Sweden turning against nuclear power
Support for nuclear power falls in Sweden, survey says http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20140509/sweden-hydropower-station-challenged-nuclear-energy-loses-favorSwedes are becoming increasingly skeptical of nuclear power with a new survey showing 50 percent of respondents want the controversial power source phased out.
The report from the SOM Institute at the University of Gothenburg found support falling for nuclear power since a meltdown at Japanese power plant. With other European nations moveing away from nuclear power, Swedes are also growing leery.
“The fact that Germany, Switzerland, Italy and several other countries have begun to phase out nuclear power, it’s likely that nowadays it might happen in Sweden, too,” Sören Holmberg, a political science professor at Gothenburg University, told Swedish Radio News.
Before the nuclear accident at Fukushima in Japan, Swedes were generally positive toward building new reactors with 44 percent supporting the measure and 39 percent opposing it. After the disaster in 2011, 44 percent said they were against nuclear power and now half of respondents are anti-nuclear.
As before, support for new nuclear plants is strongest on the right of the political spectrum and the greatest resistance is from the left. Men and white collar workers are also more positive than women and laborers.
This story is posted on Alaska Dispatch as part of Eye on the Arctic, a collaborative partnership between public and private circumpolar media organizations.
Green Party a powerful presence in UK’s Shroud District a powerful force for Green
Stroud District Green Party 8 May 14 Stroud District Green Party is active in the Stroud and Cotswold District Council areas and parliamentary constituencies. Werepresent Stroud on the County Council and five wards on Stroud District Council. A majority of Stroud Town Councillors are Greens and we are represented on several other Town and Parish Councils.
The Green Party is about more than just the environment: we believe that social justice and environmental responsibility are fundamentally linked. Find out more about our policies.
Stroud District is one of the country’s greenest communities and we are an active local party with a solid membership base. If you agree with our core values, please consider joining, donating or otherwise getting involved……..http://www.stroud.greenparty.org.uk/
Obama launches renewable energy actions, aided by corporations
With corporate help, Obama announces actions on renewable energy http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFL2N0NU2OG20140509 WASHINGTON May 9 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Friday will announce executive orders to increase the use of solar panels, boost energy efficiency in federal buildings and train more people to work in the renewable energy field, the White House said.
The president, who will make the announcement during a visit to Wal-Mart in Mountain View, California, will also highlight commitments by corporations to lift solar generation at their facilities. Wal-Mart, Apple Inc, Yahoo Inc, Google Inc and Ikea were among the companies making such commitments.
Several financial institutions, including Citigroup Inc and Goldman Sachs Group Inc, were announcing new plans for “large scale investment and innovative programs” to develop solar and renewable energy installations, the White House said.
Obama’s executive actions would support efforts at community colleges so that 50,000 workers would join the solar industry by 2020, it said.
Another initiative would press for $2 billion in energy efficiency upgrades for federal buildings over the next three years, building on another $2 billion commitment from 2011.
Actions to strengthen building codes were also part of the mix. “Investing in solar and efficiency makes sense to reduce our carbon emissions, but also for our pocketbooks and for our economy,” said Dan Utech, an energy adviser to Obama, during a conference call on Thursday to preview Obama’s announcement.
He said the U.S. solar energy industry had expanded dramatically under Obama’s watch, with installations increasing to an amount enough to power more than 2 million homes.
“So momentum is increasing,” Utech said. “Since President Obama took office we’ve increased production from U.S. solar electricity more than tenfold, and in the last year, U.S. production of electricity from solar energy was double what it was just two years ago.”
An Obama spokesman also announced the completion of a project to install solar panels at the White House itself. The panels were American-made and part of an energy “retrofit” for the building that would improve its energy efficiency.
