June, 20 2018, 12:00am EDT
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Environmental Coalition Demands Expedited Release of Documents regarding Public and Nonpublic Meetings Between NRC and FERC
Groups cite risks to ratepayer and taxpayer pocketbooks from massive proposed bailouts, and regulatory rollback safety risks.
WASHINGTON
A coalition of environmental groups, including Beyond Nuclear, Don't Waste Michigan, Public Citizen, and the Sierra Club, have filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), seeking documents related to its public meeting, as well as its separate, secretive, nonpublic meeting, both held with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Thursday, June 7, 2018. The FOIA request letter sent to NRC is posted online at Beyond Nuclear's website.
"We are deeply concerned that at the same time President Trump and Energy Secretary Perry are scheming with nuclear power industry lobbyists to massively bail out dangerously age-degraded atomic reactors at public expense in order to keep them operating for years to come, NRC and FERC may be conspiring behind closed doors to further weaken safety regulations, in order to boost industry profits even more," stated Terry Lodge, counsel for Beyond Nuclear and Don't Waste Michigan.
Experts featured on a telephone press conference held on June 6, 2018 - including Tyson Slocum, director of the Energy Program at Public Citizen, a signatory group endorsing today's FOIA request - warned that the Trump/Perry bailout could cost U.S. federal taxpayers, and American ratepayers, up to $17 billion per year, for old reactor subsidies alone. An additional $17 billion per year electricity surcharge could accrue to the American public from the old coal plant side of the Trump/Perry bailout proposal. The press release, and press conference audio recording, are posted online at the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) website, under the NEWS tab. A link to the press release and press conference audio recording is also posted at the top of Beyond Nuclear's homepage.
The proposed bailout originated with the coal-burning and atom-splitting electricity generator FirstEnergy, headquartered in Akron, Ohio. The utility has attempted for several years to secure multi-billion dollar annual bailouts at both the state and federal levels, but has not succeeded. However, it seems to have recently gained significant traction with President Trump and Energy Secretary Perry, thanks to the personal lobbying of Jeff Miller on behalf of FirstEnergy. Miller, a longtime close personal friend and colleague of the Energy Secretary, who served as Rick Perry's campaign manager during his unsuccessful presidential run in 2016, is reportedly paid $110,000 per quarter by FirstEnergy for his lobbying services. After Miller attended a private dinner with Trump in recent weeks, the president began touting the importance of the requested bailout, publicly citing the obscure section 202(c) of the century-old Federal Power Act (FPA)--a bailout pathway also suggested to the Trump administration by the coal magnate Robert Murray.
The Trump administration is also attempting to justify the bailouts under provisions of the Defense Production Act (DPA) of 1950, as well as the FAST (Fixing America's Surface Transportation) Act. Such major federal government interventions via the FPA or DPA are very rarely undertaken, and usually only for wartime emergencies or natural disasters. No such emergency action has been taken in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, which a recent Harvard University study reported could have resulted in around 5,000 deaths, many due to the widespread power outages, some of which continue still, nearly nine months later. PJM Interconnection, the largest electric grid operator in the U.S. -- serving 65 million people in a 13-state (plus Washington, D.C.) region from Chicago to North Carolina - has consistently reported that there is now, and would be, no reliability or resilience problem whatsoever -- even if the bankrupt FirstEnergy Solutions, and FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company, electricity generation subsidiaries' four atomic reactors, and several coal plants, in Ohio and Pennsylvania, were to permanently shut down in the next few years, as the company has announced.
"The only so-called 'emergency' is FirstEnergy's bad business decisions, and mismanagement, that extend back not years but decades," said Michael Keegan of Don't Waste Michigan in Monroe, Michigan, a longtime watchdog on FirstEnergy's northern Ohio, Lake Erie shoreline atomic reactors, Davis-Besse east of Toledo and Perry east of Cleveland.
