"The Benefits of Nuclear Power" - Some in the media are starting to wake up

[kristopher]

A letter to the NYT from Christine Todd Whitman titled "The Benefits of Nuclear Power" was filled with the normal nuclear industry talking points we've seen above Whitman's rather famous name dozens of time before. Only this time it was conspicuously followed by this disclaimer inserted by the Times:

The writer, the former Environmental Protection Agency administrator, is co-chairwoman of the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition, an industry-funded coalition that promotes nuclear energy.

It's a baby step, but it's a step.

[Nihil]

1. Full disclosure would be ideal.

When a politician supports a project/initiative/strategy, it should be noted who sponsors them.

When an ex-official promotes a technology/extraction process/industry, it should be noted who sponsors them.

When an editorial defends (or attacks) a subject, it should be noted who originated it.

Closed-door sessions, agreements passed for "political reasons", ear-marks, all of that shit needs to
be stamped out.

Damn, I just know I'm going to wake up in a few minutes and rejoin the crooked, corrupt, greed-driven
world with its bribes, its illusions, its lies, its inequalities and its injustice.

[bananas]

2. They should have said she was a Bush appointee whose lies were "conscience-shocking"

"The allegations in this case of Whitman's reassuring and misleading statements of safety after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks are without question conscience-shocking," said Judge Deborah A. Batts.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Christine_Todd_Whitman

Christine Todd Whitman (Christie) was elected as Governor of New Jersey in November 1993 and was appointed by George W. Bush as Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in January 2001. She resigned from the EPA on May 21, 2003. Since 2004, she has headed Whitman Strategy Group, a lobbying / consulting firm with offices in New Jersey and Washington DC. [1] Since at least 2006, she has consulted for the Nuclear Energy Institute, promoting nuclear power as the co-chair of the industry-funded "Clean and Safe Energy Coalition." [2] In January 2008, she was named a co-chair of the Aspen Institute's Health Stewardship Project. [1]

Whitman co-founded the Republican Leadership Council, which works to get centrist Republicans elected. Her daugher, Kate Whitman, is the group's executive director. In November 2007, Kate Whitman announced she would seek the Republican nomination for New Jersey's 7th district Congressional seat. [3]

Contents [hide]
1 Lobbying / consulting work
1.1 Nuclear power
1.2 Water policy
1.3 Whitman's "personal legacy"
1.4 Other
2 Background
3 N.J. voter suppression allegations
4 N.J. environmental record
5 Cheney Energy Task Force
6 EPA record
7 Misleading New Yorkers post-9/11
8 Board positions and other affiliations
9 Statements on nuclear power
10 Appearances
11 Articles and resources
11.1 Related SourceWatch articles
11.2 References
11.3 External resources
11.4 External articles

<snip>

Misleading New Yorkers post-9/11

In February 2006, a federal judge found Whitman guilty of making "'misleading statements of safety' about the air quality near the World Trade Center in the days after the Sept. 11 attack." The judge further found that Whitman "may have put the public in danger," according to the New York Times (Julia Preston, "Public Misled on Air Quality After 9/11 Attack, Judge Says," February 3, 2006).

"The allegations in this case of Whitman's reassuring and misleading statements of safety after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks are without question conscience-shocking," said Judge Deborah A. Batts. As early as September 13, 2001, the EPA put out press releases declaring "no significant levels" of asbestos dust, when agency officials knew there were significant hazardous emissions. Judge Batts' ruling allowed a 2004 class action lawsuit against Whitman and other EPA officials and the entire agency, which was filed on behalf of residents and schoolchildren from downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn, to go forward.

Whitman's post-9/11 statements are further called into question by "the appearance of a conflict between Whitman's responsibility to the public and her own family's financial affairs," wrote Laura Flanders in her book "Bushwomen." "As the former Governor of New Jersey, Whitman owned bonds worth between $15,000 and $50,000 in the New York/New Jersey Port Authority -- the owner of the World Trade Center site and the major liable party in the affair. Her husband, John R. Whitman, formerly a Citigroup vice-president, manages hundreds of millions of dollars in the banking giant's assets, and Travelers Insurance, a Citigroup subsidiary, stood to lose multiple millions in Manhattan medical claims." Flanders gives the Whitmans' investment in Citigroup as being "up to $250,000 in stock," adding that "John Whitman received a six-figure bonus from Citigroup as recently as 2000."

In June 2007, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that "federal environmental officials misled Lower Manhattan residents about the extent of contamination in their condominiums and apartments after the collapse of the World Trade Center," the New York Times reported. In particular, "the Environmental Protection Agency did not accurately report the results of a residential cleanup program in 2002 and 2003." [18]

The preliminary GAO report was made public during a hearing of the Subcommittee on Superfund and Environmental Health of the U.S. Senate's Committee on Environment and Public Works. Whitman was scheduled to testify at another Congressional hearing the following week, "about her handling of the disaster and the way she communicated the level of risk to the public." [19]

<snip>

[kristopher]

3. That a particulary apt term

"conscience-shocking"

Thanks for sharing the information.