DOCSLIB.ORG

Energy Policy: Public Comment

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Energy Policy: Public Comment PO BOX 201706 Helena, MT 59620-1706 (406) 444-3064 Energy and Telecommunications Interim Committee FAX (406) 444-3036 61st Montana Legislature SENATE MEMBERS HOUSE MEMBERS COMMITTEE STAFF JERRY BLACK--Vice Chair ROBYN DRISCOLL--Chair SONJA NOWAKOWSKI, Research Analyst RON ERICKSON DUANE ANKNEY TODD EVERTS, Staff Attorney VERDELL JACKSON TONY BELCOURT DAWN FIELD, Secretary CLIFF LARSEN HARRY KLOCK October 26, 2009 To: ETIC members From: Sonja Nowakowski, ETIC staff Re: Energy Policy public comment During the month of October, the ETIC accepted public comment on three of the nine energy policy issues outlined in Senate Bill 290. Those issues include: • increasing the supply of low-cost electricity with coal-fired generation; • promoting alternative energy systems; and • reducing regulations that increase ratepayers' energy costs. The ETIC asked the public to suggest specific changes in state law that are needed in these areas, as well as to provide their thoughts on potential findings and recommendations. The ETIC received more than 50 comments as of Monday, October 26. Many of the comments are quite detailed and very thorough. I hope you will all take a few moments to read through them. They are also available on the ETIC Website. You will receive copies of any additional comments that are received at the November meeting. Over the next nine months, the committee will meet and discuss additional issues, as mandated by Senate Bill 290. As those additional issues appear on future ETIC agendas, the committee will put out a request for additional public comment. A complete schedule is available under the "Energy Policy" link on the committee's Web site. Sonja Nowakowski Research Analyst Montana Legislative Services Division Room 171E, State Capitol PO Box 201704 Helena, MT 59620-1704 Phone: (406) 444-3078 Email: [email protected] Cl0429 9299slxa. MONTANA LEGISLATIVE SERVICES DIVISION STAFF: SUSAN BYORTH FOX, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR • DAVID D. BOHYER, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF RESEARCH AND POLICY ANALYSIS • GREGORY J. PETESCH, DIRECTOR, LEGAL SERVICES OFFICE • HENRY TRENK, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF LEGISLATIVE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY • TODD EVERTS, DIRECTOR, LEGISLATIVE ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY OFFICE Page 1 of 1 Nowakowski, Sonja "~ ... " ., From: James Meadow [email protected]] Sent: Friday, September 25, 2009 12:50 PM To: Nowakowski, Sonja Subject: Energy Policy I stand strongly opposed to an effort to increase our state's coal-fired energy generation. We now know far too much about the disastrous effects of coal-fired energy generation, and our state is uniquely poised to take advantage of plentiful wind power resources. We should cap coal-fired energy generation right where it is, and commit to supplementing any new energy needs with renewable energy sources. If this costs the state extra money, I will be more than happy to pay higher taxeslenergy costs, and I feel that the majority of informed Montanans would feel the same way. The only reason we should be talking about coal right now is to decide just how much to REDUCE our use of it. Every ton of coal we dig from the ground and burn is a burden on future generations. If we want to protect our way of life long into the future, we need to put all of our effort into increasing renewable energy output for the state of Montana! -- James Meadow Land Resources and Environmental Sciences Montana State University (406) 370-7157 jj'rilcadotv(u~gmail.co111 From: george power [[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, October 01, 2009 12:05 PM To: Nowakowski, Sonja Subject: new bold ideas Hello, I would like to bring to your attention ,that Montana could Be a leader in wind parks that have compressed air energy storage [ C. A. E. S. 1 . the large number of depleted natural gas wells close to transmission lines in windy areas is a start. example - 3 miles east of Havre you have 161 kV line , Clerk-7-32-17depleted natural gas well and class 4 wind. hope this is of some help George Power Page 1 of I Nowakowski, Sonja I, ---,_ "...~.-,..ll.~--.-l.l ------_I-,-- From: JON MARY CARLSON [[email protected]] Sent: Saturday, October 03, 2009 10:40 AM To: Nowakowski, Sonja Subject: electric rates We are for lower rates. 