HuffingtonPost and the Edison Electric Institute

Edison Electric Institute is a major advertiser for the HuffingtonPost. EEI is just a front for the nuclear industry...and the oil and coal industry...these are the same people who for thirty years have used every dirty trick in the book to keep energy alternatives like solar and wind from entering the marketplace...and they are still using the same slogan..."Do you know where your electricity comes from?" & "ensure that electricity is there for us when we need it" which are slogans I came up with, when I was still naive enough to trust real change was coming, when I was doing research for Solar Age and Photovoltaic International magazines in the early 80's.

I wrote the commercial these slogans came from... the PSA was to be a little kid asking: "Where does electricity come from?" and the answer was "the sun!" with 20 seconds of solar projects, as a PSA for the solar industry. I submitted the PSA pitch to NorthEast Utilities's marketing office when it was in Norwalk, Connecticut. They loved it so much they came back, and said we want to use it... Two months later, on TV, I see this ad with this little kid... and the kid says: "Where does electricity come from?" and then this hand reaches for a light switch and a paternal voice says: "Don't worry, all you need to know is that it's there when you need it!" Next day I went back to the marketing office... and as I reached the door, all the people who worked inside, ran away to hide, and wouldn't let me in.

This is the same sick puppy progenity you're dealing with here... who thirty years later, it's still the same brew, the same mentality who will talk to you green fields of dreams while cashing in their nuke paycheck... They're still using the same rethoric against the solar industry as they did in the 70's... it's still all about centralization of electrical production. They use alternatives like solar and wind in their ads, as a feel good greenwash, but if you look at their pie chart renewables are still only 3% of their total energy sources!!! Except now they call it "diversity" and use National Security as an excuse for their planetary trashing.

It's been a losing battle against the utilities for 30 years, and it's got to STOP! For every dollar they spend on reinforcing the oil, coal, nuke infrastructure, we could be gearing up mass production of solar gear, wind turbines, and battery farms... This is what the Tesla Motors company will bring us, Arnold... Earth Communications Office, Bonnie Reiss, Hollywood! This is the possible future Harvey Wasserman talks about in his new book Solartopia. This is what ALL the anti-nuclear activists and solar advocates have been talking about for years, and because the "enemy" used to have all the money, because they sell you the "electrons" and they won't let go, they're dragging us and the planet down with them. But now we have TED, and IT billionaires, who know the score, and won't sell out!

The Arianna Huffington's of this world. are just a party to it, by accepting dirty money, and if you don't speak up, so will you be. So this time, there's no quarter... we yank it away from them, and it's not going to be pretty, it's not going to be nice, it's war! It's all going to boil down to Indian Point.

HuffingtonPost refused to post my comments below to this post about Josh Dorfman's endorsement of green power in New York state.

"The whole "green energy" thing in New York is dubious, as Entergy, the company which owns the Indian Point nuclear power plant North of Manhattan on the Hudson is funding 3000Mw of wind energy in the state, through ACE-NY, in "addition" to nuclear energy, not "instead" of, as NY Governor Spitzer promised. So where could all this "green" energy possibly be coming from, since the company selling you the green energy credits, CommunityEnergy, is owned by Iberdola. In recent years Iberdrola has downplayed its connections with the nuclear industry, by referring to itself as the largest operator of renewable energy in the world, but it is a member of a consortium, which won the contract to expand and modernize Mexico's only nuclear plant at Laguna Verde. In its favor, Iberdrola recently bought out ScottishPower's renewable energy division, while casting ScottishNuclear aside, since renamed British Energy. We are not certain yet if Iberdrola's purchase of ScottishPower means the utility will or will not join other UK utilities in lobbying for a nuclear renaissance."

So from now HuffingtonPost is on my s*** list.

Paul Newman's Own Nuclear Reactor Safety Salsa

So, last week Paul Newman ran around Indian Point shaking hands, with Steet's nose doing the two cheek fork tongue, and left the facility ready to endorse it, and its security for another 20 years of operation. It was obvious that the doddering fool in this scenario had not done his homework on the facility, or their safety/security record...but then, he is Paul Newman of the blue eyes and faded glory.

Be interesting to know what Paul Newman thought of Entergy's Indian Point sending the REAL McCoy software up to Mass this week, instead of the sample software, so that when it was tested, the four counties surrounding Indian Point, and their emergency planning people started receiving faxes that an incident was occurring at the facility sitting on the Hudson! Neil Sheehan of the NRC, and Steets of Entergy Brown Nose fame were quick to say it was and inadvertent mistake, and the situation was rectified very soon after it happened...OH REALLY?

1. Entergy at first HAD NO CLUE, immediately contacting the State Police to find out who had HACKED INTO THEIR COMPUTER SYSTEM...ignoring the obvious (they forked up big time), they have basically admitted that a computer hacker can get into their system.

