Comments on: Could the Recovery Act Help Reinvent Government? http://citiwire.net/post/1269/ Leaving behind the 20th century pattern of cheap energy, endless automobility, burgeoning suburbs, threatened inner cities. To a challenge-packed 21st century: energy prices headed north, perilous carbon emissions, deepening have-have not divisions. But a time of exciting promise, too. Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:05:05 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Mayraj Fahim http://citiwire.net/post/1269/comment-page-1/#comment-780 Mayraj Fahim Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:57:04 +0000 http://citiwire.net/?p=1269#comment-780 A thought comes to mind, why don't MPO's and COGs engage citizens. They can use their websites. A small city in British Columbia has illustrated it doesn't cost much to do that. Please see: http://www.creativeclass.com/creative_class/2009/08/27/how-to-engage-citizens-on-a-municipal-website/ How to engage citizens on a municipal website http://www.govtech.com/gt/96128 Nanaimo's Online City Hall A thought comes to mind, why don’t MPO’s and COGs engage citizens. They can use their websites.

A small city in British Columbia has illustrated it doesn’t cost much to do that.

Please see:
http://www.creativeclass.com/creative_class/2009/08/27/how-to-engage-citizens-on-a-municipal-website/
How to engage citizens on a municipal website

http://www.govtech.com/gt/96128
Nanaimo’s Online City Hall

]]> By: Mayraj Fahim http://citiwire.net/post/1269/comment-page-1/#comment-779 Mayraj Fahim Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:53:13 +0000 http://citiwire.net/?p=1269#comment-779 The Guardian newspaper suddenly took off its website an article about how coal power plants and coal ash was creating abnormalities and cancer. Apparently uranium naturally occurs in coal and is concentrated in coal ash. If you google the article title"Children crippled by India's uranium waste" you can see how many website picked it up. There has been information also about rise in diseases linked to nuclear testing and accidents. See: Dr. Ernest J. Sternglass's book: Secret Fallout, Low-Level Radiation from Hiroshima to Three Mile Island, © 1981 by Ernest J. Sternglass, McGraw-Hill Book Company. One should also not forget the WPPS debacle. Nuclear power plants are also also expensive. Nuclear industry needs to address issues about health hazards and waste disposal. The Guardian newspaper suddenly took off its website an article about how coal power plants and coal ash was creating abnormalities and cancer. Apparently uranium naturally occurs in coal and is concentrated in coal ash. If you google the article title”Children crippled by India’s uranium waste” you can see how many website picked it up.
There has been information also about rise in diseases linked to nuclear testing and accidents.
See:
Dr. Ernest J. Sternglass’s book:
Secret Fallout, Low-Level Radiation from Hiroshima to Three Mile Island,
© 1981 by Ernest J. Sternglass, McGraw-Hill Book Company.

One should also not forget the WPPS debacle. Nuclear power plants are also also expensive. Nuclear industry needs to address issues about health hazards and waste disposal.

]]> By: Neal Peirce http://citiwire.net/post/1269/comment-page-1/#comment-778 Neal Peirce Thu, 27 Aug 2009 19:41:42 +0000 http://citiwire.net/?p=1269#comment-778 Right after the plea for nuclear power plants in the Robert Justice column, I received this release from the Nuclear Nuclear Information and Resource Service (http://www.nirs.org): WASHINGTON, D.C.--August 27, 2009///The so-called “nuclear renaissance” is finding few friends among state lawmakers in the United States. The nuclear power industry has been shut out across the board in 2009 in its efforts in all six states - ranging across the nation from Kentucky to Minnesota to Hawaii -- where it sought to overturn what are either explicit or effectively bans on construction of new reactors, according to the nonprofit Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS). Efforts to overturn bans also have failed to advance in Illinois and West Virginia and Wisconsin. Michael Mariotte, executive director, Nuclear Information and Resource Service, said: “While the nuclear power industry and a few members of Congress claim the U.S. is on the verge of a nuclear power resurgence, the industry looks more like a critical patient struggling to get by on life support out in the real world beyond the Beltway. No one seriously expects the industry to go away. But the truth is that things will be even tougher for their state lobbyists in 2010 now that the freeze on Yucca Mountain has taken long-term waste disposal off the table and also in the wake of new evidence of runaway construction costs that make nuclear power even more of a boondoggle.” Dave Kraft, director, Nuclear Energy Information Service, Chicago, IL., said: "Authorizing construction of new nuclear reactors without first constructing a radioactive waste disposal facility is like authorizing construction of a new Sear's Tower without bathrooms. Neither makes sense; both threaten public health and safety." Right after the plea for nuclear power plants in the Robert Justice column, I received this release from the Nuclear Nuclear Information and Resource Service (http://www.nirs.org):

WASHINGTON, D.C.–August 27, 2009///The so-called “nuclear renaissance” is finding few friends among state lawmakers in the United States. The nuclear power industry has been shut out across the board in 2009 in its efforts in all six states – ranging across the nation from Kentucky to Minnesota to Hawaii — where it sought to overturn what are either explicit or effectively bans on construction of new reactors, according to the nonprofit Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS). Efforts to overturn bans also have failed to advance in Illinois and West Virginia and Wisconsin.
Michael Mariotte, executive director, Nuclear Information and Resource Service, said: “While the nuclear power industry and a few members of Congress claim the U.S. is on the verge of a nuclear power resurgence, the industry looks more like a critical patient struggling to get by on life support out in the real world beyond the Beltway. No one seriously expects the industry to go away. But the truth is that things will be even tougher for their state lobbyists in 2010 now that the freeze on Yucca Mountain has taken long-term waste disposal off the table and also in the wake of new evidence of runaway construction costs that make nuclear power even more of a boondoggle.”

Dave Kraft, director, Nuclear Energy Information Service, Chicago, IL., said: “Authorizing construction of new nuclear reactors without first constructing a radioactive waste disposal facility is like authorizing construction of a new Sear’s Tower without bathrooms. Neither makes sense; both threaten public health and safety.”

]]> By: Robert Justice http://citiwire.net/post/1269/comment-page-1/#comment-777 Robert Justice Thu, 27 Aug 2009 02:24:29 +0000 http://citiwire.net/?p=1269#comment-777 Our economy is empty. 85% of it is in services and the only manufacturing we have is electronic toys, i-pods and such. We are facing an enviromental crisis and need to change our energy supply from fossil fuels. We have been told that all our energy could be supplied by wind power. If you read, nothing could be farther from the truth. We need to build 200 nuclear power plants over the next 50 years to replace fossil fuels. A nuclear plant costs $5 billion and will require the same amount of steel and concrete as the Empire State Building among other things. You could have built 100 of those plants with 2/3 of the stimulus package. We need to rebuild our steel industries to accomplish this and to be able to build all the infrastructure items including new electric cars and mass transit systems. The longer we waste the less chance we have to make this work before enviromental disaster. Robert Justice Kingwood, TX Our economy is empty. 85% of it is in services and the only manufacturing we have is electronic toys, i-pods and such. We are facing an enviromental crisis and need to change our energy supply from fossil fuels. We have been told that all our energy could be supplied by wind power. If you read, nothing could be farther from the truth. We need to build 200 nuclear power plants over the next 50 years to replace fossil fuels. A nuclear plant costs $5 billion and will require the same amount of steel and concrete as the Empire State Building among other things. You could have built 100 of those plants with 2/3 of the stimulus package. We need to rebuild our steel industries to accomplish this and to be able to build all the infrastructure items including new electric cars and mass transit systems. The longer we waste the less chance we have to make this work before enviromental disaster.
Robert Justice
Kingwood, TX

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