January, 26 2011, 04:19pm EDT
Experts: "Clean" Energy Standard Should Not Include Nuclear, Coal
So-Called “Clean Energy Standard” Highlighted in Obama State of the Union Speech, But Huge Health, Environmental Costs Associated With Nuclear, Coal.
WASHINGTON
If Congress and the White House intend to move forward with a "clean
energy standard" (CES), it will be a huge contradiction to include
nuclear reactors and coal-fired power plants, according to three
experts.
In the wake of President Obama's State of the Union
address embracing CES, the experts pointed to a long list of unresolved
waste, water and proliferation risks associated with nuclear power, and
unresolved problems with commercially untested "carbon capture &
storage" (CCS) for coal-fired power production.
Dr. Alan
Lockwood, professor of nuclear medicine and neurology, University of
Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, and past president of Physicians for Social
Responsibility, said: "We must guarantee that policy decisions
we make are based on the full range of health and environmental impacts
of our decisions as we devote scarce private and public resources to
meeting our needs for electric power. For example, coal proponents claim
that new technologies can turn coal into a source of clean energy. Yet
the technology they urge us to adopt is totally unproven at commercial
scale and over a meaningful time frame. In any case, coal plants under
consideration with carbon capture and storage would still rely on
outdated, dirty energy technologies of the past. Making matters even
worse, virtually none of the pending coal plant proposals in the U.S.
include any plans to capture and store carbon dioxide emissions from day
one of operation. If built, these old-style coal plants, with a
lifespan in excess of 50 years, would gravely diminish the prospects of
slowing global warming, while exacerbating air pollution-related disease
and death."
Dr. Arjun Makhijani, president, Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, said:
"The principle of clean energy sources should be that the main
environmental burdens should be borne by the generation that uses the
energy. Some of the largest environmental and health impacts of nuclear
energy and coal will be borne by generations far into the future. These
impacts cannot be internalized by spending more money, as they are
inherent in the technology. In contrast, the modest impacts of renewable
energy are borne by the generations that use the energy, so that future
generations can replace the facilities with better techniques as they
are developed."
Scott Sklar, president, The Stella Group
Ltd., adjunct professor at George Washington University, chairman of
the steering committee, Sustainable Energy Coalition, and former
executive director, Solar Energy and Biomass Industries Associations,
said: "Excuse me, but how is coal clean? Even if you could
sequester carbon, it emits mercury, carcinogens, requires much water,
emits other greenhouse gases, leaves us with coal ash waste piles, and
drives the blowing-up of our mountain tops ruining waterways and
farmland. Nuclear energy, with its multi-thousand year wastes, imported
uranium, and susceptibility to terrorism. Do we believe that the
technology terrorists employ is stagnant, even though experts in 2010
were able to cyber-penetrate a nuclear plant? Attempts to foster coal
and nuclear into a CES is another ploy to re-label non-renewable
technologies and ooze them into a "clean" brand. This reminds me how the
high fructose corn syrup industry has recently relabeled itself the
"corn sugar" industry."
NUCLEAR AND COAL: HOW UNCLEAN?
The experts cited the following concerns about relying on nuclear power:
- Long-lived Radioactive Waste: From mill tailing and
mine wastes to spent fuel, there is no good solution to the very
long-lived radioactive wastes that are created by the use of nuclear
energy. Contrary to popular belief, the amounts are very large. In the
United States alone, there are hundreds of millions of tons of
long-lived mining and milling wastes, even though the United States now
imports most of its uranium requirements. Nuclear energy mobilizes large
amounts of radioactivity, including radium and thorium at mining and
milling sites that will last for eons, creates huge amounts of very
long-lived main-made radionuclides, like plutonium-239 and iodine-129.
The half life of the iodine-129 is about 16 million years. - No Spent Fuel Solution: The much cited number that
France is recycling 90 or 95 percent of its spent fuel is incorrect.
France uses no more than 6 percent of the weight of fresh fuel and less
than 1 percent of the uranium that is mined. Moreover, reprocessing does
not reduce the need for a geologic repository and the proposed French
site in Bure faces opposition. French reprocessing operations discharge
about 100 million liters of liquid radioactive waste into the English
Channel every year which, together with British reprocessing discharges,
have contaminated the ocean all the way to the Arctic. - Proliferation Risks: The risk of nuclear
proliferation is inherently associated with nuclear power techno logy.
