State Rep. Kevin Petersen, a Waupaca Republican who clearly believes in individual responsibility, has an idea to solve the problem that has stumped the nuclear industry, scientists and the government for 50 years: What to do with the deadly nuclear waste produced by reactors?

It's such a small quantity, Petersen seems to say, that maybe we could all just carry our own around.

Wisconsin citizens will have their first chance on Wednesday, Jan. 27, to tell state legislators that making it easier to build more nuclear reactors should not be part of a proposed Clean Energy Jobs bill.

A special State Senate committee considering the bill, (SB 450)  will hold a public hearing at 10 a.m. in Room 412 East of the State Capitol.  

It is critical that people turn out in numbers to register and testify against changing the current law, which protects citizens and the environment by requiring that a federal nuclear waste repository be operating to handle high-level radioactive waste from nuclear power reactors before any new ones can be built. 

The proposed new law would eliminate that requirement and open the door to more reactors here.

What's wrong with that?  Well, the high-level radioactive waste the reactors produce is dangerous to humans and the environment for hundreds of thousands of years.  To put that into some perspective, I like to remind people that 15,000 years ago Wisconsin was covered by glaciers.

Climate change is real, and we must act.  But a friend and ally on this issue, Jennifer Nordstrom, likes to say that proposing more nuclear power as a solution to global warming is like telling someone to start smoking in order to lose weight.  Bad tradeoff.

We don't need nuclear power to solve our problems, and we don't need to fake the false choice between nukes and coal.  Available renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies are faster, cheaper, safer and cleaner strategies for reducing greenhouse emissions than nuclear power.

The Clean Energy Jobs Act goes a long way toward putting Wisconsin on the right track toward renewable energy.  Probably 90 or 95% of it is good policy.  It was recommended by the Governor's Task Force on Global Warming, which worked long and hard to produce a comprehensive bill.

But there were a few too many utility reprersentatives and their allies on the task force, who were able to force the outnumbered environmentalists to accept a deal with the devil and include the provisions that reopen the door to more nuclear reactors.

Groups which participated in the task force, including several organizations with solid anti-nuclear credentials from past battles, are forbidden to seek changes in the bill; they are signed on to support the whole package.

So that leaves it up to the general public, the citizens of Wisconsin, the ones who got the current law passed, to keep it on the books.  That sensible law, passed in 1984, is the one that says before you can build another reactor there must be a federal waste repository to handle the waste it produces. 

Why did Wisconsin pass that law?  Here's what the Legislature said at the time:

The people of the state of Wisconsin, represented in senate and assembly, do enact as follows:

SECTION 1 . Legislative findings and purpose. The legislature finds that :

(1) Until there is a facility available for the permanent disposal of radioactive waste from nuclear power plants, the present lack of a long-term waste disposal option increases the risk that the insufficiency of interim storage space for spent fuel could lead to power plant shutdowns.

(2) Large cost overruns in nuclear power plant construction projects in other states have adversely affected ratepayers .

(3) The public service commission, by order, has found that present uncertainties in the nuclear fuel cycle regarding waste storage and disposal, uranium availability, reprocessing and decommissioning costs make it contrary to the public interest for Wisconsin utilities to commit themselves presently to any future nuclear expansion.

(4) The public service commission, by order, has required electric utilities to identify maximum cost-effective conservation and renewable energy potential in their service areas and to submit specific proposals for achieving the potential.

(5) The public service commission, by order, has recognized that wind, water and other alternative sources of energy are potentially valuable as a supplement to conventional electric generation in this state and that it is in the public interest for utilities to become more involved in the development and implementation of such sources.

The US nuclear industry has been producing that waste for more than 50 years, but hasn't been able to solve the problem of how to dispose of it safely and permanently. Neither has any other country, and despite what the nuclear advocates tell you about those clever French folks they haven't done it, either.

Please speak up.  Sign this petition.   Call or write your legislator.  Come to the hearing.  Go to this webpage and get more information and ideas.

Don't let them nuke Wisconsin's climate.

Wisconsin Environment slammed the right-wing Wisconsin Policy Research Institute (WPRI) yesterday about their inaccurate and misleading report about the Governor’s initiatives to grow the renewable energy industry and create green jobs.

Here’s an excerpt from Wisconsin Environment’s report:

“…the WPRI report fails to acknowledge the many obvious economic and other benefits that would result from a broad effort to repower Wisconsin with clean energy.

Among the long list of benefits (apparently) not considered in the analysis are the following:

1.) Avoided costs of electricity generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure resulting from reduced energy demand or the incorporation of on-site renewable generation.

2.) Increased income for Wisconsin farmers resulting from increased use of biofuels and the potential to lease lands for wind turbines and other forms of renewable energy development.

3.) Health benefits (including reductions in absenteeism, early mortality and possibly health care costs) from avoided fossil fuel-related pollution, including reductions in pollutants that form smog and soot, and mercury deposition in waterways.

4.) Avoided economic impacts of global warming in Wisconsin, including predicted changes that threaten to reduce the productivity of agriculture, increase the possibility of dangerous floods, shift the composition of Wisconsin forests, affect the winter recreation industry, and more.

5.) Reductions in the risk to individuals, businesses and government posed by sudden shifts in fossil fuel prices.

6.) Energy efficiency improvements and renewable energy both have hedging value as insurance against sudden spikes in fossil fuel costs.”

 Doyle also critiqued the report, saying “Anybody who doesn’t think this creates jobs is simply not looking around.” Doyle’s Office of Energy Independence released a study saying the legislation would create 15,000 jobs by 2025.

This is far from the first time OWN has noted WPRI’s propensity for twisting the truth to suit the interests of their monied special interest and corporate friends.

