Nuclear Vs. Coal-

I propose we throw down the gauntlet to anyone advocating expansion of nuclear, coal, petroleum-based or other hazardous energy technologies: would you send your son or daughter to work in the coal mines or to clean up after an accident at a nuclear power plant? Would you accept the siting of such a facility in your neighborhood? Would you accept an oil rig off your nearest shore?

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A No-Win Ethical Dilemma

Kelly Rigg Executive Director, GCCA crosspost via Huff Post Green

Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant are rightfully being hailed as heroes. A glimpse into their lives shows the high price they are paying to stave off a nuclear catastrophe -- 12 hour shifts, very little food, deplorable sleeping conditions and an expectation that some of or all of them will soon die. It's heartbreaking and telling that industry insiders refer to them as "glow boys" despite their immense sacrifice.


The fallout from the Fukushima nuclear disaster is spreading and we need to get prepared for the consequences. I'm not referring in this case to the contaminated particles that have seeped into the land and sea surrounding the crippled plant, but fallout of a less radioactive and far more political variety.

In the German state of Baden-Württemberg, the anti-nuclear Green party won a stunning upset victory over Angela Merkel's Christian Democrat Union on March 27, despite Ms. Merkel's last-ditch effort to win voters by announcing the temporary closure of some of the country's oldest reactors. China temporarily suspended approvals for new nuclear plants, and announced that it would likely scale back its nuclear ambitions, decreasing the proposed share of nuclear power from 5% to 3% of the total power supply by 2020. In the UK, Deputy Prime Minister Clegg suggested the government may be rethinking its plans to build a new generation of reactors:

We have always said there are two conditions for the future of nuclear power: [new plants] have to be safe, and we cannot let the taxpayer be ripped off," he said. "We could be in a situation now where the potential liabilities are higher, which makes it more unlikely to find private investment.

That sounds like the understatement of the year. Governments and investors must be starting to realize that the smartest money is on clean energy. New research by the Pew Environment Group is backing this assumption:

The clean energy sector is emerging as one of the most dynamic and competitive in the world, witnessing 630 percent growth in finance and investments since 2004," said Phyllis Cuttino, director, Pew Clean Energy Program. "In 2010, worldwide finance and investment grew 30 percent to a record $243 billion.

The biggest risk right now is that governments will look to high carbon energy sources such as coal, shale, or tar sands to warm their cold nuclear feet. But the urgency of climate change suggests this is no time to jump out of the frying pan and into the fire.
It's also worth remembering the ongoing devastation wrought by the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill, whose one-year anniversary is coming up in April. BP set up a $20 billion fund, of which $4 billion has already been paid, to settle claims by businesses and individuals. This is on top of the actual costs to BP itself (and its insurers). Moreover, US authorities are considering prosecuting BP managers for manslaughter due to their cost-cutting measures which compromised safety.

And let's not forget the thousands of coal miners who die each year, or those who die of respiratory illnesses linked to air pollution spewed out by coal-powered plants. A report by Sierra Club puts the death toll at 4,000 per year in just the Northeastern region of the U.S. alone (PDF).

As governments grapple with the implications of Fukushima, we have a window of opportunity to fill the nuclear vacuum with safe, reliable renewable sources of energy. Japan is already thinking along these lines. As reported by Kyodo News:

Pursuit of solar power, bioenergy and other clean energy sources will be a key pillar of the government's reconstruction strategy to be drawn up for areas hit by a massive quake and tsunami following the country's worst nuclear accident, top government spokesman Yukio Edano said Tuesday.

Just last week, yet another study was published showing that we can make the transition to a completely renewable energy infrastructure, in this scenario by 2030.
But some low-carbon advocates, normally friendly to the environmental camp, have environmentalists stretching their heads. Rather than leveraging the crises at hand to help accelerate the shift to renewables, they are running a rearguard action to promote the benefits of nuclear power.

