25 Years After Spill, Alaska Town Struggles Back From "Dead Zone"

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25 Years After Spill, Alaska Town Struggles Back From "Dead Zone"

Watch: First Lady"s Ping Pong Struggles During Taxpayer-Funded China Trip

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Watch: First Lady"s Ping Pong Struggles During Taxpayer-Funded China Trip

Birth of a Palestinian City Is Punctuated by Struggles

Rina Castelnuovo for The New York Times

Rawabi under construction in the West Bank, on Thursday.

RAWABI, West Bank — Two students came up with Rawabi, the Arabic word for hills, in a competition to name this new Palestinian city, the first to have been planned from the ground up. The developers rejected suggestions — like Arafat City and Jihad City — that evoked a more chaotic past.

“The new generation is building this city,” said Bashar Masri, 52, the Palestinian businessman who has headed this ambitious project and says he will be moving into a duplex penthouse in the town center once it is completed.

“Every Palestinian has a duty to participate in nation building,” he told reporters on a tour of the site last week.

Halfway between Jerusalem and Nablus, Rawabi is a short commute from Ramallah, the Palestinian Authority’s bustling administrative capital in the West Bank.

Palestinian flags fluttered from the tractors and cranes, and a huge one flew outside the tasteful sales office, a symbol that was clearly visible from Ateret, a Jewish settlement of 100 families on a nearby hilltop.

But like a microcosm of the Palestinian state in the making, the building of Rawabi is a continual struggle. Its future growth depends on a precarious political environment and the cooperation of Israel. Because of Rawabi’s location, Mr. Masri says, he and his colleagues spend about 70 percent of their time on issues like water and obtaining permits. Promised funds from the Palestinian Authority never materialized, posing an additional challenge.

The sales team began marketing apartments here a few months ago, aiming at middle- to upper-middle-class Palestinian buyers. The developers say the first phase of more than 600 apartments has already sold out and will be ready for occupancy early next year. The master plan comprises 6,000 apartments and ultimately up to 40,000 people.

The buildings, faced in locally quarried stone with features like archways, are organized along quiet cul-de-sacs in orderly neighborhoods to be linked by green walkways and outer ring roads. The slopes offer views of the surrounding countryside. In addition to offices, plans for the city center include shopping arcades, cafes, restaurants, movie theaters and a convention center built around a central piazza.

The political ambiguity of the area has, however, caused endless complications. Amir Dajani, deputy managing director of the Bayti Real Estate Investment Company, which is building the city, said the company had spent $ 80 million to $ 100 million a year in Israel on know-how and materials like cement, which he called “a true example of an economy for peace.” But there is no airport or port in the Palestinian Authority territories, meaning that all imports have to come by way of Israel.

“We still have to deal with the Israeli occupation,” Mr. Dajani said, referring to the division of the West Bank into different areas of authority under the overall rule of the Israeli military.

Although the project was announced in 2007 and construction began two years ago, it took until June 2012 to secure a temporary permit from Israel, renewable annually, for a narrow, winding access road to the site. That is because a mile-long segment of the road passes through a part of the West Bank that remains under full Israeli control.

There have also been problems with water, which Israel provides through the Palestinian Water Authority. The developers say that the current water supply is insufficient and that they are working feverishly to ensure adequate water by the time residents move in.

Israeli security officials said that part of the problem was that the developers wanted to transfer water through territory under full Israeli control rather than that of the Palestinian Authority and that discussions were under way to resolve the issue.

The project has also come under attack from the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee, which opposes any normal ties with Israel. The committee has accused Mr. Masri of promoting his private interests at the expense of Palestinian rights and of whitewashing the Israeli occupation.

The developers say they prefer to use Palestinian products wherever possible.

NYT > Global Home

Birth of a Palestinian City Is Punctuated by Struggles

NYC Lesbian Candidate Struggles to Win Women"s Vote

At Cubbyhole, a popular New York lesbian bar, for every two revelers who praised City Council speaker Christine Quinn in her race to become the city’s first woman and first openly gay mayor, one complained about her style and political policies.

“Just because she’s a lesbian, it doesn’t mean I’ll vote for her,” said Veronica Gonzales, 32, who works for a non-profit organization. “She is not socially liberal enough, and she has this air about her like she is above it all – like she is above us.”

While fellow candidate Anthony Weiner’s extramarital sexual transgressions have dominated the headlines, a perplexing reality of the race for mayor of the nation’s largest city is Quinn’s failure to lock up the votes of women and gays, even though she herself is both.

Quinn is the only woman in the race, and the only openly gay candidate, yet she scored only 30 percent support from women in a survey by Quinnipiac University published on July 29. Polls do not break down voting preferences by sexual orientation.

The presumed front-runner of the six candidates vying to succeed Michael Bloomberg has failed to crack the 40 percent level of overall support, the percentage needed to win the Democratic primary on Sept. 10 and avoid a runoff between the top two finishers.

