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Opposition to nuclear testing is led by Utah’s present and former Congressmen

Former and current Utah Congressmen: Say no to nuclear testing, KSL News Radio, BY CURT GRESSETH
JULY 23, 2020 SALT LAKE CITY — The US Senate is ready to restart nuclear weapons testing, but both a current and a former Utah congressman say the testing is still not safe.

The House recently passed the National Defense Authorization Act along with an amendment by Utah Democratic Rep. Ben McAdams that would block funding to restart nuclear weapons testing in the United States.

McAdams’ amendment was adopted along a mostly party-line vote of 227-179.

The Senate version of the NDAA includes $10 million to resume nuclear testing for the first time since 1992.

Nuclear testing

“Explosive nuclear testing causes irreparable harm to human health and to our environment, and jeopardizes the U.S. leadership role on nuclear nonproliferation,” McAdams said Monday in the House.

McAdams joined Lee Lonsberry on Live Mic to discuss his amendment on blocking funding for nuclear testing.

“Utah has been devastated from nuclear weapons testing for decades. The federal government lied to us. They told us it was safe, that there would be no harm that would come from this testing. Then so many people across our state developed cancer and other issues related to that testing, so we were lied to for years by our federal government,” McAdams said. ……..

Former Utah Rep. Jim Matheson

Former Utah Rep. Jim Matheson, also a Democrat, lost his father, former Utah Gov. Scott Matheson, to cancer blamed on living downwind from the Nevada Test Site where atomic tests were conducted in the 1950 and 1960s.

“This is an issue that obviously affected my family in a significant way — my extended family, let alone my own father, who was a Downwinder,” Matheson said.

While serving in Congress, Matheson said his efforts on nuclear weapons testing were focused on whether it was safe to conduct weapons tests. He said he introduced legislation that said the testing couldn’t move forward without the equivalent of an environmental impact statement to assess all the risks and prove that it’s safe to test.

“The folks who were trying to move ahead with testing didn’t like that idea at all,” Matheson said. “It wasn’t safe when it was above ground and it wasn’t safe when it was below ground. It’s still not safe today.”

Cause for alarm

“Technology has not advanced to the point where you can be satisfied with the assertions of these testers, essentially that tests of this nature are safe,” Lee said.

“Absolutely not,” Matheson replied. “They have no justification for even saying that.”

If proponents wish to proceed, the former congressman called for a transparent, public process to assess all the risks of nuclear weapons testing.

“The facts will speak for themselves,” he said.

He said the $10 million appropriation in the Senate NDAA bill to start preparing sites for testing “should be a cause for alarm for all of us.”

“My gosh, we had the government lie to us here in Utah way back when. They told us it was safe. They knew it wasn’t,” he said.

Matheson said the government only did the testing when the wind blew the fallout in the least populated direction, which was southern Utah. He added that declassified documents referred to people living in southern Utah as a low-use segment of the nation’s population.

“Let’s not tuck $10 million into a defense bill in the Senate and say let’s get the site ready without any process to determine if it’s safe or not, without any public effort to reevaluate the risk associated with this. This doesn’t sound right to me. This doesn’t pass the smell test,” Matheson said.

“Technology has not changed. Fallout is fallout. Wherever the wind blows it, it will pose a threat to all those who encounter it,” Lee said. https://kslnewsradio.com/1929771/former-and-current-utah-congressmen-say-no-to-nuclear-testing/

July 25, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Environmentalists, political groups, companies demand that Facebook crack down on climate denialism

Everybody’s entitled to their opinion – but not their own facts’: The spread of climate denial on Facebook

‘The arguments are that people can’t trust scientists, models, climate data. It’s all about building doubt and undermining public trust in climate science’ Independent, Louise Boyle, New York @LouiseB_NY, 24 July, 20.

“………The pushback

On 1 July, a coalition of environmental and political groups sent a letter to Facebook’s oversight board demanding a crackdown on climate denial and to close the “giant” opinion loophole that allows climate misinformation to be posted as an opinion.

“Facebook is allowing the spread of climate misinformation to flourish, unchecked, across the globe. Instead of heeding the advice of independent scientists and approved fact-checkers from Climate Feedback, Facebook sided with fossil fuel lobbyists by allowing the CO2 Coalition to take advantage of a giant loophole for “opinion” content. The loophole has allowed climate denial to fester by labelling it “opinion,” and thus, avoiding the platform’s fact-checking processes,” they wrote.

More than 500 companies including Coca-Cola, Dunkin’ Donuts, Verizon, and this week Disney, according to WSJ, have slashed or suspended ad spends on Facebook as part of the “Stop Hate for Profit” boycott, a move by civil rights groups to try to force the social media giant to address hate speech and misinformation.

An independent audit of Facebook earlier this month reached harsh conclusions on the social media giant, reporting that it was allowing hate speech and disinformation to proliferate.

Separately, Generation Progress, the youth-centered research and advocacy group, on Thursday launched a “Get The Facts Out Campaign” website aimed at debunking myths on the climate crisis and calling out climate deniers across Congress and the Trump administration, with a focus on the interwoven issues of climate and racial justice.

“Black Americans have been fighting for clean air and water in their communities for years. Our legislators must understand the importance of addressing these inequities, not deny their existence,” the group said.

And earlier this month, two senators introduced legislation to reform Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, Reuters reported.

The legislation, titled the Platform Accountability and Consumer Transparency Act, or PACT, from Democratic Senator Brian Schatz and Senate Republican John Thune, aims to provide more accountability and transparency for large tech platforms with respect to content moderation decisions………

Climate experts were sceptical of tech platforms’ ability, or desire, to enact meaningful change, and said that public action was key.

