Positively Charged Music Festival Wish List

We are still putting together all the necessary pieces for a successful music festival on September 17.
We need a couple of dozen tent/shelters that we can have spread around the perimeter of the festival to cover the crowd in case of rain. (This is a rain or shine event).
We also need more 2X4s and 2X6s and sheet stock (plywood type) to finish the stage construction. If you have some materials that you can lend us, we will use them, take them back apart and you can have them back after the show.
We now have posters being printed and are devising a way to download a good quality image to print yourself. If you can help with posters, or getting your local newspaper to publish a press release or do a story, that would be great
more asks to come.
Thanks

Positively Charged Music Festival is off and running

2011 will always be known as the year of the Arab Spring, when common citizens lost their fear, stood up to their corrupt governments and took them down. 2012 will become known as the year that all of new England joined Vermont to effectively and finally say no and good riddance to the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor. Citizens United will take on a whole new meaning when we have triumphed.

And the Positively Charged Music Festival is this year's kick off for the fun to begin. In a minor miracle in the style of "if you build it they will come", the festival is taking shape with an amazing array of volunteer labor from folks spanning the entire region. Seven great bands: The Pulse Prophets from Burlington, The Eames Brothers Band from Montpelier, Simba, Mo Ambesa, and Clayton Sabine from Windham county, Shokazoba from Northampton MA and High Fidelity with King I hailing from New Hampshire and beyond are all making the trek to Amazing Planet Farm in Newfane Vermont to perform absolutely for free. The sound system will be provided for free. Also free: the web hosting service, the graphic design work and all the other publicity work, even the building of the stage, complete with donations of much of the materials needed.

Admission ranges from free to what your wallet can afford, with no one turned away. All the proceeds (after we pay for the things which won't come for free) will go to the organizations that are organizing direct action this fall and next spring to ensure that Vermont Yankee closes as scheduled next March.
More importantly, most attendees will be joining our citizen network, pledging to help out in with the cause, either as direct action participants or supporters in one way or another.

For more information on the festival, or to volunteer to help out, please visit ReplaceVY.org. Nothing feels better than taking control of your own destiny. Please join us.

An analysis of Judge Mutha's decision today against Entergy by Jimmy Leas

Jimmy Lease is a clear minded activist from South Burlington. Please take a look at what he has to say about today's ruling.


http://www.vtd.uscourts.gov/Supporting%20Files/11cv99%20Mot%20for%20Prelim%20Inj.718.pdf

The decision today to deny the motion for a preliminary injunction is good but Entergy can take a great deal of encouragement from many of its parts. 

Today's decision is good because facts and law prevailed over Entergy's money argument. But it is a very temporary and tenuous success. The decision is worrisome because the judge signaled that he intends to give the money argument greater weight and will give serious consideration to Entergy's preemption argument and to a permanent injunction. While winning this case in October will require sustained excellent legal work, that is only one component. The massive public sentiment in Vermontagainst further operation of this plant if sustained and made visible, can have an effect to counter Entergy's money argument, its massive public relations, and its highly paid lawyers. 

The motion for the preliminary injunction was denied because Entergy could not show irreparable harm between now and a number of weeks from now when a final decision on the merits and a permanent injunction can issue after the trial in September. As the judge wrote: 

The motion is denied, because Entergy has failed to show that any irreparable harm it may incur between now and a decision on the merits would be, or is likely to be, ameliorated by a preliminary injunction in the short time before this Court decides Entergy’s claims.

Ominously, the decision takes seriously Entergy's preemption argument. The decision does not mention the MOU and its waiver, latches, or Entergy's unclean hands in considering the motion for injunctive relief. In footnote 2 the decision chides the state for the position it adopted that the Senate vote did not make a final decision. Foreshadowing a possible decision favoring Entergy on the preemption issue, in footnote 3 the decision states that "The Court is aware the challenged statutes contain words that may or may not permit consideration of preempted grounds for granting or denying certificates of public good and that the legislative history of the challenged enactments contains numerous references to 'safety'. . ."
 
Entergy's strength is money. A reading of the decision shows the vast influence Entergy's monetary dilemma concerning the cost of refueling had on the judge. Entergy's lying to state officials under oath and its other bad acts, such as reneging on its agreement to waive any claim of federal preemption, and its failure to do preventive maintenance to prevent leaks, were not mentioned. 