2. They sent a viable usable set of software to another reactor site...curious, was it MAILED, and if so standard first class mail? Not very prudent...what if it had been intercepted.

3. What if the Emergency Planners had taken the faxes as the real deal? Sirens sounding, people freaking out, a mass exit of four counties under way before someone called a time out. Also, look at the reverse...what if those faxes had been real, and while they were second guessing people were breathing in radioactive particulates?

So, we have Entergy playing games with safety by claiming that reactor 2 did not go into shut down, but is operating smoothly at 2 percent...all to avoid a White rating, and the NRC with a wink and a nod giving Indian Point a thumbs up on the shrewd move to avoid another unplanned shut down. We have the siren issues with the company promising us a working emergency siren system some time in August...isn't that special. There is the tritium leak into the Buchanan sewer system, and then that small problem with the explosion! We could go on, but think most of us get the picture.

To help Paul Newman get the picture, Remy Chevalier of Rock the Reactors paid a little visit to Paul Newman's organic eatery in Westport, the Dressing Room...never been there, but is the motif pink? "Another Environmentalist for Nuclear Power" bumper sticker, a flyer for Green Nuclear Butterfly and copy of Remy's latest documentary, Toaster 66, about electric car rapid chargers all along the old Route 66, so tourists can travel the old mother road without the $1000 gasoline bill for the trip were left for Paul.

Remy and Paul Newman have been adversaries for quite some time. In the late 70's, Remy fought Mr. Newman and his now retired local attorney Leo Nevas in the hope of establishing a park on Gorham Island, the once charming island in the middle of the river, downtown Westport. Remy's effort failed to prevent Mr. Nevas from building a three story office building. It would seem as if the old rivals are at it again. Remy can't understand how a seemingly intelligent man who would open an organic restaurant, could also advocate the relicensing of an old, dirty, decrepit, dangerous nuclear power plant that is leaking tritium and strontium into the Hudson River.

Maybe next time Paul is in Peekskill to sing the praises of Indian Point, he'll contact the Green Nuclear Butterfly so that we can sit down together and enlighten him to the truth he so far refuses to see...OK, maybe too harsh...sure at his age he does not see as well as he used too.

Another Degradated Part Forces Reactor 2 at Indian Point to Shut Down

OH MY GOD...another significant break down at Indian Point due to rusted, corroded, degradated, failing part, and of course the memorized public relations release that we were never in any danger, and no radioactive materials were released into the public...let's study that last line a minute. No radioactive materials released into the public domain. Could Entergy spokesperson's STEETS clarify that line a bit? Were any radioactive particulates released ON THE SITE, inside the building where the machinery is located? A radioactive release, even if only on site exposes WORKERS to additional radioactive exposure risks. Stop playing games Entergy, and tell the truth, instead of putting out pablum.

Indian Point 2 shut down because of problems with steam generator
By GREG CLARY
THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original publication: May 29, 2007)

BUCHANAN - Indian Point officials hope to have Indian Point 2 back on line by this weekend after the 1,000-megawatt nuclear plant had to be shut down on Memorial Day due to problems with a regulating valve.

The valve is on the system that feeds water to one of the four generators that produce steam. The steam turns a turbine, which creates electricity.

The problem, which happened on the non-nuclear side of the Indian Point 2 plant, showed up about 5:30 a.m. yesterday and workers started reducing the plant's production of electricity to 20 percent. At that level, the valve could be removed without shutting down the plant because of backup valves that operate only at the lower levels.

Workers determined that the valve couldn't be fixed while Indian Point 2 was operating, so they safely shut it down at 3:45 p.m., according to officials from Entergy Nuclear Northeast, which owns and operates Indian Point. The second working reactor at the Buchanan site, Indian Point 3, was unaffected and continues to run at 100 percent.

There was no release of radioactivity to the environment, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and local public officials were notified of the shut-down, Entergy officials said.

Check back for updates at LoHud.com and read more about this story tomorrow in The Journal News.

Cindy Sheehan Quits Anti-War Movement

At first blush, many might think this headline has nothing to do with the anti-nuclear movement but in some ways, it has EVERYTHING to do with it, when you look at her reasons for quitting, look at why she's hanging up her shoes, and heading home to put her life back together after two years in the fight. Yesterday, I touched on the apathy of the anti-nuclear movement, have on various occassions touched on the fact that some of the old-timers are so entrenched in their own egos that we get NOWHERE. In her fairwell letter, Cindy Sheehan touches on the reality that more people care about who will become the next idol than care about how many more of our troops will die in the next few months while the Democrats (John Hall) we sent to Washington to end that war play political games.