1.e. coal fire plants - yes! this carbon foot print stuff is over hyped. No to alternative enery systems - wind, solar that raise rates. Yes to reducing regulations of questionalbe value, that raise rates. Jon and Mary Carlson Big Sky Page 1 of 1 Nowakowski, Sonja __I_ ,,_ ^.XX^., ". From: JoanHurdle [email protected]] Sent: Friday, October 09, 2009 9:29 AM To: Nowakowski, Sonja Subject: energy policy (Also mailed you a hard copy of this including supporting documents) From: League of Women Voters of Billings To: Montana Interim Legislative Energy Commission: We understanding that you are seeking input on the possibility of increasing electricity in Montana with coal fired generation, and promoting alternative energy systems. The League of Women Voters of the United States issued a report on August 7, 2008, indicating opposition to coal-fired power plants, as being too big a risk for too many people. The report may be found at Iwv.org. The Billings League of Women Voters urges you to reject the idea of coal-fired generation and instead consider conservation and all other measures and systems to reduce carbon output. Such measures, for example, might include improved and expanded public transit throughout the state. Currently rural and urban transit funding cannot be combined in public transportation systems, accordirlg to Audrey Alums at DOT, so we urge you to make it possible to create Regional TransportationAuthorities that could include urban areas in Montana. In Indiana, for example, transit ridership has increased by more than 9% above 2007 levels, with 2.4 million fewer miles driven in 2008, saving 11,670,000 gallons of gasoline, and reducing pollution by 105,000 tons. Every vehicle mile equals one pound of carbon. (1VMT = llb.C) Thank you for consideration of energy alternatives to coal generation. Billings League of Women Voters Board of Directors LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS BILLINGS wi P.0 .Box 2029 7, Billings Montana, 59104 October 7,2009 From: League of Women Voters of Billings To: Montana Interim Legislative Energy Commission: We understanding that you are seeking input on the possibility of increasing electricity in Montana with coal fired generation, and promoting alternative energy systems. The League of Women Voters of the United States issued a report on August 7,2008, indicating opposition to coal-fired power plants, as being too big a risk for too many people. The report may be found at 1wv.org. The Billings League of Women Voters urges you to reject the idea of coal-fired generation and instead consider conservation and all other measures and systems to reduce carbon output. Such measures, for example, might include improved and expanded public transit throughout the state. Currently rural and urban transit funding cannot be combined in public transportation systems, accordrng to Audrey Alums at DOT, so we urge you to make it possible to create Regional Transportation Authorities that could include urban areas in Montana. In Indiana, for example, transit ridership has increased by more than 9% above 2007 levels, with 2.4 million fewer miles driven in 2008, saving 11,670,000 gallons of gasoline, and reducing pollution by 105,000 tons. Every vehicle mile equals one pound of carbon. (1VMT = 1lb.C) Thank you for consideration of energy alternatives to coal generation. Billings League of Women Voters Board of Directors League of Women Voters of the United States I League Calls for Mora... http://www.lwv.orglAMITemplate.ch?Section=Home&temp1ate=/... FOR IMMEDXATE RELEASE Contact: Kelly Stay Informed Ceballos Slgn up to become an August 7,2008 e-Advlsl and get all the 202-263- 1331 lalesl news from the League In your inbox your email: LEAGUE OPPOSES COAL-FIRED POWER PLANTS Waiting for Congressional Action on Climate Change Would be Too Late, League Says Washington, DC - The League of Women Voters today called for a moratorium on new construction of coal-fired electric power plants. "Global warming is happening now," said national League President Mary G. Wilson. 'If we wait for federal action from our congressional leaders, it will be too late. We must take immediate and aggressive action to halt climate change," she said. (Click heLe for a fad sheet on the League's stand.) "Burning more coal is too big a risk for too many people," Wilson said. "Coal is the single largest source of global warming pollution in the U.S., with power plants responsible for 33 percent of C02 emissions. Because of this pollution, we already face increasingly severe heat waves and droughts, intensifying hurricanes and floods, disappearing glaciers and more wildfires. If left unchecked, the effects will be catastrophic to us and our planet," she said. 'We will be active in opposing the building of these plants," said Wilson. "Coal-fired electric power plants have a very long lifespan and contribute huge amounts of pollution to the atmosphere. Building these new plants would foreclose the possibility of preventing dangerous global warming." "Today, there is no environmentally sound use of coal," Wilson said. "Many hope that C02 can be captured and stored underground," she observed, "but this technology has never been demonstrated on a commercial scale." "Instead of coal, we must look to clean energy alternatives," according to Wilson. "California, which has been a leader in energy conservation and efficiency, has been able to keep per capita energy consumption essentially constant for three decades while enjoying a growing economy," she noted. "Wind and solar are also League of Women Voters of the United States ( League Calls for Mora..
