Local News | Where McCain, Obama stand on environmental, energy issues | Seattle Times Newspaper
Where McCain, Obama stand on environmental, energy issues
The seattle Times 22 Oct 08 By Warren Cornwall – “………………….The differences can hit close to home for Washington residents and businesses: The choice of president could influence where this region gets new power, which energy industries thrive and how the state confronts climate change…………………Both say climate change is a real, man-made problem that warrants federal action. And both endorse a pollution-cutting scheme known as “cap and trade.”…………………McCain’s approach to new energy sources is largely in step with fellow Republicans. Like Bush, nuclear power is a centerpiece of his plan. He has called for construction of 45 new nuclear-power reactors in the United States by 2030…………….In past global-warming legislation, McCain has pressed for nuclear industry subsidies and loan guarantees worth as much as $3.7 billion
Obama has given nuclear power a cooler reception. While saying he supports it, he says the nation needs to figure out a way to deal with the radioactive waste it produces. He opposes the present nuclear-waste disposal plan — burying it deep in a mountain in Nevada — warning that safety questions remain……………….Washington also has a history of radioactive pollution and financial catastrophe. The Hanford nuclear reservation near Richland and a former uranium mine northwest of Spokane are both federal Superfund cleanup sites.The organization that built the Columbia Generating Station, known by the acronym WPPSS, earned the nickname “Whoops” for a $2.25 billion bond default in 1983, after cost overruns forced it to stop building four other nuclear reactors…………………..
Obama has placed greater emphasis than McCain on renewable energy, and sees a bigger role for the federal government to promote it.
He favors tax breaks for renewable power projects, as well as making utilities meet renewable energy quotas.
He has called for a $150 billion initiative to boost research in fuel-efficient cars, renewable energy and “clean coal” technology.
Local News | Where McCain, Obama stand on environmental, energy issues | Seattle Times Newspaper
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
Nuclear nonsense :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Neil Steinberg
Nuclear nonsense
McCain’s vow to build 45 atomic plants has bold glow of deceptionCHICAGO SUN TIMES October 19, 2008
Opening shotThe most recent nuclear power plant to go online in the United States was the Watts Bar station in Tennessee, which started producing power in 1996, a scant 23 years after construction began. Thus John McCain’s debate claim that, as president, he would somehow push through the construction of 45, count ’em, 45 new nuclear plants without worrying about where they’d be placed or what we’d do with the radioactive waste drew quite a response,…………….. pal who works at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and I asked him what he thinks of McCain’s plan.
“No way,” he said. “He’s crazy. We’ll be lucky to build two nuclear plants in the next 10 years, and that’ll cost $18 billion.”
I’m all for boldness. But claiming you’ll solve our energy problems by spending money we don’t have on nuclear plants that won’t be built, well, that isn’t bold, it’s deceptive.
Nuclear nonsense :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Neil Steinberg
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
Steve Parker: Debate — McCain calls Nuclear Safety Advocates “Extreme Environmentalists”
The Huffington Post
“…………………….McCain accused Obama of taking the position of “extreme environmentalists” because Obama wants to be sure that storing and disposing of used fuel rods from nuclear power plants is done safely.In fact, in Nevada, which borders McCain’s home state of Arizona, there has been a decades-long battle to not allow the disposal of those nuclear rods in that state. With Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) among those “extreme environmentalists,”
Steve Parker: Debate — McCain calls Nuclear Safety Advocates “Extreme Environmentalists”
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
Colorado Energy/Climate Survey: Most in State Oppose More ‘Subprime’ Investments in Coal, Nuclear Power – MarketWatch
Colorado Energy/Climate Survey: Most in State Oppose More ‘Subprime’ Investments in Coal, Nuclear Power
Market Watch 2008DENVER and WASHINGTON, Oct 16, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ — 86 Percent Want Limits on Subsidies for Oil Shale Production, 76 Percent Support Moratorium on New Coal-Fired Power Plants; Strong Back Shift to Clean Wind and Solar Power.
