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The first two items show that we can get our energy primarily from clean, renewable sources and that solar PV will be cost competitive with traditional fossil fuels soon – even without government subsidies.
The third item relates how Duke Energy and other electric utilities are blocking the transition to clean energy in NC.

The seas are rising at a faster rate right now than at any point since at least the era of Julius Caesar, and there is a direct link between this increase and changes in global surface temperatures, according to a new study. Rising sea levels could have major impacts on not just marine ecosystems, but the entire planet, as coastal areas are swamped by encroaching waters.

States across the country have been reaching or exceeding their energy savings goals established through Energy Efficiency Resource Standards (EERS), thereby lowering utility bills for consumers and reducing the need to build costly new power plants.

These are rocky days at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which finds itself under attack from the outside for decisions ranging from new reactor designs to safety issues that have languished for years, including the agency’s failure to get serious about fire hazards.

“Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind,” Arnold Gundersen, a former nuclear industry senior vice president, told Al Jazeera.

Federal regulators have been working closely with the nuclear power industry to keep the nation’s aging reactors operating within safety standards by repeatedly weakening or ignoring those standards.

Associated Press Exposé
Tritium leaks found at many nuke sites, June 21, 2011
U.S. nuke regulators weaken safety rules, June 20, 2011
Three Minute AP Video Summary, June 20, 2011
Populations around US nuke plants soar, June 27, 2011

Other News Items
U.S. regulators opening up on flawed nuclear power plant policing – Center for Public Integrity, June 21, 2011
NRC waives enforcement of fire rules at nuclear plants – ProPublica, May 11, 2011
A more likely nuclear nightmare –
Center for Public Integrity,
May 10, 2011

Federal regulators have been working closely with the nuclear power industry to keep the nation’s aging reactors operating within safety standards by repeatedly weakening those standards, or simply failing to enforce them, an investigation by The Associated Press has found.

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Citing more design mistakes and omissions, public interest groups call for nuclear regulators to halt the AP1000 reactor approval process; watchdogs press NRC chairman to release damning internal dissent

On Wednesday, May 18, Progress Energy shepherded a group of Triangle media through the plant on a tour that, we were told, is only conducted once every year or two. The Indy was invited, too, and we really couldn’t say no. The opening credits of The Simpsons are the closest we’ve been to a nuclear power plant.

Timeframe: July 1, 2011 until October 31, 2011
Expectations: Create a fundraising plan for NC…

Last week McClatchy Newspapers published a breakthrough article about scientists seeing the links between severe weather and global warming. More of this strong journalism is urgently needed because very little time is left before climate change becomes self-sustaining.