Month: January 2011

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Burlington & Lockheed-Martin Uuummm. NO!

From the Peace and Justice Center
 
Get involved with organizing against the City of Burlington’s deal with Lockheed-Martin!  Lockheed Martin is the industry leader in the business of war and has quite a reputation for destruction of the environment… Vermont  is setting the standards in green and sustainable technologies, successful local companies and non-profits, grassroots initiatives and Vermonters are an overall peaceful & ecologically minded people…..OIL AND WATER DON”T MIX!

 Join us at the PJC on Monday night (1/31) at 7pm to discuss next steps. Come to the City Council meeting on Monday 2/7 to voice your concern and support the resolution to increase transparency!

One alternative plan calls for a Vermont climate round table which would partner local green companies, non-profits, Vermont policy makers and citizens groups to leverage all available resources. One such example is the State of Vermont’s VEGI tax write offs, some $3.6 million of which annually go to war profiteer General Dynamics.
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VY Decommissioning Fund is Fraud!

excerpts from VT Digger Report: Yankee decommissioning costs too uncertain by Carl Etnier

Arnie Gundersen, a nuclear expert for Fairewinds Associates, says the Legislature should ask Entergy to hire an independent consultant to recalculate decommissioning costs for the plant before lawmakers discuss the issue this session.. Gundersen calls for new calculations to be commissioned immediately (by an independent company), which he says would take three months to prepare.

Please read the full article (link above). In my opinion it portrays the typical bureaucratic corporate manipulations from within government and industry to make sure the chips fall on their side. It is ridiculous that an industry such as nuclear power  can legally rely on a wall-street decommissioning fund (which of course by its very nature can fall short). This proves that we will eventually do away with nuclear. The estimated costs for decommission VY on the high end is around 1 billion, If nuclear was a sustainable energy they would be able to guaranteed the decommissioning cost at the expiration of their contract. Not only do they not have all the money needed they are dipping into the Decommissioning fund for other expenses that are not even allocated to it. Unbelievable, we are at the beck and whim of an out-of-state corporation who doesn’t mind to exploit our land, pollute our waters and lie to our officials under oath. In my book this type of business has no place in Vermont, they are  Corporate Colonialists. Entergy say if VY is closed in 2012 it won’t be decommissioned for another 12 to 15 years! This is a threat! They want us thinking, If we are going to have to look at the thing we might as well get some energy out of it. If this is the case Vermonters should fine VY for everyday past the closing date until the site is returned to the condition it was in before they built the reactor.

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Peace Coming With a Government Run by the Human Race!

Here is a good article on Alternet about the Corporate person-hood resolution By Christopher Ketcham. (link to full article)

Resolution Calling to Amend the Constitution Banning Corporate Personhood Introduced in Vermont

excerpt –  In Vermont, state senator Virginia Lyons on Friday  presented an anti-corporate personhood resolution for passage in the Vermont legislature. The resolution, the first of its kind, proposes “an amendment to the United States Constitution … which provides that corporations are not persons under the laws of the United States.”  Sources in the state house say it has a good chance of passing….

“Corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires,” wrote Stevens (Justice John Paul Stevens). “Corporations help structure and facilitate the activities of human beings, to be sure, and their ‘personhood’ often serves as a useful legal fiction. But they are not themselves members of ‘We the People’ by whom and for whom our Constitution was established.”

David Cobb said, “This is the first state to introduce at the legislative level a statement of principles that corporations are not persons and do not have constitutional rights,”

This is Huge people! Get behind this movement voice your support by calling your state legislators, tell Gov. Shumlin, tell your friends and family this could initiate the fall of the Corporate rule, which means a Government by We the People for We the People, how it was meant to be. I know many of you feel there is nothing your little voice can do, this is the time to drop this sentiment and roar! If you are tiered of not having a say in the direction our country goes, than stand up and be heard. Remember Corporate America owns the majority of our Media the majority of our food production, the majority of our medicines, on and on….. It is time we tell the corporations, they work for We The People, we are not their subjects! Once their money and thus their voice is out of the political process our politicians must answer to us and not to the blackmail bribery of Multi-trillion dollar monopolies.

