updated 07.23.10

We know our website is old and a bit finicky, but rest assured, we are working on a new website! We will keep you updated on when to expect the new site to be unveiled, so stay tuned for CAC 2.0!

Click here for CAC statement on Citizens Energy deal for Indianapolis Water & Sewer: "shrouded in secrecy".

OUR CURRENT CAMPAIGNS:

Gov. Daniels' Energy Plan means high rates and high risk:

The Governor’s energy plan is a high risk gamble for taxpayers and ratepayers. Allowing ratepayers to be used as captive investors for nuclear power and carbon waste capture and storage (CCS) will force excessive rate increases and expose thousands of property owners to potential losses through property damage and devaluation. Under the Governor’s energy plan, taxpayers and ratepayers carry the risks and costs while utility companies walk away with the profits.

For more information, click here.

Duke Energy Edwardsport Plant:

Duke Energy is building a new coal-gasification plant in Edwardsport, IN. The cost thus far has reached $2.9 billion and now Duke is asking for even more ratepayer dollars to fund their research and development into carbon waste capture and storage. Duke ratepayers are facing an enormous increase in rates to build this unnecessary plant.

To read more about this expensive and wasteful boondoggle, click here.

NIPSCO:

NIPSCO wants to raise electric rates for their customers by 16.5 percent! To learn more, go here.

Federal Energy Legislation:

Congress is currently debating legislation that would further subsidize coal and nukes, drive up energy costs for ratepayers and do virtually nothing to cap carbon or stop pollution. Click here to read our factsheet and please take action (contact information on factsheet).

Read more about the Boxer/Kerry Senate bill (aka CEJAPA) here and the Waxman-Markey House bill (aka ACES) here.

For a great interview with CAC Program Director Kerwin Olson about the Waxman-Markey bill, click here.

GAME CHANGING REPORT: BEYOND BUSINESS AS USUAL

What happens if Congress fails to pass a climate or energy bill in 2010? Even without a federal carbon policy, the United States could move from the "business as usual" status quo to a dramatically cleaner and healthier approach to meeting its electrical power needs, according to a major new report from the nonprofit and nonpartisan Civil Society Institute think tank, convener of theclean.org. The report was prepared by Synapse Energy Economics of Cambridge, MA.

To read more about the study click here, or click the links below to go directly to the study papers.

"Beyond Business as Usual" - Executive Summary (.pdf)

"Beyond Business as Usual" - Full Report (.pdf)

IMPORTANT ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE:

CHOICE Home Healthcare: Tell Governor Daniels that funding for CHOICE is good for people and good for taxpayers!

CHOICE is Community and Home Options to Institutional Care for the Elderly and Disabled. Part time care in the home through CHOICE is 1/5 the cost to taxpayers of low end nursing homes and allows our elderly and disabled the dignity of independence. Last year, we helped to get the State to maintain full funding for the CHOICE program. However, the Daniels administration has cut CHOICE expenditures by 15 percent. Calls to Governor Daniels are needed to remind him of both the economic and human costs of cutting this vital program! For more info, click here!

CLEAN Action Alert: Tell Washington we're not stupid! Clean energy doesn't mean taxpayer bailouts for coal & nukes!

Instead of investing in truly clean energy technologies like energy efficiency and renewables, Washington D.C. wants to take our money and hand it over to the very energy industry that has made a mess of our environment and our pocketbooks. It's time they hear us, loud and clear, and stop standing up for the dirty, dangerous and expensive status quo.

Protect and Strengthen Our Public Water - Support a Water Protection and Reinvestment Trust Fund!

Our water and wastewater infrastructure is in desperate need of repair. The American Society of Civil Engineers has given both systems a D- grade. In order to protect our essential water resources, create tens of thousands of green jobs, and safeguard public health, join us in urging Congress to create a permanent and dedicated federal funding source! For more info, go here.

MULTIMEDIA:

On November 19, 2009 the EPA held two hearings to allow public testimony in regards to their proposed rule to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. To watch testimony from Grant Smith (CAC Executive Director) and Kerwin Olson (CAC Program Director), please visit our YouTube channel! Click here to watch!

courtesy of Nuclear Information and Resource Service:

Senators Kerry and Graham join forces to promote more nukes, oil and coal in climate bill!
Your actions are vital!

Email/fax now! Call in this Thursday, October 15!

The New York Times yesterday published a remarkable joint op-ed from Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Lindsay Graham (R-SC). Remarkable not because Graham became the first Republican to sign on to a climate bill, but because of the enormous price Kerry paid for that support.

Their op-ed calls for vastly increased support not only for new nuclear reactors but also coal and oil as well. Indeed, their proposal reads like nothing more than a wish list from the dirty energy industry. If adopted, their proposal would make the climate bill one in name only, and instead would provide a dirty energy bonanza that would rival the worst excesses of the Bush administration.

Here is a brief excerpt from the Kerry/Graham op-ed: "Nuclear power needs to be a core component of electricity generation if we are to meet our emission reduction targets. We need to jettison cumbersome regulations that have stalled the construction of nuclear plants in favor of a streamlined permit system that maintains vigorous safeguards while allowing utilities to secure financing for more plants."

You can read the entire op-ed here.

Note that the permit system has been repeatedly streamlined over the past two decades, and even NRC chairman Greg Jazcko admits the slow pace of NRC review of license applications is due to the poor quality of applications and their reliance on unapproved reactor designs. The only further streamlining would be an end to public participation entirely!

We all must act now!

If you haven't yet sent an e-mail and/or fax to your Senators in the past week, please click here to do so now! Don't be shy about contacting your Senators! Whether you've written them once this year or ten times, do so again. Remember: nuclear and utility lobbyists are contacting your Senators every single day. YOU are the most important lobbyists!

Please prepare for National Don't Nuke the Climate Call-In Day, this Thursday, October 15. A new support group for the Call-In Day has just formed on the GrassrootsNucleus networking site.

It will take all of us, reaching out as far and wide as we can, raising our voices as loudly and effectively as we can, to beat back this effort to nuke the climate bill.

For more information about this and other nuclear power issues, go to the website! Nuclear Information and Resource Service

At the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) public field hearing in Gary on March 3, 2009, over 600 people showed up to testify against NIPSCO’s requested rate increase. The hearing was held at a venue that only seated about half of those people, so about 300 people were left outside protesting and chanting “Fight the Hike!” Here is why:

• In the 4th quarter of 2008, NiSource profits rose nearly $100 million dollars compared to the same quarter in the previous year. Their profits rose to $162 million, up from $67 million in the 4th quarter of 2007.

• NiSource directors more than doubled their salaries last year. In 2007, NiSource directors made $80,000. In 2008, they raised that to $165,000.

• NiSource announced that it plans to cut about 370 jobs across its 16-state operating territory over the course of 2009.

• If NiSource profits are increasing and it is doubling the salaries of its board members, why is it cutting jobs and asking for rate increases in the worst economy we have seen since the Great Depression? We need to make our voices heard! We need to demand more public field hearings across Northern Indiana so that all of the people who did not have the chance to testify can voice their plights and let the IURC understand how this rate increase would impact them!

To find out how to take action to fight NIPSCO's rate increase, click here!