For Dr Mann that means political overhaul. “Americans must vote in a Democratic president and Congress in the next US election. Unlike Trump and Congressional Republicans, who appear beholden to both Russia and fossil fuel interests, will be willing to crack down on Zuckerberg/Facebook’s nefarious activities,” he said.

Dr Cook is working with machine-learning researchers on a system to detect and categorise climate misinformation in real-time. He acknowledged that social media platforms would have to be incentivised to use such a model, as it “would basically be taking money out of their pockets” in terms of ad revenue.

Just as important, he says, is “building public resilience against misinformation” – teaching people how to spot misleading or rhetorical techniques and logical fallacies in climate denial arguments.

“We found that when you explain techniques, that not only neutralises and inoculates people against that myth, but also against other topics like the tobacco industry and anti-vaxxer misinformation,” he said.

Dr Cook and his team have created a smart-phone app for public use and for schools.

He added: ”We need to look at technological solutions but ultimately we need to make ourselves un-hackable.”

Additional reporting from Reuters https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-crisis-denial-facebook-global-warming-denier-social-media-a9595546.html

July 25, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | climate change, media, USA | Leave a comment

SEPTEMBER 3 & 4 – NEW SENTENCING DATES FOR KINGS BAY PLOWSHARES 7

SEPTEMBER 3 & 4 – NEW SENTENCING DATES FOR KINGS BAY PLOWSHARES 7

The remaining six Kings Bay Plowshares 7 defendants were granted a continuance for sentencing by Judge Lisa Godbey Wood of the Southern District Federal court of Georgia in Brunswick from the end of July until September 3rd and 4th. Due to spikes in COVID-19 cases in GA and ensuing travel restrictions the anti-nuclear activists had asked the court to further postpone sentencing to accommodate their right to be sentenced in person in open court, not by video, witnessed safely by family, supporters and the press.

The new sentencing dates and times are September 3rd: Carmen Trotta at 9 am, Fr. Steve Kelly at 1 pm, Clare Grady at 4 pm. On September 4 will be Mark Colville at 9 am, Patrick O’Neill at 1 pm, Martha Hennessy (granddaughter of Dorothy Day who co-founded the Catholic Worker movement) at 4 pm. It is possible that there will be further delays depending on the course of the virus over the next month. We will try to keep you updated as we find out more as that time approaches.

The defendants had asked for home confinement during this time of COVID-19, as entering prison, especially for those over 60 years of age with health issues, could be a death sentence. Their request was opposed by the prosecution and the probation department which argued the charges involved a threat to human life (their own) by entering a restricted zone on the base where lethal force is authorized. This would raise the level of the offense and make them ineligible for home confinement. Judge Wood upheld this interpretation in the first sentencing of Elizabeth McAlister on June 8. At 80 years-old, the eldest of the KBP7 defendants and widow of Phil Berrigan, she was sentenced by video conferencing while at her home in Connecticut. Liz had served over 17 months before trial. The judge agreed with the US attorney’s request for a sentence of time served plus 3 years supervised probation and restitution at $25 monthly (of $33,000 owed by all 7 jointly).

We are still urging people to write to Judge Wood not so much to ask for leniency but for justice and not a death sentence. Details are on the website: https://kingsbayplowshares7.org/2020/05/letters-to-judge-wood/

ALSO https://kingsbayplowshares7.org/2020/05/letters-to-judge-wood/?link_id=1&can_id=195a0feb9877cdd62aa2d9960e728695&source=email-new-sentencing-dates-september-3-4-2&email_referrer=email_871118&email_subject=new-sentencing-dates-september-3-4

July 25, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Legal, USA | Leave a comment

Problems in planned nuclear waste dump at Chalk River

New nuclear waste guidelines could lead to ‘massive dump’ upstream from Ottawa if approved, CapitalCurrent , By Bailey Moreton, 23 July 20,

New nuclear waste guidelines set to undergo public consultation this fall could clear the way for a much-debated, large, above-ground waste disposal mound to be built at Chalk River, the national nuclear research facility 180 kilometres northwest of Ottawa.

The proposed guidelines would frame the way nuclear companies dispose of waste, including the creation of deep ground repositories. Under the guidelines, companies would present waste disposal safety cases — a set of justifications for a planned disposal strategy — which are then assessed by the Canada Nuclear Safety Commission.

But one longtime critic of the Chalk River site says the guidelines would give too much flexibility to operators of nuclear facilities. Ole Hendrickson, a former scientist with Environment Canada and a researcher with the Concerned Citizens of Renfrew County Area, says the guidelines need to be more stringent.

“In my view, what they say is, ‘Let’s make these reg docs as flexible as possible and non-prescriptive’ — and the CNSC actually uses those terms, non-prescriptive and flexible, to describe its regulatory approach,” he said. “That may work for industry, but for us members of the public, it raises a lot of concerns.”

In the minutes of a CNSC meeting on June 18, Ramzi Jammal, executive vice-president of the commission, said the safety cases allow for performance-based assessment and for the regulatory documents to be adaptable to future conditions.

“With performance-based you’re always achieving and applying the new standards as they become available. The same thing applies for the new technology,” Jammal said at the meeting. “As you are looking at enhancement for safety, you always take into consideration the new available information.”

But what is defined as low-level waste is flexible and depends on the safety cases presented to the CNSC, said Richard Cannings, NDP MP for South Okanagan-West Kootenay and the party’s natural resources critic.

“That’s a problem. That’s not how it’s done elsewhere in the world,” he said. “They did it in Ottawa’s backyard.”

In the June 18 meeting, Karine Glenn, director of the wastes and decommissioning division for the CNSC, said low-level waste would mostly involve medical materials, but each safety case would be reviewed by the CNSC.

