Kolesar
Kolesar's JournalDavis-Besse Ohio nuclear plant may be closed in cost-cutting move
The endangered FirstEnergy plants in Ohio sell their energy at market prices that have been pushed down by a glut of cheap energy from natural gas and other sources, and those low prices aren't high enough to continue to justify operating those power plants, Jones said. FirstEnergy and other power companies have asked Ohio to set energy prices at a level that would make the plants more profitable for the companies. But price controls seem unlikely, he said.
http://www.thenews-messenger.com/story/news/local/2016/12/29/davis-besse-plant-may-closed-cost-cutting-move/95953290/
FirstEnergy continues to analyze how we can thoughtfully yet expeditiously move away from competitive markets over the next 12 to 18 months in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia. We first announced this effort during our quarterly earnings call on November 4, 2016.
As part of the process, we are exploring a variety of strategic alternatives for plants owned by FirstEnergy subsidiaries operating in the competitive marketplace, including Davis-Besse. These alternatives include converting generation to a regulated or regulated-like construct, seeking solutions for nuclear units that recognize their environmental benefits {sic}, exploring the sale of additional generation assets, or moving forward with additional deactivations.
- Jennifer Young, First Energy
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The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio had given to First Energy a rate arrangement to keep this sad plant online by raising our rates as protection if "natural gas prices rose in the future". It is still non competitive.
The US under Obama has outperformed the world &the market thinks Trump can do better: SELL 8Dec016
The Dow and S&P500 are testing all time highs again. I am selling equities and rebalancing my portfolio toward corporate bonds or cash.
Trump is offering "infrastructure" in the form of long term financing for private tollways and toll bridges. Such financial structures already exist and are bonafide. However, Fat Bastard has nothing that can create public or private spending this year or even next year. Obama put almost a trillion dollars into "shovel ready" projects like the Cuyahoga Innerbelt Bridge that started immediately and finished ahead of schedule. Kudos for Ohio DOT, btw. I don't expect impact for five years and it will be so subtle as to be lost in the mud at the bottom of the data stream.
Corporate tax rates will be cut. Ok, that should free up capital for buying factories and hiring people. However, companies don't know what to do with the profits they have. Some bought up their own shares, which is a zero sum game. Many sat on the cash or created extra dividends: that did not boost the economy with extra sales to those capitalist class consumers. What is surely lacking is a stronger consumer market. Depression of wages has stunted that. American wages feel the pressure of new workers of the world entering the workforce.
Trade. Pence said at Trump's "F--ked You Rally" in Cincinnati that there would be more trade deals. But Fat Bastard campaigned against trade deals. Fat Bastard may have mastered the art of building golf courses, but he is willfully ignorant in matters like international negotiations. He is going to flub trade.
President Obama had an objective and action for doubling US exports in about a decade. Expect that to flatline and that US exporting companies with high value products that create wealth in this country will not be able to add high paying jobs.
Attitude. Republicans think that some sort of dam has broke and that now things will be set to right. They are buying equities on faith. I am going to take advantage of them now. I just have to decide on what is my threshold to buy back in. I am going to sell in lots of the next month. I will probably buy back from those fools if there is a correction of 10%.
Disaster. Fat Bastard likes to taunt the Chinese. His attitude does not reflect that he has some muscular skill of talking tough with our rivals. Au contraire, he is just stupid. He is going to blunder us into an international incident. I would not be surprised if one of those nukes owned by Pakistan finally gets put to use. That would crash everything. How would he deal with a hurricane or earthquake? In any case, the people of Syria are going to be crushed by Putin's boy Assad and we will never vanquish the soul of Islamic State in Levant.
I could have *forced* an insurer to cover me since I had had continuous coverage
If one had been "continuously covered" through an employer, COBRA, or a private policy, one could have "forced" an insurance company to cover you. That was how I understood it four years ago. I looked into it, but never had to use it. I spent a huge amount of time at Ohio and federal websites.
I was terrified that I would be laid off. I had a diagnosis that might have meant huge premiums. I will never know, since policy has changed. I agree with your last paragraph.
Obama to begin new series of economic addresses
Source: Yahoo.com
The address Wednesday at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., will be the first in a new series of economic speeches that White House aides say Obama intends to deliver over the next several weeks ahead of key budget deadlines in the fall. A new fiscal year begins in October, and the government will soon hit its borrowing limit.
The speech comes just a week before Congress is scheduled to leave for its monthlong August recess and is designed to build public pressure on lawmakers in hopes of averting the showdowns over taxes and spending that have characterized past budget debates.
In his economic pitch, President Obama will talk about efforts to expand manufacturing, sign up the uninsured for health care coverage, revitalize the housing industry and broaden educational opportunities for preschoolers and college students. He will also promote the economic benefits of an immigration overhaul.
