Continuing Loss of Public Trust

[Mark Kindt]

Are The Chinese Invading Ohio?

Well, that was the implication of the issue advertising that I saw last night on local TV.

Anyone circulating a petition related to House Bill 6 might be a Chinese agent (!)

If you oppose the rate-payer bail-out of the FirstEnergy nuclear power plants you must be a dupe of the Chinese Government.

Here is an article on the petition drive:

https://www.thenews-messenger.com/story ... 060840001/

I'm sure most of you saw the advertisement. It was truly off-the-map Orwellian "Big Lie" public-relations tactics.

A perfect example of corporate dollars used to impede reasonable debate about basic issues of public policy.

If a corporation feels free to fund a campaign of massive lies to the general public like this one, then how well should we trust that same corporation to manage its nuclear power assets? Not!

[Mark Kindt]

New Corporate Promises To "Stakeholders"

The FirstEnergy public relations campaign blitz or more likely, nightmare, this week follow last week's announcement that American corporations would have a new commitment to the public.

Here's an article on that promise:

https://www.fastcompany.com/90391743/to ... er-primacy

[Mark Kindt]

You Need To See The Television Ad

I want to emphasize that you really need to see this particular television ad. It is the worst kind of propaganda exercise imaginable.

We can assume that it was created by intelligent and highly-compensated professionals at the request and participation of other intelligent and highly-compensated professionals.

Was there no one in that chain of decision-making asking themselves whether, as a publicly-regulated utility, they should be mounting a massive campaign of lies to the rate-payers and regulators?

I have no idea whether or not FirstEnergy is a member of the Business Roundatable, but I do know that their stakeholders are being ignored to protect their shareholders.

It didn't matter whether you were a unionized employee, a business creditor, or a rate-paying customer, your interests were abused.

So much for "kinder, gentler" corporate treatment of stakeholders.

[Mark Kindt]

Reporting from the Scene on this Issue

https://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-he ... referendum

[Stan Austin]

I offer an interesting transference of experience. Maybe the local jurisdictions in which these plants are located could start taking action- governmentaly or citizen initiated to have these facilities shut down and use our experience with Lakewood Hospital as a model? SHUT EM DOWN--SAVE ON OUR ELECTRIC BILLS

[Mark Kindt]

True Leadership Inspires Trust

Regardless of whether it is a government, a corporation, or a non-profit institution, if those with leadership responsibilities misrepresent the truth about their fundamental responsibilities there will always be a concomitant loss of public trust.

Why?

Because we, simply as people, place our confidence in those institutions whose duties are to protect our health and safety, the health and safety of our families and our homes.

For those of us already highly skeptical of the nuclear power industry, like myself, any trust that I had that FirstEnergy could safely operate its nuclear power plants vanished on Monday night as I watched them (and their allies) present their immense "Chinese" big-lie blitz against the House Bill 6 petition drive.

[Mark Kindt]

Newest Outrageous Move

FirstEnergy Solutions has asked the Supreme Court (Ohio) to rule that a proposed statewide referendum to overturn Ohio's new nuclear power plant bailout law is illegal because the bailout is a tax.

Keep in mind that this is a multi-year bail-out for aging nuclear power plants worth more than one billion dollars. It's an even bigger bail-out for coal.

Flood the Ohio legislature with political donations to secure a bail-out and then bamboozle and abuse the citizenry when they have the temerity to organize opposition.

Just more highly-compensated white guys doing it to us again. --Sound familiar Lakewood?

Forty years of global warming and Ohio tax-payers get to provide massive public subsidies for coal-fired power plants, while green-energy initiatives are repealed at the same time.

[Mark Kindt]

A Few More Comments

The executive team at FirstEnergy should just be laughed out of Akron as incompetent bunglers, like the executive clowns that crashed Enron.

However, in corporate-world, naked mismanagement is generally rewarded so long as it only occurs at the highest levels of compensation. Sadly, stakeholders and shareholders have been trained to expect this.