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Hisham Zerriffi
    CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY CARNEGIE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ELECTRIC POWER SYSTEMS UNDER STRESS: AN EVALUATION OF CENTRALIZED VERSUS DISTRIBUTED SYSTEM ARCHITECTURES by Hisham Zerriffi ACCEPTED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGINEERING AND PUBLIC POLICY Major Professor Date Major Professor Date Department Head Date APPROVED BY THE COLLEGE COUNCIL Dean Date Carnegie Mellon University Electric Power Systems Under Stress: An Evaluation Of Centralized Versus Distributed System Architectures A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in ENGINEERING AND PUBLIC POLICY by Hisham Zerriffi Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania September, 2004 © Copyright 2004 by Hisham Zerriffi. All rights reserved. Hisham Zerriffi ii Electric Power Systems Under Stress In memory of my grandfather, Dr. Henri M. Yaker, whose great intellect, diverse academic and professional pursuits, and love of life and family have been an inspiration. I only hope to live up to his example. iii Hisham Zerriffi iv Electric Power Systems Under Stress Abstract It is well recognized that electric power systems do not always perform perfectly and that maintaining reliability of supply is one of the important tasks for power system planners. However, there are circumstances under which power systems can face persistent stresses or have the possibility of being under high stress conditions. These stresses arise from and affect both the technical systems designed to generate and deliver electricity, as well as the commercial and political organizations designed to undertake those tasks and to govern these activities. The issue of electric power systems under persistent and high stress conditions and possible changes to electric power systems to deal with this issue is the subject of this dissertation.
    [Show full text]
  • Pioneering Cultural Initiatives by Esalen Centers for Theory
    Esalen’s Half-Century of Pioneering Cultural Initiatives 1962 to 2012 For more information, please contact: Jane Hartford, Director of Development Center for Theory & Research and Special Projects Special Assistant to the Cofounder and Chairman Emeritus Michael Murphy Esalen Institute 1001 Bridgeway #247 Sausalito, CA 94965 415-459-5438 i Preface Most of us know Esalen mainly through public workshops advertised in the catalog. But there is another, usually quieter, Esalen that’s by invitation only: the hundreds of private initiatives sponsored now by Esalen’s Center for Theory and Research (CTR). Though not well publicized, this other Esalen has had a major impact on America and the world at large. From its programs in citizen diplomacy to its pioneering role in holistic health; from physics and philosophy to psychology, education and religion, Esalen has exercised a significant influence on our culture and society. CTR sponsors work in fields that think tanks and universities typically ignore, either because those fields are too controversial, too new, or because they fall between disciplinary silos. These initiatives have included diplomats and political leaders, such as Joseph Montville, the influential pioneer of citizen diplomacy, Jack Matlock and Arthur Hartman, former Ambassadors to the Soviet Union, and Claiborne Pell, former Chairman of the U.S. Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee; eminent Russian cultural leaders Vladimir Pozner, Sergei Kapitsa, and Victor Erofeyev; astronaut Rusty Schweickart; philosophers Jay Ogilvy, Sam
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 3: the Rise of the Antinuclear Power Movement: 1957 to 1989
    Chapter 3 THE RISE OF THE ANTINUCLEAR POWER MOVEMENT 1957 TO 1989 In this chapter I trace the development and circulation of antinuclear struggles of the last 40 years. What we will see is a pattern of new sectors of the class (e.g., women, native Americans, and Labor) joining the movement over the course of that long cycle of struggles. Those new sectors would remain autonomous, which would clearly place the movement within the autonomist Marxist model. Furthermore, it is precisely the widening of the class composition that has made the antinuclear movement the most successful social movement of the 1970s and 1980s. Although that widening has been impressive, as we will see in chapter 5, it did not go far enough, leaving out certain sectors of the class. Since its beginnings in the 1950s, opposition to the civilian nuclear power program has gone through three distinct phases of one cycle of struggles.