In Chalk River’s case, critics such as Eva Schacherl, a volunteer with the Coalition Against Nuclear Dumps on the Ottawa River, say they believe the “massive waste dump” would fail to manage the nuclear waste safely and that operators are failing to meet international standards at the site……….

both Schacherl and Hendrickson said they are concerned the site — which is within a little more than a kilometre of the Ottawa River, according to Hendrickson — could spread contamination.

“Waste has piled up at Chalk River, and there’s no long-term way of dealing with it,” said Hendrickson. “There would be a lot of leaching that would flow back into the Ottawa River.”

“Most countries with large quantities of nuclear waste have an independent federal nuclear waste agency,” said Hendrickson. “It’s not run by the industry like the Nuclear Waste Management Organization. It’s definitely not run by the nuclear regulator.”

Cannings agreed, adding that he was worried what impact having the NWMO responsible for the deep ground repositories could have for safety.

“There’s risks with everything. But the assessment of risks to a project by the proponent, by the industry — they’re going to be much more favourable, they’re going to accept more risk than the public because they’re protecting themselves,” said Cannings.

Two Ontario sites — South Bruce, near London, and Ignace, a three-hour drive northwest of Thunder Bay, are the only two communities still vying for the deep-ground repository project. Both proposals have been met with resistance from local residents………

Critics noted that several organizations and advocacy groups had requested but were denied permission to be present at the June meeting where the regulatory documents were presented via video conference. ……… https://capitalcurrent.ca/new-nuclear-waste-guidelines-could-lead-to-massive-dump-upstream-from-ottawa-if-approved/

July 25, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Canada, wastes | Leave a comment

Why the nuclear whistleblower exposing AQ Khan was ignored

Nuclear secrets: the Dutch whistleblower who tried to stop Pakistan’s bomb Frits Veerman first warned the authorities in 1973 about the suspicious activities of his colleague AQ Khan. Why was he ignored? Simon Kuper– 24 July 20,

In the early 1970s, the Dutch technician Frits Veerman shared a large desk in a lab in Amsterdam with a charming Pakistani scientist named Abdul. One day, Veerman mentioned that he’d like to visit Pakistan. He asked if he could stay a few nights with his colleague’s family. Abdul — full name Abdul Qadeer Khan — replied that Pakistan’s government would pay for his entire trip. That’s when Veerman began to suspect that Khan was stealing Dutch nuclear secrets. ………

Veerman first tried to report Khan to the Dutch authorities in 1973. He didn’t make it past a secretary. Had he been heard, then or later, the world might have been spared a nightmare. The Dutch allowed Khan to leave their country in 1975 and to keep visiting European suppliers. The US Central Intelligence Agency didn’t stop him either. Khan ended up building Pakistan’s nuclear bomb and selling the technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya.

………….After Veerman blew the whistle, he lost his job. A report this month by the Huis voor Klokkenluiders, the new Dutch Whistleblowers Authority, finally absolves him. It also helps explain why he and not Khan was punished.

Khan is now 84, and living under unofficial house arrest in Pakistan, where he has long had an up-and-down relationship with the authorities. He is closely escorted by security officials during his restricted movements, while any visitors to his home are screened in advance. …………

The Dutch briefed the CIA on Khan, Lubbers told Japanese TV in 2005. The Americans opposed the nuclear ambitions of their Pakistani allies. Nonetheless, the CIA stopped the BVD from arresting Khan. The Americans wanted to watch him, so as to track Pakistan’s nuclear procurement and Europe’s secretive nuclear suppliers.

The CIA’s failure to stop him in 1975 “was the first monumental error”, Robert Einhorn, who worked on nonproliferation in the Clinton and Obama administrations, told Frantz and Collins. The Americans asked the Dutch “to inform them fully but not take any action”, Lubbers recalled, laughing. He said he “found it a bit strange”, but also thought, “‘OK, it’s American business.’ We didn’t feel . . . safeguarding the world against nuclear proliferation as a Dutch responsibility.” The business of the Netherlands was business. The CIA would watch Khan for decades.

FDO didn’t tell Khan he was under suspicion. It gave him a new job, calling it a promotion, and said he could stop visiting Almelo. He may have realised the game was up. On December 15 1975 he flew to Pakistan on leave, taking his wife, daughters and blueprints of centrifuges. Soon afterwards, from Pakistan, he resigned from FDO. ……..

In September 1976, FDO held a meeting about Khan. Veerman told his colleagues that he thought Khan was a spy. FDO doesn’t seem to have launched an investigation or taken measures, says the Dutch Whistleblowers Authority. Later, Veerman detailed Khan’s actions to BVD agents. But his speaking out was unpopular. There had been rejoicing within FDO when an executive returned from a visit to ex-employee Khan in Pakistan with orders of work. Pakistani technicians began visiting FDO for what Veerman calls “a course in ‘how to build an ultracentrifuge’”.

Why was Veerman sacked? A former Dutch security investigator, who handled the Khan case from 1979, told the whistleblowers authority that Veerman was “sacrificed” because he wouldn’t stop talking. FDO’s security had been lax, the Netherlands and its high-tech sector were embarrassed, those involved didn’t want the story to reach the media or other countries, and the junior employee had to shut up. This is what Veerman had always suspected.

