Editor’s Note: This is an update to a story that we published about the proposed copper mining in Porcupine Mountains. Michigan Strategic Fund is considering a grant for the Copperwood project – a project that will destroy the natural habitat in the Porcupine Mountains. This is an urgent call for action, you can find the original piece here.
URGENT: Michigan considering $50M grant for Copperwood
We are writing today with an urgent action request that needs to be completed as soon as possible. If you care about the health of Lake Superior and about the wilderness quality of the North Country Trail and Porcupine Mountains State Park, now is the time to fight for it.
An article released on January 30th reports that the Michigan Strategic Fund iscurrently considering a $50 million grant for the Copperwood project. This money would more than double Highland Copper’s bank account, but more importantly, a State endorsement would provide a massive boost in momentum and be used as leverage for future funds from grants, investors, and loans. To quote Highland Copper’s CEO Barry O’Shea: “I can tell you with certainty that an award of this nature willmove the needle significantlyin terms of how our debt providers and our equity investors look at our company. It’s not only a large financial boost for the project, but it is a true endorsement.”
Fortunately, a few of the MSF board members have expressed doubts regarding the necessity and wisdom of the grant, and the decision has been deferred to subcommittee for expedited consideration. We don’t know the timeframe in which a decision will be made, which is why it is crucial we act NOW.
We are asking you to write a message to the Michigan Strategic Fund board members who are deliberating over this grant as we speak. Their emails are provided below. We have already sent them a thorough elaboration on all our key arguments, so you only need to follow up with a few short paragraphs or even a few sentences. Write about whatever points resonate personally with you, but keep in mind, these are businesspeople who are interested mainly in the soundness of their investment.
Here are a few points to inspire your pen:
General Arguments
Are they aware of this petition with over 11,000 signatures opposing Copperwood’s development? 11,000 is more than the populations of the closest three towns to the Mine combined (Wakefield, Bessemer, and Ironwood). Contrary to what they have been told, social license for this project is far from universal.
The board members are likely not familiar with this area— remind them that this is not “the middle of nowhere”: the juncture of Porcupine Mountains Wilderness, the North Country Trail, and Lake Superior is one of the most spectacular outdoor recreation areas in the country.
Outdoor recreation contributes over $10 billion to Michigan’s economy annually; mining, around $1 billion. An operating mine would disrupt this thriving outdoor recreation area with noise pollution, light pollution, subterranean blasting, and heavy industrial traffic.
Inform them that, despite what they may have been told, copper is NOT a critical mineral and therefore there is no urgent need to fund this project.
Specific Economic Arguments
Highland Copper is a foreign company, largely funded by foreign investors;
The copper will be transported to Canada for processing, meaning a great many of the highest-paying jobs will go to foreigners. See the 2023 Feasibility Study:
P. 1.18 states concentrate to be shipped by a trans-load facility in Champion, MI to have access to Canadian National Railway networks (CN). P. 19.2.1 discusses the need for downstream refining and smelting: “Several smelters could receive concentrate with the nearby candidates being the Horne smelter located in Noranda, Quebec or the copper smelter in Sudbury, Ontario. Other alternatives include seaborne export to Asia or Europe.”
If this project is such a slam dunk, why haven’t they been able to procure funding after over a decade of scrambling?
This study on the economic impact of mining shows that only 25% of mines lead to long-term economic benefit for communities, with half of those coming from before 1982, and most of those being new coal strip mines out West; in other words, it is an exceedingly small fraction of mines which will lead to meaningful economic revitalization.
The study specifically cites the issue of “flickering“— the tendency for metal mines to close and re-open, again and again, as the price of a mineral fluctuates above and below the cost of operation; this creates much uncertainty in the lives of workers. Flickering is what has defined Copperwood’s entire nonexistence thus far: the flickering of funding, the flickering of proposed start-up dates, the flickering of CEOs.Highland Copper has stated again and again that, in addition to awaiting the necessary capital, they are awaiting a surge in the price of copper to make the project viable— Great… but what happens if the price plunges after the mine begins operation?