(1) Phase 1 —1957 to 1967— was a period marked by sporadic opposition to specific nuclear plants. Phase 2 —1968 to 1975— was a period marked by a concern for the environmental impact of nuclear power plants, which led to a critique of all aspects of nuclear power. Moreover, the legal and the political systems were widely used to achieve demands. And Phase 3 —1977 to the present— has been a period marked by the use of direct action and civil disobedience by protesters whose goals have been to shut down all nuclear power plants. 3.1 The First Phase of the Struggles: 1957 to 1967 Opposition to nuclear energy first emerged shortly after the atomic bomb was built.
    [Show full text]
  • Amory B Lovins Adjunct Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
    Amory B Lovins Adjunct Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering Bio BIO Physicist Amory Lovins (1947– ) is Cofounder (1982) and Chairman Emeritus, and was Chief Scientist (2007–19), of Rocky Mountain Institute (www.rmi.org), with which he continues to collaborate as an independent contractor and a Trustee. He has designed numerous superefficient buildings, vehicles, and industrial plants, and synthesized an "integrative design" method and practice that can make the energy efficiency resource severalfold larger, yet cheaper, often with increasing returns. Since 1973 he has also advised major governments and firms in more than 70 countries on advanced energy efficiency and strategy, emphasizing efficiency, renewables integration, and the links between energy, resources, environment, security, development, and economy. Lovins has received the Blue Planet, Volvo, Zayed, Onassis, Nissan, Shingo, and Mitchell Prizes, MacArthur and Ashoka Fellowships, 12 honorary doctorates, the Heinz, Lindbergh, Right Livelihood, National Design, and World Technology Awards, many other energy and environment recognitions, and Germany’s highest civilian honor (the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit). A Harvard and Oxford dropout, former Oxford don, honorary US architect, Swedish engineering academician, and 2011–18 member of the US National Petroleum Council, he has taught at ten universities (most recently the US Naval Postgraduate School and Stanford's School of Engineering as spring 2007 MAP/Ming Visiting Professor, returning in 2020– as Adjunct Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering)— teaching only subjects he hasn’t formally studied, so as to cultivate beginner’s mind. In 2009, Time named him one of the world’s 100 most influential people, and Foreign Policy, one of the 100 top global thinkers.
    [Show full text]
  • Mowat Research #137 | December 2016
    MOWAT RESEARCH #137 | DECEMBER 2016 Future Drivers and Trends Affecting Energy Development in Ontario LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE U.S. MowatENERGY MOWAT’S ENERGY POLICY RESEARCH HUB MowatENERGY MOWAT’S ENERGY POLICY RESEARCH HUB Mowat Energy’s Emerging Energy Trends is a comprehensive study of how technological and consumer disruptions in the energy sector could affect Ontario and beyond. This paper is part of a series of background reports informing the final report. Initial funding for this research was in part provided by the Ministry of Energy of Ontario. The final report and all other background reports are available at mowatcentre.ca/emerging-energy-trends. The Mowat Energy research hub provides independent, evidence-based research and analysis on systemic energy policy issues facing Ontario and Canada. With its strong relationship with the energy sector, Mowat Energy has provided thought leadership to stakeholders, decision-makers and the public to help advance discussions on the challenges that energy is facing in Ontario. Authors This paper produced by National Regulatory Research Rajnish Barua Institute (NRRI) . Ken Costello Kathryn Kline Dan Phelan Tom Stanton MOWATCENTRE.CA @MOWATCENTRE 439 UNIVERSITY AVENUE SUITE 2200, TORONTO, ON M5G 1Y8 CANADA DECEMBER 2016 ©2016 ISBN 978-1-77259-025-8 Executive Summary Mowat Centre’s Energy Hub (Mowat) contracted with the National Regulatory Research Institute (NRRI) for a study and report on emerging trends facing the energy sector in the United States, with a particular focus on distributed energy resources (DER) and their potential role in the electric utility of the future. This research focused on four different major portfolios and three future scenarios.
