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* French secret service 'kept CIA in the dark over Iraq and uranium'
Michael Smith, London Daily Telegraph (also published in Washington Times) Copyright 2003 Telegraph Group Limited THE DAILY TELEGRAPH(LONDON), July 14, 2003, p. 4 French secret service 'kept CIA in the dark over Iraq and uranium' By Michael Smith Defence Correspondent THE French secret service is believed to have refused to allow MI6 to give the Americans "credible" intelligence showing that Iraq was trying to buy uranium ore from Niger, US intelligence sources said yesterday. MI6 had more than one "different and credible" piece of intelligence to show that Iraq was attempting to buy the ore, known as yellowcake, British officials insisted. But it was given to them by at least one and possibly two intelligence services and, under the rules governing co-operation, it could not be shared with anyone else without the originator's permission. US intelligence sources believe that the most likely source of the MI6 intelligence was the French secret service, the DGSE. Niger is a former French colony and its uranium mines are run by a French company that comes under the control of the French Atomic Energy Commission. A further factor in the refusal to hand over the information might have been concern that the US administration's willingness to publicise intelligence could lead to sources being inadvertently disclosed. US sources also point out that the French government was vehemently opposed to the war with Iraq and so suggest that it would have been instinctively against the idea of passing on the intelligence. British sources yesterday dismissed suggestions of a row between MI6 and the CIA on the issue. However, they admitted being surprised that George Tenet, the CIA director, had apologised to President George W Bush for allowing him to cite the British Government and its claim that Saddam had sought to acquire uranium from Africa in his State of the Union speech last October. The apology follows the International Atomic Energy Authority's dismissal of documents given to it by the CIA, which purported to prove the link, as fakes. Those documents have been widely identified with last September's British dossier on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, which said Saddam Hussein was trying to buy uranium ore from an unnamed country in Africa. British officials admitted that the country was Niger but insisted that the intelligence behind it was genuine and had nothing to do with the fake documents. It was convincing and they were sticking with it, the officials said. They dismissed a report from a former US diplomat who was sent to Niger to investigate the claims and rejected them. "He seems to have asked a few people if it was true and when they said 'no' he accepted it all," one official said. "We see no reason at all to change our assessment." The fake documents were not behind that assessment and were not seen by MI6 until after they were denounced by the IAEA. If MI6 had seen them earlier, it would have immediately advised the Americans that they were fakes. There had been a number of reports in America in particular suggesting that the fake documents - which came from another intelligence source - were passed on via MI6, the officials said. But this was not true. "What they can't accuse MI6 of doing is passing anything on this to the CIA because it didn't have the fake documents and it was not allowed to pass on the intelligence it did have to anyone else." Michael Smith's new book The Spying Game, which examines the intelligence behind the September dossier, is published by Politico's. ---sbs---

* Pyongyang reprocessing nuclear fuel
UPI Pyongyang reprocessing nuclear fuel PYONGYANG, North Korea, July 14 (UPI) -- A U.S. government source confirmed North Korea has begun reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods. The Kyodo news service said the evidence was obtained at the Yongbyon facilities, where monitors detected krypton 85, a reprocessing byproduct, in air samples. It is almost certain that the new finding will heighten the already tense relationship between the United States and North Korea over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program because the reprocessing will enable the North to make more nuclear arms. The latest move will also make it difficult to resolve the nuclear standoff through U.S.-proposed five-way talks also involving Japan, China and South Korea. This is the first physical evidence indicating North Korea has begun the reprocessing work. Krypton 85 is released into the atmosphere when spent fuel rods are reprocessed into weapons-grade plutonium. At China-brokered talks with the United States in Beijing in April, North Korea claimed to possess nuclear weapons and have reprocessed spent fuel rods. copyright 2003 News World Communications, Inc. ---sbs---

* White House in damage control bid over Iraqi nuclear claim
Agence France Presse Monday July 14, 5:25 AM White House in damage control bid over Iraqi nuclear claim The White House launched a damage-control drive as it reeled from mounting criticism over its erroneous claim Iraq tried to acquire uranium from Africa for its nuclear program to justify war to oust Saddam Hussein "It has become an enormously overblown issue," White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice told CNN. "The president of the United States did not go to war because of the question of whether or not Saddam Hussein sought the uranium in Africa," she said. Earlier, on "Fox News Sunday", she dismissed the notion as "ludicrous." On Friday, CIA director George Tenet took responsibility for the now-discredited allegation in the president's State of the Union speech in January. One leading Republican senator said Tenet should quit over his role in the matter. "Somebody ought to be accountable," Richard Shelby, the ranking Republican on the powerful Senate Intelligence Committee told CNN. "If I were the president, he wouldn't be there." The White House admitted Tuesday that the remark by Bush, stating that Baghdad had sought "significant quantities of uranium from Africa," overstated Saddam's alleged efforts to obtain uranium for nuclear arms. Other congressional lawmakers meanwhile said they would await the findings of an investigation into the matter before taking a position on Tenet's future. The Senate, by voice vote, has approved a probe into the matter. "Well, I would like to wait for the end of the investigation to reach a conclusion as to whether Tenet should go. I'm obviously dissatisfied with him in this regard, but also in other aspects as well," Senator Carl Levin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told CNN. Levin directed fire, however, at how the remarks came to be included in a presidential speech to the nation. "That is highly misleading. It is intended to create a false impression. And someone in the White House was pushing the CIA," the Democratic senator said. In January's State of the Union speech, Bush attributed the claim to the British government. White House officials said Sunday the intelligence information backing the statement was not strong enough to include in a major presidential speech. The controversy has sparked a spirited debate in the United States over the reasons given by Bush for going to war, as well as over the quality of US intelligence and whether it was manipulated for political purposes. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld also took pains to explain that while the statement should not have been included in the speech, it was tec hnically correct in referring to British intelligence that London has not refuted. However, he also admitted that the statement should not have been included in the speech, as US intelligence had not confirmed it. The "National Intelligence Estimate" said Iraq tried to purchase up to 500 tons of uranium oxide for its nuclear program from the west African country of Niger. The White House admitted the charge stemmed from documents since discovered to be forgeries alleging that Iraq sought uranium "yellowcake" from Niger. Officials insisted that Bush made the statement in good faith at the time. A new poll, published by Newsweek, found only 53 percent of respondents approve of Bush's handling of Iraq, down 21 percent since April. The furor over the uranium claim only deepens the skepticism caused by US forces' failure so far to find any definitive proof of chemical or biological weapons in Iraq, which were one of Bush's main justifications for the war. Copyright 2002 AFP. All rights reserved. ---sbs---

* No evidence to confirm North Korea's reprocessing claim: South Korea
Agence France Presse Monday July 14, 1:51 PM No evidence to confirm North Korea's reprocessing claim: South Korea South Korean Foreign Minister Yoon Young-Kwan said Seoul and Washington had no direct evidence to confirm that North Korea had finished reprocessing spent fuel rods for nuclear weapons. "There have been no scientific data and evidence to confirm North Korea has finished reprocessing spent fuel rods," Yoon told a domestic radio program. South Korea's Yonhap news agency said Sunday that North Korea had told the United States it had completed reprocessing of 8,000 spent fuel rods to extract plutonium for nuclear weapons. UN-based North Korean envoys confirmed at talks with US officials last week in New York that the reprocessing was completed on June 30, the agency said. It quoted Chang Sung-Min, a former South Korean ruling party lawmaker, as saying the informal meeting was attended by North Korea's UN Representative Park Gil-Yon and US State Department official Jack Pritchard. Yoon confirmed that the New York meeting had taken place and said Washington has briefed Seoul on what transpired during the talks. However, he refused to elaborate on the meeting and expressed doubt over the North's claim. "South Korea and the United States have until now failed to secure evidence despite efforts through various channels," he said. In Washington, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told NBC Sunday that it was unclear whether North Korea's claim was true. "They have told us they have nuclear weapons, they have also made assertions with respect to the pace at which they're reprocessing," he said. "Some people believe what they are saying, other people don't believe what they are saying," the defense secretary added. US and South Korean officials say North Korea may have one or two nuclear bombs and believe reprocessing would yield enough plutonium for around six more. Japan's Kyodo news agency said Saturday that the White House had received fresh intelligence indicating the reprocessing of fuel rods at the Yongbyon nuclear complex north of Pyongyang. Krypton 85 has been detected in air samples from Yongbyon's vicinity, according to Kyodo. Krypton 85 is released into the atmosphere when spent fuel rods are reprocessed into weapons-grade plutonium. N orth Korea has never tested a nuclear device, but indicated last month that it possessed atomic weapons when it said in a foreign ministry statement that it intended to "build up its nuclear deterrent." The nuclear crisis erupted in October when Washington said the North Koreans had admitted running a nuclear program based on enriched uranium in violation of a 1994 nuclear freeze accord. The pact collapsed after North Korea expelled UN nuclear inspectors and began to revive its mothballed nuclear plants to protest a US halt to fuel oil supply for the energy-starved state. The United States says the crisis should be resolved through negotiations but is insisting on a multilateral approach while North Korea wants one-on-one talks with Washington. The United States and North Korea held talks, also attended by China as a host, in Beijing in April to discuss the nuclear crisis but failed to agree on a follow-up meeting. Copyright 2002 AFP. All rights reserved. ---sbs---

* The Underpopulation Problem ["...nuclear energy offers essentially limitless energy forever..."]
Paul M. Weyrich (Free Congress Foundation), TooGoodReports.com The Underpopulation Problem By Paul M. Weyrich Toogood Reports [Monday, July 14, 2003; 12:01 a.m. ET] URL: http://ToogoodReports.com/ An editorial in the Washington Post called "The Baby Bust" got me to thinking about the late 1960s through the 1970s when there was hysteria in this country concerning population control. Then- Senator Bob Packwood, Republican of Oregon, spoke about the "population problem" whenever he had the opportunity. To hear him tell it, the United States was just going to run out of space. Moreover there might not be appropriate resources for those who were born. The late Senator Jacob Javits, Republican of New York, suggested that the situation was so bad perhaps the government should consider licensing parents, giving them the chance to have only two children. Vice President Hubert Humphrey, Lyndon Johnson's number two man from 1965 to 1969, had a stock speech he gave about looking at the Northeast Corridor from the air at night and seeing no break in the lights from Boston to Washington. People were scared. There were too many people for the resources that were available. About the same time a group of academics and political figures, largely from Western Europe, formed something called The Club of Rome. Their purpose was to warn governments that if they didn't get their populations under control, there would be widespread famine and economic collapse. The Club's Chicken Little assessment came out in a book entitled "Limits to Growth," which was very favorably reviewed in the Washington Post. This was all nonsense. We have no population problem. We might have, as George Will put it, a population distribution problem, because people poured out of the rural areas in favor of large cities. But as the United States has demonstrated, we have the resources to feed much of the world and our increased productivity has permitted us to do so on ever-decreasing areas of farmland. In the 1970s, respected energy analysts told us that we were going to run out of oil and other fossil fuels in about 15 years. Now we know better. Even if we continue to consume oil and natural gas at an ever-increasing pace, there is enough to accommodate everyone for all of this century and way beyond. There is even more coal, if the environmentalists would let us burn it, and nuclear energy offers essentially limitless energy forever . Our greatest resource is people. The Post, which back then was sympathetic to the population controllers, now is concerned because our birthrate is below the replacement level for the first time in our history. Of cours e, in Europe and Japan, the situation is so drastic that it is literally possible to chart the disappearance of some of the wealthier nations a few generations from now. The Post notes that ".... countries with shrinking populations may stagnate economically, intellectually and militarily. If future generations are to carry on the American vibrancy and dynamism, the country must be prepa red to embrace more babies, and more adults from around the world." I seldom compliment the Post, but well said! And welcome to the real world! In light of these facts, which have always been there for those who would see, what is the United Nations doing? Why, it is busy preparing for its once-in-a-decade conference on population. In past decades, this conference was at the forefront of promoting population control. Much of the utter nonsense being taught in the public schools about this issue originates from the UN. I've got news for the UN. There is a population problem but it isn't the overpopulation the UN has preached, at least not in the non-Muslim states. The states of Western Europe, Japan and the good old USA, which have traditionally paid the bill so the UN could preach its false doctrine, aren't going to have the money for that luxury anymore. Even in China the population has stabilized, for all the wrong reasons, but the fears expressed about China are no longer valid. What is of great concern in China is too many boys. Where the one child policy is brutally enforced, couples choose boys over girls. Perhaps the UN can pontificate on that subject. If the UN is to retain any credibility at all, it must admit its past mistakes and use its conference next year to, once and for all, smash the ideas of the Club of Rome. Then it can prepare new materials for the public schools reflecting the reality of the situation. If the Washington Post can come around to a sensible point of view, so can the UN. The problem, of course, is that the UN has a whole bureaucratic structure tied up with the other point of view. Bureaucrats almost never admit they are wrong. Moreover, they most often keep pushing in the same direction even when all the data point to the need for an abrupt about face. If indeed we have another UN population conference warning us of the dangers of overpopulation, perhaps Russia would like to explain to the bureaucrats that she risks going out of existence if the current birthrate is not reversed. Perhaps the village in Spain, that offers a pig to each set of new parents as an incentive for them to have babies, can explain to the UN why they feel they need to do so. Maybe the nations of Europe can make presentations on their welfare state programs aimed at getting young people to have children. These governments know the truth. It is high time for the UN to acknowledge it and to tell the world what is really happening or we should never support a conference on population again. ---sbs---