“The project, which helps demonstrate that historic buildings can incorporate solar energy and energy efficiency upgrades, is estimated to pay for itself in energy savings over the next eight years,” spokesman Matt Lehrich said. (Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Two ex-PMs launch Japan Assembly for Nuclear Free Renewable Energy
Japan’s ex-PMs team up for anti-nuclear drive, Channel News Asia, 8 May 14 Two former Japanese prime ministers — Morihiro Hosokawa and Junichiro Koizumi — have teamed up to increase the pressure on incumbent Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to stop the resumption of nuclear power in the country. TOKYO: Two former Japanese prime ministers — Morihiro Hosokawa and Junichiro Koizumi — have teamed up to increase the pressure on incumbent Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to stop the resumption of nuclear power in the country.
A new organisation, called the “Japan Assembly for Nuclear Free Renewable Energy”, has been launched with the main objective of calling for a nuclear free Japan, and promoting the development and use of renewable energy — and it has been getting a lot of media attention………Heading the group is Mr Hosokawa, who recently ran for Tokyo governor on an anti-nuclear platform.
He was backed by another former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who also plays an important role in the organisation.
“First, we are against the restart of Japan’s nuclear reactors. We want to transfer nuclear power to natural energy, build an economy that can capitalise on it and build a society where we do not have to worry about radiation,” he said.
Mr Koizumi said: “All nuclear plants have stopped, not only for 3 months, or 6 months, but for almost a year. Has Japan been unable to survive without nuclear power? We have prevailed.
“People may say I am a person of the past. But I will, with the generation of the future, work towards creating a country without nuclear power.”
Joining them in the anti-nuclear drive is a long list of celebrities, including actors, authors, people from the music industry and local authorities……the group said it plans to hold regular meetings and forums, to generate momentum and pressure the government to stop the generation of nuclear energy in Japan.
Dead nuclear reactors are still very dangerous: US Senators call to Nuclear Regulatory Commission
SENATORS TO NRC: DO NOT EXEMPT DECOMMISSIONING NUCLEAR REACTORS FROM EMERGENCY RESPONSE AND SECURITY MEASURES NEWS RELEASE — SEN. PATRICK LEAHY, SEN. BERNIE SANDERS
May 2, 2014
Contact:
Mike Briggs (Sanders) 202-224-5141
David Carle (Leahy) 224-3693
Washington (May 2, 2014) – In a letter sent today to Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chairman Allison Macfarlane, Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), and Senators Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) called on the agency to stop the “unwise policy” of issuing exemptions for emergency response regulations to decommissioning nuclear reactors which house decades-worth of spent nuclear fuel.
Exemptions for compliance with the emergency response regulations – such as those that require evacuation zones and siren systems to warn of problems – have been granted to all of the ten reactor licensees that have requested them in the past. Moreover, the licensees of reactors that are or will soon begin the decommissioning process (including San Onofre in California and Vermont Yankee) have already submitted a wide range of exemption requests from emergency response, security and other regulations to the NRC.
The NRC is currently in the process of finalizing its finding that spent nuclear fuel can be stored safely for at least 60 years beyond the licensed life of a nuclear power plant, and based this determination in part on the assertion that emergency preparedness and security regulations remain in place during decommissioning. Accidents or attacks on spent fuel pools would put neighboring communities at great risk of experiencing radioactive releases, fires, and widespread contamination.
Full text of the letter is attached with appendices and below.
May 2, 2014
The Honorable Allison M. Macfarlane
Chairman
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Rockville, MD 20852
Dear Chairman Macfarlane:
We write to request that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) cease exempting licensees of decommissioning nuclear reactors from its emergency response and security regulations. NRC repeatedly cites these regulations to demonstrate the long-term safety and security of spent nuclear fuel. Yet it has granted each and every one of the ten requests for exemptions from emergency response requirements that it has received from reactors that have permanently shut down, generally within 2 years of the reactors’ closure and without regard to how much spent fuel is still stored in spent fuel pools. ……….
NRC is currently in the process of finalizing its Waste Confidence decision that spent nuclear fuel can be stored safely for at least 60 years beyond the licensed life of a nuclear power plant, and based this determination in part on the assertion that emergency preparedness and security regulations remain in place during decommissioning.The Commission is also voting on whether there is a benefit to accelerating the transfer of spent nuclear fuel to dry casks, and the document being voted on assumes the continued application of emergency response and security requirements.
