Notorious Congresswingnut Jean Schmidt yesterday invited thousands of teabaggers assembling on the DC Mall to enter the House of Representatives, "look at the wall," "find your member" and "let them know how you feel." http://www.wnd.com/...
Numerous listeners in the less-than bright crowd, assembled by Michele Bachmann, thought Schmidt must have trouble reading the writing on the wall herself, or that she wanted them to locate and talk to their dicks.
If you think I'm exaggerating, just look at the photo of the Pasqua brothers at that link. Kinda makes the classic "Morans" photo look passe.
Meanwhile, Democratic challenger David Krikorian announced a bold initiative to bring jobs to the impoverished Appalachian eastern end of the district.
More below the proverbial fold.
Krikorian announced his plan last night at a meeting of the Site-Specific Advisory Board for the sprawling 3770-acre federal reservation south of Piketon. Site of a uranium enrichment plant that closed in 2001, that would be the same federal reservation where a clandestine proposal in 2006 to import commercial spent nuclear fuel for storage drew the support of Congressentity Schmidt.
Contrary to that bombshell of a proposal (pun intended), Krikorian's initiative plays off a campaign message delivered by Barack Obama when touring south Ohio in 2008. Obama then promised to take "closed Ohio factories" and use them for the manufacture of "wind turbines and solar panels."
Likewise, Krikorian's "Piketon Jobs Initiative" proposes a public and legislative process to convert the site into a renewable energy manufacturing zone surrounded by a "Nature-Culture Park." The plan would follow the model set by conversion of the former nuclear weapons plant at Rocky Flats, Colorado.
(Disclosure: As a fence-line resident at Piketon, a frequent writer on the subject, and co-founder of Southern Ohio Neighbors Group, I have advised the Krikorian campaign on Piketon policy, as have others. I have also provided advice to Jean Schmidt, but the latter was unsolicited. She appears to still be sore since she threw candy from her Dogwood Festival float, and I advised parents to check it for poison.)
Since 2004, Ohio politicians have almost uniformly placed all hope in a proposed new uranium enrichment plant at Piketon to be built by USEC, Inc. -- the formerly national company that was privatized, against all expert advice, by the Clinton Administration. Over the summer, however, the Department of Energy denied or indefinitely delayed (not exactly clear which) a demanded $2 billion federal loan by USEC, based on severe technical, financial, and regulatory shortfalls. On November 2, USEC posted an unexpected loss for the third quarter of 2009, after "demobilizing" (i.e. killing) its centrifuge project, laying off more than a thousand Ohio workers.
Krikorian's initiative is the first political platform to take into account the reality of USEC's demise.
Here's the text of Krikorian's news release:
Paid for by Krikorian For Congress
Piketon Jobs Initiative
Past administrations in Washington, and both political parties, share blame for the predicament at Piketon. The Portsmouth Area Gaseous Diffusion Plant, the largest employer in a five-county region, ceased production in 2001 after 47 years in operation. As of late 2009, there is still no plan for how this federal site will produce either energy or jobs.
Full-scale cleanup of the site, including decontamination and decommissioning of the old process buildings, should have commenced in 2001. Instead this effort was delayed for seven years without a rationale, as politicians including Rob Portman and Jean Schmidt, advertised empty promises of new big nuclear projects. Those
advertisements brought them votes, but produced no jobs for Ohio workers and cleanup was postponed.
Between 2000 and 2009, at least six new big nuclear projects were proposed for the Piketon site, none with financing, and some without congressional approval. These have included two new proposals for uranium enrichment plants, two proposals for nuclear power reactors, one proposal for a nuclear reprocessing plant, and one proposal for the interim storage of high-level nuclear waste. None of these proposals
has panned out.
