SEN and Bonnie Raitt Rock Out Against Nukes

Teaming up with the Guacamole Fund, Southern Energy Network had the awesome opportunity to promote its our anti-nuclear work in Florida, raise some money, and hang out with Bonnie Raitt. And what a great night it was!

SEN’s Field Director, Stephanie Powell and I worked with 3 amazing volunteers from University of West Florida to inform fans about the nuclear issues currently facing Florida. We encountered tons of folks who were already engaged on the issues and a few more that were in process of going off the grid with solar power installations at their homes. During the show, we took turns going in to enjoy the music. Personally, watching Bonnie perform was quite an experience! Her music has been in my life since I was pretty young, and seeing it live was phenomenal.

Bonnie Raitt, along with a number of other artists, founded a group called Musicians United for Safe Energy (MUSE) that opposes nuclear power in favor of safer, renewable options like solar. To help the cause, they build fundraising into their ticket sales, giving fans the choice to purchase special V.I.P. tickets.  At this Pensacola show, there was a small dessert reception afterward. Bonnie was so careful to spend a few moments with each of the folks there, chatting with them and taking a photo. At the end of it all, we had the pleasure of spending a few minutes with her as well. She is such a genuine person and was very knowledgeable about the complex intricacies of nuclear power, as well as the details of Florida’s specific challenges in the face of this risky industry. It’s great to have folks with such public access on our side, spreading real information to folks about issues that affect us all!

 

No Nukes, We Need Solar in the Sunshine State!

 

 

Florida is Power Shifting Away from Nukes and Drilling!

Now, more than ever, Floridians need to stand up and show we are ready to usher in a brighter energy future. An energy future that is just and safe for all and uses truly renewable sources. An energy future that neither relies on fossil fuels nor creates a legacy of radioactive waste for tens of thousands of years. Want solar in the Sunshine State? Florida needs a POWER SHIFT!

Right now, Washington is leading us in the wrong direction. Check out what Senators John Kerry and Lindsey Graham have to say in their  NY Times Op Ed yesterday.

The emphasis Kerry and Graham place on expensive risky nuclear, the mythical ”clean coal,” and coastal drilling leaves Florida wondering when the sun will shine on our economy? The United States as a whole needs bold action to protect our climate and secure our energy. Drilling does neither–instead it maintains our dependence on dirty oil, and it does little to reduce our need for foreign oil. Nuclear is the ‘thirstiest‘ energy out there, requiring millions of gallons of water per day. These technologies do not bring the jobs we need, but renewables will!

Florida has a lot to lose in the face climate change, but so much to gain from real solutions. We need solutions that are safe, clean, renewable, and create jobs! Join hundreds of other engaged and passionate young people as we demand a Power Shift in Orlando, FL Oct 23-25 at University of Central Florida campus Arena.

Have 15 minutes? Here are 2 things you can do Right Now:

Attend Florida Power Shift! We were 6,000 strong in DC back in 2007. In March of this year, we doubled that number and really showed our legislators that young people in our country are serious about climate change and are here to support strong action toward real solutions. Now, we are bringing it home to Florida to demand safe and renewable energy. Don’t miss the early Registration Friday 10/16!

Contact the Florida Public Service Commission and tell them you won’t pay for their nuclear reactors! Email contact@psc.state.fl.us and Reference Docket # 090009. Progress Energy and Florida Power and Light want to charge you now for reactors that may never be built. Please contact them today! Need talking points? Check this out.

Please contact me with any questions!

Hope to see you next weekend in Orlando!

Mandy Hancock
Florida Organizer, Southern Energy Network

mandy@climateaction.net

Florida Youth Say “YES” to Green Jobs, Solar Energy, and Campus Efficiency!

This past weekend at University of Florida, over 70 young people from 9 universities across the state joined forces with Southern Energy Network at the Florida Youth Energy Sustainability (YES) Summit. It was an action packed day and a half of workshops and strategizing sessions interspersed with great energy and fun!

Oh, YES to solar in the Sunshine State! NO Nukes!

The goals of the summit centered around building relationships, increasing communication, and strategizing upcoming campaigns. The Green Fee campaign got a make over. Students from several schools are creating a committee to escalate the campaign and develop a plan to take on the Florida legislature, this time for a win! The anti-nuclear campaign gained more steam and will be one of the networks primary campaigns this year with plans under way to increase pressure at the state and national levels.

Last, but certainly not least, we talked about the Power Shift campaign and how Florida is going to raise their voices to join the chorus of young people demanding bold climate legislation before United Nations Climate Negotiations in December. Florida is ready to have an awesome event in Orlando on October 24th, just in time for the 350.org International Day of Action. Our state has a lot to lose in the face of climate change and we are stepping up to the challenge!

