Archive for category Yucca Mountain
Sig Rogich…Why Endorse Harry Reid?
Posted by Tom in Nationalized Health Care, Nevada, Politics, State Finances, Yucca Mountain on March 17, 2010
Sean Whaley of Nevada News Bureau reports extensively on Sig Rogich’s Nevada NewsMakers interview effusively touting Harry Reid for re-election. Rogich formerly the big Republican donor and Bush advisor is co-chairman of “Republicans for Reid.” Sig credits Harry for “building McCarran International Airport;” seems to me the marketplace for gaming may have had something to do with that! He then talks about water rights negotiations saying “who would you rather have at the table?” the answer is anyone other than Harry. He talks about what Harry has done for Nevada but can’t really come up with specifics; in reality Harry has done more for Nebraska with the “Cornhusker Kickback” than he has for Nevada. Finally and stupidly, he blasts Sue Lowden for her favorable position on Yucca noting that Reid opposes Yucca. Yeah Sig, Harry helps by keeping jobs and money out of the state and failing to exploit this opportunity for not only a repository, but also reprocessing, power generation and research all bringing high value jobs and money to Nevada. For reference, see NV4CFE.org.
Has Sig who once supported Reagan turned into a RINO? Possibly. Or has Sig simply lost his Icelandic guts and fears standing up to Reid perhaps because Harry, an early practitioner of Chicago politics, has threatened Sig’s clients and the threat carries? Maybe. Here’s another theory, has a deal been made? Sig endorsed Harry in early 2009, in June of that year Harry dropped his longtime support of the LA-Vegas maglev train and instead endorsed construction of a competing Victorville-Vegas rail project, Desert Xpress Enterprises. Surprise, Sig Rogich is a partner in, backer of and spokesman for Desert Xpress!
When you think of it, with the Cornhusker Kickback alone, Harry has taken Nevada taxpayers money and given it to Nebraska! He’s pushing job killer Obamacare through the Senate. Why would anyone want to support him. All toll, given the harm Harry’s done and is doing, we are better off without him. Only Sig Rogich can explain why he supports this embarrassment to Nevada.
Tom Motherway
Obama’s Playing Politics With Yucca……..What’s New?
Posted by Tom in Energy Facts & Policies, Environment, Politics, Yucca Mountain on March 17, 2010
Our ever disingenuous Hussein Obama said he’s in favor of nuclear power in his state of the union speech, yet he has his Secretary of Energy Steven Chu withdraw the Yucca Mountain license application. This was all of a sudden. Brian O’Connell of the Regulatory Utility Commissioners is calling foul: after over 8000 pages of data showing the suitability of Yucca as a repository filed by the Energy Department, “so the fact the same agency now says it’s not a workable option begs for more detail.” The withdrawal request “was very skimpy as to why.”
The Regulatory Utility Commissioners have filed a brief before the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board challenging the Obama action. Of course Obama thinks nothing of wasting the $10 billion already spent on Yucca or for that matter the $17 billion already paid by ratepayers into the federal waste fund. See Rebecca Smith’s WSJ report, Utility Regulators Want Yucca Open.
Methinks Harry Reid is having his way with Obama on this one; he’s hurting Nevada in the process; see the arguments at NV4CFE.org.
Net Neutrality, Empowerment Nevada, NV4CFE.org, and the Cato Summit
Posted by Tom in Constitution, Democrats, Economics, Energy Facts & Policies, Environment, Government Regulation, Military Policy, Politics, Statism, Yucca Mountain on March 17, 2010
What a great Reno Hayek Symposium Dinner last evening. I want to thank Susie Evans and Manny Martinez of Charter for the excellent discussion of net neutrality and its potential impact on our First Amendment freedoms and the free-market functioning of our economy. Broadband pipes are not free they require invested capital on which a return is expected. Demands for priority use of those pipes must be compensated. In essence, the “net neutrality” free loaders, with no investment at stake, are demanding priority use of those pipes without adequate compensation. Note that the pipe owners are not monopolies they are subject to free market competition; cable, phone, satellite all compete in a non-common carrier environment.