"In addition to the $34 billion per year gouge on ratepayer and taxpayer pocketbooks from Trump and Perry's absurd proposal to bailout FirstEnergy's dirty old coal and dangerously old nuclear plants, there are the increasing safety risks," said Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear, a nuclear industry watchdog group based in Takoma Park, Maryland. "It is outrageous that FERC commissioner, Robert F. Powelson, pressured NRC commissioners during the public portion of their joint meeting on June 7 to decrease safety regulations, in order to save money for uncompetitive old atomic reactors. We can only imagine the outrageous things that were said during the nonpublic portion of the meeting," Kamps added, "which is why we have made this FOIA request."
From 2010 to 2015, Lodge also served as legal counsel for an environmental coalition, including Beyond Nuclear, Citizens Environment Coalition of Southwestern Ontario, Don't Waste Michigan, and the Ohio Green Party, which challenged the Davis-Besse atomic reactor's 2017-2037 license extension. The Sierra Club joined the coalition's efforts in 2013, challenging risky steam generator replacements at the reactor. Despite Davis-Besse's industry record of most close calls with meltdown catastrophes, as well as its severely cracked containment structure (which is currently operating as an experiment; see the NRC document, "Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station, Unit 1 - Report of Facility Changes, Tests, and Experiments," in an "Annual Operating Report Letter" dated May 21, 2018, ML number ML18141A502, posted online at Beyond Nuclear's website), NRC has approved 60 years of operations (1977 to 2037) at the troubled reactor.
A 1982 report commissioned by NRC, and carried out by Sandia National Lab, calculated that a meltdown at Davis-Besse would cause 1,400 acute radiation poisoning deaths, 73,000 acute radiation injuries, 10,000 latent cancer fatalities, and $84 billion in property damages. But the Associated Press reported in 2011 after the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe in Japan had begun, that populations have soared since 1982 around atomic reactors like Davis-Besse, so casualties would be significantly higher today; and when adjusted for inflation to today's dollar figures, property damages downwind of a Davis-Besse meltdown would significantly surpass $200 billion.
Beyond Nuclear aims to educate and activate the public about the connections between nuclear power and nuclear weapons and the need to abandon both to safeguard our future. Beyond Nuclear advocates for an energy future that is sustainable, benign and democratic.
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'Complicit in the Genocide': First Muslim Biden Appointee Resigns Over Gaza
"This administration has chosen to uphold the status quo instead of listening to the diverse voices of staff urgently demanding freedom and justice for Palestinians."
Jul 02, 2024
A political appointee at the U.S. Interior Department on Tuesday became the youngest—and first Muslim American—appointee of President Joe Biden's to resign as his administration continues to "fund and enable Israel's genocide of Palestinians."
"Marginalized communities in our country have long been denied the justice they deserve. I joined the Biden-Harris administration with the belief that my voice and diverse perspective would lend a hand in the pursuit of that justice," Special Assistant and Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management Maryam Hassanein, 24, said in a statement.
"However, over the past nine months of Israel's genocide in Gaza, this administration has chosen to uphold the status quo instead of listening to the diverse voices of staff urgently demanding freedom and justice for Palestinians," she added. "I am resigning today from my position as a Biden administration appointee in the Department of the Interior."
Hassanein toldHuffPost that she decided to resign because "I came to understand that even if the agency I'm working at is not producing foreign policy, serving in the administration in any capacity does essentially make you complicit in the genocide of the Palestinians."
Palestine defenders applauded Hassanein's resignation—which made her at least the 11th American official to step down over U.S. support for Israel's war on Gaza, according to HuffPost.
"We welcome this principled resignation by another Biden administration official who took up their post believing they could help the nation, but instead realized they were becoming complicit in the administration's enabling of the far-right Israeli government's genocide in Gaza," said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
"President Biden, whose administration has lost all credibility on the issue of human rights, must reverse course and end our nation's complicity in genocide, forced starvation, and ethnic cleansing," Awad added. "He must demand an immediate and permanent cease-fire, an end to the occupation, and justice for the Palestinian people."
The Biden administration has been Israel's staunchest supporter, even after 270 days of what United Nations officials, human rights experts, and countries led by South Africa in an International Court of Justice case all call a genocidal assault on Gaza's 2.3 million people. Despite this, Biden has approved billions of dollars in military assistance and provided diplomatic support for Israel.
According to Palestinian and international agencies, at least 37,925 Palestinians—mostly women and children—have been killed by Israeli forces, while upward of 87,000 others have been wounded and at least 11,000 people are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath the rubble of hundreds of thousands of destroyed or damaged buildings.
