Keep up the good work!!! Call and write your Senators please!! No Nukes in OK!
Passing this on from the Sierra Club as it was sent out for the State Capitol lobby day April 29 that the Carrie Dickerson Foundation and the Sierra Club organized, in conjunction with the Physicians for Social Responsibility:Sierra Club Lobbyist Bud Scott has informed us that two bad nuclear bills – SB 831 and SB 1668 -- are scheduled to be heard on the Senate floor. Your calls, emails, visits and letters are working! But don’t stop now!
There was enough opposition from some legislators that the authors removed the cost recovery parts of the bills (for now) that required rate payers to finance new nuclear facilities through higher rates before the facilities were even built. But these bad bills still represent a nuclear foot in the door we can’t afford in Oklahoma.
I implore you to encourage your senators to oppose SB 1668 which allows municipal power authorities to purchase electricity generated from nuclear sources. In current law, municipal authorities can’t consider nuclear power as an energy source. SB 1668 by Sen. David Myers (R-Ponca City) and Rep. Rex Duncan (R-Sand Springs) amends the Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority Act to allow municipal power authorities to (1) purchase electricity from nuclear facilities, and (2) to invest in a joint venture for a nuclear facility. As originally passed, the Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority Act specifically excluded nuclear energy as an eligible resource or investment for municipal power authorities. The reasoning behind this has not changed: Oklahoma does not need the radioactive waste generated by these facilities threatening the public health and natural resources of our state. The provisions of SB 1668 were misrepresented in the House Energy and Utilities Committee to the effect that the bill referred ONLY to nuclear power plants outside Oklahoma. In other words, some legislators were told (and apparently believed) that the bill had nothing to do with investment in or buying electricity from a nuclear power plant within the state. The wording of the bill is clear - INSIDE AND OUTSIDE OKLAHOMA. Furthermore, nuclear energy is the most cost-prohibitive commercial power resource available...virtually all of that cost would be passed on to Oklahoma electric consumers! We cannot afford this in either monetary or health and wellness terms. SB 1668 has passed the House and been sent back to the Senate with the House amendments. The Senate can accept the amendments and send it to the Governor for signature, or a conference committee can be appointed to address the issue further. Generally, such amendments to legislation in the other Chamber will not be accepted unless the author of the legislation agrees. In this case, the author agreed, or it wouldn't have advanced from House committee. Thus, it is likely to move to the Governor, but there is still time to contact the Senate and oppose the legislation.
Please tell your senators to also reject SB 831, the Nuclear Energy Incentive Act. SB 831 was introduced during the 2009 session. Last Thursday, the amended floor version of SB 831 passed the House floor on a vote of 71-25, largely along party lines with no Republicans voting against the bill. The floor version of SB 831 struck all references to Construction Work in Progress (CWIP) cost recovery language, largely leaving the bill as an outline for the regulatory approval process for a nuclear plant at the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. SB 831 permits an electric utility to file an application with the OK Corporation Commission or other electric service to determine if they need to build a nuclear power plant. The bill establishes a process for the Corporation Commission to consider this application. The specific provisions basically require an applicant to show the need for any electricity generated by such nuclear facility with all references in the application considering economic expenses and need for additional load generation. Unfortunately, no requirements exist for identifying solutions to waste storage and disposal, nor potential economic/environmental impacts to the surrounding areas/demographics. This is an ill-advised bill, which does not address many of the most vital issues involved with nuclear power.
Oklahoma is well suited to benefit from truly clean wind energy which can be put into operation years sooner than nuclear power and at far greater savings in construction costs and operational costs. Wind and solar power are far safer for workers than nuclear (and coal) and will not put the community and country in danger. Oklahoma is also fortunate to have access to natural gas to help us reach a sustainable future. Construction and maintenance jobs for wind and solar are family friendly, good paying, green jobs in the fresh air. Wind turbines and solar panels won’t attract terrorists. They don’t require storage of radioactive material which could be easily used by terrorist to make dirty bombs. Additionally, since wind turbines and solar panels are spread out, flying a plane into a turbine or panel would not cause massive power outage or destruction, as a deliberate collision into a nuclear power station would undoubtedly do, as well as causing radioactive contamination to a large area and remain for thousands of years, destroying all life within the area.
We already know nuclear requires enormous amounts of fossil fuel: to build a plant, transport materials, truck away waste (for which there is NO safe disposal). The plants require enormous amounts of water for cooling and contaminate that water in the process; what if there is a drought? The plants leak radioactive gases and emissions ALL THE TIME, and are now being discovered to leak contaminated water into the ground around the plants as well. Populations around nuclear plants suffer elevated rates of leukemia and many other forms of cancer. The cost is astronomical compared to building wind farms and solar farms. The world's supply of uranium will run out in the next decade. The spent fuel is used to make nuclear weapons! This is not what we want for Oklahoma. Please stand with us to make our voices heard. Please ask your senators to represent the people they have been elected to represent. Please share this with all your friends and families whom you think would take action as well or who need to hear these truths about nuclear power generation. Thank you!
www.nirs.org
www.beyondnuclear.org
www.carriedickersonfoundation.com
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/posts/440802?m=90525af8&ref=mf
Please call state senators and ask five friends to call and email senators about voting no on these bills. Thank you.
You can find your senators contact info here:
http://www.oksenate.gov/Senators/directory.pdf
Thank you - Please Participate!!!
Some of this info was provided by Jody Harlan
Vice Chair, Sierra Club of Oklahoma
Marilyn McCulloch
Secretary, The Carrie Dickerson Foundation