...
President Obama's focus on the economy comes as he has experienced a degree of success with the Senate, which passed an overhaul of immigration laws and unclogged a Republican blockade against several presidential nominations. It also reflects a belief at the White House that the administration has been able to manage a series of confrontations with Congress over the Internal Revenue Service, phone surveillance of Americans and the deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-begin-series-economic-addresses-000143541.html
USA Today-- President Obama will kick off a several-weeks long effort Wednesday to barnstorm the country and press resistant Republicans to work with him to bolster the economy.
In the campaign, President Obama will lay out his vision directly to Americans for how Washington and the private sector can put a charge into an economy that is improving only in fits and starts.
...
White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer said in an e-mail that President Obama believes Washington "has taken its eye off the ball on the most important issue facing the country." Among the specific topics related to the economy that President Obama will address in the coming weeks are job security, education and health care.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/07/21/obama-major-speech--midwest-economy/2573369/
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WKYC news in Cleveland said that President Obama will be speaking in Ohio. The executive department will implement policy that does not require the cooperation of the obstructionist pin heads in Congress. That is what has already been done for climate protection.
Gives me hope
Dear member,
I just had a short meeting with the president this morning before his climate speech and I'm more convinced than ever that he is ready to tackle climate change.
In his speech, he announced that he's directing his administration to crack down on climate-disrupting carbon emissions from power plants, scale up renewable energy, and boost energy efficiency for commercial, industrial, and federal buildings.
He also said he will reject the Keystone XL pipeline if it is bad for the climate. (Hint: it is.)
Today's announcement is a big deal, and it's happening because you, your neighbors, and hundreds of thousands of others helped show our country and our president the way forward.
Thank President Obama for making climate a priority, and let him know you're ready to fight back against the big polluters who are going to try to stop this plan dead in its tracks.
By putting his administration to work on the climate crisis -- and especially by tackling climate-destroying carbon emissions from coal plants -- President Obama is showing that he understands the seriousness and urgency of climate disruption and is ready to lead the way with immediate and decisive action.
And that gives me hope.
To cement his climate legacy and protect future generations, the president will need to keep taking big, bold steps like this -- things like rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline, ending destructive oil drilling in the Arctic, halting mountaintop removal, protecting public lands from fracking, stopping the rush to export fossil fuels, and abandoning dirty fuels for a clean energy future. Today he's shown that all those things are still on the table because he understands how important this fight is.
Join me in showing the president that there's a groundswell of support for bold climate plans like this. Let's send 50,000 letters and make sure he knows we're ready to do this -- and more.
The president is going to have to tackle this crisis without Congress, but that doesn't mean he has to fight alone. He needs to know that activists like you will have his back when big polluters try to stop him. He needs to see that the climate movement is energized, growing, and ready to win.
This past February, 50,000 activists like you took to the streets in Washington, D.C., and more marched all across the country. You joined climate conversations, took more than a million actions online, helped support and build the movement, and made the first 100 days of President Obama's second term a turning point in the climate fight. And together over the past decade, you've stopped 179 new coal-fired power plants and won the retirement of 147 existing coal plants -- the nation's number one source of carbon pollution.
Even more than the president's plan, that gives me hope that our nation will continue to confront the climate crisis, and continue to win a clean, healthy, and safe future for our children and future generations.
So let's show the president our hope and our strength. Send your message now!
Thank you for all you do,
Michael Brune
Sierra Club Executive Director
http://action.sierraclub.org/site/R?i=3gxSpGtdgm6UQ-czK6ZvhA
Our trolls don't act moderate; they are *purist poseurs* who protested every war since Vietnam
Collected signatures for McGovern, tried to get local progressives elected, and just wrapped up a long activist endeavor to pass "single payer". Hence, they have earned the right to be an insulting extremist, second guessing what every elected Democrat does.
N.Ridgeville cop shoots kittens to death mere steps from family with young children
Ohio SPCA Director Teresa Landon, who took a call from the woman who lives in the home, said the woman was distressed when Accorti killed five kittens in front of her while her children were inside the home. She said the youngsters began screaming and crying.
“He informed her that shelters were full and that these cats would be going to kitty heaven,” Landon said of Accorti. “She assumed he would be trapping them or something and taking them to a shelter and they would be humanely euthanized if they were not adopted.
“Instead, he went to his truck and got a gun, which she thought was a tranquilizer gun, and walked around to the back of the house and approximately 15 feet from her back door shot and killed the 8- to 10-week-old kittens . . .
“She was very distraught when this happened. He started shooting them right in front of her. Her children were upstairs in view of the windows. They started screaming and crying because they heard the gunshots. They started screaming, ‘Mommy, he’s killing the kittens,’ ” Landon said.