There is an enormous overlap between commercial nuclear power and
nuclear bomb infrastructure (both technical and human). This has been
recognized by the pioneers of the Manhattan Project, notably Robert
Oppenheimer (1946), and by the former Director General of the IAEA,
ElBaradei (2008), who stated that the rush to nuclear power
infrastructure in some countries was a kind of "deterrence" policy.
Nuclear proliferation can have the gravest health, environmental, and
security consequences if it results in the use of nuclear weapons -
perhaps a small probability, but one that cannot be ignored. This trend
could become more dangerous if the push for small reactors that can be
deployed in remote areas and in a much larger number of countries than
the present large reactors becomes established as a reality. While US
actions do not assure that others will follow, it is nearly certain that
if the US defines nuclear as "clean" there will be no way to dissuade
others from doing so. If nuclear energy becomes a principal part of the
response to reducing CO2 emissions 2,000 to 3,000 reactors or more of
1,000 megawatts each would be needed by 2050. This means tens of
thousands of nuclear bombs equivalent of plutonium would be created in
these reactors each year. If reprocessing takes hold, the problem of
fissile materials accounting and proliferation would become even less
manageable than it is today. - Large Water Use: Nuclear power is the largest water
consumer among all energy technologies. Reactors in the United States
and in Europe have had to shut down during heat waves, when electricity
demand is highest. In many places, this problem will be aggravated by
melting glaciers, and extremes of weather that are estimated to be a
part of climate disruption.
For more information on nuclear power, see https://www.ieer.org and https://www.NuclearBailout.org.
Noting
that no large-scale commercial CCS operation yet exists, the experts
highlighted the following problems with so-called "clean coal" solutions
and ongoing reliance on old-fashioned coal-fired power plants:
- Public Health Risks of CCS: The most obvious
threats to health posed by CCS above would occur in the event of the
release of large amounts of CO2. Carbon dioxide is a colorless, odorless
gas that is heavier than air. It may cause symptoms or death by
displacing oxygen from inhaled air, leading to hypoxia and asphyxiation,
or by causing symptomatic or fatal acidification of the blood and body
fluids after inhalation. Potential accidental releases could occur at
any of the stages: at the site of CO2 capture, during transport or
transfer, or during or after sequestration. The sudden release of large
amounts of CO2 has the potential to cause large-scale death, as occurred
on August 21, 1986 at Lake Nyos, a lake in a volcanic crater in
Cameroon. About 1,700 people died when 250,000 metric tons of CO2 gas
was released from the lake. - Coal Mining Pollution: Coal with CCS does not
address the environmental and public health impacts of mining coal. Coal
mining leads U.S. industries in fatal injuries and is associated with
chronic health problems among miners, such as black lung disease, which
causes permanent scarring of the lung tissues. In addition to the miners
themselves, communities near coal mines may be adversely affected by
mining operations due to the effects of blasting, the collapse of
abandoned mines, and the dispersal of dust from coal trucks. Surface
mining also destroys forests and groundcover, leading to flood-related
injury and mortality, as well as soil erosion and the contamination of
water supplies. Mountaintop removal mining involves blasting down to the
level of the coal seam and depositing the resulting rubble in adjoining
valleys, which damages freshwater aquatic ecosystems and the
surrounding environment by burying streams and headwaters. Coal washing,
which removes soil and rock impurities before coal is transported to
power plants, uses polymer chemicals and large quantities of water and
creates a liquid waste called slurry. Slurry ponds can leak or fail,
leading to injury and death, and slurry injected underground into old
mine shafts can release arsenic, barium, lead, and manganese into nearby
wells, contaminating local water supplies. - Air Pollutants: Coal plants are the single largest
source of sulfur dioxide, mercury and air toxic emissions and the second
largest source of nitrogen oxide pollution after automobiles. Mercury
exposure is particularly threatening to fetal and child development. The
health effects of NOx exposure range from eye, nose and throat
irritation at low levels of exposure to serious damage to the tissues of
the upper respiratory tract, fluid build-up in the lungs and death at
high exposure levels. Moreover, once emitted, these pollutants combine
to form "secondary pollutants," such as ozone and particulate matter
that pose an equally significant threat to public health. Ozone
pollution, also known as smog, is a powerful respiratory irritant that
can cause coughing and chest pain, and at higher concentrations, can
lead to more serious effects, including lung tissue damage, asthma
exacerbation, as well as increased risk of hospitalization for asthma,
bronchitis and other chronic respiratory diseases. - Post-Combustion (Coal Ash) Pollution: The storage
of post-combustion wastes from coal plants also threatens human health.
