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June 6, 2011
Bulletin #117: No
meeting tomorrow; new CMRR resources; House likely to propose warhead
spending cut
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Dear
friends,
We are postponing tomorrow night's (Tues, June
7th) Study Group meeting at St. John's United Methodist Church in
Santa Fe. Since my return from Washington, DC last week we
have been very involved with urgent and requested follow-up and we
must focus intently on fulfilling those requests, which encompass a
diversity of National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and
Department of Energy (DOE) issues and programs.
Some of
you may be interested in this recent paper (Reasons
Not to Build, or to Delay CMRR-NF), which formed the core of
briefings I gave in Washington to numerous government officials and
two arms control groups.
Most if not all arms control
organizations and their principle funders still believe this project
should not be opposed. (I'm
shocked, shocked.)
Speaking of Washington, last
week the House Energy and Water Development Appropriations
Subcommittee proposed
a large cut in Obama's requested increase in nuclear warhead
spending, including a cut in FY2012 spending for the proposed Los
Alamos Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Nuclear Facility
(CMRR-NF). The line-by-line details of these concerns, and how
they will propagate through the (broken) appropriations process, are
at the moment unclear.
No newspaper saw fit to report
the $500 million Republican-led proposed cut in nuclear
warhead spending. Not all the details were available.
Perhaps the public will be allowed a peek into their evolving nuclear
future next week. Or not.
The shadow cast by our
recently-dismissed litigation continues to delay CMRR-NF. Even
though the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) process
that began in response to our litigation is totally bogus from a
legal perspective and as a study of alternatives (it considers none),
NNSA wisely chose not to let additional construction contracts during
the lawsuit, and is still holding them back during pendency of the
SEIS and its Record of Decision (ROD). Also and related,
project expenditures in the present fiscal year are, we hear,
accordingly far less than originally projected. Yes, the
project has been slowed -- as is more than proper given its cost
explosion and contraction in justification.
We cannot
supply more details about the CMRR-NF "state of play"
here. (That was the topic of last week's public discussion in
Santa Fe).
To repeat what we said in our press release
regarding Judge Herrera's recent decision, "It is never legal
for a federal agency to decide to implement a project with
significant environmental impact without an applicable, objective
EIS, and that is what is happening here." NNSA is not at
all out of the woods, legally speaking, and we are working on that
too.
More fundamentally, certain facts are a problem
for the project: high seismicity, a cramped site, poor geology, a
lack of need, declining availability of federal funds, negative
international repercussions, the irrelevance of the mission to
today's real national (security) crises, and more. It's a
fiasco now and will remain one until it is eventually abandoned.
Here's a handy compendium of recent developments and
resources on CMRR-NF.
We look forward to seeing many of you next Tuesday evening, June
14th, 7-9 pm at St. John's United Methodist Church in Santa Fe.
The topics and speakers are at the moment under development and
"TBA."
Many of you are already supporting
these efforts financially. Thank you.
Currently, the bulk of our support comes from hundreds of small
donors. Despite the sophistication and impact of our work
nationally, we are a true grassroots organization. One
of the most powerful things you could do to help us is to reach out
to wealthier friends of yours and ask them to help support us.
Your friends can contribute electronically here,
or send a check to the address below. The tight
integration of the liberal foundation community with the Democratic
Party and its global foreign policy objectives, and with the present
President, make a very challenging political mileau for us.
Many of your friends may not understand that they could make a
decisive difference in the future of nuclear weapons policy, and in
this state, if they chose to be more involved. Unlike most --
perhaps I should say nearly all -- academic and nuclear-related
nonprofits operating in the U.S. we are not fenced in by funder
priorities. We are fenced in by limitations of time and
money. Help us overcome these, if you can.
By the
way, we are always looking for volunteer staff. Only the best
need apply. Here is a list of work areas where there are not
enough hours in the day for us to pluck all the "low hanging
fruit."
▪ Regional economic and political
research
▪ Conventional and new media
outreach
▪ Major donor and foundation
fundraising
▪ Web design and
implementation
▪ Local outreach
coordination
▪ Evidentiary research in
environmental litigation
▪ Graphics,
editing, and layout
▪ Congressional
liaison and legislative analysis
▪ Freedom
of Information Act (FOIA) and related document acquisition
▪
Event planning and scheduling
▪ Program,
project and budget analysis
Thank you all.
Greg, Trish, and gang
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