On April 30th, 2010, 50 or so students from across Vermont came together with clean energy advocates from across the state to urge the candidates for governor of Vermont to ensure that the aging, leaking Vermont Yankee nuclear plant is shut down on time in 2012 and replaced with 100% clean electricity. Our first big action in the Race to Replace Vermont Yankee was a massive bike mobilization that brought passionate advocates from Montpelier, the state capital, to Burlington, the biggest city in the state. Check out our video:
Vermont’s abundant clean energy resources, from numerous micro-hydro sites to bountiful wind going untapped, make Vermont Yankee an unnecessary resource for the state. In order to renew Vermont’s economy, spur job creation in a state where young people are leaving in droves, and ensure Vermont’s status as a clean energy leader in the country, advocates are rallying round the 2010 governor’s election as an opportunity to point Vermont’s energy future in a new direction. Most importantly, we’re having a lot of fun while doing it!
All summer long, a crew of organizers from across Vermont will be working to push the candidates towards a bold clean energy plan, mobilize young clean energy voters to get out and vote, and raise the salience of clean energy in the election as a whole. While we’ve got an unlimited amount of people power, we do have a little bit of a shortage of dollar power, so it would be awesome if we could have the support of the youth climate movement to help guarantee Vermont is put on a path towards a clean energy future. Thanks!
Awesome Video! LOVE IT!
Amazing job VT! Keep pushing!
This has got to be one of the most exciting energy justice projects in the country right now. If Vermont Yankee can be replaced with truly renewable power (instead of natural gas or coal), it will send such a strong message to those who keep trying to tell us we have to choose between fossil fuels and nukes. I just voted for the Race to Replace at Brighter Planet!
I know I am probably a “stick in the mud,” but if VY is shutdown, natural gas will be the replacement power. That is what replaced CY and MY (along with some hydropower from Canada). For the quickest reduction in carbon, VY should be relicensed and be uprated, not shutdown.
VY can be replaced with whatever is wanted, based on the policy choice. The unanswered question is “Will it be available the day VY shuts down?” If not, where will it come from? Right now Vermont gets a lot of power from Hydro-Quebec, which in reality is Hydro-wind-fossil-nuclear Quebec. Check their webiste. Vermont just signed a new long term contract with Hydro-Quebec. If VY shuts down, a lot more of Vermont’s power will come from the New England grid for several – perhaps many – years. The grid is fossil-nuclear, and Hydro-Quebec was a villan when built, for flooding native lands. Energy Justice? Environmental Justice? By shifting the environmental impact of its power out of state by just by paying others, it looks like Vermont is practicing “Environmental Prostitution.”
As you may well know, Texas and Vermont have formed a compact for the disposal of so-called “low-level” radioactive waste. As this plant is decommissioned, it’s expected that most of the radioactive waste that is not spent fuel rods will come to a dump site in Andrews County, Texas.
A new rule that’s been proposed would invite 36 other states to send their waste here as well. The site that’s been selected in Texas is in extremely close proximity to the Ogallala Aquifer – in fact, before the site was proposed for radioactive waste storage, maps showed it being over the aquifer, though revised maps published after the site was proposed for radioactive waste disposal indicate that it is several miles away.
As you continue to campaign for clean energy, I would ask that you also tell your Governor and Lt. Governor that Vermont’s members on the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact Commission should vote against opening the Texas dump site up to waste from other states. Doing so would incentivize other states to expand nuclear power generation because much of the waste would be sent to Texas. And the site that’s been selected is dangerous. It was approved by TCEQ commissioners appointed by our Governor, Rick Perry, against the unanimous recommendation of TCEQ’s professional staff.
Learn more at TexasNuclearSafety.org and NukeFreeTexas.org
The low-level waste compact system has been broken for some time. Many countries such as Sweden, France, UK, and Switzerland have low-level waste repositories. This should not be such a quagmire.