There are 584 coal ash dump sites in the U.S., and toxic residues have
migrated into water supplies and threatened human health at dozens of
these sites. In December 2008, an earthen wall holding back a huge coal
ash disposal pond failed at the coal-fired power plant in Kingston,
Tennessee. The 40-acre pond spilled more than 1 billion gallons of coal
ash slurry into the adjacent river valley, covering some 300 acres with
thick, toxic sludge, destroying three homes, damaging many others and
contaminating the Emory and Clinch Rivers.
For more information on coal, see https://www.psr.org/assets/pdfs/psr-coal-fullreport.pdf
Physicians for Social Responsibility mobilizes physicians and health professionals to advocate for climate solutions and a nuclear weapons-free world. PSR's health advocates contribute a health voice to energy, environmental health and nuclear weapons policy at the local, federal and international level.
LATEST NEWS
Defeating 'MAGA Dark Money,' Summer Lee Wins Primary in Landslide
"This is a huge testament to our collective strength and resilience as a progressive movement," said the executive director of Justice Democrats.
Apr 24, 2024
U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, a member of the progressive "Squad," won the Democratic primary for Pennsylvania's 12th Congressional District on Tuesday, fending off an opponent whose campaign was backed by a billionaire Republican megadonor and ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Lee, a vocal critic of the Netanyahu government and leading supporter of a cease-fire in Gaza, handily defeated Bhavini Patel, a borough councilmember in Edgewood, Pennsylvania whose effort to unseat the progressive incumbent was bankrolled by Jeffrey Yass, the state's richest man. Patel actively courted Republican and pro-Israel voters, characterizing Lee as "fringe."
With more than 95% of the vote counted, Lee is ahead of Patel by more than 20 percentage points.
"I am so humbled and proud to win my first primary reelection to be the congresswoman for this incredible district I've spent my life fighting for," Lee said after the race was called in her favor. "Our campaign was built on a record of delivering for our democracy, defending our most fundamental rights, and expanding our vision for what is politically possible for our region's most marginalized communities."
"Our victory is a rejection of right-wing interests and Republican billionaires using corporate super PACs to target Black and brown Democrats in our primaries—be it AIPAC or Moderate PAC or any other MAGA billionaire in Democratic clothing," Lee added. "Western PA is the blueprint for the future all of America deserves."
Through the misleadingly named Moderate PAC, Yass—a prolific tax dodger who has been floated as a possible treasury secretary pick if former President Donald Trump wins another term—spent hundreds of thousands of dollars boosting Patel and attacking Lee.
Rahna Epting, executive director of MoveOn Political Action, said that by ushering Lee to victory, residents of Pennsylvania's 12th District "soundly rejected MAGA dark money."
"MoveOn members are ready to defeat this dangerous flood of dark-money spending against progressive champions and ensure that we continue to elect working-class people to Congress," said Epting.
"Now that it's clear Summer won her primary, AIPAC's super PAC has already officially failed at their one goal for this cycle: taking out the entire Squad."
During her 2022 campaign, Lee faced and overcame huge spending by the powerful pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC via its super PAC, the United Democracy Project. But the organization opted to stay on the sidelines this time around, even as it plans to spend $100 million to defeat progressives in this year's cycle amid growing public opposition to Israel's war on Gaza.
"They had every intention of spending in this race—but they didn't, because they realized they would likely lose," Justice Democrats executive director Alexandra Rojas wrote in an email late Tuesday. "And that is because all of us had Summer's back and supported her campaign to out-organize AIPAC in every way."
"This is a huge testament to our collective strength and resilience as a progressive movement," said Rojas. "Now that it's clear Summer won her primary, AIPAC's super PAC has already officially failed at their one goal for this cycle: taking out the entire Squad."
While AIPAC ultimately sat out the Pennsylvania race, it is devoting considerable resources to ousting other progressive lawmakers, including Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.).
The pro-Israel lobbying group has endorsed Bush challenger Wesley Bell, calling him a "strong advocate for the U.S.-Israel relationship." As The Guardianreported last week, Bell has "raised more than $650,000 in earmarked contributions through the group Democracy Engine Inc. PAC—a donation platform that allows unpopular PACs to obscure their donations and lists AIPAC as a client on its LinkedIn page."
AIPAC is the largest donor to Bowman challenger George Latimer, who has supported Israel's war on Gaza and denied that Israel is committing genocide. The Democratic primary for New York's 16th Congressional District is on June 25.
