Day: September 22, 2024

Tech Giant Secures Deal To Bring Back Reactor At Infamous Nuclear Power Plant

A shuttered nuclear power plant with a checkered past will partially be coming back online after Microsoft obtained a deal to purchase energy from one of the plant’s reactors, according to a Friday press release.

From Watts Up With That?

The Daily Caller

Owen Klinsky
Contributor

A shuttered nuclear power plant with a checkered past will partially be coming back online after Microsoft obtained a deal to purchase energy from one of the plant’s reactors, according to a Friday press release.

The 20-year power purchase agreement, which the tech giant secured with Constellation Energy, would bring back the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania — the site of a 1979 meltdown that resulted in a large-scale evacuation of nearby pregnant women and school-age children. The project aims to provide power for Microsoft data centers as tech companies push to expand electricity production to support their artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud storage needs, the release says. (RELATED: Biden-Harris Admin’s Multi-Billion Dollar Electric School Bus Program Is A Huge Gift To China, House Report Finds)

“Powering industries critical to our nation’s global economic and technological competitiveness, including data centers, requires an abundance of energy that is carbon-free and reliable every hour of every day, and nuclear plants are the only energy sources that can consistently deliver on that promise,” Joe Dominguez, president and CEO of Constellation, stated in the release alongside Microsoft. “We look forward to bringing [the Three Mile Island plant] back with a new name and a renewed mission to serve as an economic engine for Pennsylvania.”

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The agreement would bring back Unit 1 at Three Mile Island, which was shuttered in 2019 for “economic reasons,” according to Constellation’s statement. Unit 1 is adjacent to the Unit 2 reactor that caused the worst nuclear meltdown in U.S. history on March 28, 1979, which results in 40% of people evacuating the area.

The Three Mile Island power plant will have a capacity of 835 megawatts, enough to power more than 700,000 homes. It is expected to create 3,400 direct and indirect jobs, according to the press release.

The decision to reopen the Three Mile Island reactor comes as tech companies are increasingly looking to nuclear energy to power their AI and data center needs, with Amazon Web Services spending $650 million on a nuclear-powered data center in Pennsylvania earlier this year. The trend could affect power grid reliability and affordability as it provides the businesses with “first dibs” on electricity, Pennsylvania Consumer Advocate Patrick Cicero told the WSJ in July.

Nuclear power has aroused public suspicion, largely due to incidents like Three Mile Island, Fukushima and Chernobyl, in which reactor meltdowns caused radiation to flood areas surrounding nuclear power plants. However, it could be a viable pathway to reducing emissions and accomplishing the Biden-Harris administration’s goal of having the U.S. power sector reach net-zero emissions by 2035.

“This is a valuable opportunity to invest in clean, carbon-free and affordable power — on the heels of the hottest year in Earth’s history,” Pennsylvania state Rep. Tom Mehaffie said in the Constellation press release. “This will transform the local economy and presents a rare opportunity to power our economy with reliable clean energy that we can count on.”

Constellation and Microsoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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The Green Industrial Complex: The CEO of WWF is paid up to a million dollars to save “nature”

If these green groups were really tin-rattling charities supported by Mum and Dad donors, there would be outrage that so many funds were diverted from forests and fluffy animals to lining the pockets of the staff. But apparently the largest donors to these groups don’t care either, because the money keeps on flowing.

From JoNova

By Jo Nova

It takes a lot of money to get a Green saviour out of bed…

If these green groups were really tin-rattling charities supported by Mum and Dad donors, there would be outrage that so many funds were diverted from forests and fluffy animals to lining the pockets of the staff. But apparently the largest donors to these groups don’t care either, because the money keeps on flowing.

According to E&E News the CEO of the World Wildlife Fund, Carter Roberts, takes home a nifty $1.2 million each year in compensation. Similarly the president of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) gets close to one million each year, and the head of the Nature Conservancy gets three-quarters of a million. It takes half a million dollars to get the chief of the “Rainforest Alliance” to turn up for work, and $415k to feed the account of the president of the Wilderness Society. The two co-directors of Greenpeace USA get about $330,000 a year each. “Nice work if you can get it”…

Thanks to Climate Depot:

Meet the top-paid green group bosses

E&E News by Politico

The heads of influential groups including the World Wildlife Fund, Environmental Defense Fund and Nature Conservancy are among the top-paid leaders in the environmental movement, according to an E&E News analysis of 29 groups’ most recent tax filings.

1. Carter Roberts, president and CEO, World Wildlife Fund

Roberts, who has led the massive international conservation group since 2005, remains one of the environmental world’s top-paid leaders. His base pay in 2022 was $904,841, according to the World Wildlife Fund’s tax records. Roberts’ total reported compensation that year was $1,204,775.

The WWF gets about $470 million USD in revenue each year, of which “government grants” amounted to a nice $74 million last year (did you vote for that?). The WWF is hardly going to bite the hand that feeds it, so no wonder the WWF is missing in action when Big Government policies wipe out whales or kills koalas.

Last year WWF spent $145 million on things classed as “public education”, whatever that means. In the hands of a political activist, it might look a lot like a disguised election fund. Or in the hands of an industry player it might look like advertising, speaking of which, did you know WWF worries about climate change but actively opposes nuclear power?

Their home page (shown below) looks like an advert for the renewables industry.

