, Flexon said the zero emissions argument, meaning the plants deserve higher rates because they don’t produce carbon dioxide, is a “red herring.”
“The nuclear plants are deeply out of the money. You [the state] would be throwing billions of dollars down a nuclear waste hole. These plants can’t live without subsidies. Why do you want to put more bills on your citizens? It’s beyond me.”
Flexon was joined by William Siderewicz, president of Boston-based Clean Energy Future, which is building four gas turbine power plants at two northern Ohio locations, including Lordstown.
You would be throwing billions of dollars down a nuclear waste hole. These plants can’t live without subsidies.”
Calling for the House to “summarily reject” any form of the legislation, Siderewicz charged that FirstEnergy’s objective was not to save Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear power plants, but to prepare for selling the plants or closing them and paying for the decommissioning.
Former Republican lawmaker Jeff Jadobson, now a lobbyist, appeared before the committee on behalf of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel and the Northeast Ohio Public Energy Council, which oppose the bill.
He said Ohio consumers are stuck with the 18th highest electric rate in the nation despite being “awash in shale oil and natural gas that have given us historically low gas prices” — which is leading to a building boom in new gas plants.
“But there is a problem that is preventing Ohio families and businesses from realizing the full benefits of lower prices in the market,” he said. “That problem is the continuing requests by Oho electric utilities — now years since the 1999 deregulation law’s transition period ended — for consumers to pay subsidies above the market price of electricity.”
He said FirstEnergy received $9.8 billion in subsidies between 2001 and 2010 to help it transition from the old regulated markets to competitive deregulated markets. And as of Jan. 1, the company has been permitted to collect an additional $204 million a year for up to five years in additional subsidies.
“FirstEnergy is back. Respectively, you should stop this cycle of subsidies and give consumers more of the benefit of competition intended under the 1999 law,” he told the lawmakers.
Earlier in the day, Chris Zeigler, executive director of the American Petroleum Institute’s Ohio division, and Erica Bowman, API chief economist, told reporters that FirstEnergy’s proposed subsidies could stall the development of the 10 or more gas turbine power plants proposed or already being built in Ohio. And in turn, that could stall further development of Ohio’s rich shale gas deposits.
Bowman also testified, concluding that API is strongly opposed to House Bill 178. It would skew markets by propping up uncompetitive nuclear generation, increase costs for ratepayers and job-creating industries, and discourage investment in natural gas production and gas-fired power plants. ”
Other opponents included the Ohio Environmental Council, AARP Ohio, the League of Women Voters of Ohio, Ohio Citizen Action the Environmental Defense Fund and the Nuclear Information and Resource Service.
FirstEnergy initially asked that lawmakers vote on the bill by June 30, but at this point that is not expected to happen.
All of the testimony is posted on the committee’s website.
May 12, 2017
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Bipartisan bill allows Washington to prepare for nuclear attack https://mynorthwest.com/628630/bi-partisan-bill-allows-washington-to-prepare-for-nuclear-attack/ BY KIRO RADIO STAFF, Staff report | May 10, 2017 As North Korea threatens to nuke the United States, a new bill in the Legislature would allow Washington state to prepare for it.
Current state law requires an “all-hazard emergency plan for the natural, technological, or human-caused hazards which could affect” citizens. But a law passed in 1984 says that any such plan “may not include preparation for emergency evacuation or relocation of residents in anticipation of nuclear attack.”
A bill introduced by senators David Frockt, a Democrat, and Mark Miloscia, a Republican, would get rid of that language.
They say recent tensions between the U.S. and North Korea makes the idea timely.
May 12, 2017
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Budgets approved to fight Yucca Mountain, https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/2017-legislature/budgets-approved-to-fight-yucca-mountain/ By Sean Whaley Las Vegas Review-Journal,May 7, 2017 CARSON CITY — The budgets for the state agencies charged with fighting the Yucca Mountain high-level nuclear waste dump were approved Saturday by the Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means committees.
The budget for the Agency for Nuclear Projects totals $3.8 million for the next two years, with most of the money going to fight against restarting Yucca Mountain. Of that total, $1.3 million will be spent fighting the expected restart of licensing proceedings.
The attorney general’s office budgets also were approved by the panels, including $3.4 million over two years to fight the project.
Sandoval, state Attorney General Adam Laxalt and most state lawmakers strongly oppose any restart of the Yucca Mountain licensing hearings. A resolution stating the Legislature’s opposition will get a committee hearing Monday.
But some Nevada elected officials, including Nye County Commissioner Dan Schinhofen, argue the licensing proceedings should be allowed to go forward to determine decisively whether Yucca Mountain is a suitable site for the dump. Attorneys for Nevada have raised scores of issues challenging the site’s suitability.
