September, 21 2020, 12:00am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Kevin Kamps,  Beyond Nuclear, kevin@beyondnuclear.org

Diane D'Arrigo, Nuclear Information and Resource Service, dianed@nirs.org
Stephen Kent, KentCom LLC, skent@kentcom.com
With the NRC Comment Window Closing Tomorrow, Thousands Weigh in To Oppose Holtec's Proposed Massive New Nuclear Waste Dump in New Mexico
NRC Public Comment Period Rammed through amidst Deadly Pandemic Despite Widespread Protest
WASHINGTON
September 21, 2020] With the window for public comment closing tomorrow, September 22, individuals and groups opposing Holtec's "Consolidated 'Interim' Storage Facility [CISF] for Spent Nuclear Fuel and High Level Waste" have filed thousands of comments and an organizational sign-on letter urging the NRC to reject Holtec's Draft Environmental Impact Statement (Docket ID NRC-2018-0052) and deny licensing for the project.
Holtec is seeking federal approval to take highly radioactive irradiated nuclear fuel, also known as "spent" fuel, shipped from nuclear power plants around the country to New Mexico, where it proposes to store it indefinitely in shallowly buried casks. Experts say this will endanger people and environments in New Mexico and west Texas, as well as along the transport routes.
"There has been an exceptionally high turnout for the comment process," said Kevin Kamps, Radioactive Waste Specialist with the national group Beyond Nuclear, whose comments on the project are posted here. "At present writing, 4,200 people have sent their comments in, with more than 95% of them against the Holtec project. At verbal comment call-in sessions, opponents outnumbered proponents by a count of 134 to 43, and that's not counting hundreds more who waited on the line for many long hours but never got a chance to speak."
Beyond Nuclear also helped coordinate an organizational coalition sign-on comment letter, which is posted here. So far there are 80 signatories and counting from organizations in 27 states (plus one Canadian province), including nine national groups: Beyond Nuclear; National Nuclear Workers for Justice (NNWJ); Nuclear Age Peace Foundation; Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS); On Behalf of Planet Earth; Physicians for Social Responsibility; Proposition 1 Committee; Food & Water Watch; and Public Citizen.
The group letter says that the proposed project violates the principle of consent-based siting, because New Mexico does not consent to it. It states: "We join the All Pueblo Council of Governors, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, New Mexico State Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard, more than a dozen county and city governments, the Alliance for Environmental Strategies, the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association, the Permian Basin Coalition of Land & Royalty Owners and Operators, the Nuclear Issues Study Group, and the more than 30,000 residents who commented during the NRC's 2018 environmental scoping period in vehemently opposing bringing the nation's high level radioactive waste from nuclear power plants through our communities to New Mexico."
The letter points out the Holtec proposal also violates federal law: "Under current U.S. law, this project is illegal. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as Amended, does not allow the federal government to take title to the high-level radioactive waste (commercial irradiated nuclear fuel) a permanent geologic repository has opened. So the federal government cannot pay for transportation and storage of the waste as Holtec wants. Legally, the license cannot be issued until a permanent repository is operating."
The signatories further object to the Holtec project because of its environmental racism, threats to water and wildlife, threats to significant Native American cultural sites, the dangers of transporting irradiated "spent" fuel, and the cumulative public health and safety impacts the nuclear industry has already inflicted on New Mexicans for the past 75 years.
The letter remains open for more organizations to sign on, and will be filed with the NRC before midnight Eastern time on Tuesday, September 22. To sign, contact Kevin Kamps at <kevin@beyondnuclear.org>.
Individuals can submit comments on the Holtec project until 11:59pm Eastern time on Tuesday, September 22. Opponents to the Holtec CISF, and proponents of Environmental Justice, are submit comments to NRC by the deadline.
"Comment NOW ," said Diane D'Arrigo of Nuclear Information and Resource Service, "because this may be your last chance. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission ignored the request of dozens of groups and refused to wait until after the COVID-19 crisis to hear public input."
"We urge all Americans on or near the transport routes -- more than 200 million, all told -- to comment and tell NRC that 'We Do NOT Consent!' to this," said Kevin Kamps. "These high-risk, mobile-Chernobyl, floating-Fukushima, dirty-bomb-on-wheels, mobile-X-ray-machine-that-can't-be-turned-off shipments of high-level radioactive waste would travel by truck, train, and barge through most states in the Lower 48. In this sense, we all live in New Mexico," said Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps.
Here are three simple links individuals can use to file comments on the Holtec project with the NRC: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CleNVaLGWM42EU1xgDB_kZ0rUr7s8904/view
or https://org2.salsalabs.com/o/5502/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=27069
Comments can also be filed directly to the NRC by emailing them to <holtec-cisfeis@nrc.gov>. For any questions about that process, contact Stacey Imboden, Stacey.Imboden@nrc.gov. For questions about the Holtec Draft Environmental Impact Statement, contact Jill Caverly, jill.caverly@nrc.gov
For more information about CISFs, see Beyond Nuclear's Centralized Storage website section, posted here.