This is a big chunk of change for a project that will only last 11 years;
Since HC’s market cap is only $43 million — well short of the $390 million in startup capital required — MSF would be investing in a company that likely will be taken over by a larger partner at some point before the mine is up and running;
Interim CEO Barry O’Shea said, “I can tell you with certainty that an award of this nature will move the needle significantly in terms of (how) our debt providers and our equity investors look at our company. It’s not only a large financial boost for the project, but it is a true endorsement.”
In other words, he has stated explicitly that they want to use an official State endorsement as leverage to win over more outside equity investors and bank loans— a pretty suspect use of Michigan taxpayer money, don’t you think?
Finally, Highland Copper no doubt touted their “resolutions of support” gathered from area townhalls. Keep in mind, those resolutions were agreed upon by no more than two or three dozen people. Meanwhile, there is a petition with over 11,000 signatures opposing the Mine.
Now, without further ado, the details of the action:
Firstly, please submit your short message via this online form (allows for limited length )
Secondly, send that same message, or a longer version, to the e-mail addresses below— you may copy and paste the entire list directly into the CC: field of a new email. These addresses comprise ALL the Michigan Strategic Fund board members, plus a few more of special relevance:
You can also call the office of Quentin L. Messer, Chair of the Michigan Strategic Fund:
517-241-1400
Again, this is our most important action to date, and the clock is ticking!
Thank you for your help, everyone! Remember, ProtectThePorkies is not an organization, but a movement, comprised of anyone who feels a connection to this area and a desire to fight for its wellbeing! Take care!
LANSING, Mich. – The Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin has filed a petition for a contested case hearing on the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality’s (MDEQ) issuance of a Wetland Permit for the Back Forty Mine.
The Wetland Permit, issued in June, is the final state permit necessary to develop the Back Forty Mine, a large open-pit mine and minerals-processing facility on the Menominee River, which forms the Michigan-Wisconsin border. The permit allows for construction of the Back Forty Mine on wetlands connected and adjacent to the Menominee River.
The Tribe opposes the mine, not only for its potential to contaminate the Menominee River and destroy surrounding wetlands, but also because the area has cultural significance to the Tribe. The Tribe has burial grounds, agricultural sites and ceremonial sites that have been in the area for centuries.
Represented by Tribal attorneys and the environmental law firm Earthjustice, the Tribe contends the permit was granted to the mine developer (Toronto-based Aquila Resources, Inc.) contrary to the requirements of state law for wetland protections – and over the written objections of MDEQ’s own Water Resources Division.
“This permit was issued despite every indication that it would have a negative impact on the Menominee River and destroy its surrounding wetlands,” said attorney Stephanie Tsosie of the Earthjustice legal team. “The permit application left out critical information on the river and wetlands system, and is based on promises that the developer would provide information down the road. So, MDEQ issued this permit without a full picture of how extensive the mine damage could be, and without public input.”
“This permit ignores that the Menominee River and its surrounding wetlands are interconnected,” added Menominee Tribe Chairman Douglas Cox. “This relationship is something the Menominee people have known for thousands of years. We have deep ties to the River, as the Tribe originated there and has lived in the area since time immemorial. Not only has MDEQ ignored the Menominee Tribe’s interests and assertions – it has also ignored the objections of its own Michigan Tribes and other public comments.”
The petition for a contested case hearing was filed on Friday, August 3. The contested case proceeding will be heard by an administrative law judge in Michigan.
The Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin is already the plaintiff in a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Tribe contends these agencies violated the Clean Water Act by allowing the State of Michigan to oversee what should be a federal permitting process.
This contested case is another avenue the Tribe is taking to protect cultural, historic and spiritual sites from damage and destruction.
After activist and Kalamazoo resident Chris Wahmhoff’s felony pretrial, Michigan Coalition Against Tar Sands (MI-CATS) will hold a press conference to raise awareness about chemical oil dispersants found in the Kalamazoo River. Earlier this year Chris protested Enbridge Energy by skateboarding into their pipeline and stopping construction. He was charged with resisting and obstructing an officer and faces 2 years in prison.
