Two interesting news reports this past week. One was Elizabeth Kohlbert of the New Yorker magazine talking with Brian Lehrer of WNYC public radio in New York regarding the pollution caused by commercial aviation. Add to that all military and private planes, it's a wonder more isn't being done to expose this issue. Think of it...tens of thousands of planes in the skies, occupying every time zone, 24 hours a day. Lacing the clouds with unfiltered, raw exhaust from jet fuel.
Another item appeared on February 8th in the New York Times regarding the Oyster Creek nuclear power facility, which is seeking renewal of its license in the face of charges by many New Jersey state officials and area activists that the reactor containment liner is compromised and assertions that it should be shut down. The Times, which is usually pretty lousy on nuclear issues, presents most of the facts fairly. The story of the Oyster Creek reactor, near Tom's River, is among the purest cautionary tales of the nuclear power age.
I have traveled to Tom's River a handful of times. I have worked, intermittently, with New Jersey PIRG and the Radiation and Public Health Project in New York to oppose AmerGen's relicensing application. Recently, I visited the offices of Governor Corzine and spoke with his staff about the need for a cooling tower for the plant. Oyster Creek is pumping millions of gallons of extremely hot cooling water directly into the river, killing large stocks of fish. Oyster Creek stores hundreds of tons of spent fuel above ground and is viewed by many officials and activists as a prime target for terrorism.
AmerGen's problems in New Jersey and no plan for spent fuel by the DOE. Exxon/Mobil and its record profits while they continue to stall on the Valdez punitive damages figure. Airlines asking for sympathy and possible Chrysler-like bailouts if they should collapse, while they gouge the pilots and flight attendants and turn the American commercial aviation industry into a fleet of flying buses. All the while, polluting the skies in truly incalculable ways. Thousands of brave Americans dead in a war for oil.
How much more of this do you think this country, the entire world itself, can bear? You think Hillary has the answers? Obama?
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