Most Pollutants from power plants? Ohio, with NC a close second

The North Carolina Public Interest Research Group released a study this week which places North Carolina second, behind Ohio, for the highest level of power plant pollutants released into the air in 2004.
Come on, Progress. Come on Duke. We can do better. Number 2 is the first loser, right guys?
The 65-page report is long on detail and begins,

Every day in America, industrial facilities release millions of pounds of toxic substances into the nation’s air and water. Many Americans – especially those who live in close proximity to industrial facilities –harbor deep concern about how those toxic releases may affect their health.

Harbor deep concern about those toxic releases affecting their health. Go figure. I mean, it's not like we have County Commissioners and power companies making secret deals to build just such industrial facilities upwind from cities... oh, wait, here in Buncombe County we do. And it is not like industry would lie about their ambitions and facts about their pollution... oh wait, they do that too.
I guess then we should harbor deep concern then.
Of course, it could be worse, it can always be worse. We could be in Texas, where G. W. Bush had more time to mess things up than he has in the rest of the USA.


Okay, you say, we also are not as bad as Louisiana, South Carolina, and Alabama, but is that a goal to which we wish to aspire?
The report also breaks out the North Carolina data by itself. I have just begun going over it and will be back later with an update.
This is gonna hurt some people's careers.

One Positive Step We Can Do

Our railroad system is in shambles, AMTRAK, while good when it works and goes where you want it to go, has no national goals--they only want to hang on to the NE corridor and eke out what they can from that.
I am almost old enough to remember rail travel, or so I am told by older relatives who say I took train rides when young.
Maybe that explains it.
Who knows?
As James H. Kunstler explains on his site from whence I stole this picture , "After a half century of neglect, America now has a railroad system that the Bolivians would be ashamed of. There isn't another project we could do that would have a greater impact on our oil consumption than fixing our rail system and restoring passenger service. It's a project that would put scores of thousands of people to work at good jobs at every work level from management to labor. It would benefit people in all ranks of society. The fact that we are not doing it, or even talking about it, shows how unserious we are. We are entering an era of energy scarcity. We can't afford to ignore this task any longer."

Indeed. A string of cars all headed the same direction for dozens of miles twice a day is a poor substitution for even the worst-run railroad. I suffered through the Long Island Rail Road twice a day for years, and I sat in Long Island traffic too.
I much prefer the time on the rail road. Even that one.

SAIC and the shadow government--Part III

All right, let's bring this home. We have found, over the past two days some amazing things about SAIC.

The most amazing is yet to come.

Their fingerprints are all over the nuclear industry, they are partnered with Bechtel in building Yucca Mountain, they were apparently instrumental in denying the claims of many veterans exposed to radiation, and they are enthusiastically behind the "re-purposing" of "low level" radioactive metal wastes into things like, oh, tableware and such.

What?

Yes. From the article...

Periodically over the years, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Department of Energy, prodded by executives in the nuclear industry, have sought to ease the rules against re-using "lightly" contaminated radioactive waste. ... If slightly radioactive metal were combined with other metals, the resulting material could be made into all kinds of consumer items—knives and forks, baby strollers, chairs, rings, eyeglass frames, bicycles, reclining rockers, earrings, frying pans. It also could be used in construction. ... Lest any of this sound improbable, in the 1980s radioactive table legs began turning up in the United States everywhere from restaurants to nursing homes. A radioactive gold ring cost a Pennsylvania man his arm. The public outcry was so great that in 1992 Congress set out to ban this form of recycling. The N.R.C., D.O.E., and nuclear industry saw the ban coming and were not happy about it, but they also saw a way out: maybe it would be possible to develop broad guidelines that would allow the contaminated waste to be recycled based on what were deemed "safe" exposure levels. Never mind that there is no such thing as a safe dose of radiation. Two months before the ban was signed into law, the N.R.C. gave the multi-million-dollar job of formulating the guidelines to an outside contractor. The contractor was SAIC.

No. Say it is not so. How can this be? This is what happens when industry and "contractors" write laws and federal regulations outside the system of checks and balances.

The synergy of this arrangement was discovered accidentally by a Washington lawyer, Daniel Guttman, whose longtime passion has been conflicts of interest that inevitably—purposefully—arise from government outsourcing. Guttman called attention in public hearings to what was happening, thoroughly embarrassing officials at the N.R.C. and the D.O.E. and stirring the ire of public-interest groups. The N.R.C. killed its contract with SAIC. The recycling project was put on hold. And the N.R.C. filed suit against SAIC, alleging "false and/or fraudulent representations to the effect that [SAIC] was providing services to the NRC which were free from bias." SAIC has denied the conflict-of-interest claims, and the suit is still pending.

Keep in mind, these are the things we can find out just from this Vanity Fair article. What more must there be which could not be sourced?

We have to keep an eye on companies like SAIC, our survival as a republic depends on it.

Some good news from 11-NC

Shuler opposes Bush plan to sell forest land

Amen.

As the Citizen-Times reports...

"(Congressman Shuler) is absolutely opposed to the sale of national forest lands in the 11th District and across North Carolina,” Shuler spokesman Andrew Whalen said. ...when things get tight around the house, you don’t sell off the front yard."

Let me repeat that....

"(Congressman Shuler) is absolutely opposed to the sale of national forest lands in the 11th District and across North Carolina,” Shuler spokesman Andrew Whalen said. ...when things get tight around the house, you don’t sell off the front yard."

Of course, the GOP tried to make the land grab, er, sale go over with the canard that it would benefit schools, yadda, yadda.

I mean I know they have pulled wool over the eyes of mountain people before, but it seems we have learned a bit from their previous games. Rural electrification, lakes for recreation, re-forestation after strip mining. The list goes on and on.

But it looks like Heath ain't buying.

Good on ya, Mr. Congressman. Keep up the good work.

And don't sell off the front yard. The side yard. Or the back yard. The greed heads already have enough of this area.