---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sierra Club Activist Network <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, May 23, 2012 at 11:28 AM
Subject: Victory in Iowa
To: [log in to unmask]


 Mike, you have a group bulletin from *No Nukes
Team<http://connect.sierraclub.org/Team/No_Nukes_Team2>
*.

*Visit No Nukes Team. <http://connect.sierraclub.org/Team/No_Nukes_Team2>*
Message:IOWA Chapter Beats CWIP

Congratulations to our volunteers and staff in Iowa for keeping
Construction Work In Progress or CWIP* out of the mix in Iowa in 2012.

As volunteer Mike Carberry wrote in an Op-Ed that was published in several
Midwest newspapers,
“In a major blow to the nuclear industry, the Iowa Legislature adjourned
without passing a bill that would pave the way for MidAmerican Energy to
charge ratepayers in advance for new nuclear reactor construction”.

“The failure of this nuclear bill shows that the Legislature is listening
to the people of Iowa and not to the well-financed nuclear power industry
or to MidAmerican Energy’s lobbyists. Wall Street refuses to fund these
nuclear boondoggles and so do the private investors of MidAmerican Energy.
Now the Legislature has stepped up and said no to Iowa ratepayer funding as
well”.

Chapter legal chair, Wally Taylor reports that “the Iowa Chapter of the
Sierra Club was involved in this CWIP fight from the beginning. In fact it
was our Chapter Director, Neila Seaman who first spotted this bill early in
the legislative session last year. If she had had not spotted it, the bill
would have passed the legislature quickly and easily. We then talked to
Physicians for Social Responsibility, the only other anti-nuke group we
knew of. Then others joined the coalition. But the Iowa Chapter was
definitely in the lead last year. Our Director sent out action alerts and
our members responded. I wrote guest opinions in newspapers and presented
testimony to the Iowa Senate Commerce Committee”.

In addition to Wally, Mike Carberry and Pam Mackey Taylor worked last year
as a volunteer for the Chapter. Eventually, the Iowans were joined by AARP,
who were very helpful politically. The opposition became more than just
anti-nuke environmentalists. Friends of the Earth (FOE) heard about the
bill and offered to help. They provided radio, TV and newspaper ads. The
bill was stopped in the Iowa Senate in 2011.

This year the bill came back up in the Senate. The Iowa House of
Representatives had passed it the previous year. The coalition did more of
the same. This year Mike Carberry was hired by FOE to lobby and organize on
the bill.  The Iowa Chapter continued to be very much involved. More action
alerts garnered more responses to Senators from the members. Wally was able
to influence a new Senator who brought support the cause.

The Iowa Chapter of the Sierra Club was very instrumental and engaged in
this fight.  It is this kind of local roots that are the foundation of our
growing national campaign to be nuclear free.  Wally Taylor and Mike
Carberry participated in the Sierra Club No Nukes Strategy Summit where
they shared their experience and knowledge in fighting CWIP with other
activists around the country.

*Construction Work In Progress (CWIP) is a mechanism to allow utilities to
charge ratepayers for the cost of financing new power plants during
construction. As a result of such legislation, utility customers would
experience periodic rate increases (probably quarterly) to pay interest to
bondholders and returns to shareholders on capital invested in power plants
before they are completed and providing electricity. Which means that
nuclear power plants could receive money upfront for construction from rate
payers with no accountability as to how much the plant will cost nor
whether it will actually be built.  This has been used as a vehicle to
finance new coal plants as well.


------------------------------

*Visit No Nukes Team. <http://connect.sierraclub.org/Team/No_Nukes_Team2>*
------------------------------
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-- 
Mike Carberry

319-594-6453
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