Scientists and residents are questioning how chemicals shockingly similar to those used in the BP Deepwater Horizon gulf oil spill, and Exxon Valdez tanker spill disasters, would end up in the Kalamazoo River from Marshall, Michigan to more than 40 miles downriver. In the aftermath of the 2010 Kalamazoo oil spill Enbridge was fined for each gallon of oil recovered. Chemical dispersant breaks up oil into unrecoverable particles. Both Enbridge and the EPA have denied that any dispersants were used.
However, since August, samples collected from the Kalamazoo River have been analyzed and found to contain chemical signatures similar to Corexit 9527, Corexit 9727A, and Corexit 9500. Corexit 9527, 9727A, 9500 are rare and are ingredients in a group of chemical oil dispersants marketed as Corexit. Corexit was used in the BP oil spill and has had carcinogenic, respiratory, and hemorrhaging effects on residents, clean-up workers, and wildlife. Calhoun County residents are experiencing these same toxicity
issues. Senior Policy analyst at the EPA, Hugh Kaufman has found effects of Corexit to be worse than the oil spill itself. Studies by a group of local and national scientists and doctors are confirming our suspicions- that chemicals dispersants or surfactants were used to hide the severity
of the 2010 tar sands oil spill.
Resident Michelle Barlond Smith, who conducted health surveys along the spill area, along with several residents along the river, reported that dump trucks would drive up to the river and dump truck loads of material into the water. We are questioning the safety of the river and the water due to these chemicals. We are concerned about human and animal health, and demanding a health study contrary to Michigan Department of Community Health’s and Calhoun County Health Officials and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.
Join us. S River Rd, Battle Creek, MI 49014. 12:00 Noon, December 13th.
Question and answer session with scientists & activists to follow, at 4785
Beckley Rd, Battle Creek, MI 49015
What follows is an interview with Aurora Lewis and Max Lockwood of Big Dudee Roo, an ecologically-inspired music group from Wayland, Michigan. I had a chance to talk with them around the new year of 2012 about their new album, what inspires them, and being part of a culture of resistance. Visit their website to learn more about them.
Beautiful Resistance Distro: Hello, It’s Ben for Beautiful Resistance Distro. I’m honored to have the chance to have a discussion with members of the music group Big Dudee Roo. To start, would you please give a brief explanation of who you are and what you do?
Max: We’re a folk-rock band from Wayland, Michigan. We write a lot of original music and play a lot of shows around Michigan. I think our music has a wide range of themes, as far as the songs that we write. Me and Nate, our banjo player, tend to focus on different environmental and social justice themes, in sort of a way that relates to people individually and emotionally. As far as the music itself goes too, we really try to focus on having a unique, original sound that is still grounded in folk and rock influences, and those genres. We pay really close attention to the songs. There’s really no virtuosic playing in the band. Everyone kind of plays their role and contributes to the song itself without stepping all over the song. You know, there’s not a lot of solos or anything. So, it’s sort of more egalitarian the way we make music.
Aurora: Yeah, I think mostly we all just love to play. You know, we just love music.
Max: And, we’re all really close friends. We all grew up in the same small town here in Southwest Michigan. So, we have a close bond with each other.
BRD: When did you start playing music together as Big Dudee Roo and what first led you to begin using your gifts as musicians as a tool for expressing your personal views on environmental, social, and political issues?
Aurora: As far as when Big Dudee Roo started playing: like we said we all went to the same high school. Everybody else in the band is a few years older than me. I’m Max’s little sister. They started playing— Max and Nate played 7th and 8th grade talent shows. And then Justin was your friend too, and so is Kurt, so they started playing together.
Max: Kurt was actually Justin’s next door neighbor. We needed a drummer and Justin was like, “I think Kurt’s a drummer”. And Kurt used to babysit Justin back in the day because they live right next to each other.
Aurora: Yeah, and then I started singing backup with them when I was about fourteen years old and I officially joined the band when I was about sixteen.
Max: And, we used to be called Big Dudee Roo and the Raptors.
