NEIS was honored to march with the national Veterans for Peace as part of their national conference in Chicago, Aug. 13th. The VFP theme was: “Education! NOT Militarization!” as VFP decried in insidious infiltration of all grade levels of U.S. schools by military recruiters and ROTC programs, while funding for basic education goes unmet. NEIS […]
NEIS Board President Speaks at Chicago Hiroshima Observance On Sunday August 6, over 60 people gathered at the Henry Moore Sculpture to Atomic Energy on the Hyde Park campus of the University of Chicago – the place where the first human controlled chain reaction experiment occurred on Dec. 2, 1942 – to observe the atomic […]
The legendary entertainer, musician, and just great human being Bonnie Raitt once again invited NEIS (and 5 other cause groups she supports) to table at her concert held at Wrigley Field in Chicago on July 17th. Sharing the bill with James Taylor, Raitt performed impeccably before a noticeably loyal fan base crowd. The tabling was […]
In preparation for taking on the reactionary Trump environmental agenda, Greenpeace hosted a two day training on non-violent direct action (NVDA) in Chicago, Saturday and Sunday, July 1-2 – just in time for Independence Day. Many REAL patriots attended this event, including NEIS Board members Stephanie Bilenko and Kathleen Rude. NEIS will engage in whatever […]
ACTION ALERT! If you believe in safe energy and a less-nuclear world, we ask you to take immediate action on two urgent issues described below. Actions in Springfield threaten to take away some of the hard-won renewable energy gains of the last year, as the proposed Gov. Rauner budget calls for “sweeping” dedicated renewable energy […]
NEIS Director Dave Kraft (l.) receives award from Beyond Nuclear’s Kevin Kamps at ANA Days in Washington. CHICAGO– Local nuclear expert David A. Kraft, Director of Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS) headquartered in Chicago, received a national award from the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) and Beyond Nuclear on May 23, 2017 on Capitol Hill. […]
It’s not nearly as much ironic as it is emphatic that on the same day Exelon Corporation announced that it might close the economically unviable Three Mile Island 1 reactor in Pennsylvania, SCANA is reported to have suggested that it might only complete one of two “next-generation” reactors it had proposed for South Carolina. Add […]
“Carbon-Free/Nuclear-Free by 2040!” – or, we’re toast. NEIS was honored to march with the national Veterans for Peace as part of their national conference in Chicago, Aug. 13th. The VFP theme was: “Education! NOT Militarization!” as VFP decried in insidious infiltration of all grade levels of U.S. schools by military recruiters and ROTC programs, while […]
Fukushima Rally and Observance Two absolutely brilliant statements about the ongoing Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan are captured by Chicago media treasure CAN-TV on the 6th anniversary of the Fukushima disaster. Ten NEIS supporters staged an event outside of the Japanese Consul Office in Chicago on March 11th. NEIS President Gail Snyder, and Professor Emeritus […]
Today’s Chicagoland press accounts of the arrest of two alleged ISIS supporters — Yusuf Abdulhaqq and Schimento – aka Abdul Wali – show the pair holding the ISIS flag while standing in front of the “Welcome” sign for Illinois Beach State Park in Zion. What is perhaps most disturbing is what is NOT being reported […]
CALIFORNIA-SPECIAL WILDFIRE EPISODE of the
Nuclear Hotseat Show-a must listen to and timely episode.
NUCLEAR FIRE – WOOLSEY’S NUKE ORIGINS SPECIAL:
Denise Duffield, Administrator of Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles, Director of its Nuclear Threats program, and leader of PSR-LA’s efforts to ensure a proper cleanup of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory.
PSR-LA’s press releases on the Woolsey Fire and nuclear connection.
Melissa Bumstead is a longtime resident of the SSFL area who currently lives only five miles away. She is a member of the SSFLaboratory Work Group and admin of the Facebook page, Parents Against Santa Susana Field Lab Nuclear Disaster.
PETITION: No More Kids with Cancer: Clean Up the Santa Susana Field Lab
We are aiming at 1-million signatures; currently almost halfway there. PLEASE SIGN AND SHARE!
NEW: 4 LIES DTSC Told You About the #WoolseyFire
Donna Gilmore is the founder and head of San Onofre Safety.
Arnie Gundersen and Maggie Gundersen of Fairewinds Energy Education.
IF YOU LIVE WITHIN 25 MILES OF THE SANTA SUSANA FIELD LAB – Learn more about how to get the dust in your house tested for radiation and “hot particles” by sending an email to: info@FairewindsEnergy.org.
SAFECAST – Woolsey Fire radiation report
Video-
Future Energy Jobs Act’s Nuclear Bailout
We’re here today to discuss a rarely talked about reason why your electric bill is higher than it should be. The Exelon nuclear power bailout that is found in the Future Energy Jobs Act, also known as FEJA.
