Duke Energy deception worsens regarding new plant’s emissions
By Jim Warren
Executive Director, NC Waste Awareness & Reduction Network (WARN)
We call on all news media and public officials to exercise the utmost scrutiny of continuing claims by Duke Energy and state officials about the costs and benefits of the Cliffside coal-fired power plant. NC WARN stands behind our initial analysis, and Jan. 29 statement that the state has colluded with Duke to mislead the public about key facts involving the plant.
Furthermore, the deception has worsened since then, particularly in paid Duke Energy ads and statements made to the press following the Feb. 8 court ruling on mercury. We do not make these charges lightly. Today NC WARN is publicizing three items showing the months-long deception that has misled many North Carolinians into thinking that building a huge, polluting greenhouse gas machine could somehow, as CEO Jim Rogers says, be “good for the environment.”
To those of you who do not know me very well, my daughters are on their HS debate team. HS Debate is wonderful because it makes students look at both sides (pro/con) of an issue. As a parent who values what debate has to offer including development of critical thinking skills in-lieu of blind faith, I actively support my daughters and the debate team with my participation as a parent/volunteer judge. I usually judge the Lincoln-Douglas (LD) or Public Forum Debates (PFD). This weekend I was judging PFD and the resolution for debate was “Russia is a threat to United States interests”. Two student teams are randomly selected (by coin toss) to argue the PRO or the CON side of the issue. After hearing several rounds (this week and prior debates), I was bothered by a recurring argument for those who argued in favor (PRO) of the resolution. Their argument was:
Russia is a threat to U.S. interests because Russia has threatened to aim their missiles at proposed U.S. missile defense installations in Eastern Europe which will be installed only for defensive purposes.
The name “Missile Defense,” like many of the Bush Administration initiatives (“Patriot Act” and “Clear Skies Initiative”) is an oxymoron for the following reason:
Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) is the unwritten policy whereby those countries (US, Russia, China) that possess long-range missiles armed with nuclear warheads co-exist in peace. It is very unlikely that a country will initiate a nuclear war with another country that is capable of retaliating with nuclear weapons. In other words, the US won’t launch a nuclear strike against Russia (and visa-versa) because we know that Russia is capable of retaliating with nuclear weapons from remote locations. There is little incentive to wage nuclear war if the likely outcome is mutual/self annihilation. Consequently, the MAD policy apparently works. There have been no nuclear exchanges between countries since the U.S. dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan in 1945.
The Missile “Defense” initiative threatens to change the calculus of the MAD policy. There are many reasons why the Missile “Defense” shield may never work as advertised; however, if it does work to the satisfaction of those who control it, it would enable the United States to launch a first strike against Russia and survive because the Missile “Defense” system would hypothetically protect us against certain nuclear retaliation by Russia. Consequently, the Ronald Reagan/George W. Bush Missile “Defense” initiative accomplishes the following:
1) It disrupts the peaceful equilibrium achieved by the MAD policy;
2) Hypothetically, it would allow the US to launch a nuclear strike against Russia and survive;
3) It resurrects the Cold War between the US and Russia;
4) The response by Russia (Russian missiles aimed at US Missile “Defense” systems in eastern Europe) will foment mistrust between the US and Russia and another layer of irrational fear among an ill-informed and disengaged American electorate; and
5) Most importantly, it provides yet another reason to increase military spending (feed the military-industrial complex that REPUBLICAN President (and Army General) Dwight Eisenhower’s 1961 Farewell address warned us about:
According to NPR, President Bush’s proposed budget freezes domestic spending and increases military spending. If approved, the military budget alone will be $750,000,000,000 ($750 billion) or more than the entire military budgets of every country in the world combined. If you listen to this link to NPR, you will realise that insane military spending is a bipartisan effort. After all, who wants to be accused of being weak on defense? As a former Navy officer, I agree with General Eisenhower: strong defense? ABSOLUTELY!; self-perpetuating, self-serving out of control military-industrial complex? -NO! I predict that the insanity of out of control defense spending will eventually stop but only when the country is literally bankrupt and the real fear of spiraling inflation, unemployment, and Americans living in third world conditions displaces the irrational fear that cuts in defense spending will lead to imminent attacks by Russia, China, Castro, Hugo Chaves, North Korea, and terrorists sneaking across every border.