Aurora: We all had nicknames; raptor nicknames.
Max: It’s such a long name that no one could remember or get it right. They’d be like, “What…did you just say?” So for practical purposes we just cut off “the Raptors”.
Aurora: Yeah, there was one venue that put up a flyer about us that said “Big Dundee Roo and the Rafters”.
Max: As far as when we started using our musical talents to support or promote different political and social causes: that was something that attracted me about music right from the beginning. When me and Nate were in 8th grade we had a pop-punk band. That’s how we got our start. I was attracted by—back then I remember there was a band called NOFX that I was into. They had some political songs, some anti-Bush songs and I thought that was so cool. So, when I first started writing songs that was something I started doing really early, trying to write protest songs. Then, over the years our political consciousness as individuals and as a band grew a lot and I personally got really into Deep Green Resistance activists and writers. I read a lot of Derrick Jensen and Lierre Keith and even spent some time over in Bellingham, Washington, working with some members of Fertile Ground, who are still really great friends today. So, it’s always been important to me, and I think it’s important to everybody in the band, to see music not just as pure entertainment, but as something that can make people think and get at their emotions. You know, on one hand music is entertainment—you want to make music that sounds good and that people are going to enjoy, that they can dance to, move to—but on the other hand it’s always been more than that for me. I remember in high school I was totally obsessed with the band Pearl Jam. It sounds funny, but I was totally attracted to how they did things like took on Ticketmaster for having a monopoly. A lot of their songs actually deal with feminist issues. There are lots of songs that concern abortion and also songs about the abuse of the culture. That was something that really attracted me. Anyways, we love—like last year when we got to play at Candlelight Collective in West Bend—that was so much fun and we had such a great night. Because a lot of times we play in bars and different places aren’t necessarily paying close attention to the words, and maybe even not the music, sometimes. So, it was great to play at a place like that where everyone was super engaged and playing attention to the words we were saying. And, we could tell the stories about the songs. That just feels so good. Those are the shows we love to play.
Aurora: The gems.
BRD: Many of your lyrics seem to express affinity and love with the natural world, as well as anger for the destruction of it. Does the land where you live inspire your songs, and if so, how? Are there any specific nonhuman neighbors who inspire each of you?
Max: Totally. Yes, to all of that. Actually, where we’re sitting right now is our parents’ house where we grew up as kids. Right back here behind me there used to be an old swamp marshland with pretty old growth oak forest, actually, which is surprising because we’re in a suburban area. But, somehow that survived. But not for long: when I was thirteen it was all clear cut and there was going to be a condominium development back there, but the developer ended up going bankrupt. Now there’s just a road back there with no houses. The swamp was filled in and now it’s kind of restoring itself. There’s a pond, and a lot of frogs back there now. Despite the destruction, it is fun to watch it come back because it’s just being left alone. That’s been kind of interesting. As a little kid, we used to spend a lot of time back in those woods. I remember there used to be turtles in our backyard all the time and deer right behind the fence. This land had definitely inspired a lot of my own lyrics, as I take a lot of walks back there. I distinctly remember one song—it’s called “Yours is my Origin”, from our first E.P.—where I was sitting here in summer with the slider door open, and I could hear birds outside and the wind rustling through the trees. I was playing the guitar and I would walk around in circles and I could literally feel the trees giving me inspiration for the words in the song. I would just feel it. I’d sit down and look out there and then I’d write a lyric down, and then go back and forth. And, as far as individual animals, I have always had a strong connection with ravens and crows. And there’s a song about ravens and a song about crows on the new album. So, that shows up a lot, too. They’re even in my dreams.
Aurora: Max has a song that he wrote on our new album, and it’s called “Being Free”. There’s one specific line that, when we’re playing shows live, I just close my eyes and get really inspired by because it says, “this land isn’t our land, this land is its own.” It reminds me of when the woods behind us were totally clear cut and it was so sad. I was like nine years old. And I remember me and my mom went out there and we tried to do all this stuff to get the developers to stop. She went to so many city council meetings trying to fight it and get them to leave the woods, but it never worked. I’m always really inspired by that line in Max’s song because this land is totally its own, it’s taking a new form and it’s rebuilding itself and making itself its own again. And, I feel a really big connection to animals. I get really inspired by the way they interact with each other. Especially birds; how they can all fly in unison, and it’s totally intuitive for them. They all fly as one and it’s amazing and I love to watch that happen and it really inspires me.