* Why America is Running Out of Gas
Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele, Time magazine Time, July 21, 2003, published July 13 Why America is Running Out of Gas Inflated oil prices and natural gas shortages are wiping out jobs and savings, thanks to three decades of bungled energy policy. Get ready for more bungling By DONALD L. BARLETT AND JAMES B. STEELE If all goes according to plan, the U.S. Senate in the next few weeks will follow the House and approve the latest in a long line of national energy policies. This one incorporates a favorite initiative of President George W. Bush'sthe hydrogen-powered car. In his State of the Union address in January, the President proposed "$1.2 billion in research funding so that America can lead the world in developing clean, hydrogen-powered automobiles." As the President explained, his goal was "to promote energy independence ... in ways that generations before us could not have imagined." Democrats joined euphoric Republicans in signing on to the proposal. "The supply of hydrogen is inexhaustible," Senator Byron Dorgan, North Dakota Democrat, told his colleagues. "Hydrogen is in water. You can take the energy from the wind and use the electricity in the process of electrolysis, separate the hydrogen from the oxygen and store the hydrogen and use it in vehicles. The fact is, hydrogen is ubiquitous. It is everywhere." Was this a rare instance of the two parties working together in Washington for the good of the country? Far from it. They've been doing this energy dance off and on for 30 years. At the time of the first energy crisis, in 1974, President Richard M. Nixon put forth Project Independence to end American reliance on foreign oil through a series of energy programs, among them "hydrogen-fueled vehicles" that could be developed "to enable a shift away from oil." Takeoff date for the new technology: 1990. Members of Congress were enthusiastic about the hydrogen car then too. "Hydrogen offers us great potential as a fuel for the future," said Representative Charles Vanik, Ohio Democrat. Representative Robert Wilson, a California Republican, was equally excited: "We can now look forward to running our automobiles on water." But hydrogen power went nowhere then, just as it went nowhere when it was trumpeted nearly a century ago. It will probably go nowhere today, for many reasons, most notably a chronic case of short attention span among American politicians when it comes to energy policy. With great fanfare, lawmakers and Presidentsboth Democrats and Republicansannounce sweep- ing plans to end or ease American dependence on foreign oil and find other stable sources of energy. When the headlines and television sound bites fade away, however, they scrap the programs, which then are often reintroduced to an unsuspecting public as new in later years by another generation of lawmakers and Presidents. But changing anything as deep-seated as America's habits of energy use calls for consistency and follow through, so the failure of Washington to stick with hardly any of its plans has wound up making the U.S. more dependent than ever on foreign sources. Now Congress is about to enact yet another doomed energy policy that promises more of the same. Take hydrogen. Ideally, the gas would be extracted from water using fusion technology. But that won't be available for decades. In the interim, a substitute energy source would be usednatural gas. Yes, the same natural gas already in short supply. Then there's coal. The Senate bill would authorize spending $200 million a year to study and develop "clean coal" technologies. But that's a substantial comedown from the billions spent in the 1970s and 1980s to encourage development of an industry that would turn coal into oil and synthetic gas, enabling the U.S. to dramatically curb imports. It never came about. The Senate bill also contains an assortment of goodies. It would hand out $3.5 billion to revive America's moribund nuclear power industryeven though the last order for a plant that actually went online was placed in 1973. It would parcel out nearly $10 billion in tax breaks and subsidies to oil and gas companies that will not erase falling production but instead enrich oilmen and investors. At the same time, the President's proposed budget slashes spending on wind research by 5.5%, zero-energy buildings by 50% and biomass by 19%. To add to the insult, the Administration took the money to print its 170-page 2001 National Energy Policy out of the budget for renewable fuels. This comes at a time when Americans are heading into their first big energy squeeze since the 1970s: a shortage of natural gas, the invisible resource used to heat homes, fuel kitchen appliances, generate electricity and manufacture many of the chemicals we use. The shortage has triggered a sharp rise in prices that is likely to exact a heavy toll on low- and middle-income Americans, especially those living on fixed incomes. Home heating bills last winter more than doubled in some areas, and they are expected to go up at least another 20% this winter. Electric bills also will spike because generating plants are increasingly gas-fueled. And in places like Louisiana, where the petrochemical industry makes up a big part of the local economy, the shortage is causing a loss of jobs, with at least 2,000 layoffs so far. The entire industry may be forced to move offshore over the next few years if there is no relief. Beth Wilson, a stay-at-home mom in Hobart, Ind., 35 miles southeast of Chicago, is still seething over last winter's bills from Northern Indiana Public Service Co., known as NIPSCO. In March 2002, Wilson paid the utility 33(cent) a heating unit for the family's two-bedroom home. By March of this year, the price had shot up to 86(cent), an increase of 161%. If the price of new cars had risen at the same pace, a midrange Ford Taurus would sell for $54,000 today. Says Wilson: "I never turn my heat up past 68. I didn't want to turn my ceiling fan on." (NIPSCO also furnishes her electricity.) "How can other people on fixed incomes pay if I can't?" For consumers, the second part of this one-two punch is exaggerated oil prices. While the world is swimming in crude oil, it already trades at an inflated price of $30 a bbl., a level essentially dictated by Saudi Arabia with the approval of the U.S. government. This translates into swollen prices for gasoline, home heating oil and other petroleum products. What's worse is that because of Congress's three decades of fumbled energy legislation, Americans have become more vulnerable than ever to an interruption in foreign supply that would truly send prices into orbit and cripple the U.S. economy. More than 53% of America's daily consumption of oil and petroleum products comes from foreign sources, compared with 35% in 1973. Why are Congress and the White House responsible? As part of a long-standing ritual involving Democrats and Republicans, lawmakers and Presidents have devised energy plans that add up to no plan at allnot deliberately but by default. In pursuit of different agendas, competing interests tend to cancel one another out over time, leaving the nation with no coherent direction on energy. Lawmakers launch programs to develop alternative-energy supplies but later quietly cut or eliminate the funding so there are no realistic alternative sources. They enact legislation offering incentives to stimulate crude-oil production in the U.S., when the politicians knowor should knowthat the programs will not do so in any significant way. They encourage utilities, businesses and industries to shift to natural gas, then fail to ensure sufficient supplies of the fuel. The lawmakers refuse to make the tough choices on energy supplies and consumption, while they cater to the demands of campaign contributors and special interests. Worst of all, when politicians craft a conservation program that actually works, they abandon it. As a result, after three decades and dozens of energy bills, Congress has helped position Americans so they may be closer to an energy crisis than at any time since the oil shocks of the 1970s. And this time, the U.S. is finally beginning to run out of domestic oil and easily recoverable natural gas. Here is how it happened: NATURAL GAS: THE CONGRESSIONAL FLIP-FLOP. A quarter-century ago, Congress enacted the Powerplant and Industrial Fuel Use Act, which banned after 1990 the burning of natural gas by power plants to generate electricity. The reasoning: because that fuel was in short supply and was most widely used to heat homesit goes to half of all residencesit should be preserved for that purpose. Pete Domenici, the Republican Senator from New Mexico, told his colleagues that year, "Almost since we found natural gas we have been busy finding ways to abuse it, waste it, literally throw it away on uses that we are now finding are absolutely the wrong thing to do, and basic among those that are wasteful are ... the use of natural gas to generate electricity." As the years slipped by, Congress reversed course. Prodded by the Reagan Administration, lawmakers repealed the ban in 1987 and opened the door to construction of natural gas-guzzling power plants. Three years later, they amended the environmental rules to discourage the burning of coalAmerica's most plentiful fuelto produce electricity. Predictably, the generation of electricity with natural gas, which had fallen 17% from 1979 to 1987, has shot up 151% since then, reaching a record 686 billion kW-h last year. Nearly a fifth of all U.S. electricity is now generated with natural gas, and 88% of all new generating plants built in the past decade use the fuel. Meanwhile, U.S. production of natural gas has remained stagnant at 19 trillion cu. ft. a year, about the same as a decade ago. But the U.S. consumed 22 trillion cu. ft., up 8% during that time. Because natural gas moves more efficiently by pipeline than tanker (for which it needs to be liquefied), the difference comes mostly from Canada. Now the Canadians are running low, and exports to the U.S. are expected to be flat, or possibly even decline. During these same years, Congress prohibited drilling for natural gas offshore for environmental reasons. Earlier, in the 1970s, it had studied and then rejected building a natural-gas pipeline from the Arctic, where there are substantial gas reserves, south through Canada to serve the U.S. The worry was that Canada would hold the U.S. economic hostage; in fact, Canada has become the largest This time around, the energy bill calls for taxpayer subsidies to build a needlessly longer and far more costly pipeline that follows a roundabout path. Called the Southern Route, it starts at the North Slope and heads south along the Alaskan highway before turning east into Canada. A far more direct path, called the Northern Route, would have cut across the north coast of Alaska and hooked up in Canada with the recently announced Mackenzie Valley pipeline. Both lines ultimately would feed into trunk lines in Alberta and serve the U.S. market. Why the meandering route? In 2001 the Alaska state legislature enacted a law blocking the cheaper northern pipeline. Lawmakers wanted a pork-barrel project to keep construction and supplier jobs in the state. State representative Jim Whitaker, a Fairbanks Republican who sponsored the measure, summed up the state's attitude: "The legislature has a responsibility to ensure that Alaska gas goes to market in a manner that is in the maximum best interest of the people of the state of Alaska." Congress has agreed. In the years that it will take North Slope gas to reach the lower 48 states, natural-gas prices will keep moving up. In the short run, high temperatures this summer could produce spikes in prices and regional brownouts. In June natural gas sold for an average of $5.83 per 1 million btus, up 169% from the same week in 1998. Higher prices already are taking their toll on energy-dependent industries, like those that produce ammonia, the key ingredient in fertilizer. In June 1998 the Louisiana Ammonia Producers trade association had nine corporate members with 3,500 employees. Today it has one, CF Industries. "We've lost 2,000 employees," says Jim Harris, a spokesman for the producers, who accounted for 40% of America's ammonia output. "It's been devastating. The high natural-gas costs have been the overwhelming reason plants have closed. It's completely depressed the whole area." Other businesses have sounded the alarm, among them a consortium of nearly two dozen companies, including pharmaceutical makers (Abbott Laboratories), brewers (Coors), chemical companies (Dow) and makers of building materials (Owens Corning). They have urged President Bush "to declare war on high natural-gas prices." Heading a list of recommendations: "Maximize use of other energy sources for power generation." At the same time that Louisiana factories are laying off workers because of gas prices, the U.S. is shipping gas to Mexico to generate electricity there. While the volume is still comparatively small, exports nonetheless have swelled 674% over the past seven years, to 263 billion cu. ft. last year. El Paso Energy, for one, pipes gas directly to the new Samalayuca II power plant, about 25 miles south of Ciudad Juarez. It serves 1 million people and some 300 factories south of the border. The potentially chronic natural-gas shortage and its impact on the economy and employment have even Alan Greenspan worried. Talking about the many industries dependent on natural gas, the Federal Reserve chairman told the Senate Energy Committee last week that "we do see the obvious loss of jobs ... because it has made us largely uncompetitive in a number of industries in which gas is a critical input." He also saw little hope that prices would fall. "We are not apt to return to earlier periods of relative abundance and low prices anytime soon," he said. LIQUEFIED NATURAL GAS: BACK TO THE FUTURE. To meet the surging demand for natural gas in the short term, Greenspan does see a solution: liquefied natural gas (lng). He has told Congress that "given notable cost reductions for both liquefaction and transportation of lng, significant global trade is developing. And high gas prices projected in the American distant futures market have made us a potential very large importer." Translation: Because natural-gas prices are going upand are going to stay upit's now time to bring in more expensive lng from the Caribbean, the Middle East, Africa and possibly Russia. To import natural gas, it must be chilled to minus 260(degree)F, which converts it to a liquid and reduces its volume. An amount that would normally fill a beach ball can fit inside a Ping-Pong ball. When the liquid arrives at terminals in the U.S., it is slowly warmed up, returned to a vapor form and sent through pipelines. The U.S. tried to build an lng supply line once before but, in typical fashion, abandoned it. During the last natural-gas shortage in the 1970s, when lawmakers voted to ban its burning to generate electricity, they also encouraged the establishment of the lng industry with taxpayer- guaranteed loans and grants. Special tankers, the most expensive ships in the world at the time, were built along with four terminals and re-gasification facilities at Cove Point, Md., near Baltimore, as well as in Georgia, Louisiana and Massachusetts. The first lng shipments arrived in 1978. In April 1980, Morris Udall, the Democratic Representative from Arizona, told the House that a Congressional Office of Technology Assessment report concluded that lng imports, "if encouraged, could double by 1990 and meet as much as 7% to 13% of U.S. natural-gas needs." It was not to be. A series of events conspired to derail the policy. The Algerians, who shipped the lng, jacked up the price. The Carter Administration and the natural-gas and pipeline companies balked at paying more. After months of fruitless negotiations, the deal unraveled. The ships went elsewhere. Cove Point and two other plants closed. It was the end of the lng experiment. But the shortage has triggered a scramble to reverse course. Today Cove Point is being expanded and will reopen soon. The plants in the three other states are already open, and plans are on the drawing board for two dozen more. OIL PRODUCTION AND IMPORTS: PROMISES, PROMISES. In 1973, with the country importing 6 million bbl. of crude oil and petroleum products daily, President Nixon pledged that by virtue of his Project Independence "in the year 1980, the United States will not be dependent on any other country for the energy we need to provide our jobs, to heat our homes, and to keep our transportation moving." He advanced a catalog of energy proposals that covered everything from drilling on the outer continental shelf to building more nuclear power plants, from expanding the use of coal to conducting research on potential new sources. In the end it didn't work, and the U.S. failed to come close to his goal of energy independence. While the yearly numbers rose and fell, by 1980 net oil imports had increased 400,000 bbl. a day over 1973. After the second oil shock hit America in 1979, Washington's wandering attention was focused again on energy. Following Nixon's lead, President Carter pushed development of synthetic fuels as part of his strategy to slash imports. When he signed the Energy Security Act into law in June 1980, Carter said it would "encourage production of 2 million bbl. a day of synthetic fuels by the year 1992." That didn't work either: synthetic-fuel production ended up slightly in excess of zero, and oil imports totaled 6.9 million bbl. a day that year. Throughout the years, in one energy debate after another, lawmakers and Presidents insisted that if they handed out enough incentives, U.S. oil production would rise, and there would be less need for imports. In each instance, legislation was accompanied by extravagant forecasts not only by lawmakers but by energy-company officials as well. In 1974 policymakers predicted that U.S. oil production "could increase to more than 17 million bbl. a day, which is more than sufficient to be at zero imports by 1985." The Reagan White House shared the optimism. A spokesman said that "the ranges that any reasonable person is considering include zero (imports) by 2000." By that year, however, imports were at their highest level ever, and domestic production had declined to levels not seen since 1950. Now President Bush has his own plan to jump-start oil production. He wants to begin drilling in a portion of the 1.5 million-acre arctic coastal-plain area of the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (anwr), which covers a total of 19 million acres. According to the White House, the President "believes that opening this small area to environmentally responsible exploration would provide the resources necessary to reduce our dependence on foreign sources of oil and provide for greater energy security." The reduction would be modest. Even if the anwr would yield 1 million bbl. daily of crude oil, as suggested by the President, by the time pipelines are built and production gets under way, the oil would displace less than 10% of U.S. imports. And there are no guarantees for the 1 million bbl. In the early days of the North Slope project, politicians predicted that consumers would get 3.8 million bbl. of crude oil daily out of Alaska "by the end of the century." Instead production hit a high of 2 million bbl. in 1988the only year at that leveland then began to trail off, dropping to 984,000 bbl. last year. To make matters worse, the U.S. is confronted with a refinery gapjust as it was in the 1973-74 oil crisis. The U.S. consumed 19.8 million bbl. a day of petroleum products last year, but its refineries could process only 16.6 million bbl. of crude oil. The 3.2 million barrel difference was made up through imports of finished products like gasoline and jet fuel, which are even more susceptible to supply disruptions than crude oil. Following the energy debacles of the 1970s, the industry began adding refinery capacity. By 1980, it could process all the crude oil required to meet demand, but that lasted only until 1985. The gap has been widening ever since. CONSERVATIONBUT NOT FOR REAL MEN. After the 1973-74 energy crisis, when gas stations closed on Sundays and motorists waited in lines for hours to fill up, Congress enacted a series of tough conservation measures. The Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 imposed stringent mileage requirements on automakersan average of 27.5 m.p.g. on passenger cars by model year 1985to curb gasoline consumption. It worked. In the decade before the act's passage, gasoline consumption had risen 48%, to 6.5 million bbl. a day in 1974. In years to follow, even with millions more cars on the highways, consumption remained largely unchanged. Beginning at 7 million bbl. a day in 1976, demand went up and down in a narrow range and by 1991 was at just 7.2 million. During the 1980s, as it became clear gasoline conservation was working, aided by a nasty recession, one energy forecast after another anticipated ever better mileage. The American Petroleum Institute, swept up by auto-industry fervor, announced in September 1981 that "forecasts of fuel efficiency for new cars now exceed those mandates (27.5 m.p.g.), suggesting an industry-fleet average of 30 m.p.g. by 1985." Not exactly: this year the average is still 27.5 m.p.g. for vehicles officially labeled as passenger cars, but for the entire fleet of vehicles, including suvs and trucks, it is much worse. The best overall fuel economy of 22.1 m.p.g. (for U.S.-made vehicles) was achieved in 1987-88. Aside from an occasional upward tick, that figure has inched steadily downward, to 20.4 m.p.g. last year. That's because Congress lost interest in conservation and failed to keep the pressure on the car companies. Lawmakers refused to set new mileage goals. Worse, they excluded from the existing requirements light trucks and suvs, the fastest-selling vehicles and the ones that use the most gasoline. Contributing even more to the trend, they extended an extraordinary tax benefit to the gas guzzlers, so drivers who used a vehicle for work could write off the cost on their tax returnseven as much as $38,200 toward a new Hummer H2 that gets only 10 m.p.g. As might be expected, consumption rose 1.5 million bbl. a day over the past decade, to 8.8 million last year. But for owners of pricey vehicles like the Hummer, it keeps getting better. The tax-cutting bill signed into law in May expanded the write-off to $100,000. For its part, the Bush Administration is dismissive of serious conservation. Vice President Cheney, who headed an Administration task force to devise an energy strategya group whose work was carried out in secret and whose papers remain secretexpressed the attitude two years ago in a now infamous way: "Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy." Representative Raymond Green, a Texas Democrat, was more blunt when the House earlier this year beat back an attempt to raise mileage standards. While allowing that he was for "better gas mileage," said Green: "We come from a big state that wants big trucks and big cars." ALTERNATIVE ENERGY: HERE COMES THE SUN, AND THERE IT GOES AGAIN. No alternative-energy source has captured the imagination of lawmakers and Presidents like the sun. For three decades, solar energy's champions on Capitol Hill have insisted that the harnessing of this free and unlimited supply of energy was just around the corner. Representative Charles Mosher, Ohio Republican, was among the ardent supporters in 1974. "Much of the technology needed to utilize this nonpolluting source of power is nearly at hand," Mosher said in a speech on the House floor. "In fact, the consensus is that there are no major technical barriers to the widespread application of solar energy to meet U.S. energy needs." With that notion in mind, President Carter in 1980 pushed legislation that he said would help "us to reach our goal of deriving 20% of all the energy we use by the end of this century directly from the sun." The forecast proved breathtakingly overreaching. Last year solar energy accounted for about seven one-hundredths of 1% of all U.S. energy consumption. The Bush energy package includes a $2,000 tax credit for individuals who buy and install photovoltaic or solar water-heating equipment in their residences. Nothing new here: the government has been selling solar for years with generous tax incentives. Most of the public, though, isn't buying. And people who do often have memorable experiences. A quarter-century ago, the owners of a 13-story, 64-unit co-op at 924 West End Avenue on New York City's Upper West Side erected a steel framework on the rooftop, welded it to the building's steel beams and attached 117 solar-collector panels. Water heated by the sun flowed through pipes into a 5,000-gal. storage tank in the building's old coal bin and from there into the building's hot- water system. The project was funded in part with a $112,000 federal grant. Today the solar experiment is long gone. A building workman told Time that the collectors behaved like sails, swaying back and forth so much that water leaked into apartments below. It cost several million dollars to repair the roof, he said. But solar is hardly the only alternative energy source that has failed to live up to the promises of its congressional supporters. Just as both parties have embraced President Bush's hydrogen initiative, they have also signed on to another of his long-shot proposals, one he says will provide "clean, safe, renewable and commercially available fusion energy by the middle of this century." Unlike nuclear fission, the splitting of uranium atoms that powers nuclear reactors, fusion joins hydrogen atoms to unleash far more energy. The trick is to control the fusion reaction to generate electricity. It has been an elusive goal for half a century and probably will be for many decades to come. Even so, according to the President, "commercialization of fusion has the potential to dramatically improve America's energy security while significantly reducing air pollution and emissions of greenhouse gases." That's about what President Carter envisioned more than 20 years agoalbeit with a different timetablewhen he signed into law the Magnetic Fusion Engineering Act in 1980. Said Carter: "Fusion power offers the potential for a limitless energy source with manageable environmental effects." The law established as a national goal the successful operation of a magnetic fusion-demonstration plant in the U.S. by 2000. The cost was put at $20 billion. As Congress is given to do after announcing grand projects, it slimmed down appropriations to less than $10 billion. U.S. researchers eventually teamed up with colleagues in several countries, but in 1998 Congress pulled the plug on the consortium, contending that it was too expensive. President Bush, however, reversed that decision. The White House announced last January that the U.S. "will join ... an ambitious international research project to harness the promise of fusion energy, the same form of energy that powers the sun. America will join negotiations with Canada, Europe, Japan, Russia and China to create the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (iter). This will be the largest and most technologically sophisticated fusion experiment in the world." Actually, it's the same consortium to which the U.S. had been party in the 1990s and from which it then bailed out. So it is that the U.S. is likely to be faced with recurring oil and natural-gas crises for some years to come. Their duration and severity remain to be seen. But volatile pricesas with gasoline during the Iraqi war, natural gas last winter and electricity in 2000are all but guaranteed. The result is a hidden tax of tens of billions of dollars on American consumers. Just how many billions depends on a catalog of variables ranging from the harshness of the weather to unfolding events in the Middle East. More important, it depends on whether Congress and the White House, Democrats and Republicans, come up with a thoughtful energy policy that imposes tough conservation and efficiency measures, promotes research to develop one or two realistic alternative energy forms in commercial quantities and encourages production from a mix of existing energy sources. But none of this will be worth the effort unless the U.S. sticks with a plan long enough for it to pay off. With reporting by Laura Karmatz/New York and Eric Roston/Washington, with research by Joan Levinstein/New York Copyright 2003 Time Inc. All rights reserved. ---sbs---