    [Show full text]
  • From Wilderness to the Toxic Environment: Health in American Environmental Politics, 1945-Present
    From Wilderness to the Toxic Environment: Health in American Environmental Politics, 1945-Present The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Thomson, Jennifer Christine. 2013. From Wilderness to the Toxic Environment: Health in American Environmental Politics, 1945- Present. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:11125030 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA From Wilderness to the Toxic Environment: Health in American Environmental Politics, 1945-Present A dissertation presented by Jennifer Christine Thomson to The Department of the History of Science In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of History of Science Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts May 2013 @ 2013 Jennifer Christine Thomson All rights reserved. Dissertation Advisor: Charles Rosenberg Jennifer Christine Thomson From Wilderness to the Toxic Environment: Health in American Environmental Politics, 1945-Present Abstract This dissertation joins the history of science and medicine with environmental history to explore the language of health in environmental politics. Today, in government policy briefs and mission statements of environmental non-profits, newspaper editorials and activist journals, claims about the health of the planet and its human and non-human inhabitants abound. Yet despite this rhetorical ubiquity, modern environmental politics are ideologically and organizationally fractured along the themes of whose health is at stake and how that health should be protected.
    [Show full text]
  • Unedited Preprint, Strictly Embargoed to Release, of Article to Appear Soon in Electricity Journal (Elsevier), July 2017, Doi:10.1016/J.Tej.2017.06.002
    Unedited preprint, strictly embargoed to release, of article to appear soon in Electricity Journal (Elsevier), July 2017, doi:10.1016/j.tej.2017.06.002 Do Coal and Nuclear Generation Deserve Above-Market Prices? Amory B. Lovins [sole and corresponding author] Cofounder and Chief Scientist, Rocky Mountain Institute 22830 Two Rivers Road, Basalt, CO 81621, USA [email protected], office +1 970 927 7202 Abstract All 14 current rationales for mandating or subsidizing uncompetitive coal and nuclear plants lack technical merit or would favor competitors instead. Subsidizing distressed nuclear plants typical- ly saves less carbon than closing them and reinvesting their saved operating cost into severalfold- cheaper efficiency. Carbon prices, not plant subsidies, best recognize decarbonizing attributes. Grid reliability needs careful integration of diverse, distributed demand-side and renewable re- sources, using competitive market processes and resilient architectures, but does not require “baseload” plants. Keywords Coal, nuclear, carbon, competition, efficiency, renewables Author biography Physicist Amory Lovins has advised major firms (including utilities) and governments world- wide for over 40 years; written 31 books and over 600 papers; and received the Blue Planet, Volvo, Zayed, Onassis, Nissan, Shingo, and Mitchell Prizes, MacArthur and Ashoka Fellow- ships, 12 honorary doctorates, the Heinz, Lindbergh, Right Livelihood, National Design, and World Technology Awards, and Germany’s Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit. An honorary architect, Swedish engineering academician, and former Oxford don, he has taught at ten univer- sities. Time named him one of the world’s 100 most influential people, and Foreign Policy, one of the 100 top global thinkers. Acknowledgments The author thanks Peter Bradford, Mark Dyson, Virginia Lacy, Ryan Laemel, Chris Nelder, and several anonymous reviewers for research and editorial help.