Peace Peace Peace the Time of Corporate War is Over We the People want PEACE!

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Cobb’s constitutional amendment to strip corporations of personhood

by Carl Etnier on January 19, 2011 On VTdigger (full article)

David Cobb was on a three-day tour of Vermont this week to pitch a constitutional amendment that would strip corporations of personhood rights. Sen. Ginnie Lyons has proposed a resolution urging Congress to amend the Constitution to change the rights of corporations.

Listen to an audio clip of Cobb speaks and Lyons speaking at the Statehouse Jan. 18, 2011l

Draft of the proposed resolution from Sen. Lyons:

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Challenging “Corporate Personhood” with David Cobb

UPDATED: Citizen activist and Green Party agitator David Cobb is in Vermont, helping Vermonters gear up to challenge the idea of “corporate personhood” with a new Vermont statehouse resolution.

David Cobb Interview Move to Amend Corporate Personhood

Nov. 29 Montpelier, VT – After a 2 hour presentation and a rowdy Q&A session before a crowd of 500 people, David Cobb gives us an update on the movement to abolish corporate personhood and restore Constitutional rule of law.

 

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Vermont Yankee Nuclear Closure and Clean-up Forum

WHEN: Tuesday, February 15th at 6:30 pm
WHERE: Montshire Museum of Science; Norwich, VT
WHAT: A Public Forum – The Closure and Clean-Up of Vermont Yankee

A panel of seasoned experts will discuss what will happen when the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant ceases operations in March 2012. The panel will describe precedents from other reactor sites to explain the multi-year process of decommissioning and site clean-up of the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor in Vernon, VT, and the potential impacts on area communities and the environment.

Learn what local citizens, municipal and regional bodies can do to make sure Vermont Yankee is properly dismantled and cleaned-up and the radioactive waste safely dealt with. Q&A and a period of open discussion will follow the panel presentation.

Denis Rydjeski

520 Parker Hill Road
Springfield, VT 05156-9343
(802) 885-4826
email: DRR@Dartmouth.edu

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Close VT Yankee = Protecting Vermont and Vermonters!

Thank you to the New England Coalition (NEC) and the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) for being the voice of the concerned public and holding VT Yankee accountable!

VT Digger: Critics question Entergy’s pipe inspection program at Vermont Yankee

Jared Margolis, attorney for the New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution said, “We want to see it done right, in terms of the percentage of pipes inspected, where pipes are inspected, what systems are inspected, and we want to see it done in a timely manner. We want to see it done now. We want to see it have already been done, considering it’s been a year since the leaks occurred, and it’s not been done.”

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Details on Record Campaign Spending

The 2010 midterm elections had a record-setting $4 billion price tag

By Danielle Kurtzleben Posted: January 7, 2011

Candidates, the political parties, and outside groups spent $4 billion on the 2010 congressional elections, more than had been spent in any previous midterm election cycle. The year also featured a crop of high-profile, wealthy candidates, including the top self-funded candidate ever: California Republican Meg Whitman, who spent over $140 million of her own money on her unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign. But perhaps the biggest campaign finance story of 2010 was the new landscape made possible by more lenient spending regulations.

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2011/01/07/2010-set-campaign-spending-records

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The Richmond Commons

Check out their introduction video, make a donation and receive a complimentary gift.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dangiangreco/rebuilding-the-commons

http://www.indiegogo.com/Rebuilding-The-Commons

The Richmond Commons is a collaborative project weaving together micro enterprises, and operating with a shared ecological and social mission. The collaborative will be located at the former Richmond Corner Market, and will initially include a fine art and handcraft gallery, featuring the work of local producers, a selection of herbal and aromatherapy products, and much more!

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PSB to hold Yankee closure hearings

Montpelier, Vermont – January 9, 2011

(source Link)

The Vermont Public Service Board holds hearings later this week on a request by two environmental groups to shut down Vermont Yankee.

The Conservation Law Foundation and the New England Coalition made the request nearly a year ago after problems with leaking radioactive tritium first came to light. The groups have argued that the plant be shut down until the leaks were fully resolved.

