Energy Costs
The environment world has a new obsession: energy bills. It’s manifesting itself everywhere. Greenpeace recently urged the prime minister to “take personal responsibility for protecting consumers from high energy prices” and delivered a giant energy bill to Centrica HQ. The shadow climate secretary has declared that we should frame global warming around “bills, not bears”. A new climate change direct action group spent their first interview bemoaning the monopolistic powers of the Big Six. Progressive campaign group 38 Degrees have even set-up a collective buying scheme to help people get cheaper gas and electricity. And a coalition of environment groups are focusing their campaigning efforts on using carbon taxes to tackle fuel poverty, promising warmer homes and lower bills. It’s not hard to see where all this comes from. Green policies are under attack from the likes of the Daily Mail and George Osborne, so it’s important to remind policymakers and the public that rising gas prices have largely driven recent hikes in bills. Equally, campaigning on cost helps emphasise that the environment movement is in tune with people’s current economic concerns. Harnessing anti-corporate sentiment makes sense too as does coming up with new ways to empower consumers through collective buying. And making sure people aren’t shivering in their beds by insulating more homes is a no-brainer.
Guardian 11th June 2012 more >>
Nuclear Finance
Investors in nuclear power are being sold precarious and potentially damaging investments because the industrys risks are regularly being overlooked or underestimated, a new report from Greenpeace has found. Compiled with the help of BankTrack, the environmental organisations Toxic Assets report highlights the fact that vast sums of money have already been lost and investors are at risk of future losses as the industry and ratings agencies consistently underestimate, ignore and conceal major problems from shareholders and creditors. The Greenpeace report also argues that not only can these investments prove to be equally toxic as radioactive contamination following a nuclear accident, their worth is also being gradually eroded by aging plants, growing costs, falling utilisation rates, changing regulations and shrinking government support.
Greenpeace International 12th June 2012 more >>
There is a story about the Fukushima nuclear disaster that is not being told until now. We know that almost 16,000 people were killed by the tsunami and have heard the painful stories of hundreds of thousands of people who lost their homes and their livelihoods after the release of radiation from the stricken nuclear power plant. We havent heard much, however, about the hundreds of thousands who also lost a large portion of their savings.
Greenpeace International 12th June 2012 more >>
GDA
An independent review of progress in approving the safety of the new design of French nuclear reactors proposed for the UK concludes that it is well behind schedule, with 30 major issues still to be resolved.
NFLA 1st June 2012 more >>
Radwaste
CAMPAIGNERS took to the streets of Stan Laurels birth place to protest against a proposed nuclear dump in Cumbria. And Radiation Free Lakeland says the iconic theme music of bungling duo Laurel and Hardy, the Cuckoo Song, should be adopted by the Managing Radioactive Waste Safely Partnership, which is overseeing a consultation asking if Cumbria is willing to house a £4bn nuclear waste repository. The group has written to Ulverston Town Council in a bid to persuade councillors to oppose the process. They gathered 75 signatures of support from members of the public at the demonstration in Ulverston on Saturday.
NW Evening Mail 11th June 2012 more >>
Hinkley
Avon & Somerset police are warning that an army of construction workers flooding in to the area to build the planned Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant will send crime levels soaring. Police have outlined their fears in a letter to the National Infrastructure Directorate. The letter from planning consultants CSJ Planning warns that disputes between workers and members of the public could hit one a day by the peak construction period in 2016. It also predicts an explosion in crimes fuelled by excessive drinking among construction workers. The letters states: In particular the Constabulary share the same concerns of the Councils from the experiences during the construction of Sizewell B nuclear power station. Crime statistics during that development showed an increase in the amount of arrests made between the first years of construction (188) and at the later period of the development timescale of (572) showing an increase in arrests as the construction progressed.
Construction Enquirer 11th June 2012 more >>
Sellafield
Radioactive mosquitoes are being blamed after contaminated swallow droppings were discovered at Sellafield. An Environment Agency report revealed that bird droppings from around the swallow nesting site were found to be radioactively contaminated. It is believed the swallows, which are nesting in the transport section at the atomic complex, were contaminated by eating mosquitoes which fly above Sellafields radioactive storage ponds. A spokesman for the plant said checks at the nesting area showed the radiation dose was the indistinguishable from natural background radiation found in any work place, on or off a nuclear site. An anti-nuclear spokesman, however, said the birds were carrying a highly toxic message back to South Africa when they migrate at the end of the summer.
Carlisle News and Star 11th June 2012 more >>
BIRDS that feed on insects from the waters near Sellafield are leaving behind radioactive droppings, a campaign group claims. Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment say swallows nesting on the sites transport section have been producing radioactive muck. The group say the swallows droppings have become contaminated due to their diet of mosquitos, which inhabit Sellafields storage ponds.
NW Evening Mail 11th June 2012 more >>
Japan
On June 7, 2012, about 70 women including 10 women from Fukushima did a “die-in” in front of the Prime Minister’s Official Residence to protest against the restart of Ooi Nuclear Power Plant. Before the die-in, 10 Fukushima women visited the Cabinet Office and met with officials to submit a letter of requests addressed to Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda. This video clip shows the words from the Fukushima women and part of the die-in. On the very next day, June 8, 2012, Prime Minister Noda held a press conference and declared he would restart Ooi Nuclear Power Plant.