BRD: I was actually humming “Yours is my Origin” as I was walking around the forest today.
Aurora and Max: Awesome!
BRD: You recorded most of your latest album live in a barn. Can you explain more about making this album and about the barn itself?
Aurora: Oh gosh, there’s so much to be said about the barn. Well, first of all it was beautiful. It was huge and it was one of our friends, totally just lent his barn to us to record. So, when I got up there and saw it for the first time, I was just in awe. There were Christmas lights hung everywhere in this huge barn. The guys stayed up there for three days straight. They slept there, they cooked there, everything. I never slept there because I was only needed for the vocals which we did on the third day. So, when I went there I remember thinking it was so awesome and there were roosters down beneath the barn, there were hens. There’s so much to say, but it was just really sweet.
Max: When we recorded it, we played the music live in the barn. It’s a big open area. And, in quiet moments on the CD, you can hear the roosters from down below. Or you can hear crickets or frogs outside or swallows flying around the barn.
Aurora: Yeah, there’s a whole track: “Crickets and Frogs”.
Max: The barn is old and beautiful and there were bats flying inside it with us at night, when we would fall asleep. It was a great weekend too because it was a full moon. And, the barn has all these Christmas lights strung up in it and there’s great lighting in there. We would flip on all the lights in the barn at night and we’d go outside and walk down the hill. There was the great line of Osage Orange Trees that are old and all packed close together and we would stand along there and look up at the moon and then look at the barn and just feel like “wow, I can’t believe we’re here right now”. It was such an amazing experience to record the album like that. The way we did it, too, you can really hear the sound of the barn on the record. We even had one or two microphones set up to capture the ambient sound of the music reverberating in the barn. I think it’s a pretty unique sound and we’re really lucky to be able to do it there. Greg Peterson and his family were so kind to us. Oh, I should say that Greg’s son, Adam, is around our age—a college student—and he’s very environmentally conscious. He had the coolest bike I’ve ever seen. He had taken a used copy of Aldo Leopold’s Sand County Almanac, cut out all of the pages, and glued it around the frame of the bike, everywhere. So, his bike frame was Sand County Almanac. It was just so cool.
BRD: That’s amazing! What responses has your work evoked from your community?
Max: Good question. Well, it depends. I think we have friends and fans who are really plugged in to the political and environmental aspects of the music and we get a lot of feedback from that, especially from you all, who really picked up on that and are inspired by it, which in turn inspires us a lot. We’ve got friends here who are also really inspired by that. Honestly, and unfortunately, it’s tough to say what our community is because for one thing we’re kind of all spread out about the state right now. When I think of our community, though, there is a strong music community here of different artists and musicians and friends. We’ve been getting a really great response from that community. We had one of our friends, and I think a hero of everybody in the band, Samuel Seth Bernard, who is another Michigan artist—he and his wife May Erlewine do a lot of music together, and they are very inspirational to us—play lap steel guitar on the new CD. He has a lot of songs that confront the destruction of the natural world in a very positive manner. He played on the new album and loved it and says a lot of great things about us, so that felt great. You know, it’s tough to say right now because on one hand we haven’t gotten our music out there that much because we haven’t been around very long.
Aurora: Lately we’ve been getting pretty enthusiastic responses to our music, whether that is because people like our music or our lyrics or both, or us as people. It’s been really awesome and inspiring.
Max: Actually, now that I think about it I would say we really just started to build a community that’s in our fans and friends. It’s pretty cool because while we don’t have a whole ton of fans right now, the fans we do have are really devoted and we give and take a lot from those people. That’s been really cool to see and that’s what we want: a more close relationship with our friends and fans who appreciate the music.
BRD: What experience or impact do you hope a listener or audience member will take away after hearing your music?