What the NRC failed to state in its court and other filings was that licensees of decommissioning reactors are almost always exempted from the regulatory requirements NRC based its findings on within two years of the reactors’ shut-down. This is unacceptable. We urge you to announce your intent to reverse this unwise policy. http://vtdigger.org/2014/05/02/senators-nrc-exempt-decommissioning-nuclear-reactors-emergency-response-security-measures/
TEPCO makes $4.3 Billion Profit
Fukushima Nuclear Plant Operator Tepco Books $4.3 Billion Profit http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/business/fukushima-nuclear-plant-operator-tepco-books-4-3-billion-profit/ By Agence France-Presse Apr 30, 2014 The operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant said on Wednesday it booked a $4.3 billion annual net profit owing to an electricity rate hike and a massive government bailout following the 2011 disaster.
Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) was teetering on the brink as cleanup and
compensation costs stoked huge losses and threatened to collapse the sprawling utility until Tokyo stepped with a multi-billion dollar rescue.
The company at the center of the worst nuclear accident in a generation said it earned 438.65 billion yen ($4.3 billion) in the fiscal year to March, compared with a net loss of 685.3 billion yen in the same period a year earlier.
Sales rose 11.0 percent to 6.63 trillion yen, it said.
The company’s results got a boost from a rate hike, and helped offset a decline in the amount of electricity Tepco sold owing to warmer-than-usual winter weather, it said.
It also booked a special gain of 1.8 trillion yen based on funds the company received from a government-backed bailout fund as well as asset sales.
But it added that rising fossil fuel costs after Japan switched off its nuclear reactors were pressuring its bottom line.
“The business environment that surrounds us remains very serious,” Tepco president Naomi Hirose told a news conference.
The Fukushima plant’s cooling systems were swamped by the 2011 tsunami, sparking reactor meltdowns and radiation leaks.
Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from around the plant with decommissioning of the site expected to take decades.
France’s nuclear dilemma
France caught between nuclear cliff and investment wall BY MICHEL ROSEPARIS Wed Apr 30, 2014 (Reuters) – France must decide in the next few years whether it wants to continue its nuclear-driven energy policy at a cost of up to 300 billion euros (246.8 billion pounds) or if it wants to embark on an equally costly route towards using other fuels.
Most of the country’s 58 nuclear reactors were built during a short period in the 1980s, and about half will reach their designed age limits of 40 in the 2020s, pushing France towards what industry calls “the nuclear cliff.”
Public support in France for nuclear power has traditionally been strong but is looking shakier since the 2011 nuclear reactor meltdown at Japan‘s Fukushima facility following a massive earthquake and tsunami. And French President Francois Hollande has said he wanted to cut the share of atomic energy in France’s electricity mix to 50 percent from 75 percent by 2025, reduce oil and gas consumption and boost renewable energy.
A replacement of the nuclear plants run by state-controled utility EDF (EDF.PA), or a switch towards alternative sources would cost huge amounts of money.
“There’s a problem, which is decision-making. Are we going towards a new nuclear fleet or not? This needs preparation,” Jacques Repussard, the head of state-funded nuclear advising institute IRSN told Reuters in an interview. EDF has advocated an extension of the reactors’ lifespan to 50 or even 60 years, arguing that they were modelled on similar reactors in the United States which have been granted 60-year licences.
But French nuclear watchdog ASN, the only authority allowed to grant this extension, has so far repeated that the utility should not take this extension for granted and would only give a first opinion next year and a final one in 2018-2019………..
On the one hand, EDF wants to cash in on its nuclear know-how through exporting its technology and services, including to Britain’s nuclear investment
power programme.
Yet EDF also faces a 55 billion euro upgrade of its existing reactors by 2025 and will have to decide on how to finance their ultimate replacement, at a potential cost of up to 240 billion euros, about six times EDF’s existing debt pile.
“If you close down all nuclear reactors when they reach 30 or 40 however, you will need to build a huge new fleet, that would be a massive challenge not only from a financial point of view but also from a project management point of view,” said Laszlo Lavro, head of the International Energy Agency’s Gas, Coal and Power division.