No other Dutch tech company would hire him. Is Veerman bitter? The question seems to surprise him. He doesn’t have a large emotional vocabulary. “I don’t cry about it all day. A great injustice was done to me, but I don’t think about it much. When something like that happens, you have to make an assessment — maybe I am too sober — and go on.” Now, with the whistleblowers’ report, Veerman plans to seek compensation from the Dutch state and the present incarnation of FDO’s former holding company, VMF-Stork (FDO closed in 1992). The current Stork, which now consists of a very different set of operating companies, says it “has fully co-operated with the investigation [by the Dutch Whistleblowers Authority], even though this question is from a very long time ago . . . The current Stork cannot be regarded as Mr Veerman’s employer, as the Authority’s report confirms.” ………

Meanwhile, Khan regularly flew into Brussels, then drove to nearby countries visiting suppliers and scientists. The BVD took no action, even when Dutch businessman Nico Zondag reported in 1977 that Pakistan was seeking products to build a nuclear bomb. A Dutch foreign-ministry official wrote in a memo in 1984 that exports to Pakistan continued, “including essential bomb components that for whatever reason couldn’t be blocked”. Khan said in 1987 that Europeans were keen sellers: “People chased us with figures and details of equipment they had sold to Almelo and Capenhurst [the British site of another Urenco plant]. They literally begged us to buy their equipment.” There were few restrictions on such exports in those days. If an item seemed particularly problematic, the trick was to conceal its destination by routing it through an inoffensive third country.

A small country with an impenetrable language can generally keep national embarrassments secret. The Dutch government commissioned a report on Khan only in 1979, after the German TV channel ZDF — using sources other than Veerman — revealed Khan’s espionage to the world. Nobody then thought Pakistan was close to getting the bomb and the CIA believed it had the matter under control, but the Netherlands — a vocal supporter of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty of 1968 — was humiliated in front of its allies.

In 1983, Veerman was summoned to a meeting at the Bijlmer prison. There, he later told the whistleblowers authority, government officials ordered him to keep quiet about Khan “because the Netherlands’ international relations and reputation were at risk, and the interests of Dutch industry”. When he said he’d keep speaking out, an executive from FDO snapped that speaking out had got him fired — thereby blowing the company’s cover story

Veerman went straight from the meeting to a Dutch newspaper, but afterwards retreated into his social security job and was hardly heard of again in public for decades until now. He was also put on an international watchlist and for many years was questioned by the authorities when he travelled abroad. On one family holiday in Italy, his car was stopped by armed police.

In 1983 the Netherlands sentenced Khan in absentia to four years in jail for seeking secret information. The main evidence was his letters to Veerman. Khan was offended by the verdict and his biographer Zahid Malik would record his complaint that two of the judges were Jews. Later, his sentence was overturned because he hadn’t been served the summons. The Dutch then abandoned prosecution of the most consequential crime committed on their territory since the second world war. The ministry of justice later admitted that Khan’s legal file had gone missing.

Lubbers, who became prime minister in 1982, wanted Khan arrested but was told to “leave it to the [intelligence] services”. Looking back, he told the Argos radio show: “The last word is Washington. There is no doubt they knew everything, heard everything. There is an open line between The Hague and Washington . . . It was very dumb.” Khan was allowed to return to the Netherlands repeatedly, including for a visit to his dying father-in-law in 1992.

The CIA’s former director of central intelligence, George Tenet, once boasted: “We were inside [Khan’s] residence, inside his facilities, inside his rooms.” Yet the Americans missed a lot, partly because they expected Pakistan to pursue a bomb made with plutonium rather than uranium. They were also late to realise that Khan had opened a nuclear supermarket, offering starter kits to many countries including Syria and Saudi Arabia. Decades after leaving the Netherlands, he was still selling Dutch knowledge. He grew rich. In 1998, he also became celebrated as “Mohsin e-Pakistan” (Saviour of Pakistan), after the country detonated six nuclear bombs at a test site.

Proof of his sales emerged in 2003, when the US Navy intercepted a ship carrying nuclear technology from one of his factories to Libya. Later, the Libyans handed the Americans two plastic bags (bearing the names of an Islamabad tailor and a dry cleaner) that contained bomb designs. In 2004, Khan confessed on live television to transferring the technology to Libya, Iran and North Korea. By then, the US couldn’t demand his punishment, as Pakistan was an ally in the “war on terror”.

Meanwhile, the Dutch government admitted in 2004 that Iranian centrifuges had been seen that used “Urenco technology from the 1970s”. Pakistan’s centrifuges were similar. The Dutch foreign ministry told the FT: “The Netherlands attaches great importance to the Non-proliferation Treaty and the prevention of proliferation. The Netherlands did not actively contribute to unwanted proliferation of knowledge.” Khan later withdrew his confession. Some years ago, an American documentary-maker arranged for Veerman to phone his old friend. Khan, who resents being painted as a common spy, told him, “Frits, you are the biggest liar around.” Khan is now out of favour with Pakistan’s government. Security forces personnel installed in the house next door block him from meeting his relatives, friends and lawyers, he complained in an appeal to Pakistan’s Supreme Court last month. ……

Veerman is harsher about his own country: “If Iran ever manages to destroy Israel, they could put on the weapons, ‘Made in Holland.’” https://www.ft.com/content/be09ba7c-b0d8-45e4-aff8-bf01b4aa558e

July 25, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | EUROPE, Pakistan, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

New CT scan method lowers radiation exposure

New CT scan method lowers radiation exposure, Science Daily

Date: July 23, 2020
Source: University College London
Summary:: A CT scan technique that splits a full X-ray beam into thin beamlets can deliver the same quality of image at a much reduced radiation dose, according to a new study. The technique, demonstrated on a small sample in a micro CT scanner, could potentially be adapted for medical scanners and used to reduce the amount of radiation millions of people are exposed to each year.; A CT scan technique that splits a full X-ray beam into thin beamlets can deliver the same quality of image at a much reduced radiation dose, according to a new UCL study.

The technique, demonstrated on a small sample in a micro CT scanner, could potentially be adapted for medical scanners and used to reduce the amount of radiation millions of people are exposed to each year.

A computerised tomography (CT) scan is a form of X-ray that creates very accurate cross-sectional views of the inside of the body. It is used to guide treatments and diagnose cancers and other diseases.