Max: That’s a tough one because it’s such an individual thing for everybody. Personally, I think the number one thing for me as a song writer—I think a lot of my own opinions come through a lot in the songs and that’s always going to happen, but I’m not necessarily looking for people to think like me. Really, what I want the most is for people to think for themselves and sort of take an honest appraisal of what’s happening in the world. If they like my view of it, that’s great, but if it sort of convinces them to just think for themselves and be inspired to do something, that’s the most that I can hope for. Also, to feel more of a connection to themselves and to their community and their friends and family and build on that, build community. One of the songs I’m proudest of on the new record is “You are Your Own”, because it emulates all of those things for me, even just the title “You are Your Own”. That’s what I want people to get out of it, I think.
Aurora: I think that some of the best things that happen after a show or after somebody hears our album is when somebody says to me or Max or anybody else In the band, something like “Oh my gosh, that was so inspiring. I want to just get up and do something and take action now.” Like, I had a couple of people say that. I feel like that’s the best thing that can happen when somebody hears our music. Whether somebody says it to us or is just thinking it, awesome. That’s the best thing that can happen, is that it inspires people and makes them want to do more for themselves and everybody else.
Max: I’m really excited that we’re putting this album out right after the whole Occupy movement has really politicized young people in this country for the first time in a long time and now it’s sort of unavoidable to think about these things. Just in our home base, Grand Rapids, Michigan, for the size of the city, there’s a really strong Occupy group there with quite a few people who are Deep Green Resistance-type folks. It’s just great that there’s that cultural shift that’s happened, so those themes in our music are maybe a little more easily picked up on because people are just thinking about those things more right now. I hope that’s true.
Aurora: Well said.
BRD: Resistance seems to be a reoccurring theme in your songs; resistance to ecological destruction, sexism, capitalist culture. Would you like to see your music as being part of a culture of resistance? Please explain.
Max: Yes, of course. I think a lot about where music fits into that, and I think it is really important. One thing I’m thinking is there’s a lot of music out there that’s really popular, that a lot of young people listen to and are influenced by, that is totally toxic. A lot of the most popular music just scares the crap out of me. To think that young people are hearing this—like, what’s that Rhianna song, whips and chains excite me or something?—that’s just scary. So, the people who are creating those songs and are promoting abuse or destructive attitudes have really good, well produced music with really talented people to help them, and I think we deserve that too. We deserve to have a lot of really great music and art and writing, poetry—you name it—that supports causes that we identify with, like how we feel about these things. Obviously, music isn’t something that has very direct effects as being part of a culture of resistance. Music isn’t going to sequester carbon or anything like that. But, I think it is important and has a really strong ability to foster community. It just brings people together in a way that doesn’t happen very often in this culture. I think it’s really important to have music to build solidarity within a culture of resistance. Also, I see our music as trying to bridge the gap between the people who are actively working in the culture of resistance and the people who would support it if they knew more what it’s truthfully about. Those people might never take strong action, but it’s that unquantifiable crowd that supports the idea of resistance or its legitimacy, just in their conversations with friends and family, or anything like that. Just that base of support that I think is really important but it’s hard to put your finger on what it is exactly. So, we’re trying to create culture, and we’re trying to create it where there isn’t a culture of resistance so we have to start from the ground up.
Aurora: I think it would be really cool if we had more young people that listen to our music, because a lot of young kids and teens grow up listening to some really degrading, awful music. I totally did when I was twelve years old. That effects people subconsciously so much more than anyone will ever know. I think it’s really cool when young people listen to our music because subconsciously and consciously, I think they start to say, “Oh, this is what’s happening and this is making me wonder what they are talking about”. They start, maybe, to recognize what’s going on.
Max: How I first got into anti-civilization thought is Pearl Jam, like I said, has an album called “Yield”, and it has a song—they were all passing around Daniel Quinn’s book Ishmael when they wrote the album—called “Do the Evolution” that Eddie Vedder always said is pretty much directly based on that book and his reaction to it. I loved them and so I went and picked up Ishmael and I read it in about a day and a half. I was about fifteen years old and it totally blew my world open.