* Bush 'Bundlers' Take Fundraising to New Level [including "insurance protections for nuclear energy producers"
Thomas B. Edsall and Mike Allen, Washington Post washingtonpost.com Bush 'Bundlers' Take Fundraising to New Level By Thomas B. Edsall and Mike Allen Washington Post Staff Writers Monday, July 14, 2003; Page A01 As chairman, president and chief executive of Safeway Inc., the world's 11th-largest grocery chain, Steven Burd is the nexus of a wide network of subordinates and suppliers, as well as friends in corporate suites. And that is why he will play a critical role in President Bush's effort to raise the largest amount of money ever spent on a presidential campaign -- not by giving a lot of money himself, but by finding a lot of people to give relatively little. In the jargon of political fundraising, Burd is a bundler. At two Bush fundraising events in California last month, Burd filled 10 tables with Safeway suppliers, including rice farmers, strawberry growers and a cheese manufacturer, plus representatives of Breyers ice cream, Sunkist produce and Del Monte canned goods who paid $2,000 to hear Bush talk. Each donor wrote a four-digit "solicitor tracking code" assigned to Burd on his check so that the Safeway CEO will receive credit from Bush campaign officials and they can keep a running tally of his efforts. The possible rewards, depending on how much money he can bring in, include cocktails with campaign architect Karl Rove, dinner with Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans and photo opportunities and sessions with the president. Bush did not invent bundling, an old practice in fundraising designed to give a collection of small donors more bang for their buck by combining their efforts. But the Bush campaign has refined it and made it the central focus of its money strategy because of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law and its goal of reducing the role of mega-donors in political campaigns. Under the law, large "soft money" contributions from corporations, unions and individuals are banned and the limit on legal "hard money" contributions from individuals to candidates was raised from $1,000 to $2,000 -- rules that at least initially were thought to have leveled the playing field for traditionally outspent Democrats. But the quick success and ambitious goals of Bush's fundraisers, who have said they want to raise $170 million but expect to easily surpass that, show the law can work to the decisive advantage of the Republican Party. The GOP can solicit a greater number of $2,000 donations as a result of wide support in a corporate community eager to repay the Bush administration for its pro-business policies. Democrats, in contrast, have depended on trial lawyers and wealthy liberals who do not have large constituencies to draw on. Bush campaign officials have tried to play down the role of $2,000 donors and the network of affluent fundraisers backing the president. In interviews, the officials stress that the Republican Party has added more than 800,000 small direct-mail donors over the past 30 months. In fact, however, donors who give the maximum or close to it and the people who solicit them have provided the bulk of the money for Bush's campaigns. Internal campaign documents show that the bundling organization is dominated by corporate CEOs, lobbyists, energy company executives, venture capitalists and investment bankers who can reach tens of thousands of subordinates, customers and subcontractors. The biggest source of new bundlers has been the universe of doctors, corporate defense lawyers and others who favor the Bush administration's proposal to limit lawsuits and to limit the amount that can be recovered for medical malpractice -- legislation that is part of the broad Republican effort known as tort reform. In New York, the campaign can draw on the chairmen and chief executives of Merrill Lynch and Co., Bear Stearns Cos. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. In Georgia, top executives at Coca-Cola Co., the Southern Co. and AFLAC insurance are on board. In Florida, sugar barons, real estate developers and the chairman of Wackenhut Corrections Corp., a major federal and state prison contractor, have all joined the Bush bandwagon. And in Washington, the elite of the Republican lobbying community, 116 strong, signed up to raise a minimum of $20,000 each to help win four more years for Bush. Becoming part of the Bush money machine starts with a pledge card and a commitment to raise a specific amount, from $20,000 to $250,000 or more. A highly successful innovation of Bush's first campaign, which raised a record $101 million, was the designation of "Pioneer" for someone who raised at least $100,000. That designation is also available this campaign, with the promise -- in writing -- of benefits that include "a special Pioneer event with the President," special events at the Republican National Convention in New York and "regular reports" from top campaign officials. But becoming a Pioneer will be tougher. Last time, Pioneers were given credit for checks collected by people they recruited. Aspiring Pioneers this time around receive credit only for the checks they personally collect. The credit system has touched off fierce jockeying for the contributions of well-known Republicans. Longtime party strategist Rich Galen said that before last month's Bush reception in Washington, he was inundated with requests from Bush fundraisers to write their number on his check. "I hadn't heard from some of these people in years," he said. Galen chose the number of one longtime friend for his own check, and the number of a second friend for the check written by his wife. In addition, Pioneer will no longer be the top designation. Those who produce at least $200,000 will be awarded the status of "Ranger," evocative of the Texas Rangers, the baseball team Bush once owned. The Rangers and Pioneers recruit other Bush supporters as vice chairs, sponsors and host committee members for specific events. These people raise smaller amounts, perhaps $20,000 or $50,000, depending on the event. At the base of the pyramid are the people who write the checks, usually at the behest of an aspiring Ranger or Pioneer. In an indication of how Bush's network has grown, 17 people signed up to raise $200,000 each as "general chairs" for his June 23 cocktail party at a Manhattan hotel. That amount qualifies each of them as a Ranger. Nine of those prospective Rangers represent new blood for the Bush campaign. The other eight were Pioneers in 2000 and have doubled their commitment from $100,000 to $200,000. In the 2000 campaign, nearly 60 percent of the money Bush received was in $1,000 donations, the maximum allowed then. He received 59,279 $1,000 donations, or $59.3 million of his $101 million total. The 59,279 donors more than tripled the number of any competitor, according to the Campaign Finance Institute, which is affiliated with George Washington University. Al Gore, who was second in the competition for $1,000 donors, had only 19,298 when running as a sitting vice president. The crucial importance of drawing on a network of colleagues or subordinates was also apparent in that campaign. Charles M. Cawley, CEO of MBNA, the world's largest independent credit card issuer, for example, was a Bush Pioneer. MBNA employees gave Bush a total of $240,675, according to an analysis by the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics. Similarly, members of Vinson & Elkins -- the law firm of Pioneer Joe B. Allen -- gave $202,850. Les Brorsen, another Pioneer, is chief lobbyist for Ernst & Young, where employees gave Bush $179,949. Rove, who remains on the White House payroll for the campaign and has been an energetic promoter of Bush's fundraising events, helped recruit bundlers by holding "pre-sale events" in New York, California and Texas. Before Bush's reception in Los Angeles, Rove chatted up bundlers during a dinner at the ranch of David H. Murdock, the billionaire chairman of Dole Food Co. Attendees said Rove went from table to table, asking for ideas and sharing insights about Bush behind the scenes, then spoke to the group about the campaign's political plans. The mechanics of the money collection are being run by one of Bush's most loyal political aides, Jack Oliver, who is deputy finance chairman of Bush-Cheney '04 Inc. and who was the chief fundraiser of Bush's last campaign. In between, Oliver stayed in touch with donors as deputy chairman of the Republican National Committee. Oliver and the Bush campaign have tapped into existing money organizations created by past and present Republican governors, including Bush's brother Jeb Bush in Florida, George E. Pataki in New York, Ohio's Bob Taft, and former California governor Pete Wilson. The single factor virtually all such donors have in common is that they, their clients, their corporations, their suppliers and their subcontractors are major beneficiaries of the Bush administration's tax-cutting and deregulatory policies. Almost all of the top Bush fundraisers are in the top 1 percent of the nation's incomes, and many are in the top one-tenth of the top 1 percent. Consequently, they are among those who benefit the most from administration legislation reducing the top income tax rate, the capital gains rate and the elimination of taxation on dividend income. For instance, four of the chairs for the $2,000-a-person cocktail party in New York were E. Stanley O'Neal, chairman and CEO of Merrill Lynch; James E. Cayne, chairman and CEO of Bear Stearns; Henry A. McKinnell Jr., chairman and CEO of Pfizer Inc., the world's largest drug company; and Henry M. Paulson, chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs. McKinnell, O'Neal and Paulson committed to raising $200,000 each, and Cayne agreed to raise $100,000. Looking at salaries and bonuses in 2002 ranging from McKinnell's $5.3 million to Cayne's $10.2 million, Citizens for Tax Justice estimated their 2003 tax savings resulting from Bush-sponsored tax cuts will range from $300,000 to $610,000, and become significantly higher as the decade progresses, particularly if their pay packages grow. In some instances, the bundlers' employers have also benefited from White House policies. Take Dwight H. Evans, who was on the host committee for a June 20 Bush fundraiser at the Ritz-Carlton Lodge at Reynolds Plantation in Greensboro, Ga. Evans is the executive vice president and president of the external affairs group for the Southern Co., which describes itself as "a super-regional energy company." Southern's holdings include five electric utilities: Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power, Mississippi Power and Savannah Electric. Evans's responsibilities include directing environmental policy, regulatory affairs and legislative affairs. Few companies have done as well during the current Bush administration as the Southern Co. The Environmental Protection Agency has curtailed tough regulatory requirements governing improvements at old power plants, and the electricity industry strongly supports the administration's Clear Skies Initiative to change the pollution reduction goals in the Clean Air Act. The administration backs a wide range of subsidies and insurance protections for nuclear energy producers. 2003 The Washington Post Company ---sbs---