The performance of FirstEnergy in its bankruptcy and now its bail-out is a textbook case of this. Stiff the stakeholders and mulct the consumers. Not just mulct the consumers, but then mount a propaganda and legal campaign against them!

These are the same folks that two regions (Ohio & Ontario) in two countries are counting upon to maintain public health and safety at their two aging nuclear power stations. (Good luck with that!)

No wonder that no one in the general public will ever trust corporate behavior. Public trust is routinely and consistently betrayed. We've all become inured to this.

[Mark Kindt]

No Honesty, No Transparency, Just More Corporate BS

While FirstEnergy promotes it propaganda campaign to bamboozle the public and the electorate to protect its billion dollar bail-out, the public, either as rate-payers or as taxpayers, will ultimately be stuck with the 60+ years of costs associated with decommissioning the Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear power plants.

Here is a good and recent summary:


https://www.cleveland.com/business/2019 ... years.html


Rather than have an intelligent public discussion of these costs, we see a bogus bankruptcy to strand them, a billion-dollar bail-out, and then a "Big-Lie" propaganda campaign.

Another instance of "Too-Big-To-Fail" policy-making.

Gee thanks!

[Mark Kindt]

Spent Nuclear Fuel Management

Well, if you want to have fun on a Sunday afternoon, start researching how much the federal government pays to utilities like FirstEnergy to store what is known as "spent nuclear fuel".

Here is the most user-friendly reference on this topic:

https://earth.stanford.edu/news/steep-c ... #gs.1wrcws

Your federal tax dollars at work.

One tidbit, as a federal taxpayer you are still paying to clean-up environmental damage from the Manhattan Project and that was more than 70 years ago.

There is still no long-term disposal solution in present operation for the tons of spend nuclear fuel in temporary storage at approximately 75 nuclear power plants, including Davis-Besse and Perry.

[Mark Kindt]

Learning to Love Nuclear Waste

The linked article will give you the somewhat dismal perspective on just how much nuclear waste is currently in storage near the waters of the Great Lakes:

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/ ... 417767002/

Source -- Detroit Free Press.

[Mark Kindt]

MEMO TO FIRST ENERGY SOLUTIONS EXECUTIVE TEAM

Hey Guys!

You're running a bankrupt company.

You're getting a billion dollar bail-out.

You're running a "Big-Lie" advertising campaign.

You've gone to court to stop voters from organizing.

Do you seriously expect any of us to trust you to operate or even close-down your nuclear power plants safely?

Just another case of the public be damned.

[Mark Kindt]

Learning To Love Nuclear Waste II

Trust me, I don't make this stuff up. In today's international news:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... ister-says

--a "tonne" equals 2,205 lbs.

That's approximately 2,205,000 lbs. of radioactive waste water headed to the Pacific Ocean in coming years, as a result of the reactor melt-downs at the Fukushima nuclear power station.

The linked article contains this quote: "The only option will be to drain it into the sea and dilute it.”

The ocean disposal is likely to be conducted over the next 17 years

[Mark Kindt]

Today's Plain Dealer at Page A4

Not only did FirstEnergy (FirstEnergy Solutions) run to the Ohio Supreme Court to block the petition drive to place House Bill 6 on a ballot referendum; their advocacy group running the outrageous "Anti-Chinese Big Lie" ads hired companies whose mission is to monitor and track those individuals circulating petitions. --Or perhaps interfere or intimidate volunteers circulating the anti-bail-out petitions.

Just why we need more corporations involved in politics.

Like I said before these executives should be laughed out of Akron.

[Mark Kindt]

And They Are Clueless

They are so clueless that they chose to launch a "Big-Lie" advertising campaign that was completely racist with its obvious anti-Asian /anti-Chinese content.

Yes, the "Yellow hordes" are after Ohio's energy.

Absolutely shameful.

Ohio has a citizen population where about 4% of us are of Asian heritage or cultural origins.