Aurora: That’s what started me with realizing what was going on.
Max: So, I’m a perfect example of the fact that music can lead someone down that path. From there I got into Derrick Jensen. Also, I think music is inherently emotional and gets at people’s emotions in a very deep way; it gets at their deepest fears and desires, even when it doesn’t have words attached to it. I heard someone say music is “what feelings sound like”. That’s so true. When it’s connected—like our lyrics—to political or environmental causes that we feel strongly about, that we want people to feel similarly about, that emotional aspect helps a lot.
BRD: Do you have advice for other writers, musicians, or artists who are creating politically focused art?
Aurora: It’s awesome that people are taking a political focus in their music and there seems to be a lot more of that today but a lot of young artists, poets, authors, musicians don’t know what to do with all of their political work and they don’t know how it’s going to help the world or where it’s going to go or if they can do anything with their work. But, you totally can. I’m a really firm believer that if you have a piece of work and you show it to one person, that’s making a difference. I personally believe that. So, don’t give up. Show it to as many people as you can and get it out there with the resources that you have and make it known. It doesn’t matter if it’s one or one thousand people; I really think that if one person sees your work it can make a difference.
Max: To speak to that, I think it’s a funny way that political art impacts people. I think it’s unusual that people immediately respond to it. With recorded music especially, somebody hears a band they like and they pick up the CD and go home and maybe flip through the lyric booklet and go, “Oh, wow”, and have a more instant relationship with the words and what the band is saying politically. A lot of times there’s not an immediate recognition that people have really picked up on your political message. It happens with time; when they come back to it they read it a second time and then they really get drawn into that. Then, maybe that picks up their consciousness a little bit and maybe they’ll research for themselves more. And, not everybody does that. It’s a fairly small amount of people that might end up actually doing that, but that’s still so important and it’s those people who really have a strong connection with the work. Another thing is that something I’ve struggled with, personally, while trying to make political songs or writing is what is the line between being preachy—I don’t want to say that you shouldn’t be preachy, if you need to preach. Basically, the rule should be if there’s something in you that you feel needs to get out and that people need to hear, that you need to express, that’s the number one thing. You shouldn’t even question for a second what it is. If you feel strongly it needs to be out there, then it’s got to be out there. I think for me, like I said, I really want people to think for themselves, and I don’t want people to think like me. I want them to figure things out for themselves and I’ll give them the information that I have and the feelings that I have, and put them out there for them to think about. Once you put a work out there, you can’t control the way people are going to think about it, the way they are going to interpret things, so you have to try to be as clear as you can with the feeling you want to express. That said, I have a lot of strong opinions and I can’t help but put those forth in the art that I make. It’s a fine line to walk. For me, I try not to be too preachy, but at the same time I try to be direct and clear about the way I feel about things. You can’t worry about what everyone is going to think about your music or your poem or your artwork. There are always going to be some people that don’t like it, and some people that really like it. When you make that connection with the people that really do like it, it’s just the most beautiful thing. So that’s what’s important.
BRD: Is there anything else you’d like to mention before we end the interview? Any websites or contact information you’d like to plug.
Max: Yeah, our CD is online and we all the social networking things—facebook, twitter. Both of our CD’s are available at bigdudeeroo.com and you are selling our CD in Beautiful Resistance Distro, which is really cool, we’re really excited about that. That’d be a great place to pick it up. It’s called Listen to Your Discontent. To everyone out there: keep in touch, find us online, and hopefully we’ll see you in the flesh someday.
The Union of Concerned Scientists has documented 15 “near-misses” at 13 U.S. nuclear plants during 2011 and evaluates the response of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to each event in a report released today.
The second in an annual series of reports, “The NRC and Nuclear Power Plant Safety 2011 Report: Living on Borrowed Time” details 15 special inspections launched by the federal agency in response to problems with safety equipment, security shortcomings, and other troubling events at nuclear power plants.
