Newsweek uncovers “Kentucky-Fried Politics”

[kristopher]

Newsweek uncovers “Kentucky-Fried Politics”


We missed this when it came out, probably because we haven’t paid much attention to Newsweek since it became a digital-only publication. But with stories like this one, we’ll have to think about taking a look at Newsweek more regularly. And just because we missed it in late January doesn’t mean you should miss it now. Kentucky-Fried Politics is the story of how two powerful U.S. Senators, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and tea party advocate Rand Paul, teamed up to scam ratepayers in the Northwest by forcing Energy Northwest, part of the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), to pay $700 million for enriched uranium–that BPA didn’t even need–that could have been purchased on the open market for $450 million. And if that weren’t bad enough, details hidden in the contracts could cause BPA to end up paying well over $1 Billion for the uranium.

This was all done to benefit the near-bankrupt U.S. Enrichment Corporation, which has closed its enrichment facility in Paducah, Kentucky. It not coincidentally kept about 1,000 workers on the payroll through the 2012 Congressional elections, though many lost their jobs shortly afterwards when the plant shut down. It also indirectly benefited another entity important to Kentucky, the Tennessee Valley Authority, which sold electricity to the Paducah plant–a very large (and very inefficient) user of electricity.

Meanwhile...

http://safeenergy.org/2014/02/28/newsweek-uncovers-kentucky-fried-politics/

Link to Newsweek article:
http://mag.newsweek.com/2014/01/24/kentucky-fried-politics.html

[Mopar151]

1. And let me guess

A) US Enrichment is a toxic horror of contamination, may have to be entombed like Chernobyl, or,
B) It's not too bad - only like Rocky Flats, so that decontamination will become it's own little cottage industry

[kristopher]

2. Neither of the above: Mitch McConnel and Rand Paul extorting money from a utility

The mechanism happens to be uranium.

ETA: And US Enrichment is a money pit.

[xfundy]

4. Let them leak it into the water supplies.

It's worked so well in WV. Personally, I'd love to be able to use my kitchen sink tap as a torch, but they need to tell me whether I can use the gas line to put out the fire.

[MindMover]

3. House of Cards ... F.U.= Mitch ...

[kristopher]

5. This really is a good article on politics.

This might have been the wrong forum to post it in.