We must be clear-eyed about what's next.@JamaalBowmanNY & @CoriBush are facing an existential threat from AIPAC, their GOP megadonors, and the politicians willing to compromise on core Democratic values to try to take a school principal & nurse out of Congress. #ProtectTheSquad
— Justice Democrats (@justicedems) April 24, 2024
Michele Weindling, political director of the youth-led Sunrise Movement, said Tuesday that following Lee's victory, "we're ramping up to take on AIPAC in Jamaal Bowman's race."
"With a candidate like George Latimer willing to sell their lies to the district, we are going to prove once again that a politician's commitment to their community beats dark money every time," said Weindling. "Whether it's in Pittsburgh or New York, Minneapolis or St. Louis, our generation is going to send billionaires packing and reelect the squad."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Critics Blast 'Reckless and Impossible' Bid to Start Operating Mountain Valley Pipeline
"The time to build more dirty and dangerous pipelines is over," said one environmental campaigner.
Apr 23, 2024
Environmental defenders on Tuesday ripped the company behind the Mountain Valley Pipeline for asking the federal government—on Earth Day—for permission to start sending methane gas through the 303-mile conduit despite a worsening climate emergency caused largely by burning fossil fuels.
Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC sent a letter Monday to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Acting Secretary Debbie-Anne Reese seeking final permission to begin operation on the MVP next month, even while acknowledging that much of the Virginia portion of the pipeline route remains unfinished and developers have yet to fully comply with safety requirements.
"In a manner typical of its ongoing disrespect for the environment, Mountain Valley Pipeline marked Earth Day by asking FERC for authorization to place its dangerous, unnecessary pipeline into service in late May," said Jessica Sims, the Virginia field coordinator for Appalachian Voices.
"MVP brazenly asks for this authorization while simultaneously notifying FERC that the company has completed less than two-thirds of the project to final restoration and with the mere promise that it will notify the commission when it fully complies with the requirements of a consent decree it entered into with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration last fall," she continued.
"Requesting an in-service decision by May 23 leaves the company very little time to implement the safety measures required by its agreement with PHMSA," Sims added. "There is no rush, other than to satisfy MVP's capacity customers' contracts—a situation of the company's own making. We remain deeply concerned about the construction methods and the safety of communities along the route of MVP."
Russell Chisholm, co-director of the Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights (POWHR) Coalition—which called MVP's request "reckless and impossible"—said in a statement that "we are watching our worst nightmare unfold in real-time: The reckless MVP is barreling towards completion."
"During construction, MVP has contaminated our water sources, destroyed our streams, and split the earth beneath our homes. Now they want to run methane gas through their degraded pipes and shoddy work," Chisholm added. "The MVP is a glaring human rights violation that is indicative of the widespread failures of our government to act on the climate crisis in service of the fossil fuel industry."
POWHR and activists representing frontline communities affected by the pipeline are set to take part in a May 8 demonstration outside project financier Bank of America's headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Appalachian Voices noted that MVP's request comes days before pipeline developer Equitrans Midstream is set to release its 2024 first-quarter earnings information on April 30.
MVP is set to traverse much of Virginia and West Virginia, with the Southgate extension running into North Carolina. Outgoing U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and other pipeline proponents fought to include expedited construction of the project in the debt ceiling deal negotiated between President Joe Biden and congressional Republicans last year.
On Monday, climate and environmental defenders also petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, challenging FERC's approval of the MVP's planned Southgate extension, contending that the project is so different from original plans that the government's previous assent is now irrelevant.
"Federal, state, and local elected officials have spoken out against this unneeded proposal to ship more methane gas into North Carolina," said Sierra Club senior field organizer Caroline Hansley. "The time to build more dirty and dangerous pipelines is over. After MVP Southgate requested a time extension for a project that it no longer plans to construct, it should be sent back to the drawing board for this newly proposed project."
David Sligh, conservation director at Wild Virginia, said: "Approving the Southgate project is irresponsible. This project will pose the same kinds of threats of damage to the environment and the people along its path as we have seen caused by the Mountain Valley Pipeline during the last six years."
"FERC has again failed to protect the public interest, instead favoring a profit-making corporation," Sligh added.
Others renewed warnings about the dangers MVP poses to wildlife.
