Category Archives: Government

EPA raising radiation limits? Comment period still open

Should we worry about those radioactive tuna off California? Should we raise radiation limits like EPA is proposing?

J. D. Heyes wrote for NaturalNews 30 May 2012, Fukushima radiation now detected in the U.S. food supply,

“I wouldn’t tell anyone what’s safe to eat or what’s not safe to eat,” Madigan told Reuters. “It’s become clear that some people feel that any amount of radioactivity, in their minds, is bad and they’d like to avoid it. But compared to what’s there naturally […] and what’s established as safety limits, it’s not a large amount at all.”

PR from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility 8 April 2013, WHITE HOUSE APPROVES RADICAL RADIATION CLEANUP ROLLBACK: Civilian Cancer Deaths Expected to Skyrocket Following Radiological Incidents,

The White House has given final approval for dramatically raising permissible radioactive levels in drinking water and soil following “radiological incidents,” such as nuclear power-plant accidents and dirty bombs. The final version, slated for Federal Register publication as soon as today, is a win for the nuclear industry which seeks Continue reading →

Southern Company backed off on cost overrun request

Fitch reaffirmed SO’s and Georgia Power’s (and Mississippi Power’s) ratings today after Southern Company backed off a week ago from risking losing the larger cost overrun request to GA PSC. Beware: SO will be back, when maybe fewer people are looking. Or maybe that tiger team will issue its summer report and the titanic Southern Company ship will finally change course towards distributed solar and wind power.

Jonathan Shapiro wrote for AP 31 July 2013, AP: Georgia Power To Waive Request for Extra Vogtle Costs

[Southern Company] CEO Thomas Fanning told analysts Wednesday that the Atlanta-based company reached a preliminary deal with Georgia officials.

Under the plan, the company would only seek right now to collect the $209 million that it spent building the two new reactors at Plant Vogtle from July to December.

The company would waive Continue reading →

News media finally reporting Fukushima leaking radioactive water into ocean

It’s not just a storage tank, either; radioactive water has been leaking for more than two years, from the broken reactor buildings into groundwater and the Pacific Ocean. It’s not just a local Japanese problem: Fukushima is here.

The cautious version, by Antoni Slodkowski and Mari Saito, Reuters, today, Radioactive water seeping into Pacific from Fukushima is ’emergency,’ official says,

Highly radioactive water seeping into the ocean from Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is creating an “emergency” that the operator is struggling to contain, an official from the country’s nuclear watchdog said Monday.

This contaminated groundwater has breached an underground barrier, is rising toward the surface and is exceeding legal limits of radioactive discharge, Shinji Kinjo, head of a Nuclear Regulatory Authority task force, told Reuters.

Countermeasures planned by Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) are only a temporary solution, he said.

VOA News, also today, admits leaks have been going on for more than two years and nobody knows how to stop them, Fukushima Operator Under Fire for Radioactive Leaks,

Rianne Teule, a nuclear campaigner for Greenpeace International, says the issue is a serious environmental concern.

“Most of all it proves TEPCO is incapable of dealing with this situation and that the Japanese authorities should really step in and ensure that proper action is taken to stop the leaks,” said Teule.

But it is not clear what other actions TEPCO could take at this point. Former Nuclear power plant designer Masashi Goto worked on several projects with TEPCO.

“The situation is already beyond what Tepco can handle,” said Goto. “If Continue reading →

The Korean nuclear mafia: power companies, vendors, and testers

Document-forging Doosan was just the tip of the Korean nuclear corruption iceberg.

It’s different stateside, right? San Onofre 2 and 3 Oh, wait: U.S. NRC is refusing to supply Congress with safety documents related to the closing of San Onofre. But Plant Vogtle is much safer, right? Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning told us so. Of course, he also told us Kemper Coal would come in on budget, and now SO is writing off $611 million after taxes. But that bad concrete pour, the misplaced reactor vessel, the leaking tritium; those are all flukes, right? Meanwhile, solar panels don’t leak tritium, and if you misplace one, you only lose money, not risk lives.

By Choe Sang-Hun in NY Times yesterday, Scandal in South Korea Over Nuclear Revelations,

Korean nuclear reactor Weeks of revelations about the close ties between South Korea’s nuclear power companies, their suppliers and testing companies have led the prime minister to liken the industry to a mafia.

The scandal started after an anonymous tip in April prompted an official investigation. Prosecutors have indicted some officials at a testing company on charges of faking safety tests on parts for the plants. Some officials at the state-financed company that designs nuclear power plants were also indicted on charges of taking bribes from testing company officials in return for accepting those substandard parts.