Past studies have suggested CT scans may cause a small increase in lifelong cancer risk because their high-energy wavelengths can damage DNA. Although cells repair this damage, sometimes these repairs are imperfect, leading to DNA mutations in later years……… https://www.sciencedaily.com/

July 25, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | radiation, USA | Leave a comment

Nuclear isn’t clean or renewable

Nuclear isn’t clean or renewable , https://www.newtimesslo.com/sanluisobispo/nuclear-isnt-clean-or-renewable/Content?oid=9943058 Marty Brown, Atascadero 24 July 20

Many people in this county who are joining community choice energy options in order to use and support advancing clean energy sources will be very upset when they learn our Assembly member, Jordan Cunningham, has introduced AB 2898 to amend California’s Renewables Portfolio Standard Program allowing nuclear power to be named as a carbon free and renewable resource.

However, nuclear is neither carbon free nor renewable. There is a finite supply of uranium 235, which nuclear plants use to power their reactors. The ore is mined, processed, and enriched. The resulting material is manufactured into pellets and rods to contain them. All this industry and transport causes a lot of greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, during the operation of nuclear plants, CO2 is emitted with water vapor, steam, and heat.

Another “renewable standard” states there is to be no waste. We certainly will have waste—thousands of tons of highly radioactive waste with nowhere to store it. The Central Coast deserves representatives who will be looking out for our health and dollars. One who will look beyond the dinosaur of nuclear power with its dangers, waste, and cost to embrace a future of truly clean sustainable power.

July 25, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA | Leave a comment

Huge nuclear corruption case – Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder arrested

Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder arrested in $60 million bribery case https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2020/07/21/ohio-bribery-case-state-official-charged-federal-prosecutors/5477862002/

Sharon Coolidge, Dan Horn, Jessie Balmert Cincinnati Enquirer Marc Kovac, Randy Ludlow and Lucas Sullivan contributed to this report 21 Jul 20 CINCINNATI – Federal officials arrested Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and four others Tuesday as part of a $60 million racketeering and bribery investigation that prosecutors describe as one of the largest public corruption cases in Ohio history.

All of the charges are tied to what federal prosecutors describe as a criminal enterprise dedicated to securing a bailout for two nuclear power plants in northern Ohio, which is expected to cost the state’s utility ratepayers $1 billion.

A criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday describes the effort as “Householder’s Enterprise” and states that he and his associates sought to expand their political power, enrich themselves and conceal their criminal conspiracy.

“This is likely the largest bribery, money laundering scheme ever perpetrated against the people of the state of Ohio,” said U.S. Attorney David DeVillers, whose office will lead the prosecution of the case. “This was bribery, plain and simple. This was a quid pro quo. This was pay to play.”

Also charged Tuesday were four lobbyists and Republican operatives:

Neil Clark, founder of Grant Street Consultants and once called by USA Today “one of the best connected lobbyists in Columbus”;
Matthew Borges, former Ohio Republican Party chair and consultant;
Juan Cespedes, co-founder of The Oxley Group in Columbus;
Jeffrey Longstreth, adviser to Householder;
Generation Now, a nonprofit that federal prosecutors link to Longstreth and Householder, also faces racketeering charges.

DeVillers said the arrests Tuesday will not end the investigation and that agents will continue to interview potential witnesses and execute search warrants in the coming days and weeks. “We’re not done with this case,” he said. “There are a lot of federal agents knocking on a lot of doors.”

The criminal complaint accuses Householder of creating an enterprise to collect large sums of money for him and others involved in the conspiracy.

“The millions paid into the entity were akin to bags of cash,” the complaint states. “Unlike campaign or PAC contributions, they were not regulated, not reported, not subject to public scrutiny — and the enterprise freely spent the bribe payments to further the enterprise’s political interests and to enrich themselves.”

The arrests are the result of a nearly two-year FBI investigation that included undercover federal agents who met with Householder and Clark, as well as surveillance that allowed investigators to obtain text messages, emails and other communications between those who have been charged. …… According to the criminal complaint, the arrests are the result of a nearly two-year investigation into bribes and money laundering by the FBI.

Householder oversaw the controversial, Republican-led bailout of the two nuclear plants, owned by FirstEnergy Solutions, of Akron. House Bill 6, signed by Gov. Mike DeWine in June, authorized using ratepayer fees for the $1 billion bailout.

The fight to approve the money was long and costly, extending even after the bill was signed into law. An effort to overturn the bailout ultimately failed after it met fierce resistance from well-funded competition. One group was Generation Now, a 501(c)(4) “dark money” operation that was not required to disclose donors under federal law. The group hired blockers to stall signature collectors working for those opposed to the bailout.

The second group, Ohioans for Energy Security, paid for millions of dollars in advertisements, including ones that warned Ohioans that the Chinese would take over Ohio’s power grid if voters repealed the bailout.

FirstEnergy, which spun off FirstEnergy Solutions in bankruptcy proceedings, gave more than $1.1 million to Ohio politicians, including Householder, between 2017 and 2019. FirstEnergy Solutions was later renamed Energy Harbor Corp.

Cespedes was listed by the state as a lobbyist last year for Energy Harbor and Borges works for the Columbus-based firm 17 Consulting Group, which contributed $90,000 to a pro-nuclear energy group called Ohio Clean Energy Jobs Alliance, which has ties to FirstEnergy Solutions.

Disclosure: 17 Consulting advises The Enquirer on legislative activity affecting the media industry.

The documents unsealed Tuesday afternoon did not name the companies involved, though they noted that “Company A entities paid Householder’s enterprise $60,886,835.86 in secret payments over the approximately three-year period in exchange for the billion-dollar-bailout. The enterprise concealed the payments … to receive the bribe money and then transferring the payments internally to a web of related entities and accounts.”………

Investigators allege the nonprofit used energy company money to back the campaigns of 21 different state candidates in the 2018 primary and general elections, including Householder.

More than $1 million was spent on negative ads against those candidates’ opponents, with additional funds paying for Householder’s campaign staff, according to documents.

Most of the backed candidates won in 2018, and all supported Householder’s election as Speaker, investigators said. Additionally, Householder received $400,000-plus in personal benefits, including funds to settle a personal lawsuit, to pay off credit card debt and for costs associated with his home in Florida, according to documents.

July 23, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

As FBI investigates nuclear bribery, environmentalists call for review of controversial Ohio nuclear bailout bill

Environmental groups want controversial Ohio nuclear bailout bill reexamined; HB6 now at the center of FBI investigation, Cleveland.com, By Emily Bamforth, cleveland.com 22 Jul 20, CLEVELAND, Ohio — Ohio House Bill 6 bailed out two FirstEnergy power plants and gave subsidies to coal plants, while dismantling mandates designed to move Ohio’s clean energy landscape forward.

The controversial bill, passed last year, is now the centerpiece of a federal bribery investigation, which implicates Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, one of the most outspoken supporters of HB6, and four associates.

The corruption scandal is now prompting groups that already opposed HB6 because of its implications for the economy or environment to call for a re-examination of the bill, or its total repeal. Both the Sierra Club and American Wind Energy Association issued statements on the case Tuesday evening.

“The legislative push to bail out legacy generation and roll back Ohio’s renewable energy commitments was always against the will of Ohioans, who overwhelmingly support renewable energy,” American Wind Energy Association Eastern State Affairs Director Andrew Gohn said in a statement. “It now appears that the passage of this bill was not just against the will of the people, but also may have involved serious and possibly criminal impropriety.”

Supporters of the bill claimed the bailout would save jobs in nuclear energy and reconfigure surcharges to Ohio customers to save money. But those fighting against it, including environmental groups, balked at the changes which effectively “gutted” energy-efficiency and renewable-energy mandates for utilities.

The bill changed Ohio’s renewable-energy goal from a maximum of 12.5 percent by 2027 to 8.5 percent by 2026. Under Ohio requirements introduced in 2008, utilities must reduce customers’ power usage by 22 percent by 2027.

Under House Bill 6, these standards would end after utilities companies reached a 17.5 percent drop in customer power use.

The bill also included subsidies for coal power plants.

Neil Waggoner, the Sierra Club Ohio’s Beyond Coal Campaign representative, said this year the group has seen utilities companies petitioning the state’s public utilities commission to end energy efficiency programs, because companies are already hitting the lowered standard.

“There’s a reason why people called HB6 one of the most regressive energy bills in the United States,” he said……… https://www.cleveland.com/news/2020/07/environmental-groups-want-controversial-ohio-nuclear-bailout-bill-reexamined-hb6-now-at-the-center-of-fbi-investigation.html

July 23, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

America’s choice – environmental and climate catastrophe under Trump, or some hope under Democratic rule

Editorial: Trump’s continued disregard for the environment and climate change poses a mortal threat, LA Times THE TIMES EDITORIAL BOARD, JULY 19, 2020

It’s fitting that President Trump invoked an interstate highway expansion in Atlanta last week to announce final rules that, if they survive the inevitable legal challenges, will undermine one of the nation’s bedrock environmental laws, the National Environmental Policy Act. American voters face a fork in their own road this November — stay on the Trump expressway to environmental degradation and catastrophic climate change, or shift to the road, bumpy as it may be, to a cleaner environment and more sustainable future of wind, solar and other energy sources that do not involve burning fossil fuels.

The COVID-19 pandemic understandably has seized the nation’s attention, but that hasn’t lessened the risk we all face from air and water pollution and carbon-fed global warming. Trump has unabashedly sought to dismantle federal regulatory structures to speed up construction projects while forging a national energy plan based on producing and burning fossil fuels.

His embrace of the oil, gas and coal industries defies the global scientific consensus that burning fossil fuels emits greenhouse gases that make the Earth less habitable by warming the atmosphere, feeding stronger and more frequent storms, triggering devastating droughts that propel human migration, and pushing up sea levels so that they encroach on cities and other human settlements. In fact, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported last week that unusually high tides led to record flooding among one-quarter of Atlantic and Gulf Coast communities where the agency maintains tide gauges. Climate change is no dystopian vision of the future; it is here.

Trump’s efforts to eviscerate regulatory oversight of the environment is rooted in his belief that regulations are for the most part unnecessary hurdles to economic progress. He bewails the amount of time it takes for projects to clear environmental reviews and related court challenges, adding what, in his mind, are unnecessary costs and delays………..

Biden’s proposal at least recognizes the dire future we all face if the nation — and the world — do not fundamentally alter how we produce and consume energy.

The world cannot afford to backslide on environmental protections and the all-important fight to mitigate the worst effects of climate change. Yes, jobs are important, but survival more so. The errors and consequences of the past are crystal clear. The question is, will we heed those lessons? https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-07-19/trump-nepa-biden-sanders-environment-climate-change

July 23, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | election USA 2020, environment | Leave a comment

USA’s nuclear woes highlighted by Ohio corruption case

Ohio corruption case throws focus on US nuclear plant troubles Ft.com, Gregory Meyer in New York, 23 July 20

Top lawmaker charged over payments relating to bailouts in case that points up economic woes,

Gregory Meyer in New York 3 HOURS AGO 5 Print this page The troubled economics of nuclear energy in the US have come into glaring focus after a top Ohio lawmaker was charged in connection with $60m in alleged payments to orchestrate a $1bn bailout of two struggling power plants on the Lake Erie shore.