In a runoff with black candidate William Thompson, Quinn would lose 50 percent to 40 percent, the Quinnipiac poll found.

Despite its progressive reputation, New York City has elected few women to citywide office. The best known was Elizabeth Holtzman, who held the top financial post of comptroller from 1990 to 1993. The most recent was Betsy Gotbaum, public advocate until 2009, although Quinn as speaker of the city council is considered the most powerful official after the mayor.

VOTERS AMBIVALENT

In New York’s Greenwich Village, with its significant gay and lesbian population, support for Quinn was mixed.

Gonzales plans to vote for Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, who she said is “more straightforward about his agenda.”

The ambivalence has contributed to a sense that Quinn is unable to close out the race, and one of the other candidates could overtake her, even as support wanes for Weiner.

“Right now, all signs point to a runoff, and with voters not connecting with anyone in particular, it’s going to be a fluid race,” said Lee Miringoff of the Marist poll. “It is very important for Quinn to sharpen her message so that she starts to get into a better shape to do better down the road.”

Voters critical of Quinn most often mention her style, which some view as brash and calculating. Quinn’s backing of a temporary change in the city’s term-limits law, which allowed Bloomberg and other lawmakers to run for a third term, has also been used against her.

De Blasio has positioned himself as a liberal alternative to Quinn on issues such as funding for universal pre-kindergarten programs and preventing hospital closings.

“She needs to do better in the long run with women voters,” Miringoff said. “If she is going to be successful she needs to create a greater appeal among women voters. And to do that, she needs to put her campaign in an historical context.”

In recent weeks, Quinn, long an outspoken proponent of gay marriage, has sought to portray her candidacy as an historic opportunity for New York women.

This week, the Quinn campaign rolled out endorsements from the National Organization of Women and feminist political activist Gloria Steinem.

At the annual Gay Pride parade in Greenwich Village, Quinn marched alongside Edie Windsor, the New Yorker whose U.S. Supreme Court case paved the way for gay couples to receive federal benefits this year, leading more than 1,000 backers.

Quinn’s campaign said it planned targeted advertisements on Facebook asking women to “Make history with Chris Quinn,” and targeting women voters through house parties and phone banks.

Mike Morey, Quinn’s spokesman, noted that she had fought to save education jobs, keep firehouses open and expand access to pre-kindergarten during difficult fiscal times.

“She will continue making the case through Election Day that she is the only candidate who has a real record of results delivering for the middle class,” Morey said.

Back at the Cubbyhole, as a performer clad in black leather shorts and a red wig danced in the background, Jaimie Ho, 35, a structural engineer, said she was not sold on Quinn.

Ho remembered seeing Quinn at the pride parade: “She didn’t seem accessible. She had a ton of body guards around her.”

“I like her background. I like the work she has done in the City Council,” continued Ho. “But I ask myself: Is it fair to vote for her simply because she is gay? There needs to be more substance.”

© 2013 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.

Newsmax – Politics

NYC Lesbian Candidate Struggles to Win Women"s Vote

Nuclear plant closures show industry"s struggles

Lyn Harris Hicks, a longtime opponent of the San Onofre nuclear power plant and a nearby resident, wears a banner on her hat as she waits for a news conference in front of the plant Friday, June 7, 2013, in San Onofre, Calif. The troubled power plant on the California coast is closing after an epic 16-month battle over whether the twin reactors could be safely restarted with millions of people living nearby, officials announced Friday. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Lyn Harris Hicks, a longtime opponent of the San Onofre nuclear power plant and a nearby resident, wears a banner on her hat as she waits for a news conference in front of the plant Friday, June 7, 2013, in San Onofre, Calif. The troubled power plant on the California coast is closing after an epic 16-month battle over whether the twin reactors could be safely restarted with millions of people living nearby, officials announced Friday. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Gary Headrick, right, hugs Steve Netherby, center, and his wife Laurie Headrick, left, before a news conference by opponents of the San Onofre nuclear power plant near the entrance to the plant Friday, June 7, 2013, in San Onofre, Calif. The troubled power plant on the California coast is closing after an epic 16-month battle over whether the twin reactors could be safely restarted with millions of people living nearby, officials announced Friday. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Lyn Harris Hicks, a longtime opponent of the San Onofre nuclear power plant and a nearby resident, right, hugs Laurie Headrick, left, as they wait for a news conference in front of the plant Friday, June 7, 2013, in San Onofre, Calif. The troubled power plant on the California coast is closing after an epic 16-month battle over whether the twin reactors could be safely restarted with millions of people living nearby, officials announced Friday. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Power lines cross a freeway as they make their way to the San Onofre nuclear power plant Friday, June 7, 2013, in San Onofre, Calif. The troubled power plant on the California coast is closing after an epic 16-month battle over whether the twin reactors could be safely restarted with millions of people living nearby, officials announced Friday. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

A surfer rides a wave in front of the San Onofre nuclear power plant Friday, June 7, 2013, in San Onofre, Calif. The troubled power plant on the California coast is closing after an epic 16-month battle over whether the twin reactors could be safely restarted with millions of people living nearby, officials announced Friday. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — The decision to close California’s San Onofre nuclear plant is the latest setback for an industry that seemed poised for growth not long ago.