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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House Progressives Applaud as Biden Student Debt Relief Tops $143 Billion
"Let's keep fighting until we cancel student debt for EVERY single borrower," said Rep. Ilhan Omar.
Mar 21, 2024
Progressive U.S. lawmakers and campaigners on Thursday cheered the Department of Education's announcement of nearly $6 billion in additional student loan relief—this time for public service workers—as President Joe Biden continues to find ways to work around a Supreme Court ruling limiting how he can eliminate educational debt.
The Department of Education (DOE) said the administration has approved $5.8 billion in student debt for around 78,000 borrowers, the result of adjustments to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. The move brings the total amount of student loan forgiveness approved by Biden administration to $143.6 billion for nearly 4 million borrowers.
"Of the estimated 43 million student loan borrowers in America, approximately 20% have either been approved for debt cancellation or have no current repayment obligation."
"For too long, our nation's teachers, nurses, social workers, firefighters, and other public servants faced logistical troubles and trap doors when they tried to access the debt relief they were entitled to under the law," U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement.
"With this announcement, the Biden-Harris administration is showing how we're taking further steps not only to fix those trap doors, but also to expand opportunity to many more Americans," Cardona added. "Today, more than 100 times more borrowers are eligible for PSLF than there were at the beginning of the administration."
Before 2021, only around 7,000 borrowers benefited from PSFL relief. During Biden's tenure, more than 871,000 people have had their student loan debt canceled after the administration updated and fixed key parts of the program, including by introducing a new help tool to simplify navigation of the debt relief process.
"The president gets it. Today, thousands more borrowers are finally able to imagine life after student debt," Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair (CPC) Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said in a statement.
Jayapal noted that after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the president's student debt cancellation program last June, Biden and Cardona "got to work" and have been "relentless in the pursuit of other avenues to help the millions of Americans burdened by student debt."
"With the administration's fixes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, teachers, nurses, firefighters, and others in public service will see their relief sooner and can finally start putting their hard-earned income towards buying homes, investing in their communities, and taking care of their families," she added.
Student loan attorney Adam Minsky noted this week that "of the estimated 43 million student loan borrowers in America, approximately 20% have either been approved for debt cancellation or have no current repayment obligation."
According to the Education Data Initiative, U.S. student loan debt in the United States currently totals more than $1.7 trillion.
Some advocates reacted to the Biden administration's announcement by calling for more debt relief and even tuition-free higher education.
"Americans have a right to an education, and it should be debt-free," the Student Debt Crisis Center said on social media. "The time to #CancelStudentDebt is now, not later."
Former Democratic Ohio state Sen. Nina Turnerasserted: "The more student debt canceled, the better. "We must keep pushing for more; it's a nearly $2 trillion crisis."
"We must stop saddling our students with this debt to begin with," Turner added. "We need tuition-free college."
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Trump, House GOP Converge on 15-Week Federal Abortion Ban
A Texas woman who almost died after being denied care said the Republican "is actively planning to ban abortion nationwide if he's elected, inflicting the same cruelty and chaos I've experienced on the entire country."
Mar 21, 2024
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives and the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump, have made the stakes of the November election clear this week by publicly endorsing a 15-week ban on abortion care nationwide.
"The number of weeks, now, people are agreeing on 15, and I'm thinking in terms of that, and it'll come out to something that's very reasonable," Trump said on WABC's "Sid & Friends in the Morning" Tuesday. "But people are really—even hard-liners are agreeing, seems to be 15 weeks, seems to be a number that people are agreeing at. But I'll make that announcement at the appropriate time."
Trump also promoted letting states lead on the issue and touted the June 2022 reversal of Roe v. Wade, which he enabled with three right-wing appointees to the U.S. Supreme Court. He acknowledged that stricter bans are politically risky, saying that "you have to win elections."
For several years, surveys have shown that most Americans favor abortion rights. A KFF poll released earlier this month found that 58% of U.S. adults oppose a national 16-week abortion ban; 66% support guaranteeing a federal right to an abortion; and 86% support protecting abortion access for patients experiencing pregnancy-related emergencies such as miscarriages.
Trump said Tuesday that he supports exceptions for rape, incest, and to save the life of the pregnant person. As Common Dreams has reported, while Republicans have framed such exceptions as a compromise, patients have shared stories of being turned away or made to wait until they are at greater risk of death before receiving emergency care—particularly in the face of state laws imposed since the Supreme Court overturned Roe in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.
Democratic President Joe Biden has promoted his support for abortion rights while running for reelection. In response to Trump's interview, the Biden campaign shared a statement from Amanda Zurawski, a Texas woman whose water broke in August 2022, 18 weeks into a wanted pregnancy that came after fertility treatments. Doctors said the fetus would not survive but also denied her care for days, citing state law.