The overview is provided by David Lochbaum, the director of UCS’s Nuclear Safety Project. He worked at U.S. nuclear plants for 17 years and was a boiling water reactor technology instructor for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
“While none of the safety problems in 2011 caused harm to plant employees or the public, their frequency – more than one per month – is high for a mature industry,” Lochbaum writes.
In the 40 years that the Union of Concerned Scientists has evaluated safety at U.S. nuclear power plants, “We have repeatedly found that NRC enforcement of safety regulations is not timely, consistent or effective,” the report states.
The UCS says its findings match those of the agency’s internal assessments, as well as of independent agents such as the NRC’s Office of Inspector General and the federal Government Accountability Office, which is the investigative arm of Congress.
Many of these 15 “near misses” occurred because reactor owners either tolerated known safety problems or took inadequate measures to correct them, Lochbaum finds.
For example, the owner of the Oconee nuclear plant in South Carolina installed a backup reactor core cooling system in 1983. However, in 2011 – more than a quarter-century later – workers discovered a problem with the system that would have rendered it useless in an accident.
Another significant safety-related event in 2011 occurred at the Braidwood and Byron nuclear plants in Illinois. Workers at those plants had instituted a practice in 1993 of deliberately draining water from the piping to a vital safety system. They did so to reduce corrosion caused by the drawing of untreated lake water into the system. However, writes Lochbaum, “their solution would have prevented this vital safety system from functioning properly during an accident.”
In addition to “near misses” at these three nuclear plants, 12 others are documented in the report.
At Callaway in Jefferson City, Missouri, operated by Union Electric Co., routine testing of an emergency pump intended to prove that it was capable of performing its safety functions during an accident actually degraded the pump. The pump’s manufacturer recommended against running the pump at low speeds, but this recommendation was ignored during the tests.
At Cooper in Nebraska City, Nebraska, operated by the Nebraska Public Power District, workers replacing detectors used to monitor the reactor core during low-power conditions were exposed to high levels of radiation when they deviated from the prescribed procedure.
At Millstone Unit 2 in Waterford, Connecticut, operated by Dominion, despite a dry run of an infrequently performed test on the control room simulator and other precautionary measures, errors during the actual test produced an unexpected and uncontrolled increase in the reactor’s power level.
At North Anna in Richmond, Virginia, operated by Dominion, an earthquake of greater magnitude than the plant was designed to withstand caused both reactors to automatically shut down from full power.
At Palisades in South Haven, Michigan, operated by Entergy, when a pump used to provide cooling water to emergency equipment failed in September 2009 because of stress corrosion cracking of recently installed parts, workers replaced the parts with identical parts. The replacement parts failed again in 2011, disabling one of three pumps.
Also at Palisades, workers troubleshooting faulty indicator lights showing the position of the emergency airlock door inadvertently shut off power to roughly half the instruments and controls in the main control room. The loss of control power triggered the automatic shutdown of the reactor and complicated operators’ response.
At Perry in Cleveland, Ohio, operated by FirstEnergy, problems during the replacement of a detector used to monitor the reactor core during low-power conditions exposed workers to potentially high levels of radiation.
At Pilgrim in Plymouth, Massachusetts, operated by Entergy, security problems prompted the NRC to conduct a special inspection. Details of the problems, their causes, and their fixes are not publicly available.
Also at Pilgrim, when restarting the reactor after a refueling outage, workers overreacted to indications that the water inside the reactor was heating up too rapidly, and lost control of the reactor. The plant’s safety systems automatically kicked in to shut down the reactor.
At Turkey Point Unit 3 in Miami, Florida, operated by Florida Power and Light Co., a valve failure stopped the flow of cooling water to equipment, including the reactor coolant pump motors and the cooling system for the spent fuel pool.
At Wolf Creek in Burlington, Kansas, operated by the Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Co., workers overlooked numerous signs that gas had leaked into the piping of safety systems, impairing the performance of pumps and flow-control valves.
The report also cites instances when onsite NRC inspectors made “outstanding catches of safety problems” at the Fort Calhoun, Hatch, and LaSalle nuclear plants before these impairments led to events that required special inspections, or to major accidents.