Ohio last year became the fifth US state — following Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey, and New York — to approve aid to nuclear power plants facing low-cost competition from natural gas, solar and wind energy. Its governor, Mike DeWine, signed a bill providing up to $150m a year, funded by a surcharge on electricity customers.

Intense lobbying preceded the bill’s passage. A campaign to overturn it through a referendum failed last autumn. Yet the machinations that led to the bailout ran far deeper than the public knew, federal prosecutors said on Tuesday.

According to the US justice department, for three years ending in March, $60m was poured into an advocacy organisation called Generation Now, controlled by the Republican state house speaker, Larry Householder. Prosecutors said the funds financed a “racketeering conspiracy” led by Mr Householder, who was charged along with his campaign strategist, three lobbyists and Generation Now.

The companies that supplied the money were not named in the indictment, but the details matched Ohio utility FirstEnergy and one of its subsidiaries. The alleged co-conspirators called the company “the bank”, given its seemingly unlimited war chest, according to an affidavit filed with the criminal complaint.

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https://www.ft.com/content/451324c6-9f9d-48a1-b2d9-76d731e99db6The alleged conspiracy used the money to help more than 20 state candidates who supported the bailout propping up the two power plants, including Mr Householder, in the 2018 election. More than $1m was spent on advertisements attacking opponents of the measure, according to the US attorney for the southern district of Ohio.

Some funds were used to improperly pay for Mr Householder’s campaign staff, while he used more than $400,000 on personal expenses — including a home in Florida — prosecutors alleged. Mr Householder could not be reached for comment.

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https://www.ft.com/content/451324c6-9f9d-48a1-b2d9-76d731e99db6After legislators passed the bailout last July, the funds were used to derail a public ballot initiative meant to repeal the law by bribing people who were collecting signatures endorsing the effort, the complaint said. Besides the nuclear subsidies, the law also eliminated energy efficiency requirements, pared back mandates for wind and solar power and authorised a fee on customers to support ailing coal-fired power plants.

“When the corruption is alleged to reach some of the highest levels of our state government, the citizens of Ohio should be shocked and appalled,” said Chris Hoffman, special agent in charge at the FBI’s Cincinnati office. ………….

the Electric Power Supply Association, which represents independent power producers, urged its repeal, calling it the outcome of a “corrupt legislative process”.

“Rather than let the market provide the best outcomes for energy customers — and against the warnings and complaints from almost all corners — money and political influence won the day,” said Todd Snitchler, EPSA chief executive and former chairman of the Ohio Public Utilities Commission.

With the referendum having failed, the Ohio law is likely to stand, according to ClearView Energy Partners, a research group: “Only the state legislature can terminate the programme at this point, and we do not think the arrests could be enough to galvanise lawmakers to reverse course . https://www.ft.com/content/451324c6-9f9d-48a1-b2d9-76d731e99db6

July 23, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

Arrest of Ohio House Speaker on corruption charges, re bailout of nuclear plant

Ohio House Speaker Arrested In Case Related To Nuclear Power Plant Bailout Law, Statehouse News Bureau, By KAREN KASLER • JUL 21, 2020 House Speaker Larry Householder (R-Glenford) has been arrested in connection to a $60 million public corruption racketeering conspiracy case. Federal agents were at his farm in Perry County Tuesday morning.

Sources have confirmed that former Ohio GOP Chairman Matt Borges was also arrested, along with Householder’s adviser Jeff Longstreth. Veteran lobbyist Neil Clark was also arrested, according to sources.

It’s believed the case is related to the controversial nuclear power plant bailout law that was passed last year. The law was challenged in an expensive campaign that included charges of racism. The effort to repeal it was equally bitter, with allegations of intimidation of signature gatherers.

The law took effect in October after a group that opposed it missed the deadline to collect signatures. In January, that group dropped their courtroom battle to stop the law from taking effect. There was dark money on both sides, and donors were never revealed.

The law sends $150 million a year to the Davis-Besse and Perry power plants, which were owned by FirstEnergy Solutions. That company, which had been a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corporation when it was first created but was no longer related to FirstEnergy Corporation, emerged from bankruptcy protection earlier this year and is now known as Energy Harbor.

FirstEnergy Solutions had said it would decommission its power plants starting this year if it didn’t get some financial relief from the state…… The law took effect in October after a group that opposed it missed the deadline to collect signatures. In January, that group dropped their courtroom battle to stop the law from taking effect. There was dark money on both sides, and donors were never revealed.

FirstEnergy Solutions had said it would decommission its power plants starting this year if it didn’t get some financial relief from the state………….https://www.statenews.org/post/ohio-house-speaker-arrested-case-related-nuclear-power-plant-bailout-law

July 23, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

Funding for nuclear weapons tests is blocked in U.S. Congress

House Democrats vote to block funding for nuclear weapons tests, Defense News, by: Joe Gould 21 July 20, WASHINGTON ― No funding would be available for live nuclear weapons testing under an amendment the House adopted to its version of the annual defense policy bill.

The amendment from Rep. Ben McAdams, D-Utah, was adopted, 227-179, in a mostly party-line vote. The House is expected Tuesday to vote to pass the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act.

The amendment marks the second rebuke of the Trump administration amid reports it’s mulling a resumption of nuclear weapons testing. The House Appropriations Committee passed a similar ban earlier this month.

The amendment’s adoption will likely make it harder for House Republicans to vote for the House’s FY21 NDAA, and it likely sets up a fight with the Republican-controlled SASC when leaders of both panels reconcile their versions of the bill.

The FY21NDAA was voted out of the House Armed Services Committee on a bipartisan 56-0 vote earlier this month.