"The endangered bats, fish, mussels, and plants in this boondoggle's path of destruction deserve to be protected from killing and habitat destruction by a project that never received proper approvals in the first place," Center for Biological Diversity attorney Perrin de Jong said. "Our organization will continue fighting this terrible idea to the bitter end."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Seismic Win for Workers': FTC Bans Noncompete Clauses
Advocates praised the FTC "for taking a strong stance against this egregious use of corporate power, thereby empowering workers to switch jobs and launch new ventures, and unlocking billions of dollars in worker earnings."
Apr 23, 2024
U.S. workers' rights advocates and groups celebrated on Tuesday after the Federal Trade Commission voted 3-2 along party lines to approve a ban on most noncompete clauses, which Democratic FTC Chair Lina Khansaid "keep wages low, suppress new ideas, and rob the American economy of dynamism."
"The FTC's final rule to ban noncompetes will ensure Americans have the freedom to pursue a new job, start a new business, or bring a new idea to market," Khan added, pointing to the commission's estimates that the policy could mean another $524 for the average worker, over 8,500 new startups, and 17,000 to 29,000 more patents each year.
As Economic Policy Institute (EPI) president Heidi Shierholz explained, "Noncompete agreements are employment provisions that ban workers at one company from working for, or starting, a competing business within a certain period of time after leaving a job."
"These agreements are ubiquitous," she noted, applauding the ban. "EPI research finds that more than 1 out of every 4 private-sector workers—including low-wage workers—are required to enter noncompete agreements as a condition of employment."
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has suggested it plans to file a lawsuit that, as The American Prospectdetailed, "could more broadly threaten the rulemaking authority the FTC cited when proposing to ban noncompetes."
Already, the tax services and software provider Ryan has filed a legal challenge in federal court in Texas, arguing that the FTC is unconstitutionally structured.
Still, the Democratic commissioners' vote was still heralded as a "seismic win for workers." Echoing Khan's critiques of such noncompetes, Public Citizen executive vice president Lisa Gilbert declared that such clauses "inflict devastating harms on tens of millions of workers across the economy."
"The pervasive use of noncompete clauses limits worker mobility, drives down wages, keeps Americans from pursuing entrepreneurial dreams and creating new businesses, causes more concentrated markets, and keeps workers stuck in unsafe or hostile workplaces," she said. "Noncompete clauses are both an unfair method of competition and aggressively harmful to regular people. The FTC was right to tackle this issue and to finalize this strong rule."
Morgan Harper, director of policy and advocacy at the American Economic Liberties Project, praised the FTC for "listening to the comments of thousands of entrepreneurs and workers of all income levels across industries" and finalizing a rule that "is a clear-cut win."
Demand Progress' Emily Peterson-Cassin similarly commended the commission "for taking a strong stance against this egregious use of corporate power, thereby empowering workers to switch jobs and launch new ventures, and unlocking billions of dollars in worker earnings."
While such agreements are common across various industries, Teófilo Reyes, chief of staff at the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, said that "many restaurant workers have been stuck at their job, earning as low as $2.13 per hour, because of the noncompete clause that they agreed to have in their contract."
"They didn't know that it would affect their wages and livelihood," Reyes stressed. "Most workers cannot negotiate their way out of a noncompete clause because noncompetes are buried in the fine print of employment contracts. A full third of noncompete clauses are presented after a worker has accepted a job."
Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) executive director Mike Pierce pointed out that the FTC on Tuesday "recognized the harmful role debt plays in the workplace, including the growing use of training repayment agreement provisions, or TRAPs, and took action to outlaw TRAPs and all other employer-driven debt that serve the same functions as noncompete agreements."
Sandeep Vaheesan, legal director at Open Markets Institute, highlighted that the addition came after his group, SBPC, and others submitted comments on the "significant gap" in the commission's initial January 2023 proposal, and also welcomed that "the final rule prohibits both conventional noncompete clauses and newfangled versions like TRAPs."
Jonathan Harris, a Loyola Marymount University law professor and SBPC senior fellow, said that "by also banning functional noncompetes, the rule stays one step ahead of employers who use 'stay-or-pay' contracts as workarounds to existing restrictions on traditional noncompetes. The FTC has decided to try to avoid a game of whack-a-mole with employers and their creative attorneys, which worker advocates will applaud."
Among those applauding was Jean Ross, president of National Nurses United, who said that "the new FTC rule will limit the ability of employers to use debt to lock nurses into unsafe jobs and will protect their role as patient advocates."
Angela Huffman, president of Farm Action, also cheered the effort to stop corporations from holding employees "hostage," saying that "this rule is a critical step for protecting our nation's workers and making labor markets fairer and more competitive."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular