[NukeNet] Sign the Carbon-Free, Nuclear-Free statement

Thu Jan 24 17:33:32 EST 2008

January 24, 2008

Dear Friends:

Below is a statement of principles to achieve a Carbon Free and Nuclear
Free energy future for the United States, based on Dr. Arjun Makhijani's
groundbreaking new book Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S.
Energy Policy (for more information on the book, visit www.ieer.org
<http://www.ieer.org/> ). 

We are now seeking organizational signatures to this statement in order
to show a groundswell of support for this concept.

Organizations: please sign this statement by sending your name, title,
organization and city/state to NIRS at nirsnet at nirs.org, or just reply
to this message with this information.

Individuals: While we hope you will support this statement and the
Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free concept, we are not collecting individual
signatures at this time. Instead, please sign the NIRS statement on
nuclear power and climate (if you haven't already done so!) at
http://www.nirs.org/petition2/index.php (organizations that haven't yet
signed this statement are encouraged to do so as well!). And if you have
already signed the statement, please send it to a few of your friends
and colleagues, as well as other e-mail lists, to encourage more
signatures. More than 6,000 of you have signed so far-let's get to
10,000 this winter and 100,000 by Inauguration Day!

As always, thank you for your help and activism.

Michael Mariotte

Executive Director

Nuclear Information and Resource Service

nirsnet at nirs.org

STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES 

TO ACHIEVE A 

CARBON FREE AND NUCLEAR FREE U.S. ENERGY SYSTEM BY 2050 

We the undersigned believe that the United States can and should
implement energy production, distribution, and use policies that will
phase out the use of fossil fuels and nuclear power by the year 2050. A
recent book, Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy
Policy,1 provides a detailed analysis that shows that this goal is
technically and economically feasible. The Roadmap lays out how we can
get from a 94 percent reliance on fossil fuels and nuclear energy (as of
2005) to none by mid-century.2 Oil imports would be completely
eliminated along the way. 

Action to achieve such an energy system as soon as possible is necessary
given the scale of the climate crisis, global conflicts over oil
resources, and the serious risks of nuclear power. Achieving a near
total elimination of CO2 emissions in the United States is also implied
by U.S. commitments under the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC) combined with the latest report of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC estimates
that global CO2 emissions should be reduced by 50 to 85 percent by 2050
relative to 2000 levels to limit temperature increases to less than 2 to
2.4 degrees Celsius, with the former reduction being given only a small
chance of accomplishing the goal. If global emissions are allocated on a
per capita basis, the U.S. would have to reduce CO2 emissions by 92 to
96 percent by 2050 to have reasonable confidence that the temperature
goal will be met. The United States has signed and ratified the UNFCCC,
which went into effect in 1994. 

A U.S. goal of zero-CO2 emissions would greatly enhance the likelihood
of serious negotiations with China, India, and other developing
countries towards an agreement to reduce global CO2 emissions by 50 to
85 percent. It would be the most practical way to recognize that the
United States has contributed disproportionately to the build up of CO2
in the atmosphere. It would show developing countries by example that
economic well-being can be achieved using ecologically sound approaches.
And it would establish U.S. leadership in an area where it has been
sorely lacking. 

A reliable electricity sector that is more secure than the present one
can be created without nuclear power. The promoters of nuclear energy
have used the threat of global warming to rekindle interest, but nuclear
power entails risks of nuclear proliferation, severe accidents, and
terrorist attacks. It would exacerbate the problem of nuclear waste, for
which no reasonable solution is in sight. Overall, it shifts the burden
of radiation and proliferation risks arising from current energy use to
future generations. 

Greatly increased energy efficiency throughout the country will make
possible a more economical and faster transition to a renewable energy
economy. Solar, wind, biofuels, and other renewable energy sources are
ample and capable of supplying the energy requirements of a zero-CO2
U.S. economy. But converting food, such as corn, into biofuel is not a
suitable approach, because it is associated with increases in food
prices, poor net energy output, and large greenhouse gas emissions.
Biofuels must be derived from plants that trap solar energy efficiently
and that can be grown on marginal lands. In addition, certain aquatic
plants, including some types of algae, could simultaneously provide
fuels as well as other environmental benefits. 