This brings to mind an old joke about the absurdity of tunnelvision. Three guys are shipwrecked on a remote desert island. One day a bottle washes ashore and out pops a genie who grants them three wishes. The first guy says, "I want to be home, enjoying a home-cooked feast with all of my friends," and poof, he's gone. The second guy says, "I wish I were home, making love to my beautiful wife," and poof he disappears as well. The third guy looks around and says, "Gee, it's kind of lonely around here... I wish those other guys were back here on the island."

But choosing our energy future is no joke. Given the 30-50 year lifespan of a power plant built today, we owe it to our children and grandchildren to get it right. Quite apart from the long-term risks from climate change, I propose we throw down the gauntlet to anyone advocating expansion of nuclear, coal, petroleum-based or other hazardous energy technologies: would you send your son or daughter to work in the coal mines or to clean up after an accident at a nuclear power plant? Would you accept the siting of such a facility in your neighborhood? Would you accept an oil rig off your nearest shore?
If not, then what moral right do you have to ask others to make such sacrifices?

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LED Retrofits-Examples of Companies Saving $ Money $

Red Robin Slices Energy Costs with LED Retrofits
	Mar 30, 2011	GreenBiz
	Three years ago, lighting manufacturer Eco-story supplied corporate Red Robin restaurants with 10,000 LED lamps, enabling the company to save $600,000 in electricity costs a year. This past February, the Ansara Restaurant Group Inc., a Red Robin franchisee, worked with Eco-story to install 3,500 LED lamps in its 22 restaurants and now expects to save more than $117,000 a year, said Eco-story co-founder Bill Stauffer. The project is an example of how companies of all sizes can save energy costs with lighting retrofits -- an idea that's dawning on more Americans every year. The concept has caught on in the residential sector as well, as a study released today by EcoAlign on the adoption of energy efficient lighting shows. Increasing efficiency and reducing utility bills with greener lighting is something small businesses and consumers as well as large companies can do, said EcoAlign CEO Jamie Wimberly, expanding on findings of his firm's latest EcoPinion study. And in a retail space, regardless of size, "the whole experience is about lighting," Wimberly said. Stauffer, whose firm's target market is retail stores, restaurants and hotels, would agree. Typically, a casual dining restaurant spends $5,000 to $6,000 a month on electricity for lighting. "What we've tried to convince small businesses is (to) think about what they spend a year on electricity for lighting, and if they could cut that by 90 percent, think about what a competitive advantage that could give," Stauffer said. "Small businesses shouldn't think there's nothing they can do." The return on investment for lighting retrofits can be swift. Stauffer said his company strives for payback periods of less than a year. The projected ROI for Ansara, a family-owned based in Farmington Hills, Mich., is 10 months, he said. The majority of Ansara's Red Robins will receive rebates from their utility companies, and the rebates for more than half the stores receiving them will cover 50 percent of lamp and installation costs, Stauffer added. The LED par 20, par 30 and par 38 lamps installed in Ansara's restaurants -- and in some instances for exterior applications -- are expected to save more than 1 million kilowatt hours of electricity a year, Eco-story estimates. "We worked closely with Ansara to ensure they had a customized product that fit their need for high quality light and also offered energy savings," Stauffer said. Founded in Portland, Maine, in 2007, Eco-story's clients include Timberland. In 2009, the outdoor footwear and apparel retailer chose Eco-story for a customized retrofit of track lighting in 50 stores. Within 10 months of the installation, Timberland had saved $100,000 in electricity costs, according to Eco-story. Timberland CEO Jeff Swartz talked about his company's sustainability strategies at GreenBiz Group's recent State of Green Business Forum in Washington, D.C.