    [Show full text]
  • AN ENERGY REVOLUTION for the 21ST CENTURY to Tackle Climate Change, Renewable Energy Technologies, Like Wind, Can Be Embraced by Adopting a DE Pathway
    DECENTRALISING POWER: AN ENERGY REVOLUTION FOR THE 21ST CENTURY To tackle climate change, renewable energy technologies, like wind, can be embraced by adopting a DE pathway. ©Greenpeace/Weckenmann. Cover: Solar thermal installation. ©Langrock/Zenit/Greenpeace. Canonbury Villas London N1 2PN www.greenpeace.org.uk t: +44 (0)20 7865 8100 DECENTRALISING POWER: 1 AN ENERGY REVOLUTION FOR THE 21ST CENTURY FOREWORD KEN LIVINGSTONE, MAYOR OF LONDON I am delighted to have been asked by Greenpeace to contribute a foreword to this timely report. Climate change has now become the problem the world cannot ignore. Addressing future global warming, and adapting to it now, will require making fundamental changes to the way we live. How we produce, distribute and use energy is key to this. My London Energy Strategy set out how decentralised electricity generation could deliver huge CO2 reductions in London by enabling the convergence of heat and power generation, leading to massive growth in renewable energy production, and providing the cornerstone of a renewable hydrogen energy economy. Decentralised energy allows the financial costs and energy losses associated with the long-distance national transmission system to be reduced and savings passed on to consumers. Bringing energy production closer to people’s lives helps in our efforts to promote energy efficiency. Security of supply can be ©Liane Harris. improved, with power blackouts reduced. The UK could take the opportunity to develop expertise and technologies, leading the developed world, and facilitating the developing world’s path to a sustainable energy future. In London the opportunities for decentralised energy supply range from solar panels on Londoners’ homes, to adapting existing full-sized power stations to more efficient combined heat and power systems supplying thousands of businesses and residential buildings.
    [Show full text]
  • The Evolution of Sustainable Personal Vehicles
    The Evolution of Sustainable Personal Vehicles By BRYAN DALE JUNGERS B.S. (Humboldt State University) 2004 THESIS Submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE in Civil and Environmental Engineering in the OFFICE OF GRADUATE STUDIES of the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS Approved: _________________________________(Chair) _____________________________________ _____________________________________ Committee in Charge 2009 - i - Abstract Through mechanisms of industrial globalization, modern societies are moving ever closer to capitalist ideals, emphasizing consumer choice and free competitive markets. Despite these ideals, relatively few choices currently exist for the typical personal vehicle consumer with respect to powertrain technology, fuel selection, and vehicle weight/size. This lack of market diversity is often blamed on the auto industry, the energy industry, the ignorant or fickle consumer, and/or the lack of long-term government support and financing of alternative technologies. Though each of these factors has certainly played a part in maintaining the status quo of a perpetually stagnant personal vehicle market, I will argue here that the existing problems associated with personal vehicles will be addressed most effectively by the fundamental reorientation of personal & institutional values. Such evolutionary shifts in perspective should be applied broadly by designers, engineers, business leaders, and government officials. I have explored several fundamental value shifts toward the evolution of sustainable personal vehicles. The personal vehicle serves as an apt metaphor for both the freedoms and follies of modern experience. By way of modeled examples, I define and evaluate the qualities of a sustainable personal vehicle and its infrastructure. Many of these concepts should also be applicable for other segments of the industrialized World.