f elected officials in Denver and Washington, D.C. are going to continue investing in energy through subsidies, tax breaks and other incentives, the focus should shift from coal and nuclear power to promoting wind and solar energy, enhanced energy efficiency, and highly fuel-efficient vehicles, according to a new survey of 600 Colorado adults conducted for TheCLEAN.org and the Civil Society Institute (CSI) by the leading U.S. survey firm Opinion Research Corporation (ORC). The CLEAN/CSI survey was released today with Western Colorado Congress (WCC)………………….Civil Society Institute President and Founder Pam Solo said: “Colorado residents deserve credit for understanding that more investment by the state and federal governments in coal and nuclear power is essentially the same thing as investing in subprime mortgages. If Colorado taxpayers are going to directly or indirectly underwrite energy development and energy-intensive industries — such as the auto industry — we need to insist that state officials in Denver and the next Congress and President make good, solid investments that make sense for the long-term of our country. The only energy investments that rise above the ‘subprime’ level today are wind, solar and other clean renewable energy in concert with enhanced energy efficiency.”………………….Grant Smith, national project coordinator for TheCLEAN.org, added: “Investments in coal and nuclear power are the Countrywide Financial subprime mortgages of the energy world. What the public is saying in this survey is that we support government making investments in the energy sources of tomorrow, but we have to stop flushing money down the drain by propping up the failing energy sources of yesterday, including oil, coal and nuclear……………………………There is no viable model under which new nuclear power plants can be constructed as anything other than multi-billion-dollar public works boondoggles. After the current financial debacle on Wall Street, it is hard to imagine that Americans are going to allow more dumb investments by Denver and Washington on the wrong energy sources.”
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
Pahrump Valley Times – Nye County’s Largest Newspaper Circulation
Nevada sues over radiation standards
Pahrumo Valley Times By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU 15 Oct 08WASHINGTON — It was back to court for Nevada Friday when Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto filed a federal lawsuit asking judges to throw out new radiation limits for the Yucca Mountain project.
The radiation exposure standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency will fail to protect Nevadans “from cancer-causing radioactive contamination” if nuclear waste is buried at the site, Masto said……………………..The new EPA standard once again fails to protect the health and safety of Nevada citizens, and the environment,” said Masto. “EPA has obviously worked closely with DOE to adjust its radiation standard in an attempt to steamroll this project through licensing, but has failed to protect Nevadans from cancer-causing radioactive contamination.
“DOE’s own data shows that water infiltration will corrode nuclear waste packages and radioactivity will inevitably leak into Nevada’s groundwater, delivering lethal doses of radiation to the public and irreparably contaminating the groundwater.
“Instead of working to protect the health and safety of Nevadans and striving to find reasonable solutions to the nation’s nuclear waste problem, EPA and DOE are ignoring science in favor of a project which presents unacceptable risks to the public and presents American taxpayers with a $90 billion dollar liability they can ill afford,” she concluded…………………….The Nevada lawsuit challenges the EPA setting separate “near term” and “long term” radiation limits for people who may live near the repository site thousands of years into the future.
Pahrump Valley Times – Nye County’s Largest Newspaper Circulation
Tags: nuclear
A president with an energy plan – Los Angeles Times
A president with an energy plan
Neither nuclear nor ‘clean coal’ will solve the crisis.