Obama links economic growth to energy independence

Obama says shifting the country away from imported oil and toward cleaner forms of energy will help continue a trend that has led to 1.8 million new jobs in the past 13 months.
	Apr 2, 2011	Associated Press Online
	DARLENE SUPERVILLE WASHINGTON, Apr. 2, 2011 (AP Online delivered by Newstex) -- WASHINGTON (AP) —  Obama used his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday to promote his ideas for bringing down gasoline prices by decreasing U.S. dependence on foreign oil. A blueprint he outlined in a speech this week calls for increasing domestic oil exploration and production, making cars and trucks more energy efficient and building vehicles that run on alternative fuels or electricity. Noting that the U.S. doesn't have enough oil reserves to meet its needs, he set a goal of reducing imports by one-third by 2025. "By doing so, we're going to make our economy less vulnerable to wild swings in oil prices," Obama said. "We're going to use cleaner sources of energy that don't imperil our climate. And we're going to spark new products and businesses all over the country by tapping America's greatest renewable resource: our ingenuity." The address was Obama's third this week on energy independence. Next Wednesday, he plans to visit Gamesa Technology Corp., a Philadelphia-area maker of wind turbines, for a town-hall discussion with workers about building a clean energy economy. Oil prices have been rising because of growing demand in China and continued instability in some oil-producing countries in the Middle East. That, in turn, has pushed gasoline prices to new highs. The national average for a gallon of gas hit $3.619 on Friday, the highest price ever for this time of year, according to AAA and other sources. Prices have climbed 23.2 cents in the past month and more than 81 cents in the past year. Obama said sparking new products and businesses during a transition away from imported oil will help create jobs. He spoke a day after the government reported that 230,000 private sector jobs were created in March, bringing the number of jobs created in the past 13 months to 1.8 million. The national unemployment rate also dipped to a two-year low of 8.8 percent last month. "That's a good sign," Obama said in the address. He recorded it during a visit Friday to a UPS (NYSE:UPS) shipping facility in suburban Maryland, where he examined all-electric and hybrid vehicles used by AT&T (NYSE:SBT) (NYSE:T) , Verizon (NYSE:VZ) , PepsiCo (NYSE:PEP) and other companies. "But we have to keep up the momentum, and transitioning to a clean energy economy will help us do that," he said. House Speaker John Boehner focused the weekly Republican message on steps he said the government must take to encourage small businesses to create jobs. Among those steps are continuing to cut spending, blocking tax increases, reducing the bureaucracy and eliminating regulations. Boehner once owned a small plastics and packaging business in Ohio. Boehner said Congress also needs to pass a bill funding the government through Sept. 30, when the budget year ends, and avoid a shutdown. The government's authority to spend money is set to expire next Friday. "Washington's inability to get spending under control is creating uncertainty for our job creators," Boehner said. "It's discouraging investment in small businesses and eroding confidence in our economy. To put it simply, the spending binge in Washington is holding our country back and keeping our economy from creating jobs." ____ Online: Obama address: www.whitehouse.gov GOP address: www.gop.gov Newstex ID: AP-0001-102288637

ExxonMobil stresses on ‘energy efficiency’
Apr 3, 2011 Gulf News

ExxonMobil Qatar continued its sponsorship of the annual Qatar Petroleum Environment Fair 2011, which was held under the patronage of HE Dr Mohamed Saleh al-Sada, Minister of Energy and Industry at the Doha Exhibition Centre.

The objective of the fair was to create environmental awareness among employees working in the energy and industry with a special focus on young children, which in turn will have a positive effect for the whole community. Every year the event convenes a large number of companies from Qatar under a common theme and the theme for 2011 was, “Joining Hands for Environmental Protection”.

“As we take on the growing energy demands, we are also committed to safeguarding the environment. We are pleased to partner with Qatar Petroleum in creating a platform where companies can interact with young children and advise them on how best they can contribute to preserve the environment. The young generation must understand that energy is a limited resource and while Qatar is blessed with abundance, it is not to be taken for granted,” said Alex Dodds, president and general manager of ExxonMobil Qatar Inc.

As part of its support, ExxonMobil had a stand at the event, themed, “Energy Efficiency”. The stand was designed particularly to invite young children to come and learn more about conserving energy. During the fair, young visitors got activity books and colouring books with similar themes, as well.

