Dear Great Lakes Congressional delegation:
We are writing to urge you to help lead the fight to stop the
currently proposed energy bill (HR 6), which is potentially so damaging to the
Great Lakes and the communities they support that it could seriously undermine
any future legislative efforts for cleanup and protection.
As 95 percent of the nation's surface fresh water supply, the
Great Lakes are arguably the United States' greatest natural treasure.
Escalating our reliance on oil, gas and nuclear power, as this energy bill
does, will increase pressure for oil and gas drilling in the Great Lakes, for
pipelines crossing the lakes, as well as for new reactor construction, none of
which are suitable uses for the world's largest supply of fresh water. Nuclear
power plants and nuclear fuel chain facilities already have contaminated some
areas in the Great Lakes region in perpetuity, continue to add to the region's
unsolved problem of radioactive waste, and ongoingly threaten environmental
catastrophe if a major malfunction occurs at even one facility, as came
perilously close to happening recently at the Davis-Besse reactor on Lake Erie.
Some of our specific concerns with the bill's provisions
include:
Undermining state "green energy" policies. Most Great Lakes
states have energy policies that include renewable energy standards or goals,
and incentives to achieve them such as public benefit funds and net metering
requirements. A strong national renewable energy policy with specific targets
for plugging renewable energy into the electricity system would support these
efforts and protect the Great Lakes. It would also create badly needed jobs in
our communities and income on family farms, as with the installment of wind
turbines and leasing of wind rights. This energy bill has no such targets or
incentives for renewable energy, but instead provides substantial tax breaks,
direct subsidies and a weakened regulatory framework for utilities and the
nuclear, oil and gas industries.
Abandoning nuclear waste time bombs. The Great Lakes region is
home to many nuclear waste sites including West Valley, New York. West Valley
includes extensive shallow land burials of radioactive waste known to be moving
through the ground, towards the groundwater and tributaries that empty into the
Great Lakes. In addition, high-level radioactive waste in underground tanks
would eventually leak into the Great Lakes if allowed to remain at West Valley
without being cleaned up. The proposed energy bill will reclassify this high
level tank waste as "waste incidental to reprocessing" allowing it to remain at
this Great Lakes tributary site, rather than requiring its clean up and
isolation from the environment. If left this way, the nuclear waste will pose a
danger to the nation's largest supply of drinking water, to public health and
to the Great Lakes environment for thousands of years.
Burdening taxpayers with nuclear liability. The energy bill
extends the Price-Anderson Act insurance subsidy for 20 years, limiting nuclear
industry liability in case of accident, and placing the burden on the taxpayer.
With as many nuclear facilities as we have on and near the Great Lakes, it is
only a matter of time before some type of accident occurs and the people will
pay through their taxes and with their health.
Other issues. Many other provisions in this bill threaten not
only the Great Lakes region, but also all U.S. waters. Waiving manufacturer
liability on MTBE seriously weakens the polluter pay principle we hold
necessary to protect consumers from highly toxic chemicals in products.
Weakening constraints on U.S. exports of highly enriched uranium threatens
regional, national and global security by risking nuclear weapons
proliferation. Drilling in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge sets a poor
precedent for habitat protection efforts everywhere.
There are numerous other problems with the proposed energy
bill, but we wanted to outline the impacts of the bill most likely to be felt
in the Great Lakes region. On behalf of the largest freshwater ecosystem in the
world, please do everything in your power to oppose this disastrous national
energy policy.
Great Lakes United is an international coalition representing
over 170 groups and hundreds of thousands of individuals in the eight Great
Lakes states, Canada and First Nations and tribal territories dedicated to
protecting and restoring the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River ecosystem, the
largest fresh water ecosystem on earth. On behalf of the coalition, I thank you
for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Margaret Wooster
Executive Director