George Gilder points out in his recent WSJ article, Cap and Trade for the Internet, since 2001 the U.S. has led the world in internet deregulation with some $4 Trillion of investment increasing residential bandwidth 54 fold. But new attempts to promote regulation including net neutrality will turn this on its head. Economics-abundance or scarcity-in a free competitive market is regulation enough. Of course that’s not the tack the Obama statist are taking. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is moving to expand government control of the web. The WSJ editorial, Broadband Trojan Horse, discusses Obama’s “national broadband plan” including reclassification of the web as a “telecom service” subjecting it to “common carrier” status regulation and “open access” regulation. This solution in search of a problem is emblematic of Obama’s Soviet style control freaks. If implemented, it will destroy private investment. Thanks again to Susie Evans and Manny Martinez.
Ryan Costella and Dana Andrus gave a brief presentation on Empowerment Nevada a grass roots community action program they are initiating that basically promotes community problem solving without government involvement. Ryan hopes to enlist concerned citizens to re-ignite the spirit that founded this country and this state. He sees this as a springboard to other communities, other states and eventually the nation. “We want people who raise their hands to help, not hold their hand out.” His argument is that both left and right can agree on one thing: grass roots problem solving works. We wish Ryan luck in his efforts.
John Dunn gave us an update on Nevadans 4 Carbon Free Energy’s recent publicity campaign. The two Reno public meetings and attendant press reports have been well received. Politically the concept of a Yucca Energy Park including storage, reprocessing, power generation and research, seems to be a non-starter. The group has concluded that grassroots support is the key. This may, in fact, include a ballot initiative to let the voters decide. One thing for sure, jobs and money for Nevada and safe storage nationally are real necessities. I’ll keep updating as the occasion arises. Meantime check out: NV4CFE.org.
Finally, Jerry O’Driscoll briefed us on the recent Cato Summit in which he participated as a panelist. There were two presentations that particularly impressed him: Afghanistan-we need to win enough of the inter tribal wars to get the Taliban in charge so we can negotiate an exit. Climategate-the wounded scientific community caught in their phony research and conclusions appears to be as rough as Chicago politicians. My current issue of the Weekly Standard summarizes the reason on the cover!
Tom Motherway
Paleface Speak With Forked Tongue
Posted by Tom in Economics, Energy Facts & Policies, Government Regulation, Nevada, Yucca Mountain on March 11, 2010
Yep, Obama’s at it again, saying one thing and doing another. This time it’s An Energy Head Fake, as today’s WSJ calls it. The litany of State of the Union promises included “a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants” and “new offshore areas for oil and gas development.” Hooray! The guy is really serious about reducing our energy dependency.
NOT! Since that time Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, halted the plan for leasing the energy-rich Outer Continental Shelf. But this wasn’t a military command “halt,” it was more like death by a thousand cuts, including:
- extending the public comment period by six months,
- taking “several weeks” (which turned out to be five months) to analyze comments,
- informing Congress that he was scrapping the lease plan,
- informing Congress that leasing will not begin for another two years,
- failing to comply with the deadline for submitting a court-ordered EIR for new leases off the Alaskan coast, and
- rebuffing Virginia’s request to allow offshore drilling.
Onshore, Salazar is canceling oil and gas leases in Utah and Wyoming. He also plans to have Obama designate 10 million of acres of western lands as “monuments” under the Antiquities Act putting them off limits for mineral rights. Nevada is impacted in this effort.
On the nuclear front, Obama’s promised $8.3 billion loan guarantee for two nukes in Georgia while nice is meaningless in the absence of regulatory certainty according to Mike Morris, CEO of American Electric Power. And of course Obama continues his head fake by putting the kibosh on Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste repository.
Growth and attendant energy demand in China and India are all too certain. Continuation of our serious energy dependency is painfully assured. As long as we ignore real energy resources at our disposal and waste taxpayer money on subsidies for wind and solar we are endangering our economic future.
Unfortunately we are stuck with a president caught up in himself and his last “teleprompted” rhetoric. To put it kindly, “he doesn’t walk the talk.” I sometimes wonder if he listens to it at all!
Tom Motherway
“idiocy of Yucca Mountain” Blasted by AEP CEO Morris
Posted by Tom in Deficit, Democrats, Energy Facts & Policies, Government Regulation, Nevada, Statism, Yucca Mountain on March 5, 2010
Today’s WSJ front page notes Democrats Revolt Over Energy. Apart from the subsidies wasted on wind energy used to enrich Chinese manufacturers and the EPA proceeding to regulate the air we exhale, the Yucca Mountain closing is coming under fire.
Big utility operators as well as some states like South Carolina and Washington are blasting the Obama administrations announcement that it will drop plans for a federal nuclear-waste vault beneath Yucca Mountain.