“Explosive nuclear testing is not necessary to ensure our stockpile remains safe and nothing in this amendment would change that,” McAdams said in a floor speech ahead of the vote. “Explosive nuclear testing causes irreparable harm to human health and to our environment. and jeopardizes the U.S. leadership role on nuclear nonproliferation.” ………

The House, separately, adopted an amendment that would give the energy secretary a stronger hand in setting nuclear policy by making him co-chair, alongside the defense secretary, of the Nuclear Weapons Council. The council is charged with the coordinating policy to manage the existing nuclear weapons stockpile and plan future nuclear deterrents.

The amendment, from House Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore., is to “to provide Cabinet-level visibility and accountability of our nuclear deterrent and the NWC budget process,” according to an amendment summary. Under current law, DoD’s undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment chairs the council.

It was adopted in larger package of amendments, approved by a bipartisan 336-71.

It’s the latest move in a running battle over who controls the nuclear weapons budget submission. SASC’s proposed version of the FY21 NDAA would allow the council to edit the budget request after the Energy Department crafts it and before the request is submitted to the White House budget office. But House appropriators earlier this month approved a spending bill that would bar such a move. https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2020/07/20/house-democrats-block-funding-for-nuclear-weapons-tests/

July 21, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

770-ton nuclear reactor pressure vessel completes trip to Utah

770-ton load from San Onofre nuclear plant finishes trip to Utah, An old nuclear reactor pressure vessel is part of the dismantlement of the plant,San Diego Tribune, By ROB NIKOLEWSKI, JULY

20, 2020 The seven-week journey of a 770-ton shipment of an old but vital piece of the San Onofre nuclear power plant has been completed.

The reactor pressure vessel that helped generate electricity at Unit 1 of the plant arrived last week at a licensed disposal site about 75 miles west of Salt Lake City after being shipped by rail and then over highways in Nevada and Utah…….

The vessel left SONGS May 24 via rail before stopping at an industrial park in North Las Vegas, Nevada, where cranes helped assemble a trailer 122 feet long, with 45 axles, that slowly hauled the massive chunk about 450 miles along highways in Nevada and Utah to the Energy Solutions disposal facility in the town of Clive, Utah.

Six heavy-duty Class 8 trucks with combined 4,000-horsepower moved the the load. The convoy used 460 tires that were 18 inches wide to prevent damaging roads, bridges and public infrastructure. Contractors from Emmert International used hydraulic jacks to reinforce drainage culverts.

A spokesman for the Nevada Department of Transportation said it was the heaviest load to ever traverse the Silver State’s roadways. Transportation officials in Utah said the shipment arrived July 14 without any issues.

The pressure vessel once held nuclear fuel at SONGS when Unit 1 was in operation between 1968 and 1992. For 18 years, the vessel sat on the north end of the plant, covered in a shell of steel two inches thick with a top and bottom each each inches thick to shield against radiation.

Encased in a carbon steel cylinder for the trip, the vessel contained pieces of radioactive metal and grout. The shipment was designated as Class A low-level waste, considered by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission as the least hazardous of radioactive waste classifications.

The shipment is one of many that will head to the Clive disposal facility as part of a scheduled eight-year process to dismantle SONGS, although future shipments will not be as large. Energy Solutions and construction giant AECOM have partnered to undertake the $4.4 billion demolition project, which began earlier this year……. f all goes as planned, by the time dismantlement at SONGS is completed, all that will remain will be two dry storage facilities holding 3.55 million pounds of used-up fuel, or waste, that accumulated during the time the plant produced power; a security building with personnel to look over the waste enclosed in casks; a seawall 28 feet high at its base; a walkway connecting two beaches north and south of the plant and a switch-yard with power lines.

The distinctive 200-feet-high twin domes that loom over Interstate 5 are scheduled to come down between late 2025 and 2027. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/story/2020-07-20/770-ton-load-from-san-onofre-nuclear-plant-finishes-trip-to-ut

July 21, 2020 Posted by Christina Macpherson | decommission reactor, safety, USA | Leave a comment

Settlement for ratepayers over failed VC Summer nuclear project

Judge approves Santee Cooper ratepayer settlement over failed VC Summer nuclear project, https://www.postandcourier.com/business/judge-approves-santee-cooper-ratepayer-settlement-over-failed-vc-summer-nuclear-project/article_b7e11862-ca99-11ea-baf6-bb7b91e013cf.html, By Avery G. Wilks and Andrew Brown awilks@postandcourier.com abrown@postandcourier.com Jul 20, 2020

COLUMBIA — Santee Cooper on Monday received final approval for a $520 million legal settlement with its customers over its failure to complete an expansion of the V.C. Summer nuclear plant in Fairfield County.

The deal, approved by former S.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal, ends a standoff over how much customers must pay for that unfinished power plant, a project abandoned by Santee Cooper in July 2017 after years of escalating costs and construction delays.

The settlement also greatly diminishes the chance Santee Cooper could be sold by lawmakers after the $9 billion nuclear debacle — one of the greatest business failures in state history.

It puts refunds into the pockets of customers who have paid higher power bills for the V.C. Summer project, as well as substantial fees for the attorneys who argued the case against the project’s owners.

The deal requires Santee Cooper freeze its electric rates for four years and pay $200 million to its ratepayers, including members of South Carolina’s 20 electric cooperatives who purchase the utility’s power indirectly.

The rate freeze, the plaintiff attorneys argued, could be worth up to $510 million to Santee Cooper’s customers on its own.

Another $320 million would be supplied by Dominion Energy, the Virginia-based company that last year purchased S.C. Electric & Gas — Santee Cooper’s partner on the nuclear project.

The rate freeze, the plaintiff attorneys argued, could be worth up to $510 million to Santee Cooper’s customers on its own.

Another $320 million would be supplied by Dominion Energy, the Virginia-based company that last year purchased S.C. Electric & Gas — Santee Cooper’s partner on the nuclear project.