..
http://www.cleveland.com/north-ridgeville/index.ssf/2013/06/north_ridgeville_humane_office.html#incart_river
Ohio Junior Fascists department:
Lieutenant Barry Accorti, a man who admitted to us he’d maybe pushed the envelope a little too far with a subject’s rights at one point in his career, outlined citizens’ rights so thoroughly that his presentation was akin to an American Civil Liberties documentary.
http://blog.cleveland.com/thesun/2009/10/an_arresting_inside_look_into.html
A BIG WIN FOR CLEAN AIR IN PENNSYLVANIA--AND NATIONWIDE! -Sierra Club Beyond Coal & Earthjustice
Coal pollution contains all sorts of nasty, dangerous things, but one of the worst pollutants is sulfur dioxide. Just five minutes of exposure to sulfur dioxide can lead to respiratory problems, difficulty breathing, and contribute to lung disease.
So you can imagine the sigh of relief from Pennsylvanians with this major news: The Homer City Generating Station -- the largest source of sulfur dioxide pollution in the U.S. in 2010 - will now be subject to new, strong limits for this particularly dangerous pollutant. Up until now, only one of the coal plant's boilers had any ability to limit sulfur dioxide pollution!
According to the Clean Air Task force, pollution from Homer City causes 43 premature deaths every year.
This new agreement comes after a year of litigation from the Sierra Club and Earthjustice and sets a national precedent in the fight to secure the health and safety of families in coal-dependent Pennsylvania and beyond: These new conditions of the Homer City permit makes it among the first in the nation to set hourly limits on sulfur dioxide emissions.
What's more, these limits also apply to times when the coal plant is shut down and restarted, which facilities do from time to time (for maintenance, etc..) and frequently causes excessive pollution to be released.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) expects these new standards will especially benefit children, the elderly, and people with asthma.
This victory sets an important standard for other clean air fights across the country. As we continue the fight to replace old dirty energy sources with clean renewable ones like wind and solar, we must make sure to limit the dangerous pollution from our remaining coal-fired power plants.
And the fight will continue against Homer City's coal plant, too. Local activists have long fought the big polluter, repeatedly noting that the facility is a filthy money-waster - one that repeatedly violates Clean Air Act standards.
Sierra Club Pennsylvania released monitoring and modeling last year showing that the plant wasn't even being monitored for its downwind pollution until 2010, which helped plant owners avoid being cited despite it repeatedly violating state air quality standards.
Meanwhile, plant-owner Edison International continues to sink money into the 43-year-old fossil. Just last year the state Department of Environmental Protection approved a $725 million pollution control unit for the coal plant. This money could be much better spent on clean energy investment for the community.
"Some of the best economic analysts in the region have repeatedly shown that this plant simply isn't economically viable...and it's certainly a bad investment for the people of Indiana County. Rather than let $725 million go up in smoke, it's time for this plant to retire," said Randy Francisco, of Sierra Club Pennsylvania.
"Pennsylvania has the opportunity to become a national leader in clean energy manufacturing and production, and Indiana County (where Homer City is located) is well-positioned to take advantage of this clean energy economy."
---
Press release: http://sierraclub.typepad.com/compass/2013/05/a-big-win-for-clean-air-in-pennsylvania-and-nationwide.html
Connie Schultz: Resist the Chardon Killer's Taunts
I think this is her best column, ever.On Tuesday, a year after he murdered three Chardon High School students and injured three others, 18-year-old T.J. Lane walked into his sentencing hearing and made it virtually impossible for most of us to summon even a shred of sympathy for his condemned soul.
But summon we must. If we are good people — and most of us want to believe we are — we are called to dig deeper for compassion that eludes us, lest our own souls wither.
Bear with me, please. I've worked hard in the past 24 hours to find this patch of my heart. It's a tenuous grasp, and I'm trying to hold on tight.
On the morning of Feb. 27, 2012, Lane walked into the high school cafeteria in Chardon, Ohio, and started shooting.
By the time he was done, three students were dead: Daniel Parmertor and Demetrius Hewlin, who were 16, and 17-year-old Russell King Jr. Three other students were injured: Nate Mueller, 17, Joy Rickers, 19, and Nick Walczak, who is now in a wheelchair. One of the more heartbreaking video images of Tuesday's hearing — and there are so many — is of Walczak's shy smile as he rolled his chair into the courtroom. He later strained to catch a glimpse of his shooter.
...more...
http://www.creators.com/opinion/connie-schultz/resist-the-chardon-killer-s-taunts-13-03-20.html
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Gender: Do not displayHometown: Cleveland
Current location: Ohiohiohiohio
Member since: 2002
Number of posts: 31,182