    [Show full text]
  • Forget Nuclear by Amory B
    Rocky Mountain Institute Spring 2008 Volume xxiv #1 Forget Nuclear By Amory B. Lovins, Imran Sheikh, and Alex Markevich Uncompetitive Costs Ā e Economist observed in 2001 that “Nuclear uclear power, we’re told, is a vibrant power, once claimed to be too cheap to meter, industry that’s dramatically reviving is now too costly to matter”—cheap to run because it’s proven, necessary, but very expensive to build. Since then, it’s Ncompetitive, reliable, safe, secure, widely used, become several-fold costlier to build, and in increasingly popular, and carbon-free—a a few years, as old fuel contracts expire, it is perfect replacement for carbon-spewing coal expected to become several-fold costlier to power. New nuclear plants thus sound vital run. Its total cost now markedly exceeds that for climate protection, energy security, and of other common power plants (coal, gas, powering a growing economy. big wind farms), let alone the even cheaper Ā ere’s a catch, though: the private capital competitors described below. market isn’t investing in new nuclear plants, Construction costs worldwide have risen far and without fi nancing, capitalist utilities aren’t faster for nuclear than non-nuclear plants, buying. Ā e few purchases, nearly all in Asia, due not just to sharply higher steel, copper, are all made by central planners with a draw nickel, and cement prices but also to an on the public purse. In the United States, atrophied global infrastructure for making, even government subsidies approaching or building, managing, and operating reactors. exceeding new nuclear power’s total cost have Ā e industry’s fl agship Finnish project, led failed to entice Wall Street.
    [Show full text]
  • Nuclear Power Undermining Climate Protection
    Nuclear power undermining climate protection Briefing 2008 g r o . CASE STUDY & e c ALTERNATIVES a e BRIEFING OCTOBER 2008 p n e e r g Nuclear power undermining climate protection Introduction “The question is not whether climate change is happening or not but whether, in the face of this emergency, we ourselves can change fast enough.” Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, November 20061 There is a clear scientific consensus that we must halve global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2050 or suffer changes to the global climate with catastrophic consequences. Avoiding the most severe impacts of climate change requires governments, individuals and businesses world-wide to take immediate action. Between US $ 11 - 14 trillion are projected to be invested in new electricity generation capacity between now and 2030.2 The energy investment decisions taken today will determine whether or not the world achieves the necessary CO2 emission cuts in time. The nuclear industry, which has been in decline in the US and Europe, has seized upon the climate crisis as a revival opportunity, claiming to offer a carbon-free contribution to our future energy mix. Nuclear power is an expensive and dangerous distraction from the real solutions to climate change. Greenhouse gas reduction targets can only be met through using the proven alternatives of renewable energy technologies and energy efficiency. Every dollar spent on nuclear power is a dollar stolen from the real solutions to climate change. DESIGN & LAYOUT onehemisphere.se DATE October 2008 COVER IMAGE GPI REFERENCE JN 178 © Jura/Dreamstime Printed on 100% recycled post-consumer waste with vegetable based inks.
    [Show full text]
  • The Importance of Politics to Nuclear New Build
    Grimston Nuclear Report_Cover_A4 1/12/05 10:34 am Page 1 ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME THE IMPORTANCE OF POLITICS TO NUCLEAR NEW BUILD Malcolm Grimston December 2005 The Importance of Politics to Nuclear New Build An examination of the relationship between political, scientific and public mindsets and its influence on decision-making in the scientific and technical field Malcolm Grimston REPORT December 2005 Chatham House Report – The importance of politics to nuclear new build © Royal Institute of International Affairs 2005 Published by The Royal Institute of International Affairs Chatham House 10 St James’s Square London SW1Y 4LE www.chathamhouse.org.uk (Charity Registration No. 208 223) All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any other means without the prior permission of the copyright holders. Please direct all enquiries to the publisher. Chatham House (the Royal Institute of International Affairs) is an independent body which promotes the rigorous study of international questions and does not express opinions of its own. The opinions expressed in this publication are the responsibility of the authors. Chatham House Report – The importance of politics to nuclear new build ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My thanks to the many colleagues who have commented on various drafts of this paper, helping to clarify my thinking and put me in contact with materials I would otherwise have missed. They include: Jean-Paul Bouttes, EdF; Adrian Bull, BNFL; Dr Vincent Cable MP, House of Commons, London; Dominique Chauvin, Total; Rob Davies, Areva Framatome; Andrei Gagarinski, Kurchatov Institute, Moscow; Darren McGarry, European Commission; Mark Penfold; Isabelle Philippe, Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique (CEA), France; Assaad Saab, EdF; Richard Tarasofsky, Chatham House and Andrew Teller, Foratom.
    [Show full text]