Los Angeles Times, Editorial 15 Oct 08 “,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,meeting our energy challenges will remain among the most important concerns of the next president.That’s why it’s doubly disappointing that neither Barack Obama nor John McCain has a responsible energy plan. In pandering to voters in swing states, both have backed dangerous, dirty energy sources in contradiction of their own principles……………………………………there’s “safe nuclear,” a phrase as oxymoronic as “clean coal” that both candidates like to toss around. Nuclear waste remains toxic for millenniums, and no one has figured out a sufficiently permanent way of storing it. McCain’s plan to build 45 nuclear plants by 2030 is either disingenuous or naive. Because the nation’s existing plants are crumbling, they will have to be decommissioned as fast as new ones can be built, making it unlikely that there would be a net increase in nuclear power even if McCain’s goal could be met. Moreover, private investors have no interest in building nuclear plants unless they receive generous subsidies and taxpayer-backed loans, yet the Congressional Budget Office considers such loans so risky that “well above 50%” of them would default. Nuclear power isn’t just environmentally irresponsible, it’s fiscally irresponsible…………………………….Our power supply might never be completely clean, but we’ve barely scratched the surface of what could be done to improve energy efficiency and raise the share of renewable power. Clean power would create jobs for American workers and innovations that could be sold around the world, while greater efficiency would lower consumers’ energy bills by cutting demand………………………………Obama and McCain are both well informed about environmental matters, and either would be a vast improvement over Bush. But the next president needs to be more than knowledgeable. He needs to have the political courage to demand change — and possibly even sacrifice. Obama has shown little of this kind of courage so far, but McCain has shown still less.
A president with an energy plan – Los Angeles Times
Tags: nuclear
October 12, 2008
Black Day Observed Against Nuclear Deal
People’s Democracy October 12, 2008 ON the day she arrived in India to seal the strategic, uneven relationship with the country, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice faced black-flag protests from people across the country demanding her to go back. The protestors also warned the love-blind prime minister Manmohan Singh not to mortgage India’s sovereignty to US imperialism by signing the India-US nuclear deal. The protests were held under the aegis of CPI(M), CPI, TDP, JD(S), Forward Bloc and RSP.
As Condoleezza Rice and Indian foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee were meeting in the palatial Hyderabad House to – in the words of Rice herself –“to talk about the next steps in the US-India relationship” hundreds of protestors marched on their meeting venue from the nearby Mandi House. Shouting loud slogans Jo Bush ke saath hai, woh desh ka dushman hai (The one who is with Bush is an enemy of the nation), Desh se gaddhaari nahi chalegi (We will not allow this betrayal of nation) the protestors led by leaders Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), D Raja (CPI), Mysoora Reddy (TDP), Devarajan (Forward Bloc) and others marched towards Hyderabad House. About a kilometre from the venue of India-US talks, on Kasturba Gandhi Marg, the police erected huge barricades and stopped the protestors……………………..Warning Manmohan Singh about the fate that befell those heads of governments of UK, Italy, Australia, Japan etc who befriended George Bush, Sitaram Yechury asserted that the people of India will deliver a greater blow in the coming elections. He said that this struggle to save our nation from the clutches of US imperialism would be intensified in the coming days all over the country.
Tags: nuclear
Nuclear power project is fraught with «ordeals», expert says | BELARUS NEWS
Nuclear power project is fraught with «ordeals», expert says
naviny.by 11/10/08 The Belarusian government’s plans to build a nuclear power plant are fraught with “multiple troubles and ordeals for the people,” Belarusian expert Heorhiy Lepin said at an international conference in Vilnius on October 9.
He described nuclear energy programs as “the most costly and the most hazardous of all power generation technologies.” “This danger is connected not only with the possibility of accidents: a nuclear reactor pollutes the environment during its routine operation,” Dr. Lepin said.
The professor stressed that nuclear power projects were inefficient because of high construction costs and the high cost of power generation. Nuclear fuel currently costs nearly 20 times as much as it did in 2000, he said, describing the disposal of nuclear waste as a “very expensive and very dangerous problem.”………………………..British professor Christopher Busby, who studies the effects of low-dose radiation on health, warned that the operation of a nuclear power plant would lead to a higher child mortality rate in Belarus.