Israel has also been accused of deliberately starving Gazans—dozens of whom have died of malnutrition—via a crippling siege and blockade of the coastal enclave.
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Jared Golden Op-Ed on Trump Called 'Unconscionable Surrender to Fascism'
A political science professor described the Maine congressman's op-ed as "one of the most irresponsible things a Democratic member of Congress has written in recent memory."
Jul 02, 2024
Breaking with many of his fellow Democrats, Maine Congressman Jared Golden suggested Tuesday that former Republican President Donald Trump's return to the White House wouldn't threaten U.S. democracy—and was sharply ridiculed for that take.
"After the first presidential debate, lots of Democrats are panicking about whether President Joe Biden should step down as the party's nominee," Golden wrote in a Bangor Daily News op-ed. "Biden's poor performance in the debate was not a surprise. It also didn't rattle me as it has others, because the outcome of this election has been clear to me for months: While I don't plan to vote for him, Donald Trump is going to win. And I'm OK with that."
"Democrats' post-debate hand-wringing is based on the idea that a Trump victory is not just a political loss, but a unique threat to our democracy. I reject the premise," he continued. "Unlike Biden and many others, I refuse to participate in a campaign to scare voters with the idea that Trump will end our democratic system."
Golden—who represents the "Trump-friendly" 2nd District, a priority for Republicans this cycle—also referenced the insurrection incited by the presumptive Republican nominee after his 2020 loss to Biden, writing that "pearl-clutching about a Trump victory ignores the strength of our democracy. January 6, 2021, was a dark day. But Americans stood strong."
The backlash to Golden's op-ed was swift and strong, with Fordham University assistant political science professor Jacob Smith calling it "one of the most irresponsible things a Democratic member of Congress has written in recent memory."
Veteran journalist Mark Jacob said on social media that "Congressman Jared Golden, an alleged Democrat from Maine, waves the white flag against Trump in an unconscionable surrender to fascism. Maybe he thinks he can cut a deal. The cowards and quislings are making themselves known."
Some critics highlighted that the U.S. Supreme Court's right-wing supermajority—which includes three Trump appointees—ruled Monday that Trump, and anyone else who occupies the Oval Office, has absolute immunity for "official acts." In her dissent, liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned that "the president is now a king above the law."
Trump celebrated the ruling and reportedly is prepared to embrace his expanded powers if he wins in November. The high court decision also jeopardizes Trump's recent felony conviction and three pending cases against him, including two that stem from his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
"Jared Golden's op-ed today may be one of the worst takes we've seen so far, particularly in light of the Supreme Court's decision yesterday," declared Young Democrats of America president Quentin Wathum-Ocama. "I'm astounded that the congressman has such an absurdly bad take and is apparently ready to give up on an election five months out."
Some journalists and Republicans suggested that Golden's op-ed may be politically motivated, considering the makeup of his district. His GOP challenger, former NASCAR driver Austin Theriault, said: "This is a very phony attempt to avoid accountability. Simple questions for Jared Golden: Does he support Joe Biden for president or not? Does Golden believe Biden is mentally competent or not? He won't say, because he puts politics ahead of Mainers."
Golden, who co-chairs the Blue Dog Coalition, has a history of voting with Republicans on various climate, military, and student debt relief policies. His new opinion piece provoked calls for members of his own party to identify and rally around a write-in candidate "so Maine Democrats have an actual Democratic option in November."
Other Democrats in Congress have contributed to mounting warnings of the threat posed by Trump, who has said on the campaign trail that he would be a dictator on "day one" and "root out" those he called "radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country."
If elected this year, Trump is also expected to pursue the policy agenda of the Heritage Foundation-led 2025 Presidential Transition Project—or Project 2025—which the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism has described as a "far-right playbook for American authoritarianism."
Congressman Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) said Tuesday that "Project 2025 is a threat to our nation. The conservative radical plan rolls back rights for everyone and allows blatant discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community. It's sickening, and we must do everything to prevent this destructive plan and Donald Trump at all costs."
