August 7 Louisa, VA Activists from the Southeast Convergence for Climate Action occupied the welcome center for Dominion’s North Anna nuclear power plant today. The action was taken to protest Dominion’s plans to build two new nuclear reactors and to call out nuclear power for the false solution that it is to the climate crisis. “We are here to serve notice on the so-called ‘nuclear renaissance’ that the anti-nuclear movement is alive and well,” said Glenn Carroll, coordinator of Nuclear Watch South.
In all 25 people occupied the visitors center for 2 hours until police came in to remove them. The protesters wore shirts that read “Nukes not Welcome” and chanted and sang. “We chose to take non-violent direct action because Dominion and the federal government have...
At some point, I’m going to turn this into a longer and better linked post, but this has got to be said. Right now. Again.
The worst thing, the most depressing thing, about global warming, isn’t the melting ice cap or the short time horizon. It certainly isn’t the current state of our technological advancement or knowledge, which is largely sufficient to the problem. It’s the stupidity, inactivity, timidity, shortsightedness and fecklessness of humanity’s ruling elites. Really. That’s why I think the proper way to refer to it is as a suicide pact, because it’s both deliberate and avoidable.
Consider that we’ve got at present tremendous financial liquidity. The environmentally unsustainable suburbs are emptying out like mad due to wave upon...
In a recently released study, Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free, the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research examines the technical and economic feasibility of achieving a U.S. economy with zero-CO2 emissions without nuclear power. In fact, the study asserts that we could have a zero-CO2 economy as early as 2040. The major results of the study are below:
Central Finding
The overarching finding of this study is that a zero-CO2 U.S. economy can be achieved within the next thirty to fifty years without the use of nuclear power and without acquiring carbon credits from other countries. In other words, actual physical emissions of CO2 from the energy sector can be eliminated with technologies that are now available or foreseeable. This can be done at reasonable cost while creating a...
The 2008 Democratic presidential candidates fielded a range of questions on how they would tackle global warming and increase America’s energy independence in two recent, innovative, ‘people-powered’ debates. Both events - MoveOn.org’s ‘Virtual Town Hall’ on Climate Change and the CNN-YouTube Debates - posed questions to the candidates that were submitted by individuals via video and the internet.
Earlier this month, the full range of candidates fielded three questions each on how they would tackle the climate crisis in MoveOn’org’s Virtual Town Hall on Climate. The event was organized in conjunction with the LiveEarth global concert series, held on July 7th. You can watch the candidates’ responses to each question online here.
Last...
As an activist in Florida, I’m usually skeptical about the possibility of a sustainable future for my beloved state. But recently, the tide seems to have turned. Florida is historically a VERY pro-development state, which has disregarded the consequences of development on the environment and our quality of life. However, Florida is now moving towards a decidedly anti-coal stance! The first sign of this turn against coal was seen in the fate of the massive Glades coal plant proposal. At almost 2,000 MW, this monstrosity was slated to be built in a pristine area near the Everglades, a Seminole Indian reservation and a low income community of color. We were all gearing up for a fierce battle and had just finished our Energy Justice Summer training around it, when….the Public...
Have just heard from a colleague that the Domenici Amendment to the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard, which would have defined coal and nuclear energy as “renwable,” has just been killed! The Senate is continuing to debate energy legislation and you can check it out now on C-Span. Pretty exciting! My senator, Lamar Alexander, from Tennessee, spoke yesterday in favor of this awful bill saying in reference to windmills: “It is a different point, but this makes strip mining look like a decorative art.” What?? Strip mining destroys mountains, water tables and forests, which can never be rebuilt, and, windmills can be taken off mountains and are a zero emissions energy source!
The Bingaman Bill, aka Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard, is still on the floor,...
Senator Bingaman will propose a 15% by 2020 national Renewable Energy Standard be amended to the comprehensive energy package being debated on the Senate floor today
A new comprehensive energy package is being debated on the Senate floor today. The legislation incorporates a number of previously introduced bills and work from four different Senate committees and is being presented as an amendment to HR 6, the CLEAN Energy Act of 2007 previously passed by the House in January during the ‘First 100 Days’ push.
The CLEAN Energy Act shifts roughly $14 billion in oil and gas industry subsidies to fund future legislation supporting clean energy investments, including energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Although the highest-profile and probably most hotly-debated component of...
I’m on vacation this week, but these stories about Southern Utility companies doing good things were too exciting for me to pass up. Progress Energy may still be proposing new nuclear plants in Florida, but it has put it’s plans to build a new nuclear reactor in North Carolina on hold and is instead pursuing energy efficiency! Progress announced plans (although they were not very detailed) to reduce energy usage by 2000 MW (the power of one huge or a couple small power plants)! Duke Energy, the other giant utility in NC, also recently announced plans to pursue 1700 MW of energy efficiency, but is still pursusing the construction of an 800 MW coal plant (although only half of amount they were originally pursuing) and new nuclear reactors in South Carolina. Both Duke and...
I began writing this article more than two years ago in preparation for Energy Independence Day on October 19th, 2004. I cannot think of a more appropriate time to complete it than today, four days before the largest mobilization in the history of the youth climate movement, our Week of Climate Action and just hours after the release of a new report by Greenpeace USA and other climate advocates that shows that the United States can indeed address global warming without relying on nuclear power or so-called “clean coal”.
ad·dic·tion
Pronunciation: &-’dik-sh&n
Function: noun
: compulsive physiological need for and use of a habit-forming substance (as heroin, nicotine, or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon...