[NukeNet] NPR Touts Pro-Nuke 'Environmentalists'

[Roger Herried]

    Subject:  	Fwd: NPR Touts Pro-Nuke 'Environmentalists'
Date: 	Wed, 22 Aug 2007 12:37:19 -0700

                     
> Action Alert
>
> *NPR Touts Pro-Nuke 'Environmentalists'*
> Network's own nuclear links undisclosed
> 8/22/07
>
>                 An August 15* NPR Morning Edition* segment touted the 
> benefits of nuclear power, suggesting it was gaining popularity with 
> many environmentalists who once opposed it.
>
> The segment was an interview with* Fortune* magazine editor David 
> Whitford, who has written a series of articles about the debate over 
> nuclear power. The piece was introduced by* NPR* anchor John Ydstie, 
> who asserted that "with fossil fuel carbon emissions in the 
> environmental bull's-eye, nuclear power is starting to shake off its 
> bad reputation." Whitford elaborated on the claim that nuclear power's 
> image is improving: "There are many environmentalists now who began 
> their careers opposed to nuclear power who are now reconsidering 
> nuclear power in the face of global warming."
>
> But Whitford cited just one such environmentalist, Stewart Brand, 
> describing him simply as the creator of the 60s and 70's publication, 
> the/ Whole Earth Catalogue/, and calling him "sort of the original 
> off-the-grid environmentalist." In fact, Brand is currently a 
> businessman, a co-founder and leader of the corporate consulting group 
> Global Business Network (GBN). GBN numbers, among the 192 clients 
> named on its website, more than a dozen corporations and governmental 
> agencies involved in the production or promotion of nuclear energy: 
> General Electric, Bechtel, Duke Power, Siemens-Westinghouse, Fluor, 
> Electric Power Research Institute, Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern 
> California Edison, Électricité de France, Iberdrola, Vattenfall, 
> Sydkraft (now E.ON Sweden) and Sandia National Labratories. Some of 
> these, including GE, Bechtel, Duke Power and Westinghouse, are 
> receiving government subsidies to develop the next generation of 
> nuclear power plants, according to a 
> <http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=Z37whZWsDMUaNiJbh%2FRuhVUvz8XlKWrz>Department 
> of Energy report. Brand's financial links with the industry went 
> unmentioned in the* NPR* segment. 
> <http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=i8buTf9r6SDbrOgqz9VDy1Uvz8XlKWrz>
>
> Brand is one of a small number of former nuclear critics who have 
> become prominent nuclear advocates (*Alternet* 
> <http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=UpQb3UkyozAoJnBZV27pvFUvz8XlKWrz>,03/16/07). 
> But it is a stretch to suggest, as Whitford does, that a handful of 
> former nuclear foes with no current ties to leading environmental 
> groups--and often with financial links to the nuclear 
> industry--constitute "some division within the movement."
>
> In fact, leading environmental groups including Greenpeace, the Sierra 
> Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council all agree that nuclear 
> power, with its huge safety, security and cost issues, is not the 
> solution to climate change. A 
> <http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=cOU4l%2Fd9P5TFjclk9gzAMR%2B%2F09%2Bz7Tnr>2005 
> letter released by Public Citizen and signed by nearly 300 groups 
> opposed congressional subsidies for the nuclear industry:
> <http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=bFEfhx9cROYvNgjTmfUHu1Uvz8XlKWrz> 
>
>
>     As national and local environmental, consumer and safe energy
>     organizations, we have serious and substantive concerns about
>     nuclear energy. While we are committed to tackling the challenge
>     of global warming, we flatly reject the argument that increased
>     investment in nuclear capacity is an acceptable or necessary solution.
>
>
> Instead of a story about a growing fervor for nuclear power among some 
> environmentalists, the story is really one about a growing fervor to 
> resurrect nuclear power among corporate and political elites, aided by 
> a handful of mainly environmentalists-for-hire.
>
> This kind of one-sided coverage is characteristic of* NPR*'s recent 
> reporting on the nuclear industry. In the six stories* NPR* has 
> broadcast over the past 90 days about the future of nuclear power 
> production in the U.S.,* NPR*'s sources included only three opponents 
> of nuclear power plants, versus eights sources touting the safety, 
> environmental friendliness and financial benefits of nuclear energy. 
> Moreover, only one of the three opponents was an expert on the topic, 
> while NPR cast seven of the eight sources speaking in favor of nuclear 
> power as authorities. This period saw an accident at the largest power 
> plant in the world - in Japan (*NPR*'s* All Things Considered*, 
> 7/19/07) - which was the subject of three additional* NPR* stories. 
> Yet, even in this coverage of the accident, no experts critical of 
> nuclear power were cited.
>
> One factor that is relevant to* NPR*'s cheerleading for nuclear power 
> is its own financial links to the industry. According to* NPR*'s 
> website, between 1993 and 2005, the public radio service received 
> between $250,000 and $500,000 from Constellation Energy, which belongs 
> to Nustart Energy, a 10-company consortium pushing for new nuclear 
> power plant construction. During the same period, another nuclear 
> operator, Sempra Energy, donated between $50,000 and $100,000 to* 
> NPR*. This potential conflict of interest was not disclosed in the 
> August 15 segment, or in any other of* NPR*'s recent largely 
> industry-friendly reports. (*NPR* has in the past insisted that the 
> corporate "underwriting" money it receives has no bearing on its 
> coverage--a defense that would seem to undercut the rationale for* 
> NPR*'s existence as a noncommercial broadcaster.)
>
> In his interview with Whitford,* NPR*'s Ydstie asked the* Fortune* 
> editor, "What are the forces that are aligning that make the industry 
> optimistic that there's going to be a revival?" Whitford didn't 
> mention one-sided reporting that fails to disclose its financial ties 
> to the industry as factors that help the industry "shake off its bad 
> reputation" and clear the ground for a nuclear revival.
>
> *ACTION:* Please contact* NPR* to suggest that future reports on 
> nuclear power include the consensus view of the environmental 
> movement, and that such reports disclose* NPR*'s financial ties to the 
> industry.
>
> *CONTACT:* Assistant to the Ombudsman, Chantal de la Rionda, through* 
> NPR*'s 
> <http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=C65pt6X9hz8PULu15IgAR1Uvz8XlKWrz>website. 
> <http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=5UfAtkV3lSj%2FktVzg0ojS1ILXlOWN6Ce>
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