Be sure to stay tuned for more exciting news from Florida! Don’t miss out, make sure you register for Florida Power Shift today!

Rachel Walsh (Florida State) and Alicia (Florida A & M) Say No Nukes, Go Solar!

UCF Makes the Trek to Tallahassee to Say NO to Nuclear in Florida

UCF Students think families and local businesses shouldn’t have to pay for nuclear reactors, especially when there are safer renewables available that do not produce radioactive waste. So, at 4:30 a.m. this past Tuesday, they left Orlando to go to the Public Service Commission Early Cost Recovery hearing. The PSC heard expert testimonies all week to determine the prudence of Progress Energy and Florida Power and Light charging consumers to recoup capital costs for their proposed nuclear reactors.

Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE), the Office of Public Council, and PCS Phosphate are all intervening in the case. Their witnesses testify that early cost recovery is not sensible and that the reactors aren’t even necessary. Peter Bradford, former Chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, one of SACE’s expert witnesses, testified that our slumping economy is reducing the demand for electricity for the first time in decades. Citing rising costs for materials and an increasing shortage of laborers with the skills to complete these projects, he concludes that the risk the utilities are asking their consumers to bear is just too great. The PSC is scheduled to make its ruling October 26, 2009.

If you think the utilities should keep their hands out of your pockets with their risky investments, make your voice heard! Tell the PSC you do not what to fund Progress and Florida Power and Light’s risky business. Urge them to read the expert testimonies offered by Peter Bradford and Arnie Gundersen that cite hard evidence that the utilities cannot justify the request to raise rates for these projects nor can they ensure that ratepayers will get anything in return for their investment.

Here’s how: Use the info below to contact PSC and reference Docket #090009,:
• PSC Contact page: http://www.psc.state.fl.us/about/contact/
• Local Consumer Assistance Line: 1-850-413-6100

• Toll Free Consumer Assistance Line: 1-800-342-3552

• Toll Free Fax: 1-800-511-0809

UCF is Serious About Not Paying for Risky Nuclear

Check out Jessica Burris on Bay 9 News!

From Florida to France, New Nuclear Shouldn’t Have a Chance!

Southern Energy Network represented at the Institute for Environmental Energy Research Carbon Free Nuclear Free workshop last week in Washington, DC. Jessica Burris, one of our interning volunteers, and I spent 5 days learning all sorts of technical information about nuclear energy. We covered a broad range of topics, everything from reprocessing and uranium enrichment to nuclear disarmament. We held strategy sessions to further the Carbon Free Nuclear Free campaign, and then we all had the opportunity to make a presentation to the panel of scientists that work at the Institute. We also heard from experts (from France even!) about why nuclear in France isn’t the love affair we understand it to be.

Jessica and I worked together on a presentation that begins the initial research phases of a larger project that will become her Master’s thesis. She is looking at the Environmental Justice implications of nuclear energy in Florida. Our initial findings were that the existing nuclear reactors in Florida, as well as the new reactor proposals, are all located in communities that have a combination of the following characteristics: well below the average median income for the state, majority minority, well over median age, and very high unemployment. Other characteristics of the areas in which these reactors exist or are proposed: high rates of asthma, high infant mortality, high cancer rates, high percentages of Spanish language homes, and low rates of high school or equivalency attainment. Although we had to revisit some of the science that supported our initial conclusions, our overarching and supported conclusion was that the communities that have nuclear reactors in their backyard are full of people that already have a lot of socio-economic factors to contend with in their daily survival, and that the additional burden on their health and environment is a serious environmental racism and justice issue.

If you are still undecided about nuclear energy, here are some things to consider:

**Nuclear reactors produce tons of spent fuel, which is high-level radioactive waste that is harmful to all life for over 10,000 years.
**There is currently no long-term storage for all of this waste.
**Nuclear reactors also produce tons of low-level waste that creates another “safe storage” problem.
**Nuclear reactors are VERY THRISTY. In a world with increasing water shortages, we need less water intensive alternatives.
**Nuclear energy is risky business. Wall Street won’t invest in it, why should you? Many states, including Florida, are passing the capital costs onto you with “Early Cost Recovery” and “Construction Work in Progress” rate-increases on your energy bill. See Regress Energy for more information on how this is playing out in Florida.
**Thermal discharge from reactors endangers surrounding marine eco-systems.

