Solar and wind energy jobs far outstrip declining nuclear
The U.S. Department of Energy has released its January 2017 U.S. Energy and Employment Report and solar energy tops the charts in employment numbers, far outstripping nuclear energy. Solar currently employs 373,807 while nuclear sits at 68,176 and remains in a slight decline. Even so, the DOE admits that, given data collection limitations, the solar numbers might be higher. "Existing labor market data therefore dramatically underestimate the additional workers engaged in solar-related work," the report said. Wind energy employment is at 101,738, bested only by solar and by natural gas at 362,118 jobs. "The solar workforce increased by 25% in 2016, while wind employment increased by 32%," the report states. Energy efficiency employment numbers were also hard to collect, but at least "2.2 million Americans are employed, in whole or in part, in the design, installation, and manufacture of Energy Efficiency products and services, adding 133,000 jobs in 2016," said the report. Read the DOE report.
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Alexei Yablokov has died in Moscow after a long illness. He worked to unmask Cold War nuclear dumping practices in the Arctic and was also the lead author of the seminal 2007 book,
"Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment." The book analyzed 6,000 source materials on the accident and concluded that 985, 000 premature deaths would result. Yablokov was a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and published over 500 papers on biology, ecology, natural conservation and numerous textbooks on each of these subjects. For links to Bellona and Nuclear Hot Seat memorial tributes, including an interview with Alexey, click
here.
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Urge your Senators to block Rick Perry's confirmation as Energy Secretary; plus counter-Inauguration events
Former Texas governor Rick Perry should be disqualified to serve as Energy Secretary due to his blatant conflict of interest with the Waste Control Specialists, LLC radioactive waste dump in West Texas. WCS's owner, Harold Simmons, a Dallas billionaire nicknamed the "King of Superfund Sites," was a top Perry campaign contributor (Simmons died in 2013, but his family still owns WCS). Thanks to numerous state regulatory approvals, and additional direct advocacy by Perry himself, WCS grew to become a national "low-level" radioactive waste dump for the Department of Energy (DOE) and 36 states; it now wants to become a centralized interim storage site for more than half the commercial high-level radioactive waste in the U.S. If opened, and a contract signed with DOE, the cost of construction and operations at the WCS de facto permanent parking lot dump would be paid entirely by U.S. taxpayers; they would also bear full liability for any hazardous radioactivity releases into the Ogallala Aquifer below, source of vital drinking and irrigation water for millions on the Great Plains from Texas to South Dakota. Phone both your U.S. Senators via the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121, or call their in-district phone numbers; urge they lead the effort to block Perry's confirmation due to this blatant conflict. See Beyond Nuclear's action alert, which includes a sample script you can use to make your phone calls, as well as our backgrounder on the issue. To counter Trump's and the new Congress's pro-nuclear policies, Beyond Nuclear is standing in solidarity with allies from a broad spectrum of progressive movements, and has officially endorsed the Jan. 21 Women's March on Washington and #WeRise Teach-In, as well as the Jan. 22 Challenging Trumpism Conference, all in D.C. We hope you can come, or spread the word!
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