I’m Dave Kraft, Director of Nuclear Energy Information Service in Chicago, (NEIS). We were one of a handful of environmental organizations that strongly opposed the Exelon nuclear bailouts for a period of four years from 2013 to 2016
So what is the history of FEJA?
In 2016 legislation was passed that lead to a large job creating expansion of renewable energy and energy efficiency in Illinois but it came at a price and that price was in exchange for a 2.3 Billion dollar bailout for three money losing Exelon reactors in Illinois. This was the greatest legislated transfer of wealth from Illinois rate payers to Exelon shareholders in history.
How did this happen?
In late 2013 Exelon announced that as many as 5 of its reactors in Illinois were losing money and that they would have close unless they receive some sort of rate relief from somewhere. This of course got the workers to put pressure on their local Mayors of the communities around the reactors who then put pressure on their legislators to do down to Springfield and do something to save the jobs and save the reactors. This panic peddling is what lead to the legislative ‘sausage’ that resulted with FEJA where everybody got something but to be sure that Exelon got everything it wanted, a 2.3 Billion dollar bailout.
What we have found over time though is that with FEJA nuclear power is just as invisible as the radiation that it produces. While everyone is quick to talk about the positive benefits and they’re undeniable in terms of energy efficiency and renewables no one is discussing the negative impacts and the cost that FEJA has cost by nuclear power. Let’s go through some of these. The Exelon bailout is going to cause rate payers 2.3 Billion dollars over a 10 year period and the interesting thing about that is that Exelon originally only wanted a 5 year period but again the legislative ‘sausage’ making with Governor Rauner and with Speaker Madigan resulted in a 10 year extension of this bailout. This created something called a ZES, which stands for a Zero Emission Standard. You will find this on your electric bill and you will find that the cost of this ZES program is many times greater than the cost of the three other environmental programs mentioned in the same portion of your electric bill. The other thing is that nuclear bailouts seem to represent a new business model for Exelon Corporation and for other nuclear utilities around the country. A Craines’ business report indicated that of the 2017 revenue increases that were noted by Exelon 38 cents per share out of the 41 cents per share increase where attributable to the bailout. So this is a new business model for Exelon Corporation.
In addition this ten year operation for reactors that should have closed at Quad Cities and Clinton (Illinois), are going to result in the creation in an additional 1,000 tons of high level radioactive waste added to the already 10,000 tons that Illinois has and all of this waste has no place to go so this is waste that shouldn’t have been produced but will be because of FEJA. That leads to very important point and that Nuclear Power is not clean and it is not clean because of the waste that it produces.
Now one of the things we didn’t get from FEJA is very important it’s called “Just Transitions” and Just Transitions is a program which anticipates that reactors will close and that the communities have to prepare for that by putting aside money for job creation to protect essential public services when the tax base is reduced. NEIS had supported that program as did a few other environmental groups but this did not appear in the FEJA legislation so this is a very important omission on the part of FEJA that may come back to haunt us when Exelon comes back for more bailouts in the future and what about that future. In our next video we are going to talk about how FEJA in Illinois has spawned an epidemic of nuclear bailouts around the country, not just in Illlinois, we will take that up in some detail. We ask you to watch for that in the future. In the meantime, we would like you take the sage advice of the Rock group ‘The Who’ and remember that “We won’t get fooled again!”youtube.com
Please consider signing this petition.
Change.org
Melissa has been campaigning for years to clean up the Santa Susana Field Lab, the former nuclear testing site where the Woolsey Fire reportedly started. She believes that living close to the site is what caused her daughter and 50+ other children to develop cancer, and is concerned that smoke coming from the site today could contain dangerous radioactive chemicals.
Join her campaign to get the Santa Susana Field Lab cleaned up once and for all: change.org/SantaSusana.
We agree with Beyond Nuclear, old nuclear energy facilities should not get bailouts. Risks of nuclear accidents and the burden of nuclear waste create a nuclear footprint that is larger and longer lasting than any other source of energy.
The Union of Concerned Scientists suggests in its new report that US reactors ranked in Category 1 for "safety" by the (lapdog) Nuclear Regulatory Commission should be included in a National Low-Carbon Electricity Standard -- effectively a bailout. And yet in the organization's own 2017 report it exposed the lamentable safety culture at NRC. Indeed, in 2002, when the Davis-Besse (OH) reactor was, by scientific accounts, two months from a meltdown, it remained in Category One, even though the NRC knew of its perilous condition. Beyond Nuclear's Paul Gunter argues on Beyond Nuclear International this week, that the new UCS report "relies on a critical supposition, shown to be to unfounded, that the NRC exercises sufficient due diligence in actually assessing safety at US nuclear plants." No reactors should get subsidies, because in fact these hinder renewable energy development and progress on climate change. beyondnuclearinternational.org/2018/11/11/appalling-safety-culture-should-eliminate-nuclear-power...