In a regular e-mail to his constituents, Sen. DeMint seems to be running out of dogs to whip. The Senator – who bills himself as “your conservative voice in the Senate” – introduced legislation to take $2 million in federal funding from the city of Berkeley, California, because the City Council voted for a resolution telling the Marines that its recruiting office isn’t welcome in Berkeley.
DeMint quoted council members as accusing the Marines to be “trained killers,” with a history of “death and destruction” who recruit young people with “false promises of regarding jobs, job training, education and other benefits.”
DeMint, never one to let the truth interfere with a good pander, posted this YouTube link in his newsletter.
On Jan. 4, 1848, South Carolina’s most revered statesman, John C. Calhoun, made the following remarks to Congress when he was faced with the reality that “All Mexico” might be incorporated into the United States as a result of our victory in the Mexican American War:
“[W]e have never dreamt of incorporating into our Union any but the Caucasian race—the free white race. To incorporate Mexico, would be the very first instance of the kind, of incorporating an Indian race; for more than half of the Mexicans are Indians, and the other is composed chiefly of mixed tribes. I protest against such a union as that! Ours, sir, is the Government of a white race…”
Racism was at the root of the Mexican issue in 1848 and racism is at the root of it today. Anyone who actually believes Sen. McConnell and Rep. Harrell when they tell us that “immigration is the most important issue facing South Carolina today” should suggest to them that we prosecute illegal Canadians first… and watch what happens.
Immigration is at the top of the legislative agenda this year because pinning all of our state’s ills on those who don’t have the ability to fight back has been the favorite sport of politicians in South Carolina for centuries.
McConnell and Harrell are morphing into Tillman and Blease.
Get into a mind warp and come with me down the nuclear rabbit hole on this mad ride…
On Jan. 29, after dealing with legislation allowing alligator hunting, the members of the South Carolina House Agriculture Committee got down to the business at hand of defining nuclear power as renewable energy. While there was some discussion, much of it quite confused and simply the espousal of pro-nuke positions, the bill passed by a vote of 12-5.
Now, the definition of “renewable energy resources” in South Carolina includes “nuclear energy” and the bill moves to the full House. The bill is likely to come up as early as Tuesday, Feb. 5, where it is very likely to pass and be sent to Gov. Sanford for his signature.
While it may strike you as ridiculous or impossible that this is happening, recall that many of these legislators are hard-core “conservatives” who could give a rat’s ass about reason, logic, science, public opinion, or being fiscally conservative. They might well affirm some southern stereotypes that come to mind. They are acting simply to serve the nuclear industry (Duke Energy), which has as many lobbyists down at the legislature as there are alligators down in the swamp, or road-kill possum on a country road.
Here’s the key language of the bill:
“For purposes of this chapter, ‘renewable energy resources’ means solar photovoltaic energy, solar thermal energy, wind power, hydroelectric, geothermal energy, tidal energy, recycling, hydrogen fuel derived from renewable resources, biomass energy, nuclear energy, and landfill gas.”
One thoughtful legislator commented that you could be driving down the road and see two horses in a field and say that one of them was a mule. While you could call one of the horses a mule that doesn’t change reality and make it a mule. But, hey, in South Carolina why not try to define reality as one wants it to be, or better, as Duke Energy wants it to be…? The leadership of President Bush has been a sterling example of this, after all.
The AFL-CIO has launched its largest-ever online survey to capture Americans’ real experiences with our broken health care system. Survey responses will be given to the presidential candidates, every U.S. senator and representative, every candidate for Congress and state and local officials in every state in our country. The AFL-CIO expects many thousands of responses, which will make this survey one the largest data sets available on individuals’ and families’ health care experiences. The survey is available here.