“It is important for the younger generation to take up ownership and responsibility for the environment at an early age. Children can do these through very simple steps that can be a part of their daily routine. This could be as simple as turning off the lights when not in use or switching off the main power outlet for electronic devices on standby” added Adam Cantu, Safety, Security, Health and Environment Manager of ExxonMobil Qatar Inc.

The Effort to Restore Prop C Continues - MCE March Digest

Donate Now Follow us on:   Upcoming Events   4/10 - MCE Annual Meeting   MCE Monthly Digest   Once a month, MCE sends a brief update on the work of each of our program areas. If you'd like to receive a program's more frequent updates, click the "update profile" link at the bottom of this email.   Clean Energy Program Renew Missouri works to advance renewable energy and energy efficiency in Missouri.    The Effort to Restore Prop C Continues . After many hours of hard work by the Renew Missouri team, there is nearly consensus on HB 613 that will ensure that renewable electricity withinfor Prop C - the MO RES should be "sold to Missouri" and not come solely from renewable energy credits.    Unfortunately, the fight isn't over. We continue to provide input and seek consensus to move the bill forward.  Right now, we're working to prevent rollbacks on the amount of renewable energy required under Prop C.  We anticipate that HB 613 will be voted out of committee next week.  Stay tuned - we'll need your help when the bill moves to the House floor.     Thank you to Conservation Lobby Day participants who provided expert information to more than 100 state legislators on green building, renewable energy, state parks, and clean water. For pictures of this successful event, click here.   PACE Webinars Available.  In March, Renew Missouri held two PACE webinars on a newly developed Missouri PACE Best Practices to help cities and counties learn how they can pursue PACE in Missouri. View the webinar.    Clean Water Program  The MCE Water Program works to promote Missouri's water quality, preserve and restore floodplains and wetlands, and advocate for sustainable stormwater management. Effort to Improve Clean Water Permit Fees. At the 2011 Conservation Lobby Day, the MCE Clean Water Team led the efforts to persuade state legislators to support an increase in Water Permit Fees. Learn more.   Unconstitutional Surety Bond Proposed by Senator Brad Lager. Senate Bill 423, which is one of three bills in the State Legislature designed to reinstate permit fees at stagnant 2000 levels, also includes a very troubling provision known as a surety bond requirement for permit appeals. The bill would require anyone challenging permits for projects that threaten their land, air, or water - like a casino in the floodplain near a conservation area or a coal ash landfill - to first post a bond for any theoretical lost business revenue or legal costs of the project's promoter. This could add up to millions and be an insurmountable hurdle for people with legitimate environmental concerns.  Contact the following Senators in the to tell them this is entirely unacceptable.      Brad Lager, 12th, Chairman     John Lamping, 24th, Vice-Chairman  Mike Kehoe, 6th  Jim Lembke, 1st  Mike Parson, 28th  Kurt Schaefer, 19th  Bill Stouffer, 21st  Tim Green, 13th  Jolie Justus, 10th

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The Big Lie of 'Clean' Nuclear

Alec Baldwin Actor crossposted via Huffpost Green

 

Fascinating and heartbreaking how the Japanese civilian population, once again, has been called upon to teach us a harsh lesson about nuclear energy.

In the past few decades, more details have emerged about the development and deployment of the nuclear weapons dropped on Japan during World War II. Best-selling books report about how some government officials and scientists involved with the project urged Leslie Groves and the military to drop the bomb over the ocean, just off the coast of Japan, as perhaps this measure would scare the enemy into surrendering.

Groves and other military leaders asserted that there were only three finished weapons and that if the "demonstration blast" did not produce the desired effect, the US would have squandered a rare (at that time) and expensive opportunity. Also, some believed that the dropping of the two bombs served some grim purpose as a medical experiment. What would the bomb actually do to a city, its infrastructure and its population?

Who would argue that the results of those two bombs have kept that option at bay since 1945?