Within the government, ministers have voiced contradicting views on nuclear energy, even though the departure of the Green party from the government has made the pro-nuclear case stronger.
An energy transition bill now slated for July has been repeatedly delayed, with Paris naming its fourth energy minister in less than two years earlier this month.
Newly appointed energy minister Segolene Royal, a powerful voice in the new government, has skirted questions on nuclear policy at a news conference earlier this week……….
Decisions cannot be delayed indefinitely as building new energy infrastructure, especiallynuclear power plants, takes time.
Construction of France’s pilot new generation reactor in Flamanville, which started in 2007, has seen repeated delays and cost overruns and is currently expected to be finished in 2016……http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/04/30/uk-france-nuclear-analysis-idUKKBN0DG0KC20140430
Secretive TPP distrusted by both Left and Right – says Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader on TPP, GM Recall, Nuclear Power & the “Unstoppable” Left-Right Anti-Corporate Movement, Democracy Now, 28 April 14 Former presidential candidate and longtime consumer advocate Ralph Nader joins us to discuss his latest book, “Unstoppable: The Emerging Left-Right Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State.” Nader highlights the common concerns shared by a wide swath of the American public, regardless of political orientation, including mass government surveillance, opposing nebulous free trade agreements, reforming the criminal justice system, and punishing criminal behavior on Wall Street. Nader also discusses the U.S. push for the sweeping Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, General Motors’ new bid to escape liability for its deadly ignition defect, the revived nuclear era under President Obama, and challenging U.S. militarism through the defense budget.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form
AMY GOODMAN “……….Now, he’s out with a new book; it is called Unstoppable: The Emerging Left-Right Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State. It highlights the common concerns shared by a wide swath of the American public, regardless of political orientation. These concerns include resisting mass surveillance, opposing nebulous free trade agreements, and punishing criminal behavior on Wall Street. Throughout, Ralph Nader argues in favor of transcending divisive partisan labels and instead working in concert to pursue shared interests, all the while offering practical solutions rooted in collective organizing………
AMY GOODMAN: Ralph Nader, I want to go to this global issue of the TPP, because over the weekend President Obama spoke to young leaders during this town hall-style meeting at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. His talk was briefly disrupted by peaceful protesters holding up signs denouncing a sweeping new trade deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership—the TPPoften referred to by critics as NAFTA on steroids, as you were talking about, establishing a free-trade zone that would stretch from Vietnam to Chile, encompass 800 million people, about a third of world trade, nearly 40 percent of the global economy. Obama defended the TPP………
AMY GOODMAN: That’s President Obama in Malaysia. Who is advising President Obama on TPP? The unions? Environmental organizations? Ralph Nader.
RALPH NADER: Well, they can’t get back through the secrecy of these negotiations in these drafts. As Lori Wallach of Global Trade Watch has pointed out repeatedly, even members of Congress couldn’t get the draft negotiations from the TPP, although the corporate lobbyists have access to these drafts. But it’s quite clear that the TPP is nothing more than an extension of NAFTA and the World Trade Organization on steroids.
And here’s where we have a left-right alliance, each one with their reason. On the left, they’re opposed to these agreements because they’re bad for workers; they’re bad for the price of medicines being affordable, under the intellectual property rules that are being negotiated; they’re bad for open government; and they’re bad for the environment. On the right, they don’t like these trade agreements because they shred our sovereignty. I happen to agree with that, too. All international treaties reduce sovereignties, by definition. But this one, these trade agreements are the greatest usurpers of local, state and national sovereignty in American history. And so, we have this growing alliance. And, by the way, it goes back to documents like the 2002 Texas Republican state platform, that was dead set against these trade agreements on sovereignty issues……..http://www.democracynow.org/2014/4/28/ralph_nader_on_tpp_gm_recall
Iranian public ready to back a fair nuclear deal
 Iran FM says people would support fair nuclear deal, The Daily Star, Lebanon News, |
| April 27, 2014 TEHRAN: Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Sunday that the majority of Iranians would support a comprehensive nuclear deal that “respects Iran’s rights and the demands of the people.”