* [UKAEA financial software] LogicaCMG to support UKAEA's nuclear decommissioning and environmental restoration activities, providing cost savings and reduced risk
LogicaCMG (press release) LogicaCMG 07/14/2003 09:45:41 AM GMT LOGICACMG AWARDED MYSAP AND MANAGED SERVICES CONTRACT BY THE UNITED KINGDOM ATOMIC ENERGY AUTHORITY (UKAEA) LogicaCMG to support UKAEA's nuclear decommissioning and environmental restoration activities, providing cost savings and reduced risk LogicaCMG today announced it has signed a six year managed services contract with the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA). LogicaCMG will support the organisation’s nuclear decommissioning and environmental restoration activities through a mySAP implementation. UKAEA will benefit from accurate financial reporting, improved cost control, project management, and integrated procurement processes. LogicaCMG will replace UKAEA’s existing financial software suite to enable better financial reporting and cost control. LogicaCMG will also implement additional SAP functionality, including timesheet and expenses for employees; and an e-Procurement solution to support processes for planned and unplanned web-based procurement of direct and indirect goods and services. Once the new system is in place, LogicaCMG will support it under a managed service agreement, which will involve hosting both hardware and applications on behalf of UKAEA. This will allow UKAEA to reduce cost and risk throughout the six-year contract period, and will ensure that the SAP solution continues to fit the organisation’s changing business needs. With the imminent introduction by the UK Government of a new body to oversee the UK’s civil nuclear liabilities and a greater emphasis on competitive procurement of decommissioning and support services, it has become crucial for UKAEA to operate with an integrated, effective IT infrastructure. UKAEA has recognised that the new mySAP system, delivered by and outsourced to LogicaCMG, will provide the tools and integration it needs to meet these challenges. Paul White, Finance Director at UKAEA commented, “Throughout the selection process, LogicaCMG demonstrated that not only could it meet UKAEA’s current requirements, but, with its significant SAP expertise, could also provide a solid platform to support business change within UKAEA. Having the right partner to deliver and support the right solution is essential for UKAEA as we embark on a period of change and challenge.” Rob Wallis, sales & marketing director at LogicaCMG Enterprise Solutions commented, “As a global SAP services partner, LogicaCMG is ideally placed to ensure that UKAEA reaps the benefits of the SAP solution, both now and over the long term. This contract with UKAEA reflects our partnership approach, where we ensure that we work closely with our customers, realising their transformational business goals through the innovative application of state-of-the-art technology.” Ian Swann, Director, Services Industries, at SAP said, “We are very pleased to be working with LogicaCMG to deliver UKAEA a solution and service that will help the authority manage their business requirements.” NOTES TO EDITORS About LogicaCMG LogicaCMG is a global solutions company providing management and IT consultancy, systems integration and outsourcing services. With additional expertise in wireless technology, the company supports clients across diverse markets including telecoms, financial services, energy and utilities, industry, distribution and transport and the public sector. Formed in December 2002 through the merger of Logica and CMG the company employs around 21,000 staff in offices across 34 countries and has nearly 40 years of experience in the IT service arena . Headquartered in Europe, LogicaCMG is listed on both the London and Amsterdam stock exchanges (LSE:LOG; AEX:LOG). More information is available from www.logicacmg.com About the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) was incorporated as a statutory corporation in 1954 and pioneered the development of nuclear energy in the UK. Today it is responsible for managing the decommissioning of the nuclear reactors and other radioactive facilities used for the UK's nuclear research and development programme in a safe and environmentally sensitive manner. Its objective is to essentially restore the sites for conventional use. It is also responsible for the UK’s input to the European fusions research programme and for maximising the income from the land and buildings at its sites. UKAEA is a non-departmental public body, funded mainly by its lead department the Department of Trade and Industry. About SAP SAP is the world's leading provider of business software solutions. Through mySAP™ Business Suite, people in businesses around the globe are improving relationships with customers and partners, streamlining operations, and achieving significant efficiencies throughout their supply chains. Today, more than 19,600 companies in over 120 countries run more than 62,000 installations of SAP® software. With subsidiaries in over 50 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE under the symbol "SAP." (Additional information at http://www.sap.com) Copyright © 2003 SAP AG SAP, the SAP logo, mySAP.com, mySAP, and all other SAP products and services mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and several other countries. Other product or service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners. Press Contacts Jennifer Peters Marketing and Public Relations Campaigns Manager LogicaCMG Tel: +44 (0) 207 446 4813 Email: jennifer.peters@logicacmg.com This material has been produced by LogicaCMG. It is delivered by Pressi.com in its original form. Copyright © 2003 Pressi.com. Terms of use. Send feedback to Pressi.com. Privacy policy. ---sbs---

