Tree Hugger Thread

[Vrede too]

The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument is about 150 miles southeast of Cape Cod.

[Vrede too]

Updated: Tillis moves to give counties wilderness veto

Tillis and the NC GOP have attacked local control on a host of purely local issues like the Asheville water system debacle and HB2, though Tillis wasn't directly involved in the latter. Now, Tillis wants to give localities control over lands that are owned by all Americans, just like the Bundys do.

[Vrede too]

On Thu, September 22, 2016 3:05 pm, Senator Thom Tillis wrote:
>
> Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts on the sale of
> bottled water in national parks. I appreciate hearing from you.
>
> As you are aware, in December 2011, the National Park Service (NPS)
> issued a memorandum that allowed parks to voluntarily stop selling
> plastic water bottles in an attempt to reduce waste. Since the
> memorandum was issued, 22 NPS units have stopped selling plastic water
> bottles. However, NPS has not collected any data to determine if
> eliminating the sale of water bottles actually helps to reduce waste.
>
> On June 16, 2016, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the
> annual spending bill for NPS for fiscal year (FY) 2017, and sent it to
> the full Senate for consideration. This bill includes language that
> would direct NPS to eliminate this policy, and it also acknowledges
> that the House of Representatives is attempting to overturn this policy
> through separate legislation.
>
> As an avid outdoorsman, I understand the importance of protecting the
> environment. However, I have several concerns with this policy,
> especially when there is no evidence that it is effective in reducing
> waste, namely that it could increase the risk of dangerous dehydration
> among those enjoying the parks during the hot summer months. We must be
> careful that efforts to protect the environment do not cause more harm
> than good....
>
> Sincerely,
> Thom Tillis
> U.S. Senator

Dear Senator Tillis,

What a load of crap!

Of course it reduces waste and anyone so stupid as to visit a national park without a water bottle can buy some beverage other than water and refill it as often as they want.

Do you really think people are so dense as to buy your "risk of dangerous dehydration" lies? Oh, that's right, you got elected.

Sincerely,
(Vrede too), RN

[rstrong]

"Beverages other than water" are available? Then why the hell not water?

A lot of us NEED to keep our sugar intake down. Almost all juice on the market has soft drink levels of sugar. We shouldn't have to buy a can of Coke, dump it out, and fill it with water in the public bathroom.

If you have soft drinks or juice for sale, then water should bloody well be available too.

[Vrede too]

"Beverages other than water" are available? Then why the hell not water?

Because water can be gotten from a tap without any waste.

A lot of us NEED to keep our sugar intake down. Almost all juice on the market has soft drink levels of sugar.

Once won't kill you, or there are sugar-free sodas. After that, you can refill with water hundreds of times.

We shouldn't have to buy a can

Bottle.

of Coke, dump it out, and fill it with water in the public bathroom.

Parks have water fountains, but to each his own.

If you have soft drinks or juice for sale, then water should bloody well be available too.

Why? If you can't be environmentally responsible in parks, stay the hell out of them.

Disclaimer: I get that you might be joking. Either way, you do a great Ugly Canadian.

[Vrede too]

... You can trust the future of HEU when the plan is to immediately downgrade it for use in reactors ...

"the plan" has failed, as I posted:

... Site preparation at the Savannah River Site (South Carolina) began in October 2005. In 2011 the New York Times reported "...11 years after the government awarded a construction contract, the cost of the project has soared to nearly $5 billion. The vast concrete and steel structure is a half-finished hulk, and the government has yet to find a single customer, despite offers of lucrative subsidies." ...

More:

Former Rep. David Hobson: Not Cutting MOX Is My "Biggest Regret"

This is a story about the biggest, baddest earmark of all time.

... The plant, located in South Carolina, was called the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility (MOX), and was expected to be completed within three years and cost $1.6 billion.

Fast forward to today and the facility still has not been finished. The Department of Energy has sunk $4.5 billion into construction alone and estimates for finishing the job range between $25 billion and a staggering $114 billion. Not only is the project more than one-thousand percent over cost and years behind schedule, the MOX facility lacks even a single U.S. utility customer for its commercial reactor fuel.

It is the very definition of a boondoggle....

Beyond the exorbitant price tag, the MOX facility also suffers from alarming safety and security problems, according to watchdog groups like the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) and Taxpayers for Common Sense.

They discovered, for example, that the contractor in charge of the project was granted an exemption from an important security standard before construction of the facility began. Places like MOX must be able to verify the location of all special nuclear materials within 72 hours. The logic is straightforward: if a terrorist claims to have stolen nuclear material from a facility like MOX, it is essential to be able to verify or disprove such a claim as soon as possible.

Instead of 72 hours, the MOX contractor estimates it could take 180 days (!) to physically verify the presence of all nuclear materials—60 times the safety requirement....

I trust Canada to manage its own rad waste more than I trust "Mobile Chernobyls" and US management.

[rstrong]

Keep in mind that that "boondoggle" was central to the Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement (PMDA) between the US and Russia. The program had already run from 2000 to 2010, and under the new 2010 agreement each side would dispose of a further 34 metric tons of surplus weapons plutonium. The combined 68 metric tons of plutonium is “enough material for approximately 17,000 nuclear weapons.

