Mike, you have a group bulletin from No Nukes Team.
Visit No Nukes Team.
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.
Reply? Or other thoughts?
If you have questions about the bulletin CONTENT, please visit the group's page and leave a comment, or contact the group owner.
Technical Issues?
Please reply to this message (or email [log in to unmask]) if you have questions or problems with the bulletin itself.
If you want to stop getting email, you can either leave (unjoin) or set your email preferences.