“You don’t have to look far to see how broken and expensive health care in America is,” AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said. “We are doing this survey because we want to be sure every leader in our country understands exactly what’s going on – every elected official from mayor right on up to the top, and every candidate.”
Questions cover such topics as:
* Whether Americans are going into debt because of medical bills;
* Whether they are instead skipping follow-up visits, treatments and prescriptions because they can’t afford to pay for them;
* Whether people are locked in to jobs for fear of losing health insurance;
* What Americans are paying out of pocket each year for health care.
Perhaps most importantly, the survey will invite respondents to tell their own personal stories, in as much detail as they choose.
The survey will run for one month and is open to anyone. Participants can choose to keep their responses anonymous or have them published online with their first name.
In addition to reminding candidates what voters are going through, the results influence the legislative debates about policy reform.
“No doubt, special interests like insurance and pharmaceutical companies will try to scare Americans into accepting the unacceptable system we have now,” Sweeney said. “The results of this survey will keep America on track, reminding everyone of how little there is to lose and how deeply the problems run.”
I just finished reading the only honest book ever written about South Carolina politics. I had avoided it like the plague because I had mistakenly thought since 1998 that the authors were paying homage to an aging Strom Thurmond. Boy was I wrong! Ol’ Strom by Jack Bass and Marilyn Thompson is an unvarnished expose of every politician of any importance in SC since 1876…in a single context…as they related to the life of Strom Thurmond. It is at once shocking, fascinating, embarrassing and laugh-out-loud funny as Bass and Thompson connect all the political dots of South Carolina’s last century.
I actually felt personally cleansed after reading the second half of the book…mostly because at 10:15 PM I realized that I had been sitting in the Jacuzzi for six hours riveted to this book! I highly recommend it to anyone with even a passing interest in South Carolina history or politics. It’s a great read.
Last night as I was watching President Bush’s final State of the Union address I was struck by his unwillingness to recognize the need for change in this country. War profiteering, global warming, poor health care—nothing’s changed. He promoted a weak version of earmark reform, but it’s too little, too late, and doesn’t address the real problem.
Last week 5,000 people signed a petition asking the Republican presidential candidates to support full public financing of elections like the three leading Democratic candidates.
Once we collect signatures for this petition, we’ll fax the Republican presidential candidates a letter the day before Super Tuesday, February 5th, to urge them to support full public financing of elections.
From big campaign contributions to the influence of bundlers and lobbyists, the role of campaign cash in our electoral process has gotten worse. The Republicans are pretending the problem doesn’t exist. They need to hear from people like you that you demand real change in Washington.
Let’s tell the Republican presidential candidates that Washington needs full public financing of elections.
We need to end the status quo in Washington. Thanks for your help.
I’ve been giving thanks quite a lot this election season: thanks that the field of candidates looks different from ever before; that we who are not white men can believe that our nation has a place for us in its leadership, too. And I’ve been giving thanks that the advent of this diverse slate of candidates has created just a little space in which we Americans can begin to address, on a national level, the issues of race and gender that have plagued us since our very beginnings as a country. We may not yet be good at talking about those issues, but at least now we’re trying.
Today, however, I am here to admit that my greatest measure of thankfulness has recently settled on nothing so predictable, for a black woman, as seeing Clinton and Obama’s faces plastered across every newspaper and television screen from here to Tallahassee. No, today I want to give thanks for the state of South Carolina.
That’s right, South Carolina. The first state to secede from the Union when that pesky “War of Northern Aggression” became inevitable. Hotbed of slaveholding activities as late as 1860, with 45.8 percent of all white families holding slaves – the highest rate in the nation. Home to legendary states rights leader and segregationist presidential candidate Strom Thurman. And the last place in the USA where the Confederate flag was allowed to retain its place of so-called honor, flying atop the State House dome until the year 2000 – 135 years after the abolition of slavery, in case you’re counting.