You Tube 10th June 2012 more >>
No nuclear power, no Japan. At least according to the country’s own Prime Minister. In a televised broadcast to the nation last Friday, Yoshihiko Noda said that if the reactors that previously fed the country’s energy grid continued to idle, then “Japanese society cannot survive.” Yet the country’s nuclear opponents and activists, gaining increasing influence even within Noda’s own Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), respond that Japanese society cannot survive by continuing to live with nuclear power.
IB Times 11th June 2012 more >>
The country’s reactors have lain idle since the tsunami that crippled the Fukushima plant. Now the government wants to turn them on again, starting in Oi a picturesque town that is bitterly divided on the issue.
Independent 12th June 2012 more >>
Iran
With a week to go before the next round of negotiations with Iran in Moscow, the mood music is discordant to say the least. Iran has taken accusing its six-nation group of negotiating partners of a lack of preparation and commitment to finding a solution. The EU, representing the six powers at the talks, responded by pointing out it had handed the Iranians a written proposal in Baghdad late last month and was waiting for a response.
Guardian 11th June 2012 more >>
The EU and Iran have agreed on the content of upcoming nuclear talks, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Monday after speaking by phone with Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili. Ashton and Jalili “agreed on the need for Iran to engage on the E3+3 (P5+1) proposals, which address its concerns on the exclusively peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear programme,” Ashton’s office said in a statement.
EU Business 12th June 2012 more >>
The tensions that have bubbled up between Iran and world powers over the future of the Iranian nuclear programm appear to have significantly eased, according to senior European Union figures. A sudden burst of telephone diplomacy between leading officials in Tehran and Brussels on Monday night followed weeks of fierce diplomatic disagreements over the programme.
FT 11th June 2012 more >>
US
President Barack Obamas pick to head the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has said atomic power cant grow without government subsidies, criticized an industry-supported plan to dispose of spent fuel in Nevada, and said she was drawn to nuclear research because she got bored with geology. I would describe myself as agnostic; Im neither pro-nuclear nor anti-nuclear, Allison Macfarlane said in a June 2007 interview for the Atomic Show on The Podcast Network.Were not going to see a large expansion of nuclear power in this country unless there is a lot of government subsidy.
Bloomberg 11th June 2012 more >>
Renewables
The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change at the London School of Economics predicted that the cost of putting up turbines will fall dramatically over the next few years so that by 2016 it will be as cheap to generate electricity from wind as from gas. This will encourage developers to build thousands of turbines in the countryside. At the moment there are just over 3,000 but to meet Government targets this will need to double by 2020. The report concluded that if people do not want so many turbines in the countryside, they will have to pay more on their energy bills as the only other alternative to keeping the lights on – while meeting carbon reduction targets, is to generate electricity from t he sun or offshore wind.
Telegraph 11th June 2012 more >>
Letter from GP, FoE & WWF: Plans for massive cuts in support for onshore wind power would be a major setback for economic recovery and push up the costs of modernising our electricity system. As the costs of renewable power continue to fall, it is right that the support they receive does, too, and the deal struck by Chris Huhne with David Cameron to cut that by 10% was justified. Yet onshore wind is the lowest-cost renewable technology, so slashing its support by 25% would seriously jeopardise new projects, including community-owned initiatives. The Environmental Audit Committee called on the government to show leadership on the green economy, in the same week that it emerged that William Hague had written to the prime minister to say exactly the same thing. We’re now seeing repeated calls from inside government and from business to stop the Treasury blocking green growth and provide policy certainty for the development of the renewable energy sector. All of which raises the question: are the Liberal Democrats, whose voters are identifiably green, and energy and climate change secretary Ed Davey trying and failing to fight for their own party’s green policies or do they agree with undermining the wind industry?
Observer 10th June 2012 more >>
Global investment in renewable energy surged to a new high last year, despite the widespread recession. But experts warned that the rate of growth was showing signs of slowing, and would need to speed up if the world’s economies are to be transformed on to a low-carbon footing. Last year, investment in renewable energy reached $257bn (£165bn), a rise of 17% on the previous year. The record investment was a six-fold increase on the 2004 figure and nearly double the total in 2007, the year before the world financial crisis, according to a report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21).
Guardian 11th June 2012 more >>
Green Deal
The government today unveiled long-awaited secondary legislation in support of its flagship Green Deal energy efficiency scheme, vowing that the new initiative will create more than 30,000 new green jobs over the next three years alone.
Business Green 11th June 2012 more >>
The Government today set out secondary legislation that will give industry the green light to bring the Green Deal energy efficiency market into operation, alongside measures to strengthen consumer protection, reduce industry burdens, and implement the Energy Company Obligation (ECO).
DECC 11th June 2011 more >>
Ministerial Statement on Green Deal and ECO.
DECC 11th June 2011 more >>
Ministerial Statement on Renewable Heat Incentive.
DECC 11th June 2011 more >>
The government’s flagship green policy to transform the energy efficiency of 14 million homes and create 65,000 jobs appears set for failure, after revelation that its own impact assessment shows the number of lofts being lagged per year will plummet by 83%. The government’s assessment predicts that the number of loft insulations will fall from about 900,000 in 2012 to 150,000 in 2013, a fall of 83%. The number of cavity walls being insulated is also predicted to fall, from about 700,000 in 2012 to 400,000 in 2013, a fall of 43%. “Despite all the criticism the green deal has received, ministers have refused to listen and the scheme remains riddled with problems,” said Labour’s Luciana Berger MP, a shadow Decc minister. “It is crazy that the government is pressing ahead with proposals which their own figures show will be a disaster for hundreds of small insulation businesses across the country and will risk thousands of jobs.”
Guardian 11th June 2012 more >>