Worse yet, Continue reading →

The Economist answers Paul Bowers about carbon tax

Back in May someone asked Georgia Power CEO Paul Bowers what he thought about a carbon tax, and he answered, “Why would anyone want that?” The Economist answered his question, 29 June 2013, Tepid, timid: The world will one day adopt a carbon tax—but only after exhausting all the alternatives,

Winston Churchill famously said America would always do the right thing after exhausting the alternatives. The right thing in climate You can always count on Americans to do the right thing, after they ve tried everything else. --Winston Churchill policy for all the big countries is a carbon tax, which is simpler and less vulnerable to fluctuations in emissions than cap-and-trade schemes. For years, such a tax has been a non-starter politically. But as the alternatives are tested to destruction, it deserves to be looked at again. Current environmental policies will not keep the rise in global temperatures to below 2°C—the maximum that most climate scientists think safe. A carbon tax, if stiff enough, could. Big polluters should assume that such a tax will one day arrive, and start planning for it now.

Dear Paul Bowers,

Stop being tepid and timid. Go beyond Continue reading →

Planning Commission considers huge subdivision near Moody AFB @ GLPC 2013-07-29

Remember last year when the Chamber helped mobilize opposition to a subdivision outside Moody’s front gate and won? Well, here’s another, and it’s not 23.49 acres this time, it’s 123.45 acres even closer to the runways, and from MAZ-I to P-D. Plus a proposed 64.92 acre development on (apparently 4958) Val Del Road for “Moody Family”. That’s always the excuse, isn’t it? More houses for Moody, nevermind whether Moody wants or needs them. With all the vacant houses already in the county, we don’t need them.

Here’s the agenda:

Greater Lowndes Planning Commission


Lowndes County City of Valdosta City of Dasher City of Hahira City of Lake Park

REGULAR MONTHLY MEETING

AGENDA

Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office
325 West Savannah Avenue
Tuesday, July 29, 2013* 5:30 P.M. * Public Hearing
Continue reading →

SPLOST VII slides on county website @ LCC 2013-07-22

The slides for the SPLOST VII presentation have appeared on the county’s website; here’s a link, with the text from that website. Videos are to come from last night’s Regular Session SPLOST VII Presentation. Meanwhile you can see video from Monday morning’s Work Session, in which they actually said more. Nothing seems to be in the VDT about this today, which is odd, since I’m pretty sure that’s the VDT reporter in the left foreground of this picture from last night. -jsq

What is Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST)?

As of July 1, 1985, Georgia law enabled local governments to collect SPLOST proceeds for capital improvement projects that would otherwise be paid for with General Fund or property tax dollars. SPLOST stands for Continue reading →

Idelle Dear thanks Commission for library funding improvements @ LCC 2013-07-2223

Idelle Dear handed the Commission a thank-you card on behalf of library users for providing additional funding that reduced furlough days. She tried to speak at the meeting two weeks ago, but the Chairman stopped her then on a technicality.

Ms. Dear reminded the Commission that she did speak to them at the beginning of the year, and she appreciated the card she got from the Chairman after that. She appreciated even more that the number of furlough days had been reduced, since, as she explained again this time, people use the library for everything from job hunting to course assignments.

Idelle Dear begins Idelle Dear Card

Here’s the video:

Continue reading →

Community Assessment Group and Internet access @ LCC 2013-07-22

Valdosta Mayor Gayle was standing next to the video ghetto after the county’s rather rudimentary SPLOST VII presentation Monday morning, so I asked him why I hadn’t seen anything about Internet access either Valdosta’s or Lowndes County’s SPLOST lists? He said that was because it was being handled by the Community Assessment Group (CAG). What’s that?

Mayor Gayle said CAG is a group of representatives from the county and all the local cities, the two school districts (Valdosta and Lowndes County), VSU, Wiregrass Tech, the Industrial Authority, the Chamber, and he may have said others. It’s an attempt at better local cooperation, specifically about issues that cross all the various local governmental and non-governmental groups. So far they’ve had two meetings, Continue reading →

Valdosta and Army Corps of Engineers in Flood Risk Management Study

First public update since May: Valdosta has had several recent meetings with other governmental groups and has agreed to co-fund a flooding study by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

WCTV has also picked up Valdosta PR 23 July 2013, City Enters Agreement with USACE for Flood Risk Management Study,

The City of Valdosta hosted a Regional Flood Preparedness meeting with the Georgia Silver Jackets on June 25—a continuation of discussions that began earlier in the year focused on regional interests and on maximizing area resources.

Representatives from the cities of Moultrie, Sylvester, Tifton and Valdosta and from the counties of Lowndes and Turner attended the meeting to discuss current and future flood monitoring and forecasting issues throughout the Little River and Withlacoochee River watersheds. These two watersheds are part of the overall Suwannee Basin that is approximately 10,000 square miles in Georgia and Florida.

Among other information shared, Continue reading →