For more on the science behind this madness, check out www.ieer.org

The Southeast currently has 13 new nuclear reactor proposals. There are a number of local, state, regional, and national groups getting organized to keep these expensive, risky, water intensive, dangerous energy sources out of our communities. Here are some organizations that you can plug into to take action:

Southern Energy Network–We are looking to build a team of passionate youth to organize our region out of risky nuclear and into renewables! Contact mandy@climateaction.net for more information.
Southern Alliance for Clean Energy
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
Institute for Environmental and Energy Research

Public Service Commission, my thumb!

This week, the South Carolina Public Service Commission ignored all reason and public sentiment in granting South Carolina Electric & Gas a blank check to start charging rate payers for the construction of two new nuclear reactors that are not near fully permitted.  Two reactors that may never be fully built, that may never come online, and still we will pay the 37% rate increase (which could inflate to as high as a 75% as costs inevitably increase) with no hope of  redress.  It’s a pathetically premature move on behalf of the PSC and one that reveals their unwavering loyalty to the utilities and big industry. After an extensive, and at times painfully lengthy hearing process, in which citizen after citizen testified, demanding that SCE&G be required to actually address the potential of energy efficiency, conservation and renewable energy in their application before the PSC, that the PSC in no way allow the utility the right to charge its ratepayers for such a boondoggle of a project, the commissioners put on their most patronizing smiles to thank the public for its participation and input.  They then, promptly and unanimously voted against the public and in favor of SCE&G.

Prepared citizens dressed in costume as “nuclear bailout victims” and “fleeced ratepayers” in hopes that they’d look foolish when the PSC made the right decision.  Unfortunately, our theater wasn’t the only one at play in the PSC meeting room and, ultimately, we weren’t the ones looking foolish.  Puppets of industry, seven supposed public servants sold SCE&G ratepayers down the river.  To check out footage of the hearing/protest, visit: WISTV Columbia and to read more about the decision, visit: The State.  And to fight back, visit the SCE&G Ratepayers Strike group.

VICTORY! YOU DID IT!

From Nuclear Information and Resource Service:
(**side note from Mandy: Florida had the highest number of letters and emails of any other state….THANK YOU!!)

Late last night, we got word that the $50 Billion in taxpayer loan guarantees for new nuclear reactors and “clean coal” plants has been stripped from the final economic stimulus bill!
Your actions made a huge difference.
To recap, you:
*sent more than 7,600 letters to your Senators in one week
*sent more than 3,000 letters to your Representatives in the House in three days
*sent more than 1100 letters to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid just yesterday afternoon (unfortunately, most letters to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were blocked; we’ll work on that problem with our Congressional database service).
*made thousands of phone calls to your Senators and Representatives
*brought needed attention to the issue through your blogs, letters to the editor, your Facebook and Myspace pages, and much more.

The final bill should be voted on in the House later today, and in the Senate probably tomorrow. The final bill almost certainly will pass, and there will be no amendments on this final bill, so the taxpayer money for the dirty and dangerous nuclear/coal industry will stay out of the bill.

Take a moment to celebrate today!

But make no mistake: the nuclear industry and its Congressional backers will try again, and sooner rather than later. Two days ago, for example, they began a new push to have nuclear power declared a “renewable” energy source in Senate Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman’s (D-NM) upcoming Renewable Portfolio Standard bill, which is intended to increase renewable energy production in the U.S. (although first indications are that the bill is much weaker than it should be). This is likely to become a major issue in March.

And there will be new efforts to set up a federal “clean energy bank” to finance nuclear reactors with taxpayer dollars in the coming weeks and months.

In other words, we’ll have to stay vigilant and active, and continue growing this movement if we are to attain the safe, clean, nuclear-free, carbon-free energy future our nation and planet needs.

You have now proven your effectiveness, but we can and must do even more. President Obama’s campaign was successful in large part because of the support of a constantly growing number of ordinary people, taking action and making small donations, that built into an enormous political force. We are taking the same approach: in the past three months, NIRS contact lists have grown by more than one-third–a key element of today’s success. Let’s continue building this movement!

Please make a small donation on our secure servers so we can continue our outreach and build on this success. Your support is gratefully appreciated and every penny is used as wisely as possible.

And from all of us at NIRS: THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO!!!!

Michael Mariotte
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service

Debunking GNEP, Defending South Carolina, Georgia and the planet!

The Department of Energy has been hosting Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement scoping meetings all across the country to solicit public input on the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership program being pursued by the federal government and last night they were in Graniteville, SC.

