BP in LA

July 27, 2010

Civilization is the limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities. — Mark Twain

British Petroleum in Los Alamos? Well yeah, in a manner of speaking. Once more, the theme of corporate control of our government is being played out just down the road in the neighboring town of Los Alamos, home of the atomic bomb and other atrocities that have defined what Eisenhower dubbed, the “military congressional industrial complex.�

In the year of our Lord, 1974, I found myself on a road trip to Santa Fe to visit my good friend, Andy Bushnell, electrical engineering whiz-kid and Texas Tech alumni. As an art student at said university, I came to know Andy when we were brought together by a mutual interest in laser technology and specifically, in my case, the art of holography. Andy had been hired that summer by Los Alamos Labs to build lasers, and he had the run of the place.

With the appropriate badging, I found myself taking a tour of what could only be considered “sensitive� installations. This was long before accelerated cancer rates had seen the light of day. Long before the John Glenn congressional committee had received reports of dysfunctional electronic sites monitoring chemical and nuclear radiation and pollution. When our time grew late, we innocently unrolled our sleeping bags in the park in the middle of town and spent the night in the belly of the beast, blissfully ignorant of our surroundings.

Surely, one of the most interesting things we saw on that visit was a recreation of the Soviet “Tokamak� fusion reactor. This is an invention that, if ever properly developed, could give us an unlimited supply of energy without the problem of waste by-product. So, what are our friends and neighbors down there up to these days? Well, last year they manufactured 11 plutonium “pits.� Yes, friends and neighbors, under the guidance of the Bechtel Corporation, Los Alamos is now in the business of building atomic bombs, right here in our neighborhood. Kinda makes ya proud, huh? Los Alamos is well on its way to becoming another Rocky Flats, where removing 36 inches of radioactive topsoil still didn’t quite clean the place up. At least Taos isn’t downriver from the place, although we are downwind of the smokestacks burning nuclear and chemical waste. Who’s worried about chemtrails?

Meanwhile, the “citizens united� case continues corporate dominance over our political system, making it as impossible as ever for one to achieve political office without corporate support. Check out: freespeech.org/our-democracy-under-attack.

Speaking of corporate support, one of the things I like best about Congressman Ben Lujan is his refusal to take money from healthcare companies, giving him the freedom to work toward bringing us single payer healthcare. But hold on! He achieved political office, so where did he find the money to accomplish that end? It turns out that the congressman’s father was a Los Alamos contractor. That simple fact may throw a little light onto why so much of New Mexico’s economic development money has been poured into the “Lab� and its contractors. It might also shed light on why the congressman is “pro-nuclear.� He has that in common with our local Republican candidate for state representative, Matthew Nielson. If anyone is trying to understand why Democrats are so difficult to distinguish from Republicans these days, just follow the money.

President Obama received the Nobel Peace prize, largely due to his commitment to rid the world of nuclear weapons—so what happened? As a student at Columbia University in 1983, Obama wrote an article for a campus magazine in which he spoke of a “nuclear free world.� He spoke of the “first versus second strike capabilities� that “suit the military-industrial interests� with their “billion dollar erector sets,� and called for the abolition of global arsenals of deadly nuclear warheads. As a candidate for the presidency, he opposed further nuclear subsidies and made the statement, “I am not a nuclear proponent.�

Then, in his State of the Union address, he strongly endorsed the false concept of “safe, clean nuclear power� as a solution to global warming. He endorsed the spending of 7.4 billion dollars in the next five years, toward the security and maintenance of our enormous stockpile of nuclear weapons, in what amounts to a corporate “bailout� of Los Alamos Labs. Perhaps this change of heart has something to do with the appointment of Steven Chu, former head of the Lab, to Secretary of Energy—not to mention the appointment of John Holdren as Obama’s Science Advisor. Both men are enthusiastic proponents of nuclear energy.

If we follow the money, we can see that between the years 1948-1998 the nuclear industry received 57 percent of federal energy subsidies, amounting to 73 billion dollars. Only 11 percent of that budget went to renewable resources and a paltry nine percent went to developing more efficiency. It is an ominous fact that in 2006 a consortium led by the Bechtel Corporation began operating Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore Labs. Bechtel is the corporation known for its no-bid contracts in Iraqi war profiteering, its association with former Vice President Cheney and its move to Dubai to avoid tax liability in its country of origin.

Nuclear power represents corporate socialism at its worst. The nuclear industry is supported, funded and insured by taxpayer dollars. Nuclear power is the prodigal son of the weapons industry. Every time a new nuclear power plant is built, a new source of weapons-grade plutonium is established. No suitable solution for nuclear waste has been found and every plant is a source for cancer, genetic disease and congenital abnormalities for countless generations. Forty percent of the European landmass and the food produced there is still contaminated by Chernobyl. Just ask the residents of Three Mile Island (Pennsylvania) about the consequences of nuclear accidents. Few Americans realize that a 600 percent increase in cancer rates plague these citizens, though it was widely reported that no casualties occurred in the 1979 incident. Two-headed calves born to ranchers now dead of cancer is a typical story.

The money lavished upon this industry could be redirected to safe and sustainable energy solutions like solar, wind, geothermal, wave, tidal and, of course, conservation. According to Steven Strong of Solar Design Associates, it is up to this generation to re-power the planet through positive alternatives. He looks to a non-nuclear/petroleum future that will provide renewable energy and, as a by-product, an era of peace and prosperity. We have the technology to achieve this, but we lack the political will.

Meanwhile, Los Alamos, under the guidance of the ruling “corpocracy,� ignores the concerns of surrounding communities and proceeds with its plans to build a multi-billion dollar atomic bomb factory. When citizen groups met with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission prior to Three Mile Island, they were not allowed to raise questions about the probable consequences of any accident the current security systems weren’t designed to handle. We have seen years of deregulation and unaccountability since. This is the same faulty logic (one might even say “stupidity�) that guided British Petroleum to one of the worst man-made eco-disaster in the history of the planet. We can only hope Los Alamos won’t prove to be the next.

But take heart! The Rancho Seco Nuclear power plant near Sacremento, Calif., was shut down in 1989 by popular vote. Call or write your congressman! Contact Ben Lujan: lujan.house.gov.

And watch the documentaries, “Nuclear Power Safe? Obama and Congress take note!� at youtube.com/watch?v=OnrPNornjyk&feature=player_embedded, and “Three Mile Island Revisited,� videoproject.com/thr-159-v.html.