* Bill could mark shift to nuclear energy
Marta Hummel, Medill News Service/York Daily Record (PA) York Daily Record (PA), July 14, 2003 Bill could mark shift to nuclear energy A Senate proposal would allow for as many as six new nuclear reactors to be built the first in the country since 1973. By MARTA HUMMEL, Medill News Service WASHINGTON The Senates proposed 2003 energy bill, which is widely expected to pass, could signal a nationwide shift to nuclear energy already a key electricity source for Pennsylvania. The Senate voted 50-48 in mid-June to provide loan guarantees for new nuclear reactors as part of wide-ranging legislation aimed at making the United States more energy independent. Both Sens. Arlen Specter and Rick Santorum voted to include the provision authorizing loan guarantees for up to six new plants which could cost U.S. taxpayers as much as $14 billion to $16 billion if the new sites fail, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the accounting arm of Congress. Any effective national energy policy should be balanced and part of that balance should include a nuclear component, said Erica Clayton Wright, Santorums spokeswoman. Specter agrees, said Bill Reynolds, Specters press secretary. The nuclear provision is one piece of the puzzle in addressing the larger energy needs of the state and the country, he said. The state is home to nine reactors, second only to Illinois, with 11 reactors, and relies on nuclear-generated energy for 36 percent of its electricity needs, compared with a national average of 20 percent. Until this year, no plants have been ordered in the United States since 1973. But Exelon Corp., Entergy Nuclear and Dominion Energy, three of the largest nuclear operators in the country and major political contributors, have filed requests with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to set aside land for new plants outside of Pennsylvania, including in Illinois and Virginia. Exelon and Entergy were among the top 20 donors in their industry, which collectively gave a total of $56.4 million to political campaigns in 2002 $15.4 million to Democrats, and $41 million to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Exelon, which co-owns and operates Three Mile Island and Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station, does not plan on building a new facility in Pennsylvania in the next few years, according to Dave Simon, spokesman for the firms Mid-Atlantic nuclear operations. Mitch Singer, a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industrys trade group, said he did not think Pennsylvania would see any immediate changes in policy if the bill passes, but said it would increase nuclear energys role nationwide. What the bill says is that nuclear energy has to play a key role in the energy mix of this country for security and environmental reasons, Singer said. Critics charge the subsidies are a form of corporate welfare and should have been cut from the energy bill. If left on their own, there wouldnt be any nuclear reactors because the private sector wont finance building them. If you believe in a free market, this bill is a huge boondoggle for taxpayers, said David Masur,executive director of PennEnvironment, an environmental advocacy group. Safety concerns But its not just the cost that bothers opponents like Masur. Any bill that continues our reliance on unsafe or non-renewable resources is not a good idea, he said. His organization estimates that Pennsylvania will ship 21,000 truckloads of nuclear waste to sites across the country over the next 30 to 40 years. Do you want to drive next to a highly toxic substance on I-83? he asked. Currently the state stores its own waste, but plans to start hauling it outside of the state in coming years. Despite the potential dangers of toxic spills in transport, nuclear energy has had a great track record for almost 25 years. The 1979 Three Mile Island partial meltdown, however, which released radiation into the surrounding area, still looms large in the United States and especially in Pennsylvanias collective memory. Still, given the consistent track record, Santorum sees nuclear energy as a viable part of the countrys overall energy plan. If existing plants close and are not replaced, it means turning to natural gas and coal, which means emissions. Sometimes the cost of those emissions are even more significant than building plants, said Wright, his spokeswoman. Copyright York Daily Record 2003 ---sbs---

* Americas Lack-luster Energy Policy Is Now Coming Home To Roost
Lloyd Weaver, Energy Pulse (CO) Energy Pulse, July 14, 2003 Americas Lack-luster Energy Policy Is Now Coming Home To Roost by Lloyd Weaver, Mechanical Engineer Whether you mine or burn coal, or engineer and install coal systems, a market leader clean-coal pressurized gasification technology is still needed more than ever today. And, despite nearly 18 years of DOE struggles and $billions spent to perfect such a technology, it doesnt exist. Only two working IGCC (Integrated gasification Combined Cycle) power plants have been installed in the U.S. since then. Their performance is considerably less than coals conventional steam-power technology, while costing much more. Thus, stakeholders need to re-visit this problem and arrive at a better solution than has been offered by DOE, who is presently off in CO2 sequestration and Hydrogen dreamland (see Postscript). One invention technology that may solve the problem of lack of a cost-effective and market-leader gasification technology is PCPG (Pulverized Coal Pressurized Gasifier). It has rapidly evolved into a series of cutting edge inventions, the latest of which involved moving the pulverized fuel burners and uniform fuel distribution mechanisms to the top of the gasifier with burners facing down. In this arrangement, the pulverized coal fuel mix is now elevated by pressurized screw conveyors to feed the fuel distribution space. This is advantageous when using PCPG burners in low-cost air-blown gasifiers or with the lower gas volume (nitrogen removed from the air) O2-blown technology for petrochemical purposes, but still using the same low temperature PCPG process. The basic pending patent (the recent improvements are a separate pending patent) is now published by the U.S. Patent Office. Why is PCPG a critical need? As a leading power executive said at a national gasification conference two years ago, to paraphrase, if we cant do any better on pressurized gasification front-ends, we should stop having these meetings The high-temperature gasification spoken of lacks in reliability and efficiency. Its expensive to build, and has higher carbon loses than desired. Therefore, pressurized gasification and/or IGCC power systems are not being specified by the utility industry, let alone gasification for low-cost petrochemical feeds. In short, high temperature gasifying processes are continually failing to achieve a market-leader pressurized gasification technology. Thats why only a handful of such power plants have been built in 20 years. If it were a successful technology, as some imply, there would be dozens of them installed by now. Indeed, coal steam technology appears to be the main consideration by power executives now. Its clearly time to look elsewhere for success. PCPG takes low-temperature gasification principles so successful in the early 1900s and brings them into the modern age to meet IGCC and petrochemical needs of low-cost and reliability (see PCPG reliability analysis at www.pcpg.us ). Its the needed better idea to accomplish national objectives with coal gasification; its boiling down to who is right, high-temperature or low-temperature gasification process advocates. The 1900s gasification technology was low-temperature, highly reliable and successful, reaching hot gas efficiencies of 94% as a counter-current flow technology. Counter-current is not the most efficient process flow arrangement as it forces the hot gas up though the fresh coal just added to plague the final gas with tars and excessive ash, making hot gas filtering difficult if not impossible with the fine filtration demanded by IGCC systems. Co-current flow PCPG can do better by making a dry tar-free gas while solving the vexing pressurized gasification fuel feed, burner, and process design problems with its 2-stage gasification principles. In fact, its well known that co-current processes (all material flow is in the same direction) are the best way to make the dry and filterable hot gas needed by IGCC processes. Present U.S. energy policy is self-defeating. It relies too much on natural gas we dont have and on coal for which there is no ready clean-coal gasification technology. According to EIA (Energy Information Administration) data results, using only our own oil and gas, the U.S. has only 3 years in oil reserves and 8 for natural gas) resulting in high oil imports and rapidly evolving LNG importing infrastructure. Yet 52% of our electricity is from coal. Fed Chairman Greenspan recently made it clear by saying importing large LNG quantities are necessary, and we must solve coal and nuclear energy problems and increase their use if we are to maintain our present lifestyle. Its critical to explore the low-temperature gasification process region were PCPG should excel. Globally, coal for power is only 25% efficient according to the World Coal Institute. PCPG gasification systems should enable IGCC systems to easily reach 50% efficiency and simultaneously solve coals pollution problems. Thus, breakthroughs in pressurized coal gasification are not only needed to spur investment in coal, but to solve its global cleanliness problem represented by the intolerably low 25% average global power plant efficiency. Also, the same front-ends that will feed power plants today will be our lifesavers tomorrow by feeding petrochemical plants hydrocarbon gases for all the products we rely on from such plants, including liquid fuels. Finally, its inevitable surface transportation is going to be fueled in part with electricity through night-charging hybrid-drive battery packs in vehicles. This could dramatically increase electricity needs and, ultimately, coal use. The auto industry is quickly gearing up to mass produce hybrid-drive vehicles with battery packs. Saturn will sell its first hybrid vehicle in 2005 and Toyota and Honda have two on sale now with more coming. While imported hybrids dont feature night-charging yet, such features are inevitable to maximally save on oil use. For example, according to EPRI studies, night-charging a 20 mile battery pack can reduce oil consumption 65% and smog pollutants 37% in a mid-sized SUV. Larger battery packs result in even more dramatic oil savings. While the auto industry appears ready with the battery/electric motor hybrid-drive technology they need, the power industry is not ready with the practical IGCC clean-coal technology needed to produce low cost electricity let alone extra electricity for transportation. The above amply illustrates the great need for a cost-effective market-leader pressurized coal gasification technology. Can we wait on DOE to get it together and achieve this technology? I say just do it. Postscript: Is it true that climate change is caused by the accumulation of man-made carbon dioxide (CO2)? The short answer is no. But what facts can help us understand the causal relationships involved? In Bill Brysons new book A Short History of Nearly Everything, he states that 20,000 times more CO2 is tied up in rocks, principally limestone, than in the atmosphere. Limestone is from shell-type marine life fed by ocean phytoplankton absorbing CO2 (its estimated oceans absorb about 50% of all CO2) which then die and sink to the bottom of the ocean to be thrust up later, a cycle estimated at * million years. The atmosphere is now estimated to be a 360 or so parts per million CO2 (from previous 280). He states 30 times more CO2 is on average emitted every year by natural causes than burning fuels (this is a key fact to keep in mind). Also, he noted that molecule for molecule, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are 10,000 times more effective in causing greenhouse effects than CO2, one pound of CFCs can consume several thousand pounds of ozone in the stratosphere and that the ozone layer is only about 1/8 inch thick. He wrote U.S. companies are still making CFCs, 60 million pounds per year, but outside the U.S. since it is illegal to manufacture them here. Also, it was recently stated elsewhere that hydrogen readily escapes containers (20%) and directly attacks the ozone layer. Given the magnitude of the change in atmospheric CO2, a more likely hypothesis is that the absorption side of CO2 is slowing down, thus causing increased CO2 accumulation in the atmosphere. That is, atmospheric CO2 accumulation = production (1/30th is industrial + natural causes of CO2) absorption (ocean and land plants). A likely cause for a slowdown in CO2 absorption, some researches believe, is the depletion of the ozone layer by CFCs and hydrogen which increases the amount of ultra-violet light reaching the surface with negative effects on the plankton. This, and 30 times more CO2 naturally created, invalidates the industrial CO2 hypothesis for increasing CO2 in the atmosphere. Indeed, its highly likely that even if industrial CO2 production totally ceased, the greatly larger natural releases of CO2 coupled with ozone destroying CFCs and hydrogen would cause atmospheric CO2 increases to continue. Therefore, the correlation (but not cause and effect) of CO2 increase with fossil fuel use occurs because both hydrogen (for petrochemical uses) and CFC production effectively mimic increased fossil fuel use. Thus, building a new infrastructure for a sustainable energy future requires investment in energy efficiency and environmental friendliness (both the central focus of PCPG technology for coal), conservation, and economical alternative energy sources. However, all evidence indicates present DOE energy policy with its emphasis on the hydrogen economy will very likely have the opposite environmental effect than as asserted. Based on whats known now, its prudent to stop implementing the hydrogen economy idea, create a world-wide ban on CFCs and figure out ways to restore former stratospheric ozone levels. Copyright 2003 CyberTech, Inc. ---sbs---

* European NGOs support separation of Euratom and EU treaties
Cordis News (EU) European NGOs support separation of Euratom and EU treaties [Date: 2003-07-14] The Presidium of the European Convention has decided to drop its initial proposal to include the Euratom treaty in the future EU constitution. The decision to introduce an annex, stipulating a legal separation between the EU and Euratom, was made on 10 July. European NGOs have responded positively, saying that the decision underlines the growing opposition to the promotion of nuclear energy via the Euratom treaty. 'This is a recognition that the Euratom treaty is so outdated and undemocratic that it has no place in a modern constitution,' said Mark Johnston of Friends of the Earth Europe. Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth believe that leaving the Euratom treaty out of the constitution will enable Member States to opt out of Euratom without having to leave the EU altogether. Environmentalists are hoping that politicians will consider a complete abolition of Euratom at the forthcoming intergovernmental conference (IGC) 'Retaining nuclear promotion in the primary law risks greater unpopularity of the EU amongst its citizens,' said Bridget Woodman of Greenpeace European Unit. A total budget of 1.23 billion euro has been allocated for Euratom activities under the Sixth Framework Programme, of which around 60 per cent will be used to fund research into thermonuclear fusion. For further information, please consult the following web address: ftp://ftp.cordis.lu/pub/fp6/docs/euratom_challenge_21stcentury.pdf Category: Miscellaneous Data Source Provider: Greenpeace Document Reference: Based on information from Greenpeace Programme or Service Acronym: FRAMEWORK 6C; FP6-EURATOM Subject Index : Environmental Protection; Nuclear Fission; Nuclear Fusion RCN: 20571 CORDIS RTD-NEWS/ European Communities, 2002. ---sbs---

* Ukrainian reactor shuts down
AAP/The Age (Australia) Ukrainian reactor shuts down AAP, 14 July 2003, 10:05 PM A malfunction forced operators to shut down one of six reactors at Europe's largest nuclear power plant, Ukrainian officials said. Reactor No 1 at the Zaporizhia plant was disconnected from the electric grid at after the motor in the reactor's main circulation pump malfunctioned, the state nuclear energy company Energoatom said. Radiation levels remain normal, it said. The reactor is expected to be off-line until July 19. Repairs underway on reactor No 2 at the same plant are expected to be completed in September. The Zaporizhia plant generates some 20 per cent of Ukraine's electricity needs and 45 per cent of the country's nuclear power. Minor malfunctions at Ukraine's four remaining nuclear power plants occur frequently. Four of the country's 13 reactors are undergoing repairs. Ukraine was the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster in 1986, when a reactor at the Chernobyl plant in the then-Soviet republic exploded. Chernobyl was closed for good in 2000, but disassembly work continues. Work on a $US768 million ($A1.17 billion) project to build a new containment structure at Chernobyl is to start next year. 2003 AP ---sbs---

* Iranian, Italian FMs discuss Tehran's peaceful nuclear programs
IRNA (Iran) Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), July 14, 2003 07:16:12 PDT Iranian, Italian FMs discuss Tehran's peaceful nuclear programs Rome, July 14, IRNA -- Italian Foreign Minister Franco Fratini on Monday telephoned his Iranian counterpart Kamal Kharrazi to discuss Tehran's peaceful nuclear programs as well as taking up EU dialogue with the Islamic Republic from where it was left off. According to the Italian Foreign Ministry, Fratini called for Iranian cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency which demands that Tehran sign an additional protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Kharrazi told the Italian foreign minister, whose country took over as the new rotatory head of the European Union this month, that 'constructive dialogue between the European Union and Iran in order to fight terrorist groups and cooperate on economy and trade must continue'. On Sunday, the Iranian foreign minister discussed Tehran's nuclear energy program with his German counterpart Joschka Fischer on the phone. Kharrazi criticized Fischer's 'unhelpful' statements recently, when he had reportedly said that his country wanted the European Union to put more pressure on Iran to halt developing nuclear technology. The German foreign minister said Berlin welcomes Tehran's cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Kharrazi briefed Fischer on IAEA chief, Mohamed ElBaradei's one-day visit to the Islamic Republic, during which he discussed further cooperation between his office and Iran's Nuclear Atomic Organization. ElBaradei had said the visit was part of IAEA's efforts to persuade Iran to sign the Additional Protocol which could allow the international atomic watchdog more intrusive inspection of the Islamic Republic's nuclear facilities. Tehran says it would sign the protocol provided that nuclear powers lift their sanctions on Iran and help the country acquire the know-how for peaceful use of nuclear energy. Iran says its nuclear program is intended for producing 7,000 megawatts of electricity in the next 20 years, when the country's oil and gas reserves become overstretched. BH/AH/AR 2000 Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). All rights reserved ---sbs---

* Dry storage of fuel rods won't happen at Crystal River
Louis Hau, St. Petersburg Times St. Petersburg Times, July 14, 2003, p. 1E Dry storage of fuel rods won't happen at Crystal River By LOUIS HAU, Times Staff Writer Progress Energy Inc.'s willingness to consider "dry-cask" storage for spent nuclear fuel at two of its nuclear power plants in the Carolinas doesn't extend to its nuclear reactor in Crystal River. Environmentalists and some industry experts say dry storage is safer than traditional water-filled cooling pools. But Crystal River reconfigured its pools two years ago to store more spent fuel in the same amount of space, which should meet the reactor's storage needs through 2014. By contrast, Progress' plants in Hartsville, S.C., and Southport, N.C., are mulling dry storage because their cooling pools have run out of space and can no longer be reconfigured, according to Progress spokesman Keith Poston. Increasing the density of cooling pools is a common practice in the nuclear industry, which relies on pools for most long-term storage of spent fuel. Due to a lack of off-site storage facilities for spent fuel, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has allowed high-density storage in pools that were designed to hold far smaller inventories, according to a report published this year in the Princeton University research journal Science and Global Security. Because of the intense thermal heat generated by spent fuel newly removed from a nuclear reactor, increased storage density heightens the risk that the fuel could catch fire, which could lead to a catastrophic release of radiation, the report said. Given these risks and the added concerns about terrorist attacks, the report's researchers recommended that all spent nuclear fuel be transferred from cooling pools to dry storage within five years after being removed from a reactor. Some of the waste in Crystal River's cooling ponds has been there for as long as 25 years. Dry storage entails placing spent fuel rods in reinforced concrete casks, which can be dispersed and stored above ground, sometimes in bunkers. In addition to reducing the storage density of spent fuel, dry storage involves no moving parts and so is less susceptible to potential problems, according to David Lochbaum, nuclear safety engineer for the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington. He notes that cooling pools must continuously monitor water levels and circulate the water in the pools to prevent evaporation. Because dry casks are more dispersed, a terrorist attack would cause less damage than an attack on a cooling pool, says Jim Warren, executive director of the Durham, N.C., environmental group N.C. Warn. "It's a matter of scale," Warren says. Progress' possible shift to dry storage at some of its nuclear plants has nothing to do with safety concerns but is motivated by simple economics, Progress' Poston said. Once cooling pools can no longer be reconfigured to increase storage capacity, building dry storage makes sense economically because it's simpler and less expensive to build than additional pools, Poston said. "Dry storage and wet storage are equally safe," he said. "In fact pool storage is the industry standard." - Louis Hau can be reached at hau@sptimes.com or 813 226-3404 Copyright 2003 St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved ----sbs---

* Progress Energy rethinks nuclear waste [spent fuel at Robinson, Brunswick, Harris and Crystal River]
Louis Hau, St. Petersburg Times (FL) St. Petersburg Times, July 14, 2003, p. 1E Progress Energy rethinks nuclear waste By LOUIS HAU, Times Staff Writer St. Petersburg Times published July 14, 2003 HARTSVILLE, S.C. - This small town is a long way from the Nevada desert. But delays in the opening of a national nuclear waste repository at Nevada's Yucca Mountain could affect Hartsville, home to 7,800 residents, Coker College, the corporate headquarters of global packaging company Sonoco Products Co. and Progress Energy Inc.'s H.B. Robinson nuclear power plant. The Robinson plant could soon start keeping its highly radioactive waste instead of shipping it away. While that might prompt concern in other places, it doesn't appear to generate much fuss among the citizens of Hartsville, Mayor Bill Gaskins says. "We have a very good working relationship," Gaskins says of Progress Energy as he leans back in a black swivel chair at his storefront real estate and small loan business on N Fifth Street. "They just do a good job of maintaining their facilities, and they have an excellent safety record." Under the latest version of a much-revised timetable, the nation's commercial nuclear power plants aren't scheduled to start shipping high-level nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain until at least 2010. Instead, they store spent nuclear fuel - which is many times more lethal than low-level waste, such as irradiated reactor pipes and filters - on the same grounds as their generating units. The lone exception has been Progress Energy. Progress does use on-site storage at its Crystal River nuclear plant in the Tampa Bay area, which the utility inherited when it acquired Florida Power Corp. of St. Petersburg. But for the past 14 years, it has been loading sealed containers of spent nuclear fuel from two of its nuclear pl ants in the Carolinas on rail cars. The fuel is then transported from the Robinson plant in Hartsville and from the company's Brunswick nuclear plant in Southport, N.C., which are short on storage space, to the company's newer Shearon Harris nuclear plant near Raleigh for long-term storage. Now in a surprising about-face, Progress is considering an end to its railcar shipments of spent fuel, at least until Yucca Mountain opens. The move is attracting attention because Progress is a major player in the nuclear power industry, and its corporate leaders are strong advocates of the controversial energy source. Chairman and chief executive Bill Cavanaugh, president and chief operating officer Robert McGehee and Progress Florida president Bill Habermeyer are all former officers in the Navy's nuclear submarine program. Progress is considering installing above-ground "dry-cask" storage facilities at the Robinson and Brunswick nuclear plants, and the move is being applauded by environmentalists who had long pilloried the company for its storage practices. Some industry experts think dry storage is safer and more secure than the crowded cooling pools, a point the company disputes. Robinson and Brunswick currently use pools for "cooling off" new waste awaiting shipment and for the permanent storage of older waste. Progress has received proposals from dry-cask storagemakers and expects to reach a decision on the matter by the end of summer, according to senior vice president and chief nuclear officer Scotty Hinant. If Progress decides to go with on-site dry storage, it would start phasing out nuclear shipments from Robinson by the end of the year and from Brunswick by the end of 2005, Hinant says. Such changes appear to run counter to the future that the nuclear industry is gearing up for, in which spent nuclear fuel will be routinely transported from across the country to Yucca Mountain. But Progress' moves come amid continuing worries about the safety of shipping high-level nuclear waste, concerns that have mounted since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the war in Iraq. That's also translated into increasing political pressure in Progress' home state of North Carolina. Officials in Chatham, Durham and Orange counties and the municipalities of Carrboro and Chapel Hill, all of which are near the Harris nuclear plant, have called on the company to stop importing waste to their area, according to Jim Warren, executive director of N.C. Warn, a Durham environmental group. "They had planned to ship that stuff for decades and they gradually realized that the public is very concerned about the shipments and the growing stockpile at Harris," Warren said. "It was going to continue to be a major (public relations) problem." U.S. Rep. David Price, a Democrat who represents Progress' home turf in the Research Triangle area, alerted the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in March about a new study highlighting the security advantages of above-ground nuclear waste storage over spent fuel pools. He wrote, "Many constituents in my district are particularly concerned with the vulnerability of nuclear plants and spent fuel pools in particular." But Hinant, the Progress executive, says political pressure had nothing to do with Progress' decision to consider different options for its nuclear waste. Rather, he insists it has more to do with the need to prepare for the 2005 relicensing of the rail containers the utility uses to transport spent fuel, which isn't a sure thing and requires that the company consider other options. Besides, Hinant says, the Harris plant, which didn't begin operating until 1989, is one of the newest nuclear plants in the country. As a result, it would be one of the last permitted to ship waste to Yucca Mountain, which will receive waste from nuclear plants by order of the relative age and available storage facilities of each plant. So Hinant says it makes more sense for Progress to preserve what storage is left at Harris for that plant's own needs. Finally, there's the continuing uncertainty over when Yucca Mountain will open. The project is years behind schedule. The facility was originally supposed to open in 1998. That has created waste-storage headaches for utilities that operate nuclear power plants. The utilities have collected and passed on to Department of Energy more than $20-billion in fees from ratepayers to defray the costs of an eventual centralized waste site. Nevada officials continue to fight in the courts to block the Yucca project from moving forward. In testimony before a House subcommittee in May, an official from the General Accounting Office expressed concerns that the energy department's efforts to correct nagging problems in Yucca Mountain's quality-assurance program "have been less than favorable" and could delay its application for an NRC license to build the repository. Despite such concerns, Hinant argues that extensive studies at Yucca Mountain have demonstrated the safety and security of the site. "Politics is the reason why Yucca Mountain isn't open today," he says. "It's not technical issues. The technical issues have been looked at, have been addressed, have been studied. It's one of the most studied sites in the world." None of this has raised much of a stir in Hartsville, where there's a high level of trust in Progress, formerly Carolina Power & Light. The Robinson plant is one of Hartsville's largest employers. Former CP&L employees serve as the town's chief building inspector and as surrounding Darlington County's chief deputy sheriff, while Sonoco Products chairman Charles Coker, whose grandfather founded Coker College, sits on Progress' board. Still, not everyone shares in the enthusiasm for Progress Energy or its nuclear plant. "We've got too much (nuclear waste) in South Carolina," says Steve Ford, a gardener at Kalmia Gardens of Coker College. "We should take our fair share but we've got more than our share." Billy Pierce, an electrical engineer with a local polyester fiber company, says his biggest concern is that, "nationally, we're not doing anything with nuclear waste. We keep putting it off and yet people want nuclear power." But local officials expect that community concerns about potential changes at the Robinson plant will remain minimal. "The company has ingratiated itself and become a part of the community," says Hartsville city manager Jim Pennington, a former city manager for the South Florida towns of Lauderhill and Delray Beach. "It's been this feeling of comfort." -Louis Hau can be reached at hau@sptimes.com or 813 226-3404 Copyright 2003 St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved ---sbs--- -- July 13