GNEP is a program designed to encourage the expansion of nuclear energy, decrease the likelihood of nuclear proliferation and address the massive problem of nuclear waste by “closing” the nuclear fuel cycle and reprocessing nuclear waste.  Unfortunately, it only really succeeds in expanding nuclear energy.  Meanwhile, nuclear reprocessing:

• creates more dangerous nuclear waste streams (meaning it doesn’t “close” the nuclear fuel cycle at ALL)
• creates orphaned, weapons-grade plutonium in quantities vulnerable to theft and proliferation (we can thank nuclear reprocessing for Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program)
• will cost taxpayers a massive 700 billion dollars
• emits 150,000 times more radiation than traditional nuclear reactors
• has been linked to heightened levels of childhood leukemia around existing facilities
• would essentially condemn any site chosen for a reprocessing facility to being a national nuclear wasteland, since spent fuel can be shipped to location now, before the technology is created that can reprocess that waste

For all these reasons, concerned citizens and young people from South Carolina and Georgia stood up and spoke out against the broader program and the siting of a nuclear reprocessing facility at the Savannah River Site on the border between the two states.  Opponents stuck to the facts and argued that GNEP was a bad decision, challenging the DOE to pursue an energy legacy that ends the nuclear fuel cycle instead of “closing” it.  We cannot afford to let our country tout this dirty, false solution to climate change any more.  All across the country citizens have had enough and let the DOE know about it!

For more information, check out:  www.bubbasnofool.org

and to submit comment to the DOE, visit: GNEP PEIS and click on the bubble next to “add comments”

Rate payer wars rock South Carolina Public Service Commission

This Monday marked the beginning of what is planned to be a week long hearing before the South Carolina Public Service Commission in which South Carolina Electric & Gas is requesting a 37% rate increase (to be implemented over ten years), to pay for the construction of two new nuclear reactors in Jenkinsville, SC.  The 37% figure is somewhat dubious, as it is based on shockingly low cost estimates for the reactor project (half of what other utilities and the Department of Energy are forecasting as the cost for the very same reactor design).

Of course, SCE&G’s application for the permits to build the two new reactors are woefully inadequate in researching the potential for energy efficiency programs or renewable energy.  Instead of investing our money in a clean, safe, healthy energy future, SCE&G is trying to make ratepayers subsidize their dirty energy facilities.

During the two public comment periods, in which anyone could sign up to testify before the Public Service Commission, the opposition far outnumbered the support for this rate increase.  Young people and concerned citizens came out in droves to speak out in defense of rate payers, our planet and our people.  The final public comment period on Wednesday had to be extended by more than two hours to accomodate all that wanted to speak.  In addition to all the public comment made, dozens of written comments were submitted by concerned citizens all across the state.

Now we will have to wait for the PSC to deliberate before we know if SCE&G will be granted their requested rate increase.  Once this decision is made, it is final and will allow SCE&G a blank check and the option of increasing the rates even further to pay for their construction.  Even if the two new reactors are never built or never come online, the ratepayers have no way of recovering their money, thanks to legislation passed in South Carolina last year.

Regardless of the decision, though, South Carolina will not go down without a fight; we will continue to organize in opposition of this nuclear project even if we can’t protect our pocketbooks from a “Public Service” Commission with a questionable track record.

Challenging Radioactive “Greens”

Today, the South Carolina nuclear complex was treated to an obscenely dignified luncheon with former EPA head and recent co-founder of the Clean and Safe Energy coalition, Christine Todd Whitman.  Whitman has been traveling the southeast preaching her reformed gospel of nuclear power and receiving audiences as captive and convinced as those of the old open tent revivals.  Instead of haunting her audiences with fire and brimstone, though, Whitman threatens rolling brownouts or, even worse, blackouts. Obviously if we want to address climate change and continue to provide energy for a world addicted to their ipods and cell phones (a consumption pattern that Whitman wouldn’t dare to challenge), we need nuclear power.

Sitting at the top of the world, eating the catered lunch and bantering with the woman next to me about how beautiful the view was, I became anxious.  Whitman’s messaging was all right: we need to address climate change, we need to protect our environment and our people, we need to challenge American ingenuity and act now.  But her solution is false, empty and devastating.  The climate around nuclear power is shifting to one of greater acceptance but the realities remain same.  Nuclear reactors are hugely expensive projects which ratepayers and taxpayers will fund, the reactors require massive amounts of water to cool, thus straining our draught impacted waterways, and nuclear power is devastating to the communities that mine the uranium, that produce the power and that live with the waste.  It’s a lifecycle of destruction and the only winners are those pocketing the profits.

So as Ms. Whitman dodged answering my question, I was reminded that it must be the respoinsibility of the youth climate movement to answer the pro-nuke propoganda being fed our country and support the real, healthy, just solutions for energy that demand the talent and ingenuity of America without compromising our future.  As others hesitate, we must lead!