Biden's poor performance in the debate with Trump last week has prompted some supporters to reaffirm the importance of his reelection, given the alternative, and others to suggest that he should be replaced ahead of the Democratic convention next month.
On Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas became the first Democrat in Congress to suggest that Biden should step aside.
"Too much is at stake to risk a Trump victory—too great a risk to assume that what could not be turned around in a year, what could not be turned around in the debate, can be turned around now," Doggett said. "President Biden saved our democracy by delivering us from Trump in 2021. He must not deliver us to Trump in 2024."
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Researchers Warn of Imminent 'Death Spiral' for Rapidly Melting Alaska Ice Field
The Juneau ice field is melting at a rate of 50,000 gallons per second and is possibly heading "beyond a dynamic tipping point," a new study says.
Jul 02, 2024
The melting of Alaska's Juneau ice field—which contains more than 1,000 glaciers—is accelerating and could reach a tipping point much sooner than predicted, according to research published Tuesday.
The study, which was published in the journal Nature Communications, shows that ice loss from the Juneau ice field began accelerating rapidly after 2005.
The paper's authors found that "rates of area shrinkage were five times faster from 2015-2019 than from 1979-1990," while glacier volume loss—which had remained relatively consistent from 1770-1979—doubled after 2010.
"Forty years from now, what is it going to look like? I do think by then the Juneau ice field will be past the tipping point."
"Thinning has become pervasive across the icefield plateau since 2005, accompanied by glacier recession and fragmentation," the study states. "As glacier thinning on the plateau continues, a mass balance-elevation feedback is likely to inhibit future glacier regrowth, potentially pushing glaciers beyond a dynamic tipping point."
Study lead author Bethan Davies, a glaciologist at Newcastle University in England, said in a statement, "It's incredibly worrying that our research found a rapid acceleration since the early 21st century in the rate of glacier loss across the Juneau ice field."
"Alaskan icefields—which are predominantly flat, plateau icefields—are particularly vulnerable to accelerated melt as the climate warms since ice loss happens across the whole surface, meaning a much greater area is affected," Davies continued. "Additionally, flatter ice caps and icefields cannot retreat to higher elevations and find a new equilibrium."
"As glacier thinning on the Juneau plateau continues and ice retreats to lower levels and warmer air, the feedback processes this sets in motion is likely to prevent future glacier regrowth, potentially pushing glaciers beyond a tipping point into irreversible recession," she added.
Study co-author Mauri Pelto, a professor of environmental science at Nichols College in Massachusetts, toldThe Associated Press that the Juneau ice field is melting at a rate of about 50,000 gallons per second.
"When you go there the changes from year to year are so dramatic that it just hits you over the head," Pelto said. "In 1981, it wasn't too hard to get on and off the glaciers. You just hike up and you could you could ski to the bottom or hike right off the end of these glaciers. But now they've got lakes on the edges from melted snow and crevasses opening up that makes it difficult to ski."
As the AP reported:
Only four Juneau ice field glaciers melted out of existence between 1948 and 2005. But 64 of them disappeared between 2005 and 2019, the study said. Many of the glaciers were too small to name, but one larger one, Antler glacier, "is totally gone," Pelto said.
Alaska climatologist Brian Brettschneider, who was not part of the study, said the acceleration is most concerning, warning of "a death spiral" for the thinning ice field.
Pelto said that "the tipping point is when that snow line goes above your entire ice field, ice sheet, ice glacier, whichever one."
"And so for the Juneau ice field, 2019, 2018, showed that you are not that far away from that tipping point," he added. "We're 40 years from when I first saw the glacier. And so, 40 years from now, what is it going to look like? I do think by then the Juneau ice field will be past the tipping point."
It's not just Alaska. Glaciers around the world—from Greenland to Switzerland to Africa and the Himalayas—are melting at an alarming rate. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization warned in 2022 that glaciers in one-third of the 50 UNESCO World Heritage sites where they are found are on pace to disappear by 2050—even if planet-heating emissions are curbed.
Another study published last year by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Alaska found that even if humanity manages to limit planetary heating to 1.5°C above preindustrial temperatures—the more ambitious goal of the Paris agreement—half of Earth's glaciers are expected to melt by the end of the century.
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