Nuclear power project is fraught with «ordeals», expert says | BELARUS NEWS
Eric Margolis: The White House’s Final Folly
The White House’s Final Folly
THE HUFFINGTON POST Eric Margolis October 10, 2008 After invading Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, turning the Muslim world against America, alienating our allies, authoring the fiasco in Georgia, and presiding over the meltdown of Wall Street and America’s banks, it would seem impossible the Bush administration could produce another epic disaster. But it has.In its final days in office, the White House has engineered an historic nuclear deal with India that Congress, unaware of the import, approved last week………………………………Far from a triumph, this short-sighted strategic agreement with India could very well come back to haunt America. Many Indians feel the same way: furious debate over the nuclear deal almost brought down the coalition government of India’s prime minister Manmohan Singh and barely scraped by India’s parliament.
The agreement will now allow the U.S. to sell nuclear fuel, reactors and technology to India, supposedly for `peaceful energy use.’……………….President Bush’s `foreign policy triumph’ means that U.S.-supplied nuclear fuel will now keep India’s civilian reactors running, allowing Delhi to divert precious nuclear fuel to its weapons program.
This deal negates thirty years of US efforts to prevent the spread and development of nuclear weapons…………………..The gates have also been opened to U.S. arms exporters to sell state of the art military equipment to India, and to major heavy equipment suppliers like General Electric………………………..
Selling India nuclear fuel and technology that could one day threaten US national security is dangerous and counter-productive. It’s also folly driven by short-term financial greed that blinds the deal’s proponents to the nation’s security.
The first target of India’s ICBM’s will be Washington. As Marx so rightly observed, the capitalists will sell the rope with which to hang them.
Eric Margolis: The White House’s Final Folly
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
LegalNewsline | Nevada AG files suit over Yucca Mountain radiation standards
Nevada AG files suit over Yucca Mountain radiation standards
Legal Newsline.com BY CHRIS RIZO OCTOBER 10, 2008 CARSON CITY, Nev. (Legal Newsline) -Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto filed a lawsuit Friday, demanding that a federal appeals court reject radiation exposure limits set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the Yucca Mountain repository.In papers filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the attorney general said the radiation exposure limits set by the EPA last week fail to protect the environment and the public health………………………….The attorney general said the Department of Energy’s data shows that water infiltration will corrode nuclear waste packages and radioactivity will leak into Nevada’s groundwater, delivering lethal doses of radiation to the public and irreparably contaminate groundwater.
“Instead of working to protect the health and safety of Nevadans and striving to find reasonable solutions to the nation’s nuclear waste problem, EPA and DOE are ignoring science in favor of a project which presents unacceptable risks to the public and presents American taxpayers with a $90 billion dollar liability they can ill afford,” Masto Cortez said.
The controversial Yucca Mountain repository is decades behind schedule, causing nuclear waste to pile up at commercial power plants in 39 states,
LegalNewsline | Nevada AG files suit over Yucca Mountain radiation standards
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
McCain Joins Attacks on Obama Over Radical – NYTimes.com
Objections over ruled
Centralian Advocate
Dan Moss
07Oct08
U-explorer gets nod
FURIOUS protest, concern and interest surround the announcement of an exploration license at the Angela-Pamela uranium deposit.
Green lobbyists protested the licence over the weekend as the Cameco-Paladin joint venture and the Government began their efforts to soothe the public debate.
The Government received more than 200 objections to the exploration licence.
A statement from the Cameco-Paladin joint venture said it would take six years to bring the site to a point where it can be mined, if the necessary approvals were given.
The Government said the company must meet environmental, heritage and sacred site regulations during drilling……………
Both mining companies are suffering from a massive downturn: Paladin’s stocks have fallen from a top of about $6.50 in mid-July 2008 to about $3.50 yesterday.
Cameco’s share price has also fallen from about US$41 in mid-July to $27.
The spot price of uranium has almost halved recently to about US$50/lb.
Natalie Wasley from the Beyond Nuclear initiative said “It’s hard to say at this stage what will happen, but I think there will be a stronger community response if a mine were approved.