Despite past claims that the project has been long dead, President Donald Trump’s budget blueprint, issued in March, included $120 million in new funds to the Energy Department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to restart Yucca Mountain licensing activities.
The omnibus funding bill Congress approved this past week did not include any Yucca Mountain funding. But the funding could be included in the federal fiscal year 2018 budget, which begins Oct. 1.
The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on the Environment held a hearing on Yucca on April 26 and is expected to draft legislation for licensing proceedings to commence.
The Agency for Nuclear Projects indicated that the first step in the process is expected to be the reconstituting of the Yucca Mountain Construction Authorization Boards, followed by a case management conference. The restart proceedings could take up to a year, with hearings on challenges to the licensing application lasting three or more years.
Nevada officials estimate that a licensing hearing would require more than 400 days, taking an estimated four to five years at a cost to the Energy Department $1.66 billion.
Yucca Mountain is in Nye County, about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Contact Sean Whaley at swhaley@reviewjournal.com or 775-461-3820. Follow @seanw801 on Twitter.
May 10, 2017
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Help for St. Louis-area homeowners near radioactive landfill gets sliced again KANSAS CITY STAR, BY ALLISON PECORIN, apecorin@kcstar.com JEFFERSON CITY
Getting money allocated for a buyout program for homes near a toxic landfill just northwest of St. Louis has been a multiyear mission for state Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal.
And she says that mission took a big setback Wednesday as lawmakers were putting finishing touches on the state’s $27 billion budget.
Chappelle-Nadal originally asked for $12.5 million to fund the program, which would have been enough to buy out 91 eligible homes and a small trailer park near the West Lake Landfill. The landfill stores radioactive waste left over from the Manhattan Project, and neighbors have long complained that exposure to the landfill causes asthma, cancer and other chronic illnesses…….http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article148732619.html
May 10, 2017
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However, nuclear critics point out that the small modular reactors remain unproven. Because none has been built, questions remain about whether they would be safer or more economical than full-size reactors
Newhouse asks Trump for small modular reactor money, Tri City Herald, BY ANNETTE CARY acary@tricityherald.com, 6 May 17 Federal money to establish the United States as a leader in small modular nuclear reactors would pay off with economic and security benefits, Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., has told President Donald Trump.
Newhouse and Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., led an effort to get 17 Republican representatives to send a letter to Trump last week asking that he include money for the Department of Energy’s small modular reactors in his fiscal 2018 budget request to Congress.
The president’s budget proposal is expected to be released later this month……..
Money would be used for continued cost sharing among DOE and small modular reactor developers to help reduce the risk associated with significant cost and uncertainty related to Nuclear Regulatory Commission design certification, NRC site permitting and design finalization work before construction may begin.
NuScale Power, which has ties to the Tri-Cities, submitted the first design certification application in the United States to the NRC Dec. 31. The NRC accepted it for review in March, confirming the 12,000-page application contained the technical information needed to conduct the review.
The NRC has said the application review will take about three years and four months.
Areva was awarded the contract to manufacture the initial fuel for NuScale’s small modular reactor. It also provided licensing, testing and fuel expertise for the NRC application, with much of the work done in Richland.
NuScale plans to place its first small modular reactor in Idaho, possibly at the Idaho National Laboratory, to produce power for the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems.
Energy Northwest, of Richland, would operate the reactor. It would gain operational experience to eventually bring small modular reactors to Washington state, preferably to the Tri-Cities, according to Energy Northwest…….
However, nuclear critics point out that the small modular reactors remain unproven. Because none has been built, questions remain about whether they would be safer or more economical than full-size reactors….http://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/hanford/article149108814.html
May 8, 2017
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Toshiba bankruptcy threatens Moorside, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/05/06/toshiba-bankruptcy-threatens-moorside/ Ben Marlow ,Jillian Ambrose 6 MAY 2017
Toshiba’s bankrupt nuclear arm may be prevented from providing any emergency funds to its overseas interests, throwing the future of the Moorside nuclear plant in Cumbria into fresh doubt.
It has emerged that Westinghouse, the Toshiba-owned American nuclear reactor developer, faces orders not to prop up any joint venture agreements that it entered into before the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March.
Wall Street private equity giant Apollo has pledged an $800m (£617m)rescue loan to the Pennsylvania-based company, which is awaiting court approval, while a group of hedge funds is also interested in providing emergency financing. However, it is understood that many of these prospective new investors want to see any fresh funds funnelled into Westinghouse and its main subsidiaries, not foreign joint venture projects like Moorside. They are calling for partners involved in Toshiba’s overseas interests to also step in and provide support.