“That would be the only agreement that myself and President (Hassan) Rouhani will agree (to),” Zarif said during a joint news conference in Tehran with his Austrian counterpart Sebastian Kurz. When asked whether hardliners could derail the nuclear talks, Zarif said: ” Iran is not a monolith … we will have those who will not favour an agreement, but at the end of the day what will count is the view of the majority of the Iranian people.” In November, Iran clinched a deal with world powers under which it froze some nuclear activities in return for limited relief from crippling international sanctions. Tehran has been engaged in negotiations with the P5+1 — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany — aimed at reaching a lasting accord on its nuclear ambitions……. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2014/Apr-27/254561-iran-fm-says-people-would-support-fair-nuclear-deal.ashx#ixzz30DTTdBDN |
Koch brothers wage war on solar energy
Koch Brothers And ALEC Expand Fight On Clean Energy Users CLIMATE PROGRESS, BY ARI PHILLIPS
APRIL 25, 2014 THE RIGHT-WING AMERICAN LEGISLATIVE EXCHANGE COUNCIL (ALEC), AN INFLUENTIAL LOBBYING GROUP COMPOSED OF REPUBLICAN POLITICIANS AND BIG BUSINESSES, IS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STATE- AND LOCAL-LEVEL CLEAN ENERGY DISPUTES THAT ARE CURRENTLY EVOLVING ALMOST AS QUICKLY AS THE SOLAR AND WIND TECHNOLOGIES THEMSELVES. ALEC, KNOWN FOR ADVANCING CORPORATE INTERESTS, IS ALIGNED WITH THE KOCH BROTHERS IN THE CURRENT HEATED EXCHANGE — HOW TO MAKE DISTRIBUTED SOLAR POWER LOOK BAD.
Solar power is growing rapidly across the U.S., with capacity up an astounding418 percent in the last four years alone. This has given rise to two primary policy-level debates: how much renewable power utilities are required to use, known as Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS), and figuring out the logistics of net metering, which guarantees homeowners or businesses with solar panels on their roofs the right to sell any excess electricity back into the power grid.
The Los Angeles times has recently been reporting out a story about how the Koch brothers are trying to roll back these solar initiatives across the country:
“The Koch brothers, anti-tax activist Grover Norquist and some of the nation’s largest power companies have backed efforts in recent months to roll back state policies that favor green energy. The conservative luminaries have pushed campaigns in Kansas, North Carolina and Arizona, with the battle rapidly spreading to other states.”
ALEC, which has referred to homeowners with their own solar panels as “freeriders on the system,” is deeply involved in both combating renewable energy mandates and modeling legislation that targets net metering…………
While ALEC might be doing the dirty work on clean energy, the fossil fuel industry is the one calling the shots, and filling the coffers. This is what makes it so cynical for ALEC to claim to be defending the free market while at the same time trying to punish solar users who have found a way to economically generate clean energy and provide some of it back to the market…..http://tinyurl.com/p868jlb
Australia’s Prime Minister gets his climate policies from Creation Science
Maurice Newman Rejects Climate Change, Because God. In Other Words, by Tom Cummings, 24 April 14 “…….Newman rejects the findings of thousands of scientists from hundreds of organisations scattered across 195 countries, because of the analysis of one man: Roy Spencer.
at left, Australia’s Prime Minister, Tony Abbott.
Dissension in Taiwan politics over nuclear power
Premier, DPP head fail to reach consensus over nuclear plant, Focus Taiwan Taipei, April 21 (CNA) Premier Jiang Yi-huah and the leader of the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) failed to reach a consensus on the future of the controversial fourth nuclear power plant during a meeting Monday.
The premier said he could not unilaterally announce the halt of the construction of the plant, and the two disagreed on whether a referendum on the project should follow the threshold set in Taiwan’s Referendum Act or use another formula.
Jiang supported maintaining the law’s requirement of a 50 percent turnout for a referendum to be valid, while DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang favored dropping the turnout threshold and having the vote decided by a simple majority.