And yet the University of Wisconsin-Madison poli sci department doesn’t believe their joint polling effort with WPRI doesn’t help advance a conservative legislative agenda?

You can visit Wisconsin Environment’s report in the report section at www.WisconsinEnvironment.org.

Jayme Montgomery, head of the state's Campaign Against Violence is reporting from the front lines in Copenhagen. A must read/watch:

Link

While you're there, sign up for additional alerts, reports and information about ongoing efforts to stop global climate change.

Here's the latest WisOpinion "That's Debatable" exchange featuring One WI Now's Executive Director Scot Ross.

http://www.wisopinion.com/index.iml?mdl=article.mdl&article=25053

This week's topic? Climate change. Check it out!

photo credit: bredgur.com

The “Young Gun” filed his latest campaign finance statement and it’s chock full-o-corporatey goodness. Ryan amassed $104,000 in PAC gifts, including 94% from out-of-state PACs.

It’s not surprising, Ryan’s corporate sycophancy extends beyond the Badger State borders, so why wouldn’t his grab-bagging.

Two new polls out this morning that paint a very different picture of Wisconsinites’ attitudes toward state policy to curb climate change and help bring about a new green economy in Wisconsin. First, one from the Forest County Potawatomi Community which shows an “overwhelming majority” of voters – 70% --  in Wisconsin support the state taking action to curb carbon emissions. Additionally, voters from across the political spectrum support action to reduce emissions: 53% of Republicans, 67% of independents and 87% of Democrats.

The Potawatomi poll also touches on an important part of the climate change debate that conservatives often leave out: the move toward renewable energy will create new manufacturing and technology jobs in the state.

To the list of safety, environmental, and economic concerns about nuclear power, add another: Utilities do not have enough money set aside to decommission existing nuclear reactors when they are shut down, the Associated Press reports.

The nuclear reactors themselves become huge mountains of radioactive waste when they are shut down, and need to be disposed of.  But no storage site exists to accept the waste, so the reactor on the Mississippi at Genoa, WI, which stopped operating in 1987, is still there, awaiting decommissioning.

 Point Beach has only about half of the estimated $684-million it will need for decommissioning, and the Kewaunee reactor is somewhat close to having enough money set aside if estimates of $359-million are correct, the Wisconsin State Journal reports.

Help stop a current effort to open the door to more nuclear reactors in Wisconsin. Learn more and sign an online petition here.

An online petition campaign to preserve the state's existing law regulating licensing of new nuclear power reactors has been launched by the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice (WNPJ) in cooperation with One Wisconsin Now (OWN).  The message:

Dear Friend,

We urgently need your help to maintain reasonable restrictions on nuclear power in Wisconsin.

Learn more and sign our petition here, or read on.

Wisconsin has wisely had a state law in place since 1983 that prohibits the construction of new nuclear reactors unless two conditions are met:

1. There is a federally-licensed facility to dispose of high-level radioactive waste from the reactors, and

2. The Public Service Commission makes a finding that nuclear power makes economic sense. 

The nuclear industry, using concerns over global climate change, is trying to resurrect itself as a viable option, calling nuclear energy a “clean” solution. 

The Governor’s Task Force on Global Warming, as part of a long list of recommendations, has proposed relaxing the law on nuclear reactors and eliminating the requirement that the waste disposal problem be solved.

To license more reactors to produce more deadly radioactive waste without any way to dispose of it is not only irresponsible.  It is unconscionable.

Sign HERE to stop that from happening.

The waste generated by the reactors is so deadly that the Environmental Protection Agency has issued rules requiring that it be kept out of the environment and away from humans for up to a million years!  To put that into perspective, 15,000 years ago Wisconsin was covered by glaciers.

Opening Wisconsin to more nuclear plants could have another dangerous side effect – increasing federal pressure to select our state as the repository for the nation’s radioactive waste, in the granite formations in central and northern Wisconsin.

Nuclear power has never made economic sense, despite rosy predictions.  No new nuclear plants are being built because the economic risks are too high. That's why the nuclear industry keeps looking for billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidy. 

Act now!  Sign this petition! Tell the governor and legislators there are far better ways to fight global warming than risking the safety and economic well-being of Wisconsinites by opening the door to more nuclear reactors.

Thank you,

Chamomile Nusz and Bill Christofferson, co-chairs,

Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice.

You wouldn't know it from the news media -- they can only cover one story at a time, and there's a state budget crisis -- but there is a growing, resurgent movement in Wisconsin determined to solve the energy and climate crises without resorting to nuclear energy.

It's not the old "No Nukes"movement, although there are elements of it, and the same reasons for opposing nuclear power in the past -- safety, waste, and cost -- and all still relevant reasons to oppose building more nuclear reactors.

But it's a broader, more thoughtful and sophisticated conversation taking place, that includes a commitment to finding efficient, renewable energy sources, reducing carbon emissions, and using conservation as part of the package.

With the state considering solutions to reduce our global warming pollution, a new WISPIRG report finds that renewable energy sources can produce far more electricity than nuclear plants for less money.

Unfortunately, the nuclear industry has proposed thirty new reactors across the country at an estimated cost of $300 billion.

"Taxpayers should not be subsidizing nuclear power when there are faster, cleaner, cheaper alternatives to meet our energy needs," said WISPIRG Advocate Kara Rumsey.

Here in Wisconsin the nuclear industry is pushing to overturn a long-standing law that prevents new nuclear plants from being built unless the proposed plant is economically advantageous to ratepayers and there is safe and adequate disposal for radioactive waste.

Nuclear power is among the most costly approaches to solving America's energy problems.

"Per dollar of investment, clean energy solutions - such as energy efficiency and renewable resources - deliver far more energy than nuclear power," Rumsey stated.