Finally in 2008, full-scale cleanup of the gaseous diffusion plant was initiated, and a Site-Specific Advisory Board representing area residents was established, as required by law. These activities, however, covered only part of the Federal site, with the remainder under control of USEC Corporation. USEC has been unable to finance a proposed centrifuge enrichment plant for five years. In the summer of 2009, the Department of Energy denied a $2 billion loan to USEC and the project was demobilized which caused more than a thousand Ohio workers to be laid off. The
future of that project remains highly uncertain and whatever happens with USEC, it is wrong for southern Ohio to continue to place all its eggs in the USEC basket.
Thanks to the efforts of Senator Sherrod Brown, cleanup at Piketon has been accelerated, providing needed transitional employment. However, cleanup cannot properly proceed until end-use issues are resolved. We don’t know how to clean up and reconfigure the site without an end-use plan to guide that work.
The larger Piketon reservation remains an ideal candidate for industrial development following cleanup, with unparalleled access to power, water, transportation, infrastructure, and a ready workforce. Open public planning for the future use of the Piketon site should have started in the 1980s, when plant closure was first anticipated. But that didn’t happen, and the politicians are to blame. Today, various private consortia lobby the Department of Energy with secret proposals, but they do not accord with the public character of this land.
It’s Time for a Change
When President Barack Obama campaigned in Portsmouth and Chillicothe in 2008, he spoke of taking "closed Ohio factories" and using them to manufacture "solar panels and wind turbines," which are currently manufactured abroad. That remains a realistic Piketon vision. The Piketon site can indeed become the place that employs Ohio workers while solving the country’s real and pressing energy needs.
The Piketon site is also situated on top of and alongside some of the most
important and unique archaeological resources in the state of Ohio. Recognition of those resources can be a vital part in the area’s redevelopment.
If elected to Congress to represent Ohio’s second district, which includes Piketon, I will take the following steps:
- I will work with Ohio’s Senators to initiate an immediate public process for future-use planning regarding the entire federal reservation at Piketon. No more back-room deals or secret proposals.
- I will ensure that the SSAB is broadened or supplemented by a Citizens Advisory Board with broad jurisdiction over the entire federal reservation and all DOE activities, so that no activities or parts of the site are "reserved" from citizen oversight.
- I will pursue commitments from the Obama Administration for the ultimate redevelopment of the Piketon site, specifically as a Renewable Energy Manufacturing Zone, surrounded by a Nature-Culture Park that includes the restoration and preservation of nearby archaeological sites.
- The goal will be a bill in Congress similar to the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge Act of 2001. The bill provided framework and funding for conversion of the Department of Energy’s nuclear site at Rocky Flats, Colorado, for an inner industrial redevelopment zone, surrounded by a National Wildlife Refuge.
Similarly, my Piketon bill will provide a framework and funding for conversion of the Piketon site. Such a bill is the necessary step toward ultimate site redevelopment, producing energy and jobs.
You can find out more and donate to the Krikorian campaign at: http://www.krikorian2010.com/
And where's Jean Schmidt? She's busy donating a copy of the Democratic House Health Care Bill to the Clermont County Public Library. I guess her point was that the library can't actually afford to buy new books, what with all the budget cuts. Or maybe it was a gesture of reform, since Schmidt has previously tended toward the book-burning side of the spectrum. Or something like that.
Marginal Note: Krikorian has one primary challenger, recruited by the Democratic Party machine of Ohio, named Todd Cook the Books (after his failed signature attempt to resolve the budget crisis in Ohio by counting future taxes on unauthorized racetrack slot machines as revenue). Mr. Cook the Books was recently featured in an article in Roll Call about party-recruited congressional candidates who have washed out. Cook-the-Books has not appeared at any public meeting about the Piketon site in recent memory, nor has he said anything about Piketon jobs, except to lend moral support when Jean Schmidt recruited two busloads of Piketon workers who went to Washington to demand payment of the USEC loan. Cook the Books will not be a factor in the 2010 race, except to the degree that he leads Copperhead Democrats in support of Jean Schmidt.