Can anyone see any wildlife worth protecting here?

WWF appear to be trying to save the solar industry…

Purely hypothetically, if President Xi is not funneling money through to the WWF, he’s missing an opportunity to sabotage the West. And if he was funding the WWF through large philanthropic trusts, who would know?

WWF is deep within The Machine

To understand just how embedded the WWF is with the powers that be, consider that billionaires and bankers have been funding it for years.  Among the original founders in 1961 was Godfrey Rockefeller.  One of the largest donors has been the Moore Foundation, set up by Intel Founder Gordon Moore. Recently Jeff Bezoz gave the WWF at least $100 million, while bankers like HSBC have pledged “multiple millions”.

One former President of the WWF was William K Reilly, who was also at one time director of DuPont,  ConocoPhillips, and of Royal Caribbean. He was Administrator of the US EPA from 1989 to 1993 and headed up the US delegation to Rio in 1992 while he was also President of the WWF. Get the picture?  It just goes to show how the WWF is just another arm of Big Government and Big Business.

In terms of where the $450 million in revenue end up each year, about $44 million was used just for fundraising. And according to InfluenceWatch salary expenses were $70 million in 2020 plus another $4 million in “executive compensation” and $17 million for “other employee benefits”. So that’s a third of the budget. It is a machine that feeds itself.

Environmental non-profits are corporate conglomerates and political lobby groups masquerading as a charity.

Replace Green Giveaways with Development of Fossil Fuels

As the presidential election nears, it is reasonable to ask why the U.S. continues to give away billions to “avert” a fabricated climate crisis to countries that have little interest in participating in the charade beyond accepting handouts.

From Watts Up With That?

By Vijay Jayaraj

As the presidential election nears, it is reasonable to ask why the U.S. continues to give away billions to “avert” a fabricated climate crisis to countries that have little interest in participating in the charade beyond accepting handouts.

The United States has been a significant contributor to global climate initiatives, most notably through its involvement in the Paris Agreement.

At the 15th U.N. Climate Conference in 2009, rich countries pledged to provide $100 billion a year in climate finance by 2020 to assist developing nations “fight” climate change. This target was said to have been achieved for the first time in 2022, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Having the world’s largest economy, the U.S. was expected to support a large portion of the Green Climate Fund (GCF), which resulted in a promise of $3 billion.

GCF claims to be the “world’s largest dedicated climate fund” with a portfolio valued at $12 billion, or $45 billion when co-financing of projects is included. According to the GCF website, the fund delivers “transformative climate action in 140 countries” to keep “average global temperature rise well below 2 degrees Celsius.”

To which one might respond: Poppycock! No “climate action” will have a significant effect on temperatures, and the 2 degrees cited hardly matter environmentally in any case. Climate policies “will have a trivial effect on temperature but disastrous effects on people worldwide,” concludes a recent paper by Drs. Richard Lindzen and William Happer of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Princeton University, respectively.

Besides, contrary to doomsday predictions, Earth is flourishing in many ways. Global poverty has decreased dramatically over the past few decades, and agricultural yields have increased significantly partly, because of higher levels of atmospheric CO2.  Natural disasters — often cited as evidence of climate change — are causing fewer deaths than ever before, despite population growth and development along coastlines and other vulnerable areas.

The outrage of having taxpayer money poured down the climate rat hole is compounded by the fact that recipients of GCF grants include China and India, the world’s largest emitters of greenhouse gases that are rapidly expanding consumption of fossil fuels. Meanwhile, the bone-headed policy of the U.S. is to reduce the use of these affordable and abundant fuels to the detriment of household budgets, business profitability, electric grid reliability and national security.

So, instead of pouring billions into international climate projects, the U.S. should prioritize its own energy security. This means developing its oil, coal and natural gas and strengthening partnerships with reliable allies like Canada.

The United States’ vast reserves of natural gas have been made available through advanced extraction technologies such as hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, making the country one of the world’s leading producers. This abundance can ensure a reliable and cost-effective energy supply for other nations and reduce U.S. dependency on foreign sources, enhancing national security.

The intermittent nature of wind and solar power – both GCF darlings — necessitates backup power sources or massive battery storage systems that come with their own environmental and economic costs. The materials needed for batteries, for instance, are often mined in regions with poor environmental records or by using child labor.

By contrast, modern fossil fuel extraction in the U.S. and Canada is subject to some of the strictest environmental regulations in the world. Ironically, by outsourcing energy production to less regulated countries in the name of “going green,” the U.S. causes more environmental harm globally.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent energy crisis in Europe starkly illustrated the dangers of energy dependence. European countries, having underinvested in fossil fuel infrastructure and a reliance on Russian gas, found themselves in a precarious position.

This example alone is enough for the U.S. to reset its priorities. Promotion of failed and mostly unwanted “green” policies should be replaced with aggressive development of fossil fuel resources, as well as nuclear power, and building robust energy partnerships with allies.

This commentary was first published at Daily Caller on September 19, 2024.

Vijay Jayaraj is a Science and Research Associate at the CO2 Coalition, Arlington, Virginia. He holds a postgraduate degree in energy management from Robert Gordon University and an M.S. in environmental sciences from the University of East Anglia, both in the U.K., and a B.S. in engineering from Anna University, India.