Bryant to Brazil; Barbour Endorses Waste Storage

Governor "Three Mile" Phil Bryant is heading overseas again to drum up economic development opportunities for the state. After our report this morning about very sad job losses in the state, Bryant has his work cut out for him.

On this particular trip, Bryant and his economic development team are heading to Brazil. Why Brazil?

The United States has developed a good economic relationship with their government and they are one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Brazil has started a greater use of nuclear power to fuel its growing economy. By 2030, Brazil plans to build four new nuclear power plants in order to keep up with energy demands.

Sounds like history is repeating itself. During their trip to France, Bryant's team toured a nuclear facility and when asked about it, Bryant essentially shrugged and said "beats me." Many of the same folks who joined the French nuclear expedition are now in Brazil. When he returns, expect Bryant to be asked about the meetings in which he participated. Whether he will be transparent about his activities is solely up to him.

Also, this afternoon, former Governor Haley Barbour returned from his home in Washington to endorse nuclear waste storage in Mississippi, calling it a "Godsend." We have yet to hear Barbour endorse or pray for nuclear waste storage in Yazoo City. It is remarkable what one can say when his or her name will not be on a ballot again.

MDA Salary Bonus Smells of Cronyism

The Clarion-Ledger reports that the Mississippi Development Authority Executive Director Brent Christensen has been given a $47,000 boost in salary by proponents of Governor "Three Mile" Bryant's nuclear dump plan.

Below is a list of the companies and their contribution to Christensen's salary boost. These companies also serve on the Mississippi Energy Institute's Board of Directors.

Atmos Energy: $2,000
Butler Snow (Haley Barbour's firm): $2,000
Entergy: $2,000
Mississippi Power: $2,000
Nucor Steel: $1,000

Bryant's nuclear agenda, whatever that may be, is starting to come into a little bit more focus. If these companies have a goal in mind to make Mississippi the home of nuclear waste, who better to push the agenda than the person whose salary you're supplementing? You scratch my back; I'll scratch yours. Talk about conflicts of interest!

During debate over the bill allowing for such salary increases to occur, questions were raised about the MDA Executive Director being paid by companies to help push their business interests. Here we are a year later proving they were correct in their skepticism. The next time you get your electricity bill, keep in mind that your energy service provider isn't the only one getting paid.

Incentivizing in Mississippi: More on the Nuclear Option

It should come as no surprise that Governor Phil Bryant is ready to dump nuclear waste on Mississippians after an alarming report a few weeks ago by Roger Bybee on the Huffington Post.

After over a billion dollars in incentives, Nissan’s Canton plant has still not lived up to their end of the bargain in hiring a full-time, full benefits, full pay (an average of $19.50/hour was promised) workforce. Instead, anywhere from 35-40% of the workforce are comprised of low-paid temporary workers. Which means $12.50/hour with no benefits.

For several years, UAW has been working with Nissan workers and activists to at minimum have a union vote, at most actually unionize the workers. And not just because of pay and benefits - workers have reported health and safety issues and other general management problems and simply want their concerns addressed.

But, when you’ve basically paid a company to come to your state, they aren’t really incentivized to treat your workers well - especially when they are allowed to get away with the things Nissan’s Canton management is doing.

Imagine the incentives and corporate begging the Governor will be doing to bring a nuclear option (there are multiple plans being discussed, though apparently, he's retreating on nuclear waste dumping), which will probably not bring the jobs or pay expected, and to the environmental detriment of Mississippi and the potentially lethal detriment to our workers and their families.

Bryant Begins Full-Scale Retreat

Governor "Three Mile" Bryant's plan to store nuclear waste in Mississippi has gotten too hot for him to handle. Now, Bryant is changing his tune about his goals for nuclear waste in Mississippi.

WDAM reports that Bryant is only interested in recycling spent nuclear energy. But wait. Earlier this week, Bryant said he was interested in the manufacturing element. Even the WDAM article notes that Bryant admitted that meetings with the Mississippi Energy Institute have centered around advances in nuclear science and nuclear energy component manufacturing.

What has changed in one week where we have gone from hollowing out salt domes to store nuclear waste to having a discussion about manufacturing and recycling?

It appears Bryant is seeing the public turn against nuclear storage in droves. Is Bryant trying to save face by saying Mississippi won't store it but will recycle it? Nice try, but you can't recycle it unless you store it. So if we can't store it, is Bryant's project dead on arrival?

Bryant's position on his own nuclear waste plan will likely change before the end of the day so stay tuned for updates. For now, it seems Bryant is in retreat mode.

Tea Party Rally Draws Tens of Patriots

Tea Party rally around 11:15 am today

Tens of tea party protesters took to the steps of the Mississippi Capitol this morning to rally against, well, I'm sure it was something truly terrible. One can conclude that this lightly-attended rally of one of the biggest grassroots political movements of the 21st Century was to object to the influx of federal government money coming in for Governor "Three Mile" Phil Bryant's nuclear dump plan. It's more likely that they were protesting Obamacare and our representatives in Congress. Is anyone brave enough to tell those brave few protesters that our delegation to Congress does not work in that building? Still, it is good to see Americans exercising their right to protest, even on the grounds of government property like our Capitol.

Gov. Bryant, don't dump nuclear waste on my foot and tell me it's raining

From today's Clarion-Ledger:

But even after a closed meeting Monday with the energy industry group pushing for nuclear waste storage and reprocessing, Bryant said, “I haven’t had a chance to look at all that,” when asked about a position paper put out by the group. The group, the Mississippi Energy Institute, includes Bryant’s top economic development officer as a board member. 

For the past few days since the story broke that Gov. Bryant's close allies were attempting to arrange for nuclear waste to be stored in Mississippi, Gov. Bryant has constantly said he didn't know much about it.

Were you not paying attention two months ago in France, Gov. Bryant?  You know, when you toured the headquarters of Areva, the French company behind the efforts to put nuclear waste in Mississippi?

The following is a screenshot of a webpage on Areva's website.  It details a visit to their French facilities back in June of 2013 by Gov. Bryant, his Deputy Chief of Staff Lucien Smith, Patrick Sullivan, head of the Mississippi Energy Institute, and Haley Fisackerly, head of Entergy.

Why is this important?  Areva not only specializes in the production of nuclear power, but also in what it calls the "back end" business. Although Areva is a French company, it is the largest nuclear power company in the United States. According to its website,

AREVA is present throughout the nuclear power cycle, and almost half of all nuclear waste transported in the country is handled by its subsidiary, TN International.

Now, back to the Areva website. Take a look at this URL, which is for the tragfic counter for the page above:
http://logi118.xiti.com/hit.xiti?s=443196&s2=4&p=back-end::backend-facilities-around-the-world::recycling-facilities::areva-la-hague::visits::2946-state-ofnbsp-mississippi--enter&hl=22x2x21&lng=en-US&vtag=34003&idp=2202219018004&jv=1&r=1366x768x32x32&re=1366x667&ref=https://www.google.com/

The interesting part of that URL is this:  back-end::backend-facilities-around-the-world::recycling-facilities::areva-la-hague::visits::2946-state-ofnbsp-mississippi.  That certainly looks like Gov. Bryant, the head of MEI, and the CEO of Entergy were learning about how Areva handles nuclear waste.

Gov. Bryant, don't dump nuclear waste on my foot and tell me it's raining.

EDIT - Edited at 2:52 a.m. to reflect new information regarding the URL. It is part of a traffic counting service, not a link to a photo that is no longer on the website.