The £18bn Moorside project is a central pillar of the UK’s atomic energy programme. The 3.4 gigawatt plant will power up to 6m homes but it has been thrown into doubt by Toshiba’s financial crisis and the bankruptcy of Westinghouse. The reactor maker, which the Japanese corporation bought from the British government in 2006, had been due to install three of its AP1000 reactors at Moorside. The project received a further blow when its other backer, French energy provider Engie, pulled out. Without the support of the only remaining backer, there are fears that the plant will never be built.
However, an industry source said: “Engie is a nuclear developer and a nuclear operator – it’s what they do. Senior people in the company have said that if the project found a way to move forward they would be interested in coming back.”
May 8, 2017
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Fossil Fuel Companies Spend Big to Boost GOP in Heated Special Elections for Congress Saturday, May 06, 2017By Alex Kotch, Truthout | Report President Donald Trump nominated several sitting Congress members to lead federal agencies, and high-profile elections to fill their vacated seats are under way. The election to fill CIA director Mike Pompeo’s Kansas House seat took place on April 11, 2017, and a Bernie Sanders-supporting Democratic candidate came within seven points of the Republican winner in a heavily red district that hasn’t gone blue since 1992. In a Georgia election to fill Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price’s seat on April 18, young Democrat Jon Ossoff took 48 percent of the vote, not quite enough to avoid a runoff against Republican Karen Handle, scheduled for June 20. An election to fill the House seat of former Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke, now Secretary of the Interior, is coming up on May 25 in another district that has reliably voted Republican but is now in play after Trump’s exceedingly unpopular first 100 days.
These elections are the first since Trump took office, and their results may represent Americans’ discontent with their new leader, whose record-low approval rating is now at about 42 percent. A Democratic win in any of the upcoming races could give the fractured party a much-needed boost as it prepares its 2018 campaigns in hopes of taking back the House and hampering the White House agenda.
In Georgia and Montana, independent political spending groups are shelling out millions of dollars to aid their favorite candidates. A Truthout investigation finds that among the biggest funders of the outside groups backing Republican candidates are fossil fuel companies, which tend to favor conservatives who will join the Trump administration in rolling back environmental regulations that limit their profits. Oil, gas and coal companies and trade groups, including Arch Coal, Chevron and Occidental Petroleum, have bankrolled conservative nonprofits that are spending millions of dollars to elect Republicans in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District and Montana’s at-large congressional district. In the Georgia race, GOP-aligned political groups have accounted for roughly 94 percent of the huge amount of outside spending, yet Ossoff has a good shot at winning.
An Explosion of Outside Spending in Georgia
Combined outside spending for the primary and runoff elections so far is at nearly $14 million — it’s on track to be the most expensive congressional race ever.
The Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF), a super PAC founded in 2011 to boost Republican House candidates and funded by private interests, will spend at least $6.5 million in the GA-06 race, the most of any outside group. The committee has already reported independent expenditures of $4 million opposing Ossoff in Georgia. These funds translate into television advertisements, mail and digital ad campaigns and a get-out-the-vote ground game.
Since its founding, CLF has relied on conservative millionaires and billionaires and large corporations for its funds. So far in 2017, the group has reported receiving $250,000 from oil giant Chevron and $3.5 million from the American Action Network (AAN), a 501(c)(4) nonprofit and CLF’s sister organization that is also partially funded by the fossil fuel industry. While 2017 data is not yet available, AAN has taken in hundreds of thousands of dollars from the industry over the years, including $250,000 from the American Petroleum Institute in 2012 and $35,000 from the American Natural Gas Alliance in 2010, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics………..
Fossil fuel spending outside of political races is also seeing a major uptick, according to the Center for Public Integrity. Not only did oil, gas and coal companies and their executives provide 10 percent of Trump’s inauguration funds — a huge increase from the companies’ share of funds for Barack Obama’s second inauguration — they also spent 11 percent more on lobbying during the first quarter of 2017 than they did during the same period the year before.
The spending seems to be working, as Trump and his cabinet appear dedicated to doing all they can to increase profits for fossil fuel companies. Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress have already slashed environmental regulations including the Stream Protection Rule, rolled back the Clean Power Plan, and sped up fossil fuel projects, including the Keystone XL Pipeline and the Dakota Access Pipeline. Zinke, who as interior secretary is in charge of conserving federal land, overturned a moratorium on coal leasing of federal lands in March and supports opening up these lands to more oil and gas exploration.
As the Georgia and Montana elections near, look for the dirty energy industry to keep the funds flowing.http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/40489-fossil-fuel-companies-spend-big-to-boost-gop-in-heated-special-elections-for-congress
May 8, 2017
Posted by Christina Macpherson |
politics, USA |
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