NEI's (Nuclear Energy Institute) Eric McErlain Is A Hockey Fan?

Attention Anti Nuclear Bloggers...seems that NEI Blogs blogger and chief also writes for AOL's NHL Fanhouse. I'd suggest you all run over and give him a WARM WELCOME. So you can get a style for his writing style and hockey knowledge, have posted one of his articles with my reply to him here for your amusement.

Yashin on a Rocket to Russia

Posted Jul 20th 2007 1:44PM by Eric McErlain
Filed under: General NHL, Islanders, Eastern

Apparently not satisfied with a number of low-ball offers to stay in the NHL, several outlets are reporting that center and former New York Islanders captain Alexei Yashin is leaving North America to sign a one-year contract to play for Locomotiv in the Russian Super League. Financial terms were not disclosed.

It's been a tough few months for Yashin. Even before the Islanders bought him out of his absurd contract following the end of the season, they more or less made it clear that he'd be stripped of the captaincy in order to convince free agent Ryan Smyth to stay on Long Island.

Then came having to suffer the indignity of having Isles GM Garth Snow give Yashin a vote of confidence, rapidly followed by the actual buyout, one that implicitly laid the blame for the team's woes over the past few seasons on Yashin's doorstep.

Then again, I'm not sure what sort of reception Yashin and his agents thought he would get. With $4 million per year already in his pocket from his Islanders buyout, what team in the world would be looking to overpay for a center entering his mid-30s after several years of declining production and a well-established reputation for soft play?

Still, one burning question remains before Yashin abandons his mansion on Long Island: Is he taking Carol Alt back to Russia with him? The aging investment bankers of Manhattan would like to know.

Thanks to Paul Kukla for the initial report.

Royce Penstinger's Reply/Comment:

1. Gee Eric, imagine my surprise finding you here on AOL's NHL Fanhouse. Had no idea that such a rabid Pro Nuclear hack drawing a paycheck from the nuclear lobbyist over at NEI(Nuclear Energy Institute)would also have and interest in what Alexei Yashin of the New York Islanders was/is up too. Tell me, do you think he supports Entergy's failing Indian Point nuclear reactors that are leaking tritium and strontium 90 into the Hudson River remaining open? Is he supportive of this trouble plagued plant being relicensed for 20 more years? Do you think there is a chance New York's close proximity to Indian Point is playing a part in his decision to jump to the Russian Super Leaque?

NEI's Eric McErlain Should EAT His Blathering Words

Eric McErlain from the Pro-Nuclear Blog heavily supported by NEI (Nuclear Energy Institute) was quick last week to spew forth falsehoods and half truths in a feeble attempt to mitigate the Three Mile Island like reactor incident in Japan. In one of his repugnant and ill-informed posts he went on the attack against both myself, and the Daily Kos. Apparently in Eric's radioactively clogged thoughts, the Green Nuclear Butterfly was/is hysterical, and the Daily Kos egregious in the way we have been presenting the TEPCO reactor accident. I decided to respond to the simpletons over on the NEI Blog here, since most times they opt to keep my replys over there from ever seeing the light of day...think some would call that CENSORSHIP?

Anyway, to hear Eric telling it, the TEPCO accident, and the various and assorted leaks at the nuclear facility were/are no big deal. The United States Congress this year approved a budget for the NRC of under One Billion dollars...the Neikei News today estimates costs to TEPCO in recovering from this accident will EXCEED $1.7 Billion dollars by next March. Will be interesting to see what kind of a spin he trys to put on that fact in the NEI blog. Even more interesting will be watching him try to claim that the TEPCO events are not having a very negative effect on his beloved hopes for a Nuclear Renaissance.

By the way, NEI's new web presence is pretty pathetic considering all the money they have, and even worse...they have made a huge cache of the documents available on their old site dissappear. Since Eric is a highly PAID blogger for NEI, one would hope he had nothing to do with the design and presentation of NEI's pathetic new web presentation...if on the other hand he did, maybe AOL and the NHL should take a closer look at who presents their image to the general public over at the NHL Fanhouse. Of course, it is nice to know that being PRO NUCLEAR is really nothing more than a pay check to Eric...wonder how many other lackey's making a Pro-Nuclear pitch are just like him?

Eric McErlain’s Experience

Lead Blogger, NHL Fanhouse
AOL Sports
(Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; Sports industry)
March 2007 — Present (5 months)
Lead blogger on a team of six writers contributing NHL coverage to the AOL Fanhouse, the Web's most popular sports blog in terms of traffic. Personally recruited team members and coordinate coverage with editors at AOL Sports. Also produce handheld video segments for Fanhouse TV.

Program Manager, Web Communications
Nuclear Energy Institute
(Non-Profit; 51-200 employees; Think Tanks industry)
April 2006 — Present (1 year 4 months)
Responsible for content management across all of NEI's Web properties including public Web site, member Web site and the Blog, NEI Nuclear Notes. Currently re-designing public site, with member site re-design and migration on tap for 2007. Also head NEI's online outreach activities via Blogs and Podcasts. Been teaching the Nuclear Energy industry how to blog since 2005.

NHL Columnist
NBC Sports.com
(Public Company; Myself Only; Online Media industry)
October 2006 — June 2007 (9 months)
Write weekly column on the NHL from the perspective of the online community.

Senior Writer
Nuclear Energy Institute
(Public Relations and Communications industry)
June 2004 — April 2006 (1 year 11 months)

Manager, Executive Communications
GXS
(Privately Held; 501-1000 employees; Computer Software industry)
October 2002 — May 2004 (1 year 8 months)
Director of executive communications and employee communications programs.

Director, Editorial Services
PSINet
(Public Relations and Communications industry)
1998 — 2001 (3 years)

Senior Manager
MCI
(Public Relations and Communications industry)
1996 — 1998 (2 years)

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

The Japan Quake, Nuclear Energy and the Daily Kos

As you might imagine, I've been monitoring a lot of stories from around the Web about the situation in Japan. And as you might surmise, while an incident like this is always a cause for concern, it's not a cause for hysteria -- unless of course we're talking about the usual suspects.