In short, the Democrats have betrayed us every bit as much as the Republicans they replaced did while they were in office...there are just as many fact finding missions going on, and every time they do not want to face the wraith back in their home districts, the politicans are taking trips on our dime. They are betraying us with an Amnesty for 12-15 million illegals, they have sold us and the soldiers down the river by caving into the White House, and people like John Hall, Maurice Hinchey, Nita Lowey, Senator Shumer, and presidential hopeful Hilliary Clinton are selling us down the river on Indian Point...they are giving us nothing but LIP SERVICE on the ISA, and to prove it, go look the bills up, see how many co-signers their bills have, and what their status is. Both John Hall and Hilliary's Clinton show the same lack of forward momentum as their predecessors saw, because the politicians have SOLD US OUT...where is John Hall at on this issue, where was he PERSONALLY when we had the huge OPEN HOUSE back in April?

Cindy Sheehan is suffering the same burn out and frustration that most grassroots activist suffer after awhile...they give the movement all they have, and eventually, their head bruised and bloody from beating it up against the wall, they fade away disillussioned and tired.

How many folks talk privately about their disillussionment with the anti Indian Point movement, but will not cause waves publically, because they do not want to rock the boat, or destroy the unity within the movement...what good is that unity when NOTHING is being accomplished? A few of us individually, and/or as a group will file as intervenors, a few of us will file Petitions for Rulemaking in the hopes of effecting some small changes, but with the apathy out among the general members of the public, with IPSEC struggling to find consensus, and both Riverkeeper and Clearwater refusing to come out fully and completely against nuclear as it would be bad for fund raising, Indian Point is going to be relicensed, and that is fact.

Ask yourselves, do you want HIlliary Clinton spending all her time running for president, and raising money, or do you want her to start acting like OUR SENATOR? Do you want John Hall to worry about raising money, and trying to get re-elected, or do you want him to keep the various promises he made to us when we sent him to Washington? If you are going to throw your money and volunteer efforts behind Riverkeeper and Clearwater, don't you think it's time they actually laid out PUBLICALLY a cohesive plan of attack to stop the wrongful relicensing of Indian Point, rather than lamely tell us they are working with politicians to get and ISA...hello, that strategy is a dead pony. People like Mannajo need to check their egos at the door, and start letting some of the ideas forwarded by the new upstarts through. Further, if Riverkeeper and Clearwater are stopping IPSEC from reaching consensus, then perhaps it is time for those two organizations to LEAVE IPSEC so they can become and effective tool against Indian Point relicensing.

Closing Indian Point is going to take more than handing out pens, bumper stickers and match books at a yearly festival, and the time to become active is rapidly vanishing away into the ethers.

Updated:2007-05-29 04:39:45
Anti-War Mom Gives Up on Peace Movement

CNN For full article click here:

Sheehan achieved national attention when she camped outside President Bush 's home in Crawford, Texas, throughout August 2005 to demand a meeting with the president over her son's death.

While Bush ignored her, the vigil made her one of the most prominent figures among opponents of the war.

But in a Web diary posted to the liberal online community Daily Kos on Monday, Sheehan said she was exhausted by the personal, financial and emotional toll of the past two years.

She wrote that she is disillusioned by the failure of Democratic politicians to bring the unpopular war to an end and tired of a peace movement she said "often puts personal egos above peace and human life."

Casey Sheehan, a 24-year-old Army specialist, was killed in an April 2004 battle in Baghdad . His death prompted his mother to found Gold Star Families for Peace.

But in Monday's 1,200-word letter, titled, "Good Riddance Attention Whore," Sheehan announced that her son "did indeed die for nothing."

"I have tried every since he died to make his sacrifice meaningful," she wrote. "Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives."

300 Articles, and Five Months of Publication...Important Milestones for GNB

On December 26th, Green Nuclear Butterfly was launched, which means this past Saturday saw us up and running for five full months, and with this post, we reach the important milestone of 300 articles. With summer officially upon us, Indian Point's license renewal application process is about to get into full swing, as we are expecting the NRC to announce before the end of June that they have officially given the application a green light to move forward...which will leave us only 20-28 months to stop Indian Point from operating for another 20 years.

Chances are it is going to be a lot closer to 20 months than 28, since the NRC informed Green Nuclear Butterfly via first class mail this past Friday that they would not entertain our request for an extension of time...like that is a big surprised from a biased and prejudice regulatory agency.

So, where are we? A group of us were/are working on putting together a Petition For Rule Making program for the Clearwater Festival...question becomes, will Mannajo and a few others kill the idea because it was thought up by GNB, rather than Mannajo, or Lisa Rainwater over at Riverkeeper. We should have the answer to that question next week. OUCH, there goes Green Nuclear Butterfly again, attacking revered and honored environmental groups. Well, maybe if they actually TOOK A STAND, instead of riding the fence in the name of CORPORATE donations.