Those hearings run Tuesday through Friday in Montpelier.

 

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A Little Less Poison for Vermonters

the Champlain Water District is lowering the levels of fluoride from 1 mg to 0.7 mg per liter, because the EPA has recommended it could be causing flurosis. Forget lowering the level… STOP poisoning our water altogether! If people want to use fluoride on their teeth fine let them use fluoride toothpaste (which they won’t be swallowing). This is long overdue! Stop water fluoridation in Vermont, the risk is great! It is Rat poison. LITERALLY! The EPA is coming out with this mandate now to lower levels to 0.7 because the cat is out of the bag and medical and dental professionals that have done the research are speaking out, the pressure is on. Educate your community!

 

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VY and the Health Dep.

In my last post I stated the Health Departments “independent” investigation on Tritium contamination was heavily referencing VY own statements (link). The last entry of data shown on the graphs of well contamination is Dec. 3, not exactly updated (link). The highest levels being around 600,000 pCi/L, the legal limit for drinking water is 20,000 pCi/L (not that anybody would be drinking from these wells). Why has a month passed without updating the public data as they have continued extraction? I have sent my inquiries to the Health Dep. and will post their reply.

Entergy’s Vice President Jay Thayer May 2009 at the Public Service Board, testified under oath that VY did not have active pipes underground carrying radioactive materials. Thayer later confessed, the plant does have underground pipes in active use, and he failed to get back to the board with the correct information.

This is why Vermonters and the State should not trust VY’s information and investigation. Why does it seem that they run the show for the operations of decontamination and the onsite testing? Where are the numbers prior jan 2010, who was the independent body monitoring these wells? We have been relying on what “VY Reported”?

In my view the Health Department and the State has given VY way too much slack. The independent oversight seems to be greatly lacking. They need someone to be breathing down their neck and looking over their shoulder. WE NEED A REAL SOLID INVESTIGATION AND ITS REPORT ON THE PUBLIC RECORD!

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VY… What do you think Vermonters 2012 or 2032?

Here are 2 articles from the last two day on Vermont Yankee’s continuing generosity to Vermont.

Vt. nuke plant again drawing dirty ground water Jan. 6

Safety valve leakage discovered at VY Jan. 8

Very interesting to me is the Vermont Yankee “investigation” at the VT health web site; under health alerts it states “..it (tritium) also occurs naturally in the environment as the result of cosmic ray interactions with the earth. There is no immediate threat to public health…”

On one hand they say,  “The Health Department has been working to independently monitor the investigation, conduct independent laboratory tests of environmental samples, and keep Vermonters fully informed as the investigation proceeds.” Yet throughout the report all I see is: “according to V.Y.” – “V.Y. notifies” – “reported by V.Y.” where is the independent data of the Vermont Health department?

OK. I found the Health Departments report on Tritium containation of the VY wells (link). The last data shown is Dec. 3, not exactly updated. The highest levels being around 600,000 pCi/L the legal limit for drinking water is 20,000 pCi/L. Why has a month passed without updating the public data as they have continued extraction?

Tritium is a by-product of nuclear power production but it does have a use! It is mainly used in the nuclear weapons manufacturing industry and has the role of initiating the nuclear chain reaction. Nice double purpose, so we get dirty cheap electricity and the substance needed for our NUKE ARMAMENT. Not to mention a poisoned environment. THANKS!

Tritium also known as hydrogen-3 is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. Naturally occurring tritium is extremely rare on Earth. It can combine with oxygen to form tritiated water molecules, it is a radiation hazard when inhaled, ingested via food, water, or absorbed through the skin. The low energy of tritium’s radiation makes it very difficult to detect. Radiation exposure increases the probability of developing diseases, mainly cancer, tumors, and genetic damage. They want you to believe there is “no immediate risk” because, it is low in radioactivity and it’s half life is a short 12 year.

Vermont Yankee first started pumping out tritium-contaminated groundwater using special extraction wells in late March 2010. They re-started the groundwater extraction operation on Dec. 30 because on Dec. 7 Governor Shumlin requested it. link to the Investigation

What do you think Vermonters 2012 or 2032? You better speak up!