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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: THE ANT who wrote (137206)12/21/2017 9:54:38 PM
From: Elroy Jetson  Respond to of 217840
 
After Rupert Murdoch killed a story about Donald Trump's extensive Mafia ties four Wall Street Journal reporters and one Pulitzer Prize winning Editor have resigned from the WSJ now owned by Murdoch.
Bret Stephens, who won a Pulitzer in 2013, was the defector with the highest profile. He was deputy editor when he jumped over to the Times, where he was soon joined by his editor at the Journal, Bari Weiss. The Journal’s books editor, Robert Messenger, is now at The Weekly Standard. Sohrab Ahmari, a foreign-policy writer, went to Commentary. Mark Lasswell, an editor, was told not to return from a book leave
Reportedly, this was due to an internal controversy surrounding a second editorial, written by James Freeman, which detailed Trump’s mob dealings — a topic that was brought into the spotlight after a Ted Cruz's interview with " Meet The Press" although Trumps close Mafia connections have been well documented over the years, even fleecing investors in scam real estate developments.

According to the report:
Freeman wrote a strong attack on Trump’s Mob dealings, and had a second ready to go. But as Trump got closer to clinching the nomination, Paul Gigot kept delaying publication, saying “it needed work.” Once Trump became the likely Republican nominee, Freeman executed a neat volte-face exemplifying how "fake news" at the Murdoch press is created on demand to please the man in power, in this case Donald Trump and his Mafia supporters. “The facts suggest that Mrs. Clinton is more likely to abuse liberties than Mr. Trump,” he wrote. “America managed to survive Mr. Clinton’s two terms, so it can stand the far less vulgar Mr. Trump.”



To: THE ANT who wrote (137206)12/21/2017 11:20:52 PM
From: elmatador  Respond to of 217840
 
$25 billion nuclear projects at Georgia's troubled Plant Vogtle to continue

ELMAT: And Brazilians went to the streets because of the World Cup and Olympics costs...



ATLANTA -- Georgia's utility regulators are allowing construction to continue on two new nuclear reactors despite massive cost overruns for the multibillion-dollar project.

Thursday's unanimous decision by the state's Public Service Commission will shape the future of the nation's nuclear industry, partly because the reactors at Plant Vogtle were the first new ones to be licensed and to begin construction in the U.S. since 1978.

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal praised the decision.

"Investing in clean, sustainable energy infrastructure is a worthwhile endeavor that will have a positive economic impact as well," Deal said in a statement shortly after Thursday's vote.

"It is important that we stay the course," he added.

Andy Crosson, executive director of the Central Savannah River Area Regional Commission, told CBS affiliate WGCL-TV that about 5,500 jobs would have been in jeopardy had construction been halted.

, file photo, shows construction on a new nuclear reactor at Plant Vogtle power plant in Waynesboro, Ga.


JOHN BAZEMORE / AP
The Sierra Club, meanwhile, slammed the vote, calling the project a disaster. Group director Ted Terry said the project should have been halted.

But Georgia Power said the PSC decision was important to the energy future of Georgia and the U.S.

In a statement, Georgia Power chairman, president and CEO Paul Bowers said, the PSC "recognized that the Vogtle expansion is key to ensuring that our state has affordable and reliable energy today that will support economic growth now and for generations to come."

The project, co-owned by Georgia Power, Oglethorpe Power, MEAG Power and Dalton Utilities, has been plagued by delays and spiraling costs, compounded when the main contractor filed for bankruptcy. Westinghouse Electric Co., the U.S. nuclear unit of Japan's Toshiba Corp., filed for bankruptcy in March.

The reactors, approved in 2012, were initially estimated to cost a total of $14 billion. Regulators tried to make nuclear reactors easier to build, encouraging the use of off-the-shelf designs that could get approval in advance. New construction techniques were supposed to require less in-the-field assembly, making building quicker and reducing human error.

Radiation reality check: Risks and fears
But by July 2012, the reactors had run into over $800 million in extra charges related to licensing delays. Later that year, officials said construction was expected to be delayed seven months.

In February 2013 Georgia Power asked to raise its share of the Vogtle construction budget by $737 million to $6.85 billion.

By May 2015, regulators said there was a "high probability" that construction would be delayed even longer than the three years already announced by the owners, according to an analysis obtained by The Associated Press. Estimates from regulators at that time put the utility company's costs at $8.2 billion.

The rising construction costs hit an industry already under financial pressure, after 2011 a tsunami in Japan triggered meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant. Meanwhile, the price of natural gas dropped, lessening the incentive to build new nuclear power.

California's last nuclear power plant to close
In South Carolina, Santee Cooper and South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. abandoned the construction of a similar nuclear project in July, blaming the decision primarily on the bankruptcy of lead contractor Westinghouse.

Under state law, Georgia Power's customers will ultimately reimburse the state-regulated monopoly for the flagship plant as they pay their monthly electricity bills. That law allows Georgia Power to charge its customers now for the interest it pays on the borrowed money needed for the project. Under an older law, the utility had to wait until the plant was operating to collect those interest charges from its customers, a practice that meant the interest owed grew during the construction period.

Cost overruns were also an issue with the original reactors at Vogtle. The cost of building the existing reactors at the site jumped from $660 million to nearly $9 billion by the time they started producing power in the late 1980s.

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.