I've read the application...it's ugly. The environmental report is a mockery, and so far every document/petition/complaint being filed with the NRC they are side stepping. Meanwhile, people (there are 21 million of us living within 50 miles of Indian Point, more than half of those within 25 miles of the plant) seem far more interested in the latest antics of Paris Hilton. Al Gore was speaking on this very point on the "Daily Show" last week. The line between real news, and entertainment has been blurred to the point where most people don't really care about important issues, as they have been programmed to believe it's the niggling minute that they should worry themselves over...Donald and Rosie's TV antics, and their on going hate relationship far more news worthy than tritium leaking from a reactor.

So, Green Nuclear Butterfly is curious to hear from our readers...what are your ideas, or plans to close down Indian Point...do you even care what happens with Indian Point. Let us know. A movement of less than ten people is no movement at all, and far too many in the Green community seem unwilling to get involved in Nuclear, as nuclear is spreading far to much money around to buy them off.

Dick Cheney Protest at West Point

Several hundred people came out Saturday, May 26, 2007 to protest Dick Cheney at West Point, who spoke to a crowd of about 20,000.

Protesters argued they should be allowed on academy grounds to present opposition to Cheney's pro-war views were denied access by federal judges on Friday. They rallied instead in the village of Highland Falls outside a gate to the post.

WESPAC paid $400 for a shuttle bus to take people from the Peeksill Train Station to the rally site but they only collected half of what it cost them.

For those of you who are able to, you are welcome to make an online contribution at http://www.wespac.org to help cover the cost of the bus.

Contributions of $10, $20 or more are all welcome. Checks in the mail made payable to WESPAC Foundation are also welcome, sent to WESPAC Foundation, PO Box 488, White Plains, NY 10602.

Here is a short clip of the march:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=DzSCHLuz9VM

See the whole enchilada - 3 hours 33 minutes 43 seconds of raw video. It's a long download, but streams well.
http://www.regionalroundup.org/video/052607westpoint.wmv

Thank you very much to Chuck Bell, Ceil Lavan, Nick Mottern, Dennis Hanratty and to all who worked hard to make this happen.

Nada Khader
Executive Director
WESPAC Foundation
http://www.wespac.org
914 682-4690

Memorial Day Monday Wrap Up

As is the norm, I've had a fabulous Memorial Day weekend spent with friends (old and new) as we all ate and drank too much, and talked into the wee hours of the morning. These people were college educated intellectuals, in short well informed members of society...what was surprising to me, was the lack of knowledge, and in too many cases concern for all things of a nuclear issue, and specifically Indian Point. One person actually (and seriously) quipped, "Indian Point, you mean that old relic is still around, I thought it was closed years ago." Another was convinced I was wrong, because he'd heard Patrick Moore state otherwise, and who was I to question Patrick Moore. This man got rather upset when I pointed out that Patrick Moore was a corporate shill earning $15,000 a speaking engagement, and accused me of just trying to make him look bad...uhhh, excuse me, but Mr. Moore does a fine job of that all by himself.

So, where is the disconnect? If the public is dumb to the issue, we have little chance of mobilizing them for a fight to shut down the plant, and without massive public outcry, the battle is doomed before it ever starts. How can people who spent hours picking out the perfect vegan bottle of wine, who will only let all natural fibers touch their sun blocked perfect skin be so ill informed about a 40 year old reactor (almost) that is dumping tritium and strontium 90 into their drinking water supplies, and the Hudson River...have we reached a point where the environment is only a fun issue if it involves shopping? Are environmental issues only important if you don't have to work at them, only worth pursuit if you can run a success PR and fund raising campaign around them?

My wife and I seriously discussed selling our house this weekend...it's too big for us, and we saw a beautiful small apartment in a gated community right on the water with a view of the Statue of Liberty at a price we could afford. Maybe Entergy will buy this place and turn it into a public shelter, or some absentee landlord will snap it up, and fill it up with 30 or more illegals. Continue to fight the good fight, but do it from a distance. Staten Island is outside the area of death known as the ten mile evacuation zone, and besides, the shopping there is far better than the pickings we have around here.

This past week, got two letters from the NRC, and one from the DOE, and it is obvious all the federal agencies are in on the fix to relicense these aging nuclear facilities in the name of a new energy policy, a Nuclear Renaissance in the name of a false promise of a Hydrogen Economy with nuclear reactors said economy's birth mother...what I find sad, is that the masses accept this rhetoric on blind faith, when the least little bit of research would show it for the lie that it is.

The BIG Clearwater Festival is coming up in June...what we know from the IPSEC list, is that CAN spent $700 dollars in ink pens, bumper stickers, and matchbooks...is that the best we can do in this fight? MoveOn.org can raise a million dollars in a day, mobilize millions of people for some cause, but where are they in this fight? 50 communities across America have already been ordered to continue hosting aging reactors, and because most people want CHEAP electric, are not willing to conserve or sacrifice for something more important than their cappuchino machine, it's OK to keep producing nuclear electricity until the next Chernobyl