During the nearly 90-minute meeting, Su expressed the hope that the Executive Yuan would stop the plant’s construction by issuing an executive order……..http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aipl/201404210044.aspx
America’s loyalty to the nuclear industry, rather than to sick, irradiated navymen
Is America Abandoning its Bravest Heroes Yet Again?, WhoWhatWhy By Karen Charman on Apr 21, 2014Reason for Navy Cover-up?“………..Because U.S. military personnel are prevented from suing the government, their only recourse is to go after TEPCO. But given the interests involved, the outcome for the Operation Tomodachi victims remains very much in doubt. Robert Alvarez, the nuclear investigator and former DOE deputy assistant secretary, points out that about a quarter of a million U.S. soldiers were subjected to open air nuclear weapons testing in the 1940s, 50s and 60s.
“If you use the treatment of atomic veterans who were involved in atmospheric testing as a benchmark, the government did everything it could to downplay the hazards, because from the military perspective, the mission is all important,” he says.
“Right now, the United States government and Japan are closing ranks because of their nuclear-related relationships,” he says. Although Japan’s 54 power-generating nuclear reactors are currently offline, the country still has the third largest number of nuclear reactors in the world.
But more important, Alvarez says, is the “extraordinary co-dependence” with Japan on nuclear-energy-related matters. “Because the U.S. has lost much of its capability in designing and building reactors, we have to depend on the Japanese and the French if we’re going to build any reactors or fabricate fuel or do anything to service the existing reactor fleet,” he explained. “We’re dependent on companies that are now owned by Japan and France.”
The case of the ill Operation Tomodachi veterans shines a spotlight on the intersection of competing interests between victims of radiation exposure, the nuclear power industry, and the U.S. government and its unwavering commitment to nuclear technology for both military and civilian use. So far, by denying the harm from the radiation U.S. military personnel were exposed to as they helped Japan clean up after the devastating earthquake and tsunami in March 2011—a position that supports the Japanese government and nuclear industry—the U.S. government is doing what it has almost always done: protect nuclear interests rather than its victims.
As the number of ill Operation Tomodachi veterans climbs, it remains to be seen whether their sacrifice will be acknowledged or if they, like so many others, will be left to fend for themselves. http://whowhatwhy.com/2014/04/21/america-abandoning-bravest-heroes-yet/#sthash.YiyEeRT1.dpuf
North Wales doesn’t mind nuclear power – just don’t want the wastes
North Wales nuclear waste burial plan North Wales News
Anglesey Apr 16, 2014 By Gareth Wyn-Williams Nuclear waste from across the British Isles could potentially be shipped and stored on Anglesey as part of new plans unveiled by the Government.
But the resulting fallout from the proposals has already generated a storm of objections on the island, with one politician saying that residents should make every effort to stop it turning into a “nuclear waste depository”.
The UK Government’s Energy and Climate Change department is looking for communities to come forward and “volunteer themselves” in order to establish a new site from scratch, that would store nuclear waste from all over Britain.
And it is understood that Anglesey is one of the sites under consideration by the UK Government, with a public meeting set to take place to discuss the matter later this year.
Any communities that agree to the deal, have been promised “substantial” economical benefits.
But Anglesey’s Assembly Member, Rhun ap Iorwerth, says that residents across the island, must strongly reject any proposals to establish any such sites here.
He said: “This is quite separate from arguments for and against nuclear power generation at Wylfa newydd.
“This is about the threat of using Anglesey as a nuclear waste depository……http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/north-wales-nuclear-waste-burial-6995133
Koch brothers and fossil fuel lobbies out to kill renewable energy
Koch Brothers, Conservatives & Oil Companies Lobby States Using Renewable Energy Sources: Alternative, Solar Power And Environmentalism Gaining Popularity Latin Post, By Shawn Raymundo (staff@latinpost.com) 20 April 14, As more and more states are beginning to utilize solar energy and adapt other clean green energy solutions
, conservative lobby groups and oil tycoons have aggressively started pushing back against alternative energy.
The Koch brothers, anti-tax activist Grover Norquist and a number of powerful companies in the nation have started running campaign ads in Arizona, Kansas and North Carolina that paint renewable energy as a greedy bad guy, according to the Los Angeles Times.