In Wisconsin, a utility shuttered its plant last month after it couldn’t find a buyer. In Florida — and now California — utilities decided it was cheaper to close plants rather than spend big money fixing them and risk the uncertainty of safety reviews.

Meanwhile, the low cost of natural gas is discouraging utilizes from spending billions of dollars and lots of time to build nuclear reactors.

New technology allows drillers to extract more gas within the U.S., increasing the supply and pushing down prices. In states were utilities operate as monopolies, they are reluctant to ask their regulators for permission to build enormously expensive nuclear plants — or even fix old ones — when it so cheap to build gas-fired plants.

In places where utilities sell power into the open market, the low prices don’t offset the financial risk of building expensive and time-consuming nuclear plants.

“The world has changed with natural gas prices being so low and so much gas being available for so long,” said Mike Haggarty, a senior utility analyst for Moody’s Investor Service.

Industry supporters acknowledge the challenging economics but say nuclear power still has long-term possibilities. While the costs to build plants are enormous, once online, the fuel and operating costs are relatively low. And reactors can reliably produce power with little or no carbon emissions, said Steve Kerekes, a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry lobbying group.

Plants fired by gas cost much more to run when prices surge.

“When gas prices are low, that’s great,” Kerekes said. “But a lot of people don’t like to put all their energy eggs in one basket.”

On Friday, Southern California Edison announced it would close its San Onofre plant between San Diego and Los Angeles rather than fix damaged equipment that critics said could never be safely replaced. The twin reactors were idled in January 2012 when a small radiation leak led to the discovery of unusual damage to hundreds of new tubes that carry radioactive water.

Despite spending more than $ 500 million on repairs and replacement power, the utility, owned by Edison International, decided to call it quits. It faced safety investigations and regulatory hurdles to restart the plant.

In February, North Carolina-based Duke Energy Corp. decided to close the Crystal River nuclear plant in Florida after workers cracked a concrete containment building during an attempt to upgrade the plant in 2009. The containment building is supposed to prevent a release of radiation in case of an accident. An attempt to fix the problem in 2011 resulted in more cracks.

Despite the shutdown, Duke still wants its customers to reimburse the company for $ 1.65 billion in plant investments. The utility will use $ 835 million from an insurance settlement to refund customers who had to pay for backup power.

Even working plants are being scuttled. Dominion Resources Inc. announced in October it would close the Kewaunee Power Station in Wisconsin because it couldn’t find a buyer. Dominion CEO Thomas F. Farrell II said the plant’s contracts to sell its electricity were ending while wholesale electricity prices are expected to remain low. The company is keeping reactors elsewhere in the country.

“This decision was based purely on economics,” Farrell said at the time. “Dominion was not able to move forward with our plan to grow our nuclear fleet in the Midwest to take advantage of economies of scale.”

Just a few years back, nuclear industry officials said the time was right for expanding. A more robust economy boosted demand for electricity, natural gas prices were higher, and it seemed Congress might pass legislation restricting the greenhouse gas emissions, a rule that could hurt fossil fuel plants and increase the demand for nuclear power. To further sweeten the pot, the U.S. government adopted tax credits and offered low-cost loans to subsidize construction.

The industry called it a “nuclear renaissance.” It was short-lived.

The Great Recession trimmed the demand for electricity as business and consumers cut back, and natural gas prices fell. Several utilities have scrubbed their plans for new plants or delayed them far into the future.

Paul Patterson, a utility analyst for Glenrock Associates LLC, said the idea of a renaissance was “exaggerated to begin with,” and low-cost natural gas ended such talk.

Only three nuclear construction projects have moved forward, and they are all under financial pressure.

The Tennessee Valley Authority is finishing a long-mothballed reactor at its Watts Bar plant. Initially budgeted at $ 2.5 billion, the utility has said finishing the project could cost up to $ 2 billion more.

Atlanta-based Southern Co. owns a 46 percent share of two new reactors being constructed at Plant Vogtle in eastern Georgia, a project originally estimated at $ 14 billion. Southern Co. subsidiary Georgia Power recently asked regulators to raise its share of the construction budget by $ 737 million to roughly $ 6.85 billion.

It may cost more. Georgia Power and the companies designing and building the plant are in a legal fight that may cost the utility more money. Separately, an independent monitor hired by Georgia regulators has warned of additional potential costs.

SCANA Corp. announced this week that it expects its costs to rise by around $ 200 million and the construction schedule to slip while building two reactors at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station in South Carolina.

___

Henry reported from Atlanta and can be reached at http://twitter.com/rhenryAP . AP Energy Writer Jonathan Fahey also contributed to this report from New York.

Associated Press

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Nuclear plant closures show industry"s struggles