In the wake of the recent Japanese nuclear disaster, Kenzaburo Oe writes in The New Yorker about Hiroshima:

What did Japan learn from the tragedy of Hiroshima? One of the great figures of contemporary Japanese thought, Shuichi Kato, who died in 2008, speaking of atomic bombs and nuclear reactors, recalled a line from "The Pillow Book," written a thousand years ago by a woman, Sei Shonagon, in which the author evokes "something that seems very far away but is, in fact, very close." Nuclear disaster seems a distant hypothesis, improbable; the prospect of it is, however, always with us. The Japanese should not be thinking of nuclear energy in terms of industrial productivity; they should not draw from the tragedy of Hiroshima a "recipe" for growth. Like earthquakes, tsunamis, and other natural calamities, the experience of Hiroshima should be etched into human memory: it was even more dramatic a catastrophe than those natural disasters precisely because it was man-made. To repeat the error by exhibiting, through the construction of nuclear reactors, the same disrespect for human life is the worst possible betrayal of the memory of Hiroshima's victims.

I had written two pieces deconstructing the bizarre claims of the nuclear power industry. The incessant lie that nuclear is clean power, forever discounting the filthy and contaminating processes that mine, refine and enrich fissionable material for utility reactors. Although we must never set aside other factors such as vulnerability to terrorism and the lingering and unsolved issue of waste disposal, the Big Lie regarding "clean nuke" hype seems to trouble me most. You can't get many Americans to view a wind farm as a sign of our investment in a clean, safe energy future, but they seem to roll over and let the nuke industry do as they please, even in the wake of Fukushima.

If I told you that the chances that you would get AIDS from one act of unprotected sex with an infected partner were one in a million, would you do it? (Actually, according to a report by researchers Norman Hearst and Stephen Hulley in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the odds of a heterosexual becoming infected with AIDS after one episode of penile-vaginal intercourse with someone in a non-high-risk group without a condom are one in 5 million.) The answer is no. Because, if you took that bet and lost, you'd get AIDS.

Nukes are a similar bet. And there is no "protection" you can put on to save you. Fukushima shows us that utility companies reap all of the benefits, while we assume all of the risks.

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Radioactive Water Continues Pouring Into The Sea

Japan Nuclear Leak: 

AP/The Huffington Post First Posted: 04/ 3/11 06:04 PM ET Updated: 04/ 4/11 10:40 AM ET

TOKYO -- Engineers pinned their hopes on chemicals, sawdust and shredded newspaper to stop highly radioactive water pouring into the ocean from Japan's tsunami-ravaged nuclear plant Sunday as officials said it will take several months to bring the crisis under control, the first time they have provided a timetable.

Concrete already failed to stop the tainted water spewing from a crack in a maintenance pit, and the new mixture did not appear to be working either, but engineers said they were not abandoning it.

Just how much is leaking? According to the New York Times:

Experts estimate that about 7 tons an hour of radioactive water is escaping the pit. Safety officials have said that the water, which appears to be coming from the damaged No. 2 reactor at Fukushima Daiichi, contains one million Becquerels per liter of iodine 131, or about 10,000 times levels normally found in water at a nuclear facility.

The Fukushima Da-ichi plant has been leaking radioactivity since the March 11 tsunami carved a path of destruction along Japan's northeastern coast, killing as many as 25,000 people and knocking out key cooling systems that kept it from overheating. People living within 12 miles (20 kilometers) of the plant have been forced to abandon their homes.

The government said Sunday it will be several months before the radiation stops and permanent cooling systems are restored. Even after that happens, there will be years of work ahead to clean up the area around the complex and figure out what to do with it.

"It would take a few months until we finally get things under control and have a better idea about the future," said Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama. "We'll face a crucial turning point within the next few months, but that is not the end."

His agency said the timetable is based on the first step, pumping radioactive water into tanks, being completed quickly and the second, restoring cooling systems, being done within a matter of weeks or months.

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