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“The Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future, in association with state regional groups that work on high-level radioactive waste policy, will be hosting public meetings to solicit feedback on the draft commission report (pdf alert:   http://www.brc.gov/sites/defau… ).  The participant host groups include; the Western Governors’ Association/Western Interstate Energy Board, the Southern States Energy Board, the Council of State Governments-Midwestern Office, and the Council of State Governments- Eastern Regional Conference.

“The meeting[s] will be held to present the draft Commission report (issued on July 29, 2011) and hear feedback from state, local and tribal perspectives – as well as from interested members of the public.  The meeting will begin with a briefing from Commission staff on the draft report, followed by comments from elected and appointed state and regional representatives.  The latter portion of the meeting will be devoted to facilitated and interactive breakout sessions open to all who attend and will conclude with a public comment period.

“All public are welcome to attend.  Pre-registration is strongly encouraged but not required.  Information about registration will be available in the near future.  The meetings will not be video webcast.  Transcripts of the meetings will be available on the website, along with all written comments anyone chooses to offer. Comments can either be made directly to the website at http://www.brc.gov or by email to: CommissionDFO@nuclear.energy.gov.   Comment deadline is October 31, 2011.”

September 13, 2011

Embassy Suites

1420 Stout Street

Denver, CO

Preregister at: http://brc-wga.eventbrite.com

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October 12, 2011

Harvard Medical School Conference Center

77 Louis Pasteur, Longwood

Boston, MA

Pre-registration http://brc-ma.eventbrite.com

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October 18, 2011

Marriot Marquis

265 Peachtree Center Avenue

Atlanta, GA

Pre-registration:  http://brc-ga.eventbrite.com

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October 20, 2011

Hilton Garden Inn, 815 14th Street N.W

Washington, DC

Pre-register at  http://brc-dc.eventbrite.com

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October 28, 2011

Radisson Plaza Hotel, 35 South Seventh Street

Minneapolis, MN

Pre-register at  http://brc-mn.eventbrite.com

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My policy is zero emissions, 100% recycling for all wastes, including low level and high level radioactive waste, and my immediate concerns for “America’s Nuclear future” are 1) how quickly we can move commercial spent fuel from wet storage, which requires a constant supply and circulation of cooling water, to dry cask storage which does not;  and 2) how many of the 35 US boiling water reactors like Fukushima have spent fuel pools above buildings outside the radiation containment structures and how soon can that be remedied?  Neither of these issues are top priorities in the present Blue Ribbon Commission report as they are looking at a different scale and timeframe.

Continue reading Public Hearing Schedule for “America’s Nuclear Future”: Boston, 10/12/11
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Two prominent Democrats on the town of Lenox’s Select Board proposed and seconded a formal motion in a ‘new business surprise’ item on August 31, 2011.  The motion, if passed, would have closed public discussion of wind energy at upcoming public forums that were intended to focus on both wind and solar plans, thus limiting the municipal energy options that the public could learn about.

It so happens that the town’s Democratic Party Town Committee is meeting this evening.  Might the Democratic Town Committee address and publicize its position on wind energy?  One of the Select Board members who advanced the anti-wind motion is the Democratic Town Committee Chairman.

The Case for a Green-Rainbow Party Town Committee.

Continue reading Democrats Against Wind

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A) Narrative:

Riding home from the courthouse with my wife and one of my daughters after escaping the clutches of the media was a welcomed relief after my first day as an accused felon. But I couldn’t escape.

On the radio,the broadcaster was telling those who had heard and those who hadn’t that Councilor Turner not only was arrested but also was stripped by the Council President of all his committee responsibilities and had been invited to an executive session of the City Council the following Monday. Well, at least I’ll have a relatively quiet weekend to figure out what to do, I thought.

What I forgot was that the media never sleeps. When I got home, they were there and even though I wouldn’t talk to them, they stayed there until all our friends had left. Bright and early the next day, they came back. Different people but with the same insistence on my answering their needs until I asked the police to put up a Do Not Cross per order of the police barrier.

Throughout the day, calls from friends and family gave needed reassurance that I continued to have their support. Particularly helpful were calls from Steve Kirshbaum, School Bus Drivers Union

steward and International Action Center leader, and Aaron Tanaka, the organizer for the Boston Workers’ Alliance, an organization of unemployed workers that I had helped to organize and that was operating out of my District Office. Their question was whether I wanted them to organize a rally at City Hall on Monday. My immediate response was yes.

Continue reading Chuck Turner, Reflections from Behind the Wall: Chapter 4: Jury of My Peers:

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Cambridge, Massachusetts is the East Coast’s Berkeley, California. Its crunchy reputation — from hippie/granola to People’s Republic — is well-earned on average, but, well, a bit off-target and way out of date. You see, since rent control was thrown out by the end of 1994, Cambridge has seen a dramatic erosion of its working class communities. And going back to 1940, when the Plan E / City Manager form of government was first instituted, the elites have found it easier and easier to pull the strings on policies of social upheaval and community destruction.