"My family has been forever altered by the nightmare that Donald Trump created by overturning Roe," Zurawski said Wednesday. "I nearly died because my doctor could not give me the care I needed—and my ability to have children in the future has been forever compromised by the damage that was caused. Trump isn't 'signaling,' he isn't 'suggesting,' he isn't 'leaning toward' anything—he is actively planning to ban abortion nationwide if he's elected, inflicting the same cruelty and chaos I've experienced on the entire country. We cannot allow that to happen."
The ex-president's comments to the WABC radio show came after Fox News' Howard Kurtz on Sunday questioned him about February New York Timesreporting that he supports a federal 16-week abortion ban with the three exceptions. Asked if he thinks that could be "politically acceptable," Trump responded that "we're going to find out" and championed the Roe reversal.
While Trump celebrates the Dobbs decision and the potential for federal restrictions on abortion in the presidential race, House Republicans are highlighting their role in efforts to cut off care. The chamber's largest caucus of GOP members on Wednesday put out a budget proposal for fiscal year 2025 that applauds the high court's 2022 ruling and endorses 42 bills that attack reproductive healthcare and research.
The Republican Study Committee (RSC) plan endorses legislation that would ban abortion after 15 weeks or even earlier, using medically inaccurate language about "a fetal heartbeat"; require unnecessary ultrasounds and 24-hour waiting periods; let states deprive providers of Medicaid funding; permanently codify the Hyde Amendment; prevent the Department of Defense from paying for abortions; prohibit the Department of Veterans Affairs from providing abortions; outlaw the use of fetal stem cells for research; make it harder to access the abortion pill mifepristone; and block the approval of new medications for abortions.
Among various other proposals, the document endorses the Life at Conception Act that provides 14th Amendment protections "at all stages of life," which would threaten fertility treatments. Safeguarding access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) has become a national priority since Alabama's right-wing Supreme Court ruled last month that frozen embryos are children. Shortly after that decision, U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) thwarted a Democratic effort to pass IVF protections.
"No matter how they try to spin it, this is the latest proof that if they control Congress and the White House, the GOP will ban abortion and IVF with NO exceptions, nationwide. Watch what they do, not what they say," Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) said of the RSC plan.
In November, Republicans hope to not only hold on to their slim House majority—under the the leadership of fervently anti-choice Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.)—but also reclaim the Senate. Aiding those efforts, Trump-backed Bernie Moreno this week won the Republican primary to face off against Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) in the general election.
"We knew this primary would advance an anti-reproductive freedom extremist, and Bernie Moreno is that and more—he's a rubber stamp for Trump's national abortion ban and the exact opposite of what Ohioans want in a leader,"
said Reproductive Freedom for All president and CEO Mini Timmaraju. "They deserve better, and they'll get it by reelecting Sen. Sherrod Brown."
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New Wage Data Shows When Workers Organize and Fight 'It Pays Off—Literally'
Union contracts negotiated in 2023 earned workers wage increases they haven't seen in over 35 years.
Mar 21, 2024
A new analysis shows that unionized workers across the United States secured historic wage increases under contracts negotiated last year, further demonstrating the power of collective bargaining.
According to Bloomberg Law, 2023 union contracts "gave workers an average first-year wage increase of 6.6%"—the highest raise since at least 1988.
"With signing bonuses and other lump-sum payments added to the calculations," the outlet added, "2023's average first-year wage increase was 7.3%, also a record high, according to Bloomberg Law's latest Quarterly Union Wage Data report."
The AFL-CIO, the largest federation of unions in the U.S., highlighted the findings on social media Thursday, writing, "When we fight together, it pays off—literally."
🔥Union contracts negotiated in 2023 resulted in an average first-year wage increase off 6.6%, the HIGHEST average pay raise for any year since @bloomberglaw began tracking the number in 1988.
When we fight together, it pays off—literally. https://t.co/7bppjtDrMU
— AFL-CIO ✊ (@AFLCIO) March 21, 2024
It's well-established that unionized workers are paid more and receive better benefits than nonunion employees. A Treasury Department study released last year estimated that unions boost their members' wages by 10-15% and "improve fringe benefits and workplace procedures such as retirement plans, workplace grievance policies, and predictable scheduling."
But unionization also benefits nonunion employees—as shown by the United Auto Workers' (UAW) historic contract victories at the Big Three U.S. automakers last year.
After the UAW secured record wage gains in their contracts with Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis following a six-week strike, several nonunion car manufacturers—including Toyota and Tesla—announced pay increases for their employees in an apparent attempt to preempt organizing efforts in their factories.
Overall, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), U.S. union membership grew by 191,000 workers in 2023—but the share of employees represented by a union fell slightly as strong job growth outpaced organizing efforts.
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) noted in its analysis of the BLS figures that the share of nonunion workers who would like to have a union at their workplace is far higher than the share who actually have union representation," a testament to the effectiveness of corporate union-busting campaigns and the need for much stronger federal labor laws.
Between 1979 and 2017, EPI has estimated, the median U.S. worker lost out on $3,250 in pay per year due to the decline in unionization during that period.
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