Subsidies for problematic energy sources, notably fossil fuels, nuclear
power, and food-based biofuels, should be ended. For example, neither
loan guarantees nor production tax credits should be provided to new
nuclear power plants. 

New coal-fired power plants without carbon capture and storage (also
called "sequestration") should be banned. While there is some experience
with CO2 storage, it is not yet a proven technology for climate
protection, which requires isolation of CO2 from the atmosphere for
hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Storage technology should
preferably be developed and tested using emissions from existing rather
than new sources of CO2. Carbon capture and storage technology may be
needed to remove CO2 that has already been emitted to the atmosphere. 

The U.S. government will need to invest tens of billions of dollars per
year in the transition to a carbon-free, nuclear-free economy. The funds
will directly support renewable energy and efficiency projects, assist
state and local governments, and finance worker and community
transition. The money can be raised in a variety of ways, including
taxes and the sale of emissions allowances; it should be dedicated to
help achieve the transition to a renewable energy economy. 

Whatever set of policies is adopted, there should be no free emission
allowances. Such giveaways are inequitable and regressive. There should
be no international offsets or trade in CO2 allowances, especially with
countries that have not set stringent limits on CO2 emissions. Further,
importing biofuels from developing countries could create land pressures
that could harm the poor and may even increase greenhouse gas emissions
directly or indirectly, for instance, by increasing destruction of
tropical forests and peat bogs. U.S. policies must ensure that the goal
of reliably ending CO2 emissions by mid-century is translated into laws,
regulations, and intermediate targets that are verifiable and
enforceable all along the way. 

Scientists, including leaders of the IPCC, have been warning that there
is little time left to begin to shift from increasing to decreasing
greenhouse gas emissions, of which CO2 emissions are the most important.
The United States has delayed too long, partly using the argument that
China and India and other major emitters also need to participate in
achieving global reductions. We agree that they do; but we note that
U.S. leadership, in both immediate action and long-term commitments, is
a sine qua non for securing serious commitments from developing
countries, which have until recently contributed little to the problem. 

Finally, the establishment of a goal of achieving a carbon-free and
nuclear-free U.S. energy sector by mid-century can have a transformative
effect on the global political climate, which is a prerequisite for
protecting the planetary physical climate. The ecological, health, and
security benefits of realizing that goal will be immense. We are
committed to establishing that goal, creating policies designed to
achieve the goal, and dedicating the resources to implement those
policies. 

___________________________________

1 Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy by
Arjun Makhijani, Ph.D., is published jointly by RDR Press and IEER
Press, 2007. It can be downloaded free at
http://www.ieer.org/carbonfree/CarbonFreeNuclearFree.pdf. The Roadmap is
described in Chapter 8. 

2 Another recent book, Winning Our Energy Independence: An Energy
Insider Shows How, by S. David Freeman (Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith, 2007)
also advocates a fully renewable, non-nuclear U.S. energy system. 2 

Signatories (organizational sign-ons, unless indicated: * = organization
for identification only) 

Brent Blackwelder, President, Friends of the Earth 

Helen Caldicott, Founding President, Nuclear Policy Research Institute 

S. David Freeman, former Chairman Tennessee Valley Authority*, and
President, Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners* 

Alexander Lee, Executive Director, Project Laundry List 

Arjun Makhijani, President, Institute for Energy and Environmental
Research 

Michael Mariotte, Executive Director, Nuclear Information and Resource
Service

John Miller, Vice-President, Advanced Transportation Systems, Maxwell
Technologies* 

Lenny Siegel, Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental
Oversight 

Jenice View, Just Transition Alliance 3 

Daphne Wysham, Fellow, and John Cavanagh, Executive Director, Institute
for Policy Studies 

Hisham Zerriffi, Ivan Head South/North Chair at the University of
British Columbia

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