Our strength is the massive public opposition to operation of Vermont Yankee after March 21, 2012. That opposition was demonstrated in scientific polls, town meeting votes, in hundreds of people coming out for local and statewide actions, and in statewide elections. 

But legal processes can be a great way to inhibit direct public involvement. When, as happened today, the preliminary decision appears favorable, the public may be even less inclined to participate--even though the rest of the text of the decision is a strong signal encouraging Entergy. Vermonters may be facing our strength being further demobilized while Entergy is encouraged to pour money into public relations and lawyers. Crucial is to bring Vermonters together--along with people from neighboring states--to help this court understand that the public continues to be heavily involved and wants the final decision to be firmly based on facts and law and not influenced by Entergy's money. 

A Call to Arms Legs Hearts and Minds

             

In a cynical move calculated to take advantage of all of the power and perks that large American corporations currently enjoy and abuse in this country, Entergy Nuclear of Louisiana has decided to go to the federal courts to ask to be relieved from its duty to obey the laws of the state of Vermont. Despite misleading and dismissived commentary by nuclear shills calling themselves attaches notwithstanding, this is nothing more than Entergy flipping off Vermont and its citizens while counting on the U.S. Supreme Court to ultimately give them the victory that has been denied them because of their untruthful, careless and callous operation of the Vermont Yankee reactor in Vernon VT.

Www.replaceVy.org

The Vermont legislature clearly understood that they could only act on questions about the reactor's reliability and future costs to the state when they acted to prevent Entergy from getting a certificate of public good from the Public Service Board. Campaign statements about the safety of VY, a legitimate concern considering the lies and leaks at VY, not to mention the nuclear catastrophe currently underway in Japan, have no bearing on the case deciding whether the legislature acted within the parameters allowed it by federal law.

Entergy never thought that it would come to this. They are used to Louisiana, where the legislature is in the pocket of big energy, and the governor has to go along to get along. What a surprise for them to discover a citizen legislature that knows how to ask questions and is unwilling to countenance false testimony. Even worse, the state elected a governor that would reverse the policy of working in Entergy's interest and instead work to protect the people of Vermont from corporate abuse.

Smugly, Entergy CEO Jackie Wayne Leonard has dismissed our state and its laws calling upon his army of lawyers and public relation firms to turn reality on its head and turn a dangerous boondoggle into a green dream. Since it is no longer in the hands of the Vermont government, he need not concern himself with us any longer.

www.replaceVY.org

He is in for another big surprise. Vermont has a history of standing up for itself when dealing directly with threats to our collective well being, whether they come from insidious cankers like slavery, or from misdirected, over-reaching central government power. In 1775, when the British Crown, as represented by the New York courts, was about to nullify the legitimacy of Vermont properties acquired thorough New Hampshire land grants, Vermonters from Westminsteroccupied the courthouse to ensure that the hearing could not be held. The Crown's sheriff gathered a posse and

attacked the courthouse, capturing and jailing those inside while wounding several and killing one. The Crown had spoken, there would be no more insubordination from the rabble in Westminster. But the rabble responded, and within a few short days, 400 men had rallied to free the prisoners, the sheriff and his posse were now in jail, and the New York court would again never be held in Westminster. This was the first blood shed of the American revolution, and it led directly to Vermont becoming not only free of New York domination, but also to the formation of the Vermont Republic which lasted until we joined the United States in 1791.

www.replaceVY.org

In 1968, Vermont outlawed billboards. Some advertisers thought that they could ignore the ban, but on the the first morning that it went into effect, virtually all of the billboards still standing found themselves chainsawed and chopped into oblivion. We take our civics and our rights very seriously in this state, and we are no more ready to stand idly by and suffer J. Wayne and Entergy's depredations than our Westminster predecessors were to suffer at the hand of the Crown and New York.

While we may have been among the first Americans to rise up and stand for our rights, we also recognize when others are taking the lead. Vermonters in 2011 have been encouraged and inspired by people across the globe standing up for their rights and peacefully toppling corrupt and militaristic governments. We have learned how non-violent protest writ large can rekindle a collective consciousness in a seemingly slumbering populace, leading to revolutionary change. And we are building that consciousness now, in order to stand up for ourselves if the courts decide to abrogate Vermont law.

