Mercifully, Fall Out Boy Wasn’t Invited
July 27th, 2007 at 7:05 pm
The Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club held an … interesting, coattails-riding press conference today. At a locally owned Austin theater, the enviros used the premier of the Simpsons movie to protest plans to build more nuclear plants in Texas.
For at least a year, Texas green groups have been playing off the poor reputation of the Springfield nuclear power plant. A year ago, the line was: ““Do we really want to rely on Homer Simpson technology in making our choices about energy production?” This afternoon, the fliers being handed out to movie-goers at the Alamo Drafthouse said, “Don’t let Texas’ STNP & Comanche Peak make more fish like Blinky!”
Blinky would be the famous three-eyed fish spawned by the polluted waters around Mr. Burns’s plant. You can see him in the picture on the right, just behind Cyrus Reed, who braved the TV interviews today and worked last session as a lobbyist for the Lone Star Chapter. Other members of the chapter wore Simpsons masks and made themselves available for interviews, as well.
STNP is the South Texas Nuclear Project, an over-budget and oft-delayed fiasco down in Bay City. Last year, some new owners of STNP announced plans to drop $5 billion on two new reactors (for a total of four) at the site. Groups like those out today, which also included Public Citizen and Sustainable Energy and Economic Development Corporation, argued against any new projects on the grounds that nuclear power: is not safe because of the threat of accidents and terrorism; produces waste for which there is still no safe disposal; and is costly, when that money could be better spent on less risky measures that also reduce greenhouse gases.
For more, including the huge role federal incentive money plays in making nuclear energy profitable, see this informative Austin Chronicle article from last year, which lays out the claims of Texas environmental groups in detail.