Even in 2010 the Arms Control Association document above recognized that "In the U.S. disposition program, the Department of Energy and its National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) have had difficulty securing agreements with U.S. utilities to take the MOX fuel that is to be fabricated at a plant now being built by an NNSA contractor at the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina."

Government contractor incompetence and corruption aside, it still seems like a damned good investment. Even if you can't make a quick buck selling the downgraded fuel.

Putin just suspended the program, saying that US was failing to fulfil its obligations. Your post above indicates that there's probably some truth to that. On the other hand if suspending the program can be used to pressure the US, it's a good indication that *someone* thinks the program is in the US's best interests.

[Vrede too]

I'm aware of the failed history and I'm okay with de-nuclearizing what was a very unstable Russia, thanks, it's been discussed in my links. My only point here is that Canadian rad-waste is not going to be recycled. It's just moving the problem from one place to another and past my home.

[Vrede too]

Update:

Unprecedented Shipments of Liquid High-Level Nuclear Waste from Canada to Savannah River Site have been Suspended Until at Least February 17, 2017

[Vrede too]

Canada: Critics accuse nuclear safety official of acting as industry cheerleader

[Vrede too]

Victory: Arctic and Atlantic Oceans off limits to Big Oil

Thank President Obama for protecting the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, and continuing a climate legacy that belongs to us all. (petition)

Not permanent by any means, but Trump will have to craft an alternate plan that passes scientific, public, congressional and court muster. "Drill baby drill" is Palinesque idiocy for the masses, not functional policy.

[rstrong]

Victory: Arctic and Atlantic Oceans off limits to Big Oil

Interesting. This might come as a surprise to workers on the world's largest offshore oil platform, in the Hibernia oil field off Newfoundland. There's also the White Rose, Terra Nova and Sable Island oil fields in production in the North Atlantic.

There were Canadian production wells in the Arctic during the 1970s and 1980s, but the wells turned out to be more gas than oil and they were eventually abandoned. Other countries are drilling in the arctic, and a Russian offshore arctic megaproject started pumping a couple years ago.

[Vrede too]

Victory: US Arctic and Atlantic Oceans off limits to Big Oil

[rstrong]

Better!

[Vrede too]

A little, but you could have pointed out that the US doesn't own them.

Victory: US-controlled Arctic and Atlantic Oceans off limits to Big Oil

[rstrong]

Fair enough.

Victory: US-controlled bits of Arctic and Atlantic Oceans off limits to Big Oil

[Vrede too]

Yeah, my edit didn't completely do what I intended. The fishies and marine mammals need some refuge from Canada's rapaciousness.

That said, Trump's coming, they may be US/Putin lakes yet.

[Vrede too]

Article:
Advanced Black Lung Cases Surge In Appalachia

Study:
Resurgence of Progressive Massive Fibrosis in Coal Miners —
Eastern Kentucky, 2016

Tragic. Yet another way that the true costs of coal are not borne by ratepayers, the companies or their investors.

[Vrede too]

Obama bans future oil leases in much of Arctic, Atlantic

President Barack Obama on Tuesday designated the bulk of U.S.-owned waters in the Arctic Ocean and certain areas in the Atlantic Ocean as indefinitely off limits to future oil and gas leasing.

The move helps put some finishing touches on Obama's environmental legacy while also testing President-elect Donald Trump's promise to unleash the nation's untapped energy reserves.

The White House announced the actions in conjunction with the government of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, which also placed a moratorium on new oil and gas leasing in its Arctic waters, subject to periodic review.

Obama is making use of an arcane provision in a 1953 law to ban offshore leases in the waters permanently. The statute says that "the president of the United States may, from time to time, withdraw from disposition any of the unleased lands of the outer Continental Shelf."

Environmental groups hope the ban, despite relying on executive powers, will be difficult for future presidents to reverse. The White House said it's confident the president's order will withstand legal challenge and said the language of the statute provides no authority for subsequent presidents to undo permanent withdrawals.

The Atlantic waters placed off limits to new oil and gas leasing are 31 canyons stretching off the coast of New England south to Virginia, though some had hoped for a more extensive ban that would have extended further south.

Existing leases aren't affected by the president's executive actions.

The administration cited environmental concerns in both regions to justify the moratorium. Obama also cited the importance of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas in providing subsistence for native Alaskans and the vulnerability of the ecosystem to an oil spill to justify his directive.

Obama also noted the level of fuel production occurring in the Arctic. Obama said just 0.1 percent of offshore crude production came from the Arctic in 2015, and at current oil prices, significant production would not occur in future decades.

"That's why looking forward, we must continue to focus on economic empowerment for Arctic communities beyond this one sector," Obama said....

Frank Knapp, president of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce in Columbia, said he was "extremely disappointed" in the decision not to extend drilling protections to the entire Atlantic seaboard.

Knapp and his group were among a number of business groups in the southeast who had advocated for banning new drilling leases off their shores, arguing that the environmental impacts would hurt fishing, tourism and other businesses the region relies upon....

The Carolinas would have been nice, but still :!: :!: :!:

[Vrede too]