* Clearing the air over Wyle labs [Editorial]
Riverside Press Enterprise Clearing the air over Wyle labs 07/13/2003 THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE Here's the nature of the problem with fears of toxic pollution at the Wyle Laboratories complex in Norco: The more we look into it, the less we know. How can that be? A Press-Enterprise examination of regulatory agency documents dating to the 1960s reveals that authorities themselves seem to have had only dim awareness of what was going on there. In 1988, regulators concluded the plant was of little environmental concern, but they hadn't inspected it. In 1983, the state listed the plant as abandoned when in fact it was in full operation, doing the secret testing of military weapons that has been a large part of its work since the distant days when it had this landscape all to itself. Meanwhile, assurances from such agencies were being offered to allay public concerns about the plant's safety. Now there's a cloud of uncertainty over the plant. It's time to start clearing that up. The uncertainty doesn't mean there's a big problem at the Wyle plant. But it means too much has been taken on faith. It means we can't know what to make of all the anecdotal evidence; it means we can't have confidence that there hasn't been a problem. More to the point, it means that the people who live in the shadow of the plant, or who work there or attend high school across the street or drop their kids at preschool nearby can't escape a fear of exposure to health risks. It means the 30 or so people this paper has identified who have been around the plant and suffer serious illness can't escape the fear that exposure was real. And yes, it even means that Wyle can't raise a convincing defense, or a convincing assurance that another of its plants, in the Beaumont area, won't inherit problems. There's only one antidote here: A hard pursuit of facts. All the public agencies now hastening to take a closer look at this problem need to make a clear demonstration that they're taking the work seriously. The public perception is that this flurry of activity is badly belated. It's true. Indeed, more regulatory attention has been paid to Wyle in recent years. But viewed against an emerging history with critical blank spaces, it looks like too little, too late. Further: It's not enough to involve agencies that deal in toxic regulation, water quality and air quality. This is a public health issue, too, and it needs to be treated as such. Patterns of serious illness seem apparent to the untrained eyes of common citizens. Conditions like these demand more than featureless responses that, say, this doesn't count as a real cancer cluster, or it's hard to tell about these things. They deserve careful pathological examination. Along the same lines, common sense should dictate that the expensive homes now planned for this soon-to-be-vacated site should be put on hold for now. If we don't know the cause of health problems of former or current residents of the area, why would newcomers want to hazard their own health by moving in? There are enough potential liability issues hovering here already. It's in no one's interest to create more. Too much has been taken on faith here for too long. It's time for diligent inquiry. It's time, at last, for real answers. ---sbs--- ---sbs--next---sbs--- BBC Monitoring (subscription required) Japan Economic Newswire (subscription required) (subscription required) (subscription required) (subscription required) (subscription required) (subscription required) (subscription required) (subscription required) (subscription required) (subscription required) (subscription required) (subscription required) (subscription required) (subscription required) (subscription required) (subscription required) Search Terms: "nuclear plant" "nuclear energy" "nuclear power" ---sbs--- 11. The Associated Press State & Local Wire, July 14, 2003, Monday, BC cycle, 8:25 AM Eastern Time, State and Regional, 511 words, Report: Utilities pay less in property taxes because of changing laws, deregulation, PHILADELPHIA The Associated Press State & Local Wire The materials in the AP file were compiled by The Associated Press. These materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The Associated Press. July 14, 2003, Monday, BC cycle 8:25 AM Eastern Time SECTION: State and Regional LENGTH: 511 words HEADLINE: Report: Utilities pay less in property taxes because of changing laws, deregulation DATELINE: PHILADELPHIA BODY: Major utility companies across the state, including PPL Corp. and Exelon, are paying about 85 percent less in property taxes on their plants than they did in 1997, and continue to vigorously fight for lower tax assessments, according to a published report. The utilities have benefited from deregulation deals that were formed in the mid-1990s and allowed the utilities to pay significantly lower property taxes, according to an analysis by The Philadelphia Inquirer in Sunday editions. The tax payments once provided significant revenues for state municipalities and local school districts, but deregulation and changing utility tax laws have produced far lower intakes for many towns and counties in Pennsylvania. The Inquirer analysis revealed that school districts in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, as well as counties including Allegheny and Montgomery, have suffered major tax revenue shortfalls since 1997. For the previous 25 years, power companies had contributed property tax payments into a state fund, known as the Pennsylvania Utility Realty Tax Act, and the total was distributed to local taxing authorities based on their overall tax revenues. The utilities contributed a total of $167.5 million in 1997, allowing Philadelphia and other large cities to receive generous shares of the fund. But beginning in 1998, with the deregulation of the electricity market, utilities were allowed to appraise their own plants and subsequently contributed less to the fund, which dwindled to $60 million. And in 2000, the plants were removed from the funds and were taxed by the municipalities in which they were located. "I can't imagine a deal where consumers and local taxpayers got kicked in the rear worse than this one," Pittsburgh lawyer Ira Weiss, an expert on Pennsylvania real estate taxes, told the newspaper. The utilities have regularly challenged their tax assessments, arguing that their plants have decreased in value because of increased competition. The Limerick nuclear power plant in Montgomery County, for instance, was assessed by county officials at $912 million. But PECO Energy Co., which owns the plant, has placed the value at $10 million. The appeal has been pending for about two years. Dauphin County has valued the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, site of the nation's worst nuclear accident, at $64.9 million, while the company that owns it, AmerGen, has placed its worth at $5 million. "We appreciate the fact that (local) officials have an obligation to the taxpayers to ensure that corporations like ours pay their fair share," PPL spokesman George Biechler said. "However, we are reaching out to our plant neighbors to respect the fact that PP&L must also look at the bigger picture. We also have a responsibility to (our) 1.3 million customers across eastern and central Pennsylvania and to our more than 150,000 shareowners across the country," he said. "That responsibility includes opposing local taxes that are excessive and that unfairly single out the company." ---sbs--- 17. Korea Times, July 15, 2003, Tuesday, 530 words, Puan to Be Developed into High-Tech Industrial Cluster Copyright 2003 Hankook Ilbo Korea Times July 15, 2003, Tuesday LENGTH: 530 words HEADLINE: Puan to Be Developed into High-Tech Industrial Cluster BODY: Puan-gun, a rural county in North Cholla Province, will be transformed into a proton accelerator technology industrial cluster, in return for volunteering to provide its territory for the future radioactive waste disposal facility. The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy (MOCIE) has been trying to win consents from local governments for building the spent fuel storage facility in their territory by promising a range of financial incentives. The central government has been seeking sites for a nuclear repository along the western and southern coasts for nearly two decades. But candidate sites other than Puan-gun shook their heads, faced with fierce opposition from local residents who called out, ''Not in my backyard. The candidate sites included Yonggwang in South Cholla Province, Kunsan and Kochang in North Cholla Province, and Uljin and Yongdok in North Kyongsang Province. When the decision to construct the radioactive waste disposal facility in Puan-gun is finalized at the end of this month, the county would receive 160 billion won from the central government to be developed into a proton accelerator industrial cluster by 2023. The proton accelerator industry has far-reaching economic effects of over 1 trillion won annually, as proton accelerator technology can be used in all high-tech industries, including those of nanotechnology, biotechnology, aerospace and information, according to the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI). The KAERI predicts that when the proton accelerator technology industry gets on track, it will create 4,200 jobs, and attract related industries and research institutes in the adjacent areas. The prospective site that would be developed into the proton accelerator industrial cluster would see its population increase by 20,000, it added. The institute also said that the industry would generate a total of $913 million worth of economic effects, including $52 million in import replacement effect and export revenues of $10 million. The MOCIE said it plans to accept further requests from the Puan county government such as constructing a techno park, residential complexes, and tourist and leisure complexes, and relocating the Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power headquarters to the region. The deadline for applications to be considered as sites for the projected facility is July 15, but with no other local governments showing interest, it is highly likely that Puan county will be selected. Other governments have been faced with strong opposition from their residents who are concerned over safety of the radioactive waste disposal facility. The Ministry of Science and Technology forecast that temporary spent radioactive fuel rod storages at nuclear power plants will gradually reach their limits beginning in 2008, while low-level radioactive wastes will pose no problem until 2014. Presently 18 nuclear-powered electricity generation plants are operating in operation, generating a combined amount of 15.71 million kilowatt of electricity, accounting for over 40 percent of the nations total required electricity. Six more nuke-powered generation plants are under construction. ---sbs--- 18. BBC Monitoring International Reports, July 14, 2003, 237 words, RUSSIAN EXPERT SURE NKOREA CANNOT PRODUCE LARGE QUANTITIES OF PLUTONIUM Copyright 2003 Financial Times Information All rights reserved Global News Wire - Asia Africa Intelligence Wire Copyright 2003 BBC Monitoring/BBC BBC Monitoring International Reports July 14, 2003 LENGTH: 237 words HEADLINE: RUSSIAN EXPERT SURE NKOREA CANNOT PRODUCE LARGE QUANTITIES OF PLUTONIUM Moscow, 14 July: North Korea can produce plutonium from available 8,000 irradiated nuclear rods "only experimentally and in small quantities". This opinion was expressed on Monday (14 July) in an interview with TASS by vice-president of the Russian research centre Kurchatov Institute Nikolay Ponamarev-Stepnoy, commenting on information from an American spy satellite (circulated by the press of various countries) on alleged discharges of krypton-85 gas in the area of the Korean Peninsula. "This gas could get into the atmosphere from Russian Far Eastern regions, conducting work with worked-out rods of nuclear power plants," the academician claimed. According to the vice-president, laboratories, available to North Korean nuclear physicists, can only hold experiments with radiated rods. "Industrial production of plutonium to manufacture nuclear charges is virtually impossible under such conditions," he noted. The Russian researcher claimed that "it is now impossible to estimate real volumes of work on plutonium production in North Korea, since North Korea withdrew from the Nonproliferation Treaty and does not permit IAEA inspectors to work at its nuclear facilities". Ponamarev-Stepnoy said the Kurchatov Institute "has had no scientific contacts with North Korean physicists for over a decade". Source: ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow, in English 1327 gmt 14 Jul 03 ) BBC Monitoring ---sbs--- 19. Central News Agency - Taiwan, July 14, 2003, Monday, 159 words, REFERENDUM ON PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION DAY A POSSIBLE OPTION: DPP, By Deborah Kuo, Taipei, July 14 Copyright 2003 Central News Agency Central News Agency - Taiwan July 14, 2003, Monday LENGTH: 159 words HEADLINE: REFERENDUM ON PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION DAY A POSSIBLE OPTION: DPP BYLINE: By Deborah Kuo DATELINE: Taipei, July 14 BODY: Holding a referendum to decide several public affairs issues in tandem with the next presidential election set for March 20, 2004, is a possible option, a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) official said Monday. Chang Chun-hsiung, secretary-general of the ruling DPP, noted that President Chen Shui-bian, who concurrently serves as DPP chairman, has on many public occasions said the administration will push for a referendum to be held on the election day or the day before to decide three public affairs issues. The three public affairs issues are reform of the Legislature, Taiwan's bid to enter the World Health Organization, and the fate of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant. Quoting a recent public opinion poll conducted by the DPP Poll Center, Chang said nearly 60 percent of the Taiwan people favor a referendum being held on the day of the presidential election to save costs. ---sbs--- 20. Central News Agency - Taiwan, July 14, 2003, Monday, 360 words, PEOPLE'S RIGHT TO PLEBISCITE WILL NOT BE STRIPPED: PRESIDENT, By Maubo Chang, Taipei, July 14 Copyright 2003 Central News Agency Central News Agency - Taiwan July 14, 2003, Monday LENGTH: 360 words HEADLINE: PEOPLE'S RIGHT TO PLEBISCITE WILL NOT BE STRIPPED: PRESIDENT BYLINE: By Maubo Chang DATELINE: Taipei, July 14 BODY: The people's right to plebiscite should not by stripped because of the absence of a law governing its exercise, President Chen Shui-bian was quoted as saying Monday. Chen, who threw a dinner party for a group of lawmakers of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) , of which he is concurrently chairman, was cited by DPP lawmaker Chen Chi-mai as blaming the opposition for pulling the plug on the attempt to legislate a plebiscite bill even though the Constitution provides for plebiscite as a basic civil right. Noting that his administration will not deny the people their constitutional right to plebiscite simply because of the lack of legislation to govern its exercise, Chen claimed that "opinion polls show" that more than 57 percent of the public support a plebiscite held in conjunction with the 2004 presidential election. Chen was quoted as urging DPP lawmakers to support his idea of putting to plebiscite the country's entry to the World Health Organization, reform of the Legislative Yuan and whether the fourth nuclear power plant should be scrapped. DPP lawmaker Chiu Chui-chen quoted the president as saying at the dinner party that DPP should establish a national plebiscite promotion committee to woo public support for a plebiscite, which he said is even more important than winning the next presidential election. Meanwhile, Lin Chia-lung, a spokesman for the Executive Yuan, said that if a plebiscite law cannot be put in place before October, then holding the plebiscite and the presidential election simultaneously will be the only choice. The Executive Yuan is studying the possible timing of a plebiscite before the March 20, 2004 presidential election, but the chances of a plebiscite before next March 20 are slim unless a plebiscite law can be readied by October. According to the Executive Yuan's estimate, Lin said, it will take the government between NT$300 million and NT$500 million (US$8.8 million and US$14.67 million) to arrange a plebiscite. ---sbs--- 21. Central News Agency - Taiwan, July 14, 2003, Monday, 254 words, By Maubo Chang Copyright 2003 Central News Agency Central News Agency - Taiwan July 14, 2003, Monday LENGTH: 254 words BYLINE: By Maubo Chang BODY: PD5K7602.CEP REFERENDUM KMT WARNS GOVERNMENT NOT TO CONDUCT PLEBISCITE WITHOUT LEGISLATION Taipei, July 14 (CNA) Lawmakers of the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) warned the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration Monday not to attempt to conduct any kind of plebiscite before the relevant legislation is passed, amid reports that President Chen Shui-bian will hold a referendum on three topics in conjunction with 2004 Presidential election. Legislator Liu Cheng-hung, secretary-general of the KMT legislative caucus, claimed that the president is trying to plant another time-bomb by floating the idea of organizing a plebiscite on the issues of Legislative Yuan reform, entry to the World Health Organization, and whether the fourth nuclear power plant should be scrapped. "As a lawyer-turned-president, Chen should know the principle of governance by law, " Liu said, adding that all government policy should based on law. Liu said the KMT will continue to press for the enactment of a plebiscite law and is ready to force a vote at the legislature in November if the ruling party and the opposition parties cannot work out a version acceptable to both sides after four months of negotiations. Meanwhile, ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Ching-chun said his party will make the legislation of a plebiscite law the top priority of the next legislative session. ---sbs--- 22. Daily Record, July 14, 2003, Monday, BUSINESS; Pg. 34, 396 words, BUSINESS: HI-TECH PARK IS FULL OF LIFE, John Mceachran Copyright 2003 Scottish Daily Record & Sunday Mail Ltd. Daily Record July 14, 2003, Monday SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. 34 LENGTH: 396 words HEADLINE: BUSINESS: HI-TECH PARK IS FULL OF LIFE BYLINE: John Mceachran A VIBRANT business park has received another major boost thanks to the leading international consultants Sinclair Knight Merz. The firm have moved onto the Scottish Enterprise Technology Park in East Kilbride. The company, which currently has 70staff at East Kilbride, has just taken a 10 -year lease on 10,550 square feet at Prism House, representing half of the total accommodation in the building developed by Neilstra Ltd. A further 5000 square feet of the single-storey space was earlier let to Reliance Monitoring Services, leaving just 5000 square feet left. Sinclair Knight Merz will use their new Scottish headquarters to spearhead their work in the power sector ranging from the operation and maintenance of wind farms to nuclear power station decommissioning. The company, whose head office is in Australia, was also involved in preparing the recently-released report on rail links to Glasgow and Edinburgh Airports. Julie Campbell, director of Colliers CRE, who are joint agents for Neilstra, said the deal was another boost for the park. She said: "Prism House was designed to provide high-quality open-plan space for hi-tech users such as Sinclair Knight Merz on a prestigious technology campus with university links. "The park provides a range of quality office and workshop space within a security-controlled, landscaped environment. There is an excellent telecom infrastructure with a soon-to-be-installed fibre optic link as well as on-site conference and catering facilities." KENNY GRIFFITH, business development manager at Sinclair Knight Merz, said: "We moved into temporary premises in East Kilbride last autumn. Our first task was to relocate into a purpose-built office. "Prism House is ideal for us. It provides us with first-class accommodation and we are surrounded by like -minded companies. "We have around 70 staff at East Kilbride, but that figure will increase. The company also have offices in Edinburgh, Thurso, Newtown, Swindon, Manchester and London." Julie Campbell added : "Increased demand in recent months means that only limited accommodation is available at the technology park. "This ranges from 180 square feet to 20,000 square feet. These are available to let on a variety of terms from flexible leases on an all-inclusive occupancy cost basis to longer term FRI leases." ---sbs---