While no substitute for reading Bill Cunningham’s historical backgrounder Which People’s Republic?, he manages to sum it all up in one sentence:

In Cambridge, these policies have uprooted poor and working class communities in order to cultivate, on the same soil, the University City.

And for all the feel-good progressivism that pervades this city, there is an underbelly of corruption, liberalism, and exploitation that stink up the place. The racial diversity is lovely, but quietly growing apartheid conditions and a fierce, latent racism mean that such feel-good sentiments are dangerous illusions. And while it’s lovely that we are sister cities with so many others around the world, we are on a path of social destruction here at home. I am proud and grateful to live in a city that has an active, funded Peace Commission, but I am ashamed to live in a city with a more active, better-funded city government that colludes to protect the elite university, biotech, and developer interests at the expense of its own people.

So it is with a bit of glee that I observe the unfolding drama around the wrongful-termination lawsuit that is haunting City Manager Bob Healy and the complicit City Council. It’s rare that all the corruption, hypocrisy, and racism hiding under the veneer of all the many positives that Cambridge has going for it bubble to the surface in one instance.

Continue reading Oh Cambridge, you came and you gave without taking
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Have seen talk among Greens and others about a move to draft Feingold to primary Obama. Not happening. Quite the opposite:

“When I said on election night last year that it `was on to 2012,’ I meant it. As I said those words I was especially thinking of the need to re-elect President Obama. I will be working to re-elect him and hope to play a significant role in that effort.”

For some,of course, this will simply be another indication that even the most progressive Democrat suffers from that Original Sin that causes them to buckle and knuckle under: My Party Uber Alles (not that Greens don’t do preciusely the same thing). My take: sane progressives know how important it to maintain what we got while creeping forward (at a pace that dismays us all, but that’s reality).

In any case,scratch him from your wish list (and mine–he’s the only one in the Democratic Party whom I felt could have pulled it off–not that we would have won).

Continue reading Feingold: “I’m Not Running for Anything”

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Until recently, I had not thought of sheriff offices as places for “Greens.”

But last week, at the US Green Party Annual National meeting in Alfred, New York, I saw the energy and excitement around Cheri Honkala’s candidacy for Sheriff of Philadelphia. I had seen her name here and there before, including on this website, but I had not really understood who she was or why she was running for sheriff as a Green – or why this was important for Greens in general.

Cheri Honkala has a long track record of advocacy for poor people. She is very concerned about the large numbers of people being thrown into the street due to foreclosures – a hot topic among Green advocates these days. As Sheriff, she can do something about this: “Cheri Honkala vows to serve the interests of the people instead of the interests of the banks by ‘Keeping Families in Their Homes’ until the economic climate in Philadelphia changes.”

This video of the speech she gave at that meeting says a lot:

Continue reading The Need for Green Sheriffs
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Here’s my latest Solar PSA on how a south-facing window is already a solar collector:

http://www.youtube.com/v/FdGAd…

“Any window that sees direct sunlight is a solar collector.  You can learn how to use that free energy to make your home more comfortable and secure.  Caulk and seal the window against drafts.  Install storm windows on the exterior, interior, or both.  Cover the window at night with an insulating curtain to prevent conduction, convection, and radiative heat loss.  A valence above the window will stop night-time drafts and reduce condensation.  A sunny window can double as a greenhouse for starting seedlings or growing house plants.  Expand the solar space below, above, or beside the window with a windowbox solar air or water heater.    You can even design a living system to provide fresh vegetables and fish year round while producing space heat, cleaning the air, and reducing waste.  A south-facing window is already a solar collector.  Learn how to use it.”

Continue reading Solar PSA: A South-Facing Window Is Already a Solar Collector
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It’s so easy to fall into the partisan trap. To assume that your party or religion, or whatever, is the sole repository of truth, or integrity, or wisdom, or even just “the facts.”  But that’s a fool’s errand. We’re all struggling out here, we all have our chosen mechanisms, we all experiment with different strategies, we all adopt those vehicles that seat us best. Doesn’t mean the others are of no value. And just because you don’t care for the driver or the way the other car is headed doesn’t mean its a bad vehicle. Sometimes, you just need someone different in the driver’s seat.

I bring this up because I honestly believe that there’s a rare opportunity for Greens to support a (*gasp*) Democrat without holding their noses.  A Democratic candidate for an incredibly important seat: Scott Brown’s. I’ve posted on the brand new “Half-Term Senator” web site my own reasons for unseating Brown-if you’ve been studying his votes, you already have your own. The candidate I have in mind supports single-payer health insurance. He supports an immediate drawdown of US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. He’s promised that his first act as Senator will be to introduce legislation overturning the Supreme Court’s decision in re Citizens United. He has Bill McKibben’s unique endorsement. And unlike Senators Kerry and Brown he would have voted against the debt ceiling “deal” (insisting instead that the President invoke the 14th). (Oh-and he testified against predatory gambling here in MA, too).

Continue reading Turn Blue a Little More Green: A Rare Opportunity for Greens