Www.replaceVY.org

What J. Wayne doesn't understand is that we will see to it that Vermont Yankee closes on March 21, 2012, just as it has been scheduled to do in its operating license. By next March, we will know how many people will be needed to prevent the plant from continuing operation, and we will have recruited sufficient numbers of volunteers to maintain a prophylactic presence around the plant for as many days, weeks or months as it takes for them to finally pull the plug.

This will not be a symbolic effort by the state's environmentalists. This is a struggle that will be supported by Vermonters of all stripes, as it is about much more than question of why we would run a leaky reactor for twenty more years in order to generate hundreds of tons more of radioactive waste that cannot be made safe for tens of thousands of years. No, this is also a struggle where common sense folk are saying no to insatiable corporate greed and to federal government overreach. This is a struggle where informed Vermonters are asking why so many other industrialized countries are re-thinking or ending their nuclear power programs, while our officials blithely plow forward, hand in hand with their corporate sponsors, intoning a mantra of wishful thinking passed off as official wisdom. This is a struggle where Vermont tea party and progressive types will work hand in hand to rid ourselves of the scourge of parasites like Entergy in order to get to the job of living together and building a sensible future for our state. This will be a defense of our state's sovereignty and our own safety unlike any that has been seen in this country in decades.

We have acted together as a state in a legal and responsible manner. Our Vermont politicians have done their job. The governor and the attorney general are still working for us, but we will be there to do what they cannot if we are betrayed by the federal courts. There will be a reckoning, and just as happened in Westminster in 1775, the people will prevail.

Www.replaceVY.org

Why Any Thinking Person Should Question the NRC

     Why Any Thinking Person Should Question the NRC

The Vermont legislature, when considering whether or not to allow Vermont Yankee to operate for an extra twenty years, was forbidden from considering safety issues. The people of Vermont, however, must scrutinize the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is in charge of reactor safety, to know if we should trust their actions.

Their record does not inspire confidence. In spite of leaks, near meltdowns, non-compliance with regulations, and false testimony by reactor owners and operators, the NRC has approved every application for reactor re-licensing that they've received. In stark contrast to the actions of nuclear regulators all across the industrialized world, President Obama, without knowing the extent of the reactor damage in Japan, clueless about how much radiation was rising into the atmosphere or pouring into the oceans, boldly and erroneously announced that no radiation would reach our shores. And his NRC proceeded to blithely issue a license renewal to Vermont Yankee, a virtual twin to the Fukushima reactor, without so much as a pause to consider the implications of the disaster on operations in the U.S. Don't worry they said, no tsunami would ever hit Vernon. (Did anyone tell them about the hurricane and flood of 1927?)

At a recent hearing in Brattleboro, when asked directly about how the pool of spent fuel rods, suspended six stories high, protected by sheet metal, should be expected to withstand a direct hit of an F4 tornado like the one that recently devastated buildings in nearby Springfield MA, NRC representatives responded only by intoning that it has been designed to withstand natural disasters, including the fuel pool. A chorus of exasperated voices demanded to know how, but were answered with a shrug. Considering that there is more radioactive spent fuel at VY than there is at all of the Fukishima reactors put together, this is unacceptable

Then we can consider the statements and actions of the NRC. When VY license renewal was approved by the NRC, chairman Gregory Jazco explicitly stated that this did not preclude Vermont from the process; NRC approval was just one step for Entergy. This was echoed in Brattleboro by the NRC regional commissioner as well, stating that Vermont's actions “don't involve any of our authorities or responsibilities”. However, according to Bernie Sanders, the NRC, after meeting with Entergy lawyers, voted to ask the Justice department to intervene in the court case on Entergy's behalf. The NRC, illuminating the Obama administration's commitment to open government, refused to answer the Senator. Why are they willing to act in secrecy and take their lumps from the public? Unfortunately, we cannot really know. And this is why, until they change their procedures and accountability, we have no choice but to question validity of NRC rulings about safety. They have worked hand in glove with the nuclear industry for decades while we will have to live with the aftermath of their mistakes. It would be the height of irresponsibility to give them out trust.

We need only remember George W. Bush's claim that no one expected the levees in New Orleans to fail during hurricane Katrina to realize the consequences of complacency. When all we hear are unsubstantiated statements telling us not to worry, its time to start worrying.