* Seoul Plays Down NK Claim
Korea Times By Kim Ki-tae, Staff Reporter -- kt-kim@koreatimes.co.kr Copyright Hankooki.com 07-14-2003 18:09 24. Korea Times, July 15, 2003, Tuesday, 373 words, Seoul Plays Down NK Claim Copyright 2003 Hankook Ilbo Korea Times July 15, 2003, Tuesday LENGTH: 373 words HEADLINE: Seoul Plays Down NK Claim BODY: Seoul diplomats and scientists are skeptical of a report that North Korea has completed reprocessing spent nuclear reactor fuel rods into weapons-grade plutonium, a main component for atomic bombs. Foreign Minister Yoon Young-kown yesterday said there is not sufficient scientific evidence to prove the North has either started reprocessing the rods or completed the work. ''South Korea and the United States are trying to secure related data though various cannels, but the evidence has not shown up yet, Yoon said during an interview with a local radio program. The minister said he was aware of a report that the North had formally notified Washington of its completion of reprocessing spent reactor fuel rods. It was revealed Sunday that the North's ambassador to the United Nations, Park Gil-yon, met Jack Pritchard, the U.S. special envoy on the North, in New York on July 8 and claimed his communist country has finished reprocessing some 8,000 spent fuel rods in storage. Professor Kang Chang-sun from Seoul National University expressed a negative view over the Norths claim. ''It is very suspicious that the North has completed the reprocessing in such a limited time, he said. The nuclear physics professor admitted the North may have reprocessed a portion of the rods but ''not all 8,000 units. According to the news report, the U.S. detected krypton-85 gas in the vicinity of the Yongbyon nuclear plant, which suggests reprocessing of the material is underway at the facility. ''Even if the North defies all probability and has processed all the rods, the amount of plutonium produced would be no more than 24 kilograms, barely enough to make four bombs considering their technology level, Kang said. News reports state the North may have processed enough plutonium to manufacture four to six nuclear bombs. However, Kang said his estimate is based only on given data and is open to change. The reprocessing has been considered a ''red line that the North should not cross in the standoff over its nuclear weapons program. Washington supports a peaceful resolution of the situation but has not ruled out the use of force, including sanctions. The North says sanctions would trigger a war. ---sbs--- 25. The Record (Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario), July 14, 2003 Monday Final Edition, BUSINESS; Pg. D8, 447 words, Ontario, Quebec energy plans expected to boost wind power, CALGARY Copyright 2003 Toronto Star Newspapers, Ltd. The Record (Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario) July 14, 2003 Monday Final Edition SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. D8 LENGTH: 447 words HEADLINE: Ontario, Quebec energy plans expected to boost wind power SOURCE: Canadian Press DATELINE: CALGARY BODY: With Canada's largest wind farm newly completed on the Alberta Prairie and strong commitments for more renewable power to be generated in Ontario and Quebec, wind energy appears poised for large-scale expansion. Nestled in the wind corridor that blows out of the Crowsnest Pass in southern Alberta, the McBride Lake wind farm sports 114 new turbines that can produce up to 75 megawatts of electricity. One megawatt is enough power for about 5,000 homes. Once the permits and investment dollars are in place, wind farms can pop up like weeds -- McBride took only 200 days to assemble. Vision Quest Windelectric Inc., a wholly owned arm of independent power giant TransAlta, celebrated the completion of McBride with plans to build an even larger project nearby. Called Summerview, the site will have 75 turbines, larger windmills and produce up to 120 megawatts if the required permits are granted. Glen Estill, the Ontario-based president of the Canadian Wind Energy Association, says southwestern Alberta has the "absolute perfect combination" of outstanding winds, a deregulated industry, high provincial power prices and a developing consumer market for premium "green" electricity. "I certainly think the industry is poised for takeoff," he says. "The neat thing about Canada is we have an awful lot of wind. We're the second-largest land mass with the longest coastline and there are some good winds in every province of the country." Currently, wind power makes up about 311 megawatts countrywide. When comparing that with an installed electricity capacity of about 110,000 megawatts in Canada, it's clear how small a role wind generation now plays. But the wind energy association has an ambitious target of 10,000 megawatts installed by 2010 -- and Ontario and Quebec are poised to lead the way. In May, Hydro-Quebec issued a call for tenders to build a 1,000-megawatt wind farm between 2006 and 2012. In Ontario, where aging nuclear power facilities, dirty coal-fired plants and electricity brownouts have plagued the ruling Tories, a new strategy was unveiled this month to dramatically increase renewable energy. Backbencher Steve Gilchrist, Ontario's commissioner of alternative energy, says the plan will create at least 3,000 megawatts of clean power by 2014. The province believes the bulk of that will come from hydro and wind sources. Gilchrist says wind power is cheaper than natural gas-fired electricity, and adds that the economics of building expensive cogeneration (electricity and steam) natural gas-fired power plants has changed as gas prices are mired in "absolute uncertainty" and expected to stay high for years to come. GRAPHIC: Photo: CANADIAN PRESS; A cow grazes near a wind turbine at McBride Lake near Fort Macleod, Alta. McBride Lake windfarm boasts 114 turbines which produce 75 megawatts of electricity. ---sbs--- 26. Hamilton Spectator (Ontario, Canada), July 14, 2003 Monday Final Edition, BUSINESS; Pg. D09, 747 words, Wind turbines stirring more interest; Air power gaining ground, James Stevenson, CALGARY Copyright 2003 Toronto Star Newspapers, Ltd. Hamilton Spectator (Ontario, Canada) July 14, 2003 Monday Final Edition SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. D09 LENGTH: 747 words HEADLINE: Wind turbines stirring more interest; Air power gaining ground SOURCE: The Canadian Press BYLINE: James Stevenson DATELINE: CALGARY BODY: With Canada's largest wind farm newly completed on the Alberta Prairie and strong commitments for more renewable power to be generated in Ontario and Quebec, wind energy appears poised for large-scale expansion. Nestled in the wind corridor that blows out of the Crowsnest Pass in southern Alberta, the McBride Lake wind farm sports 114 new turbines that can produce up to 75 megawatts of electricity. One megawatt is enough power for about 5,000 homes. Once the permits and investment dollars are in place, wind farms can pop up like weeds. McBride took only 200 days to assemble. Vision Quest Windelectric Inc., a wholly owned arm of independent power giant TransAlta, celebrated the completion of McBride by moving on to its larger project nearby, called Summerview. Summerview will have 75 turbines, but following an industry trend they will be significantly larger windmills and produce up to 120 megawatts if the permits are granted. Glen Estill, the Ontario-based president of the Canadian Wind Energy Association, said southwestern Alberta has the "absolute perfect combination" of outstanding winds, a deregulated industry, high provincial power prices and a developing consumer market for premium "green" electricity. "I certainly think the industry is poised for takeoff," said Estill. "The neat thing about Canada is we have an awful lot of wind. We're the second-largest land mass with the longest coastline and there are some good winds in every province of the country," he said. "And that, at end of day, is a vital ingredient," said Estill, who is also president of tiny wind development company Sky Generation Inc. Another vital ingredient is the political will for wind power, which currently makes up about 311 megawatts countrywide. Compare that with a total installed electricity capacity of about 110,000 megawatts in Canada and it's clear how small a role wind generation now plays. But the wind energy association aims to have 10,000 megawatts installed by 2010. It says massive wind energy expansion in Germany over the past eight years proves that goal is entirely attainable. Ontario and Quebec are poised to lead the way. In May, Hydro-Quebec issued a call for tenders to build a 1,000-megawatt wind farm between 2006 and 2012. It will dwarf the existing 102-megawatt facilities now in place in the Gaspe. "We want to make it 10 times bigger," said spokesman Marc-Brian Chamberland. In Ontario, where old nuclear power facilities, dirty coal-fired plants and electricity brownouts have plagued the ruling Tories in recent years, a new strategy was unveiled this month to dramatically increase renewable energy. Backbencher Steve Gilchrist, Ontario's commissioner of alternative energy, said the plan will create at least 3,000 megawatts of clean power by 2014. The province believes the bulk of that will come from hydro and wind sources. Gilchrist said wind power is cheaper than natural gas-fired electricity and he expects windmills to begin popping up along the shores of the Great Lakes very soon. Toronto's Lake Ontario waterfront already sports a giant municipally owned windmill on the grounds of the Canadian National Exhibition. "By next spring, you'll see dozens," he said. "Three years from now, we'll start talking in the hundreds." Gilchrist said the economics of building expensive co-generation (electricity and steam) natural gas-fired power plants has changed as gas prices are mired in "absolute uncertainty" and expected to stay high for years to come. Meanwhile, wind power costs have come down with technological advances. After the upfront construction costs, the price per kilowatt remains very low since no fuel is required. "If you want to make your multi-hundred-million investment on the basis of pure speculation, idle musings and crystal balls, you may still choose natural gas," Gilchrist said. Mike Crawley, president of Toronto-based Aim Powergen, said the big driver for wind power expansion will be purchase agreements with the province. "The biggest question has always been: Who's going to buy your power? Who's going to buy the output from the plant?" Crawley said power purchase deals for wind farms need to be at least 15 years long to cover nearly the entire term of the debt, so investors will feel comfortable enough to get into the new sector. "It's a great way to get private-sector financing for new electricity supply which is for the greater good." GRAPHIC: Photo: Adrian Wyld, the Canadian Press; A wind turbine at McBride, Alta., Canada's largest wind farm. ---sbs--- 34. The Independent (London), July 14, 2003, Monday, BUSINESS; Pg. 17, 587 words, GOVERNMENT SIGNALS POUNDS 6BN WINDFARM EXPANSION, MICHAEL HARRISON BUSINESS EDITOR Copyright 2003 Newspaper Publishing PLC The Independent (London) July 14, 2003, Monday SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. 17 LENGTH: 587 words HEADLINE: GOVERNMENT SIGNALS POUNDS 6BN WINDFARM EXPANSION BYLINE: MICHAEL HARRISON BUSINESS EDITOR HIGHLIGHT: Britain's first offshore wind farm off the Northumberland coast, near Blyth. The Government wants a further 6,000 megawatts of capacity A HUGE expansion of the Government's renewable energy programme involving the construction of enough offshore wind farms to power 15 per cent of British homes will be announced today. Patricia Hewitt, Secretary of