“The Energy Department’s move to formally drop its application for the Yucca Mountain waste site could hobble efforts to build more nuclear power plants—a strategy the Obama administration has promoted as a way to reduce U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions. Without a permanent solution to the waste-storage problem, several states, including California, won’t let new nuclear plants be built.”
“Michael Morris, chief executive of American Electric Power Co., said on Thursday that “there has to be a reaction,” because Yucca is the only site that’s been vetted and deemed capable of storing waste from the nation’s 104 operating power reactors. Speaking at a Wall Street Journal conference, he blasted the “idiocy of Yucca Mountain” being terminated as a repository, and said the government will have wasted $10 billion on the project if it doesn’t proceed.”
“Under federal law, Yucca is the designated site for the nation’s spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. But the repository is more than a decade behind schedule. As a result, the waste generally remains at the nuclear reactors and DOE sites where it was generated.”
But what’s a few billion dollars wasted, a significant number of jobs lost, and the pronouncement of conflicting federal policies to this consummate totalitarian? 2012 can’t come any too soon!
Tom Motherway
Yucca Update: NV4CFE Website is Live
Posted by Tom in Energy Facts & Policies, Nevada, Yucca Mountain on February 23, 2010
This is an update on our recent dinner presentation on the Yucca Energy Park, see Yucca Mountain=Jobs and Money For Nevada. Gene Humphrey, Mike Nusbaum and John Dunn are proceeding apace with the non-profit entity, Nevadans 4 Carbon Free Energy. Their new website, while still being constructed is live and open for business and any comments you want to share; check it out, http://nv4cfe.org. Sign up for email alerts on the right column, you can also get the latest news there, and by clicking the education tab at the top you have access to a DOE video describing the Yucca construction and testing being accomplished.
Tom Motherway
Yucca Mountain=Jobs and Money For Nevada
Posted by Tom in State Finances, Yucca Mountain on February 17, 2010
Kudos to John Dunn, Mike Nusbaum and Gene Humphrey for the excellent presentation on Yucca Mountain at our dinner February 16th. They along with Bill McCraley and Randy York have formed a non-profit to promote and manage their proposed “Yucca Energy Park” which would administer a Nevada Permanent Fund and manage the myriad of services and related businesses consequent on the development of Yucca Mountain as a nuclear fuel repository. Those would include nuclear spent fuel rod reprocessing, nuclear research, a nuclear power plant and related activities including R&D for alternative energy technologies. In other words their proposal is to benefit Nevada and its people by going beyond the “waste dump” pejorative of the nuclear repository, and fully developing the economic potential of all commercial aspects of nuclear energy: power generation, reprocessing, and R & D. In addition the Park concept also accommodates an R&D focus on potential/emerging alternative energy technologies.
The potential revenue to the state and its people is measurable in the Billions of Dollars, since every nuclear power rate payer now pays an assessment that goes into a fund specifically for Yucca which has accumulated over $30 Billion to date and continues by law to provide significant monies annually. The proposal is that half of the money received would go to operating expenses and the state, the other half would go directly to the rate payers in the state. The analogy here is the Alaskan Permanent Fund which derives revenue from the pipeline. In Alaska not only does the state benefit but the people directly benefit with annual dividend payments.
But just as important as the money are the jobs the project would produce. Many of the permanent jobs are high skill high pay jobs, some are maintenance and administration. The construction jobs would extend over a couple of decades. And the research positions would create a whole new area of opportunity for the university as well as private firms. So this is potentially a major diversification for the economy of the state. In short, the Yucca Energy Park is a SIGNIFICANT, HIGH QUALITY JOBS MACHINE for Nevada!
The timing of their efforts is particularly appropriate since Obama has finally decided to promote nuclear power as an eco-friendly step toward reducing reliance on foreign oil.
It is truly a pity that we have short sighted politicians like Harry Reid in Nevada–perhaps blind is a more appropriate descriptive characteristic! Harry is trying to kill what the people need most jobs and diversification of the state’s economy.
There are also positive indications in the press that states like South Carolina are considering legal action for force the federal government to proceed with the Yucca project.
We thank and applaud John, Mike and Gene for the presentation and will keep everyone posted as to the progress. If any reader wants to help with this they can (1) write, call or email the Governor asking him to move Yucca forward, and (2) contact the new non-profit by emailing me at tom@renohayek.com.
Tom Motherway