With the help of solar power companies, environmentalists are battling back against big oil companies and their lobbyists over states that have implemented two types of energy policies: net metering and renewable energy requirements.
Net metering allows homeowners or businesses that have solar panels installed on roofs to sell back extra electricity to the power grid at attractive rates. The other policy requires utility companies to generate at least 10 percent of renewable energy, the Times reported. The majority of states in the U.S. have begun operating under at least one of the two policies if not both. The only states to not use net metering or generate power from renewable energy are Alabama, Idaho, Mississippi and Tennessee.
South Dakota and Texas are the only two states without metering programs but generate a percentage of their power from renewable energy, according to the Times………
The power industry fears that as more people install solar panels, less money is being paid to maintain transmission lines, substations and computer systems that many people rely on……
Edison Electric Institute, an advocacy group for the power industry, warned power companies that renewable energy policies could irrevocably damage the industry. The institute issued a report that stated, “it may be too late to repair the utility business model” if electric companies do not take action.
Christine Harbin Hanson, a spokeswoman for Americans for Prosperity, the advocacy group funded by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch, told the Times in an email that “state governments are starting to wake up” and challenge renewable energy polices.
“These green energy mandates are bad policy,” Hanson said. http://www.latinpost.com/articles/10814/20140420/koch-brothers-conservatives-oil-companies-lobby-states-using-renewable-energy-sources-alternative-solar-power-and-environmentalism-gaining-popularity.htm
1 This Month
25 June- THE PUKE ON NUKES
Thursday, June 25, 2026
7pm Central Time (8pm ET, 6pm MT, 5pm PT) UTC – 5
From NRC & DOE Deregulation to Techno-Fascist Billionaires Going Nuclear, Plus a Few Songs from Atomic Cabaret REGISTER
26 June – Radiation Trainwreck at the NRC / Join the Protect Better Campaign – https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/4ZlZ5_qLSHGiLSCg8FF6Bg#/registration
1st July – Webinar Waste of Space: The Environmental Harm of Military and Civil Space Activity st July, 7 pm
Report Launch Online: We are seeing an increasing exploitation of space for military and commercial purposes. This must change.
Protect Sazan Island from the Trump family! https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/protect_sazan_island_from_the_trump_family_loc/?bqFCVab&v=174511&cl=22707147157&_checksum=5e9dde668860e8231c33699735e16a1fbf22ab2cb01da50c999fe8732b9775ef&utm_source=email&utm_medium=blast_email&utm_campaign=174511
Cuba Is Not a Failed State – It Is a Besieged State
PETITION: “Global Appeal to Endorse Palestinian Right of Return of Refugees”
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
-
Archives
- June 2026 (241)
- May 2026 (306)
- April 2026 (356)
- March 2026 (251)
- February 2026 (268)
- January 2026 (308)
- December 2025 (358)
- November 2025 (359)
- October 2025 (376)
- September 2025 (257)
- August 2025 (319)
- July 2025 (230)
-
Categories
- 1
- 1 NUCLEAR ISSUES
- business and costs
- climate change
- culture and arts
- ENERGY
- environment
- health
- history
- indigenous issues
- Legal
- marketing of nuclear
- media
- opposition to nuclear
- PERSONAL STORIES
- politics
- politics international
- Religion and ethics
- safety
- secrets,lies and civil liberties
- spinbuster
- technology
- Uranium
- wastes
- weapons and war
- Women
- 2 WORLD
- ACTION
- AFRICA
- Atrocities
- AUSTRALIA
- Christina's notes
- Christina's themes
- culture and arts
- Events
- Fuk 2022
- Fuk 2023
- Fukushima 2017
- Fukushima 2018
- fukushima 2019
- Fukushima 2020
- Fukushima 2021
- general
- global warming
- Humour (God we need it)
- Nuclear
- RARE EARTHS
- Reference
- resources – print
- Resources -audiovicual
- Weekly Newsletter
- World
- World Nuclear
- YouTube
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS
nuclear-news 