“You can never guarantee that there won’t be a problem.
“I think if you weigh up short-term potential economic gains against long-term environmental effects it’s not worth it.”
She also cast doubt on Cameco’s safety record.
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
Obama and McCain Clash Over Energy, Nuclear, Climate
Obama and McCain Clash Over Energy, Nuclear, Climate
Environment News Service NASHVILLE, Tennessee, October 8, 2008 (ENS) – Energy and environment issues formed a substantial part of last night’s presidential debate between Democratic hopeful Senator Barack Obama and Republican Senator John McCain…………………….McCain said “drilling offshore and nuclear power are two vital elements” of U.S. energy independence.
McCain’s energy policy depends heavily on nuclear power. “We can work on nuclear power plants. Build a whole bunch of them, create millions of new jobs,” he said when asked what would be his top priority as president………………………………….in response to a question from a member of the public on what sacrifices Americans will have to make, Obama called on Americans to “save energy in our homes, in our buildings.”
Obama promised “incentives so that you can buy a fuel efficient car that’s made right here in the United States of America, not in Japan or South Korea.”…………………………….
McCain dismissed Obama’s requirement that nuclear power be safe, saying, “Nuclear power. Senator Obama says that it has to be safe or disposable or something like that.”
“And I know that we can reprocess the spent nuclear fuel,” said McCain.
Obama and McCain Clash Over Energy, Nuclear, Climate
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
Economy may disrupt candidates’ energy plans — Newsday.com
Economy may disrupt candidates’ energy plansBY newsday.com MARK HARRINGTON 6 Oct 08 – “………………………..paying for candidates’ wish lists, including new nuclear plants, wind farms and solar energy, may be hampered by a $10-trillion national debt that could grow by another $700 billion once the bailout package begins dispensing taxpayer cash……………………… The centerpiece of McCain’s plan is the construction of 45 nuclear power plants by 2030, at a cost of $6 billion per plant.
“The nuclear energy industry tells us they can’t borrow any money from Wall Street … unless the federal government underwrites those loans,” said Jerry Taylor, senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a conservative Washington think tank. But Taylor said that with so much money tied up in the bailout, the government would be hard-pressed to guarantee huge loans for the nuclear industry.
Economy may disrupt candidates’ energy plans — Newsday.com
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
Barack Obama on the issues – Las Vegas Sun
Barack Obama on the issues
LAS VEGAS SUN 6 Oct 08 “……………………Nuclear PowerObama, whose home state of Illinois has 11 nuclear power facilities, said it might seem to be in the best interests of his state to ship out the nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain. However, the risks of transporting nuclear waste to another state poses an uncertain risk. Because a large amount of the spent fuel would likely travel by rail, it’s a serious concern for Chicago, which serves as the transportation hub of the country. Also, because Nevada elected officials have not wavered in their opposition, it could mean billions of more dollars are spent on the project without any results. For those reasons, Obama is opposed to making Yucca a permanent nuclear waste repository. He said a solution could be to find another state willing to serve as a repository, or finding regional repositories. “In short, the selection of Yucca Mountain has failed, the time for debate on this site is over, and it is time to start exploring new alternatives for safe, long-term solutions based on sound science.”
Barack Obama on the issues – Las Vegas Sun
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
Perth Independent Media Centre
Proposed Alice Springs Uranium Mine a “Travesty
Perth Indymedia October 6, 2008 – The NT Government has granted miners Cameco & Paladin the right to explore the Angela and Pamela uranium deposits – 25 kilometres south of Alice Springs. The decision prompted two protests over the weekend involving hundreds of people, setting the stage for major confrontation between the uranium mining industry and the wider community.
Perth Independent Media Centre
Tags: nuclear, antinuclear, radioactive, uranium
1 This Month
23-25 October – on Zoom – World BEYOND War’s annual global conferenc
Shut down the radiation-damaged Heysham nuclear reactors now
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
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