BREDL, BEST and MATRR
Who are BREDL, BEST and MATRR?
BREDL – Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League
BREDL is a league of environmental groups from 7 southeastern states, and a 501(c)3 non-profit, community-based environmental organization. The founding principles are earth stewardship, environmental democracy, social justice, and community empowerment. BREDL educates citizens, assists groups who have local environmental concerns, and files legal actions with the court system, the TVA, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Local BREDL chapters have raised public awareness and have won numerous battles against environmentally damaging projects and proposals throughout the southeast – ranging from safer high & low-level nuclear dumps and landfill expansions to preventing clear-cut logging in our national forests. The issues center on industry's dependence on toxic chemicals, utilities' refusal to adopt sound energy alternatives, intensive livestock operations' effects on agriculture and the environment, and industrial development at the expense of public health. BREDL has chapters in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama.
website: BREDL.org
email: bredl@skybest.com
BEST – Bellefonte Efficiency & Sustainability Team
Citizens concerned with TVA's proposed re-start of the 1970's Bellefonte Nuclear Power Plant, began meeting together, then joined BREDL and formed BEST, Bellefonte Efficiency & Sustainability Team.
With the support of BREDL and other regional and national groups and experts, BEST represents the concerns of people who wish to say no to more nuclear reactors on the Tennessee River and to encourage the TVA to choose Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy technologies over the dangerous and expensive nuclear power they are presently pursuing. Most of our members are folks living within 50 miles of the proposed Bellefonte nuclear site, and our concerns range from the health of the river to the possibility of leukemia in our children and grandchildren. Our goal is to educate the residents of the Tennessee Valley, the TVA ratepayers, workers, executives and board members about the tremendous financial, environmental, and health risks to our people.
Your BEST membership is important. The more people BEST represents, the stronger our voice. Please join together with BEST to block the building of more nuclear units at Bellefonte and support smart sustainable energy for our future.
website: MATRR.org
email: best@matrr.org
MATRR – Mothers Against Tennessee River Radiation
MATRR is a project of BEST, inspired by parents and grandparents who love this valley and want their offspring to inherit the beautiful mountains and river they have been able to enjoy. Mothers Against Tennessee River Radiation can see no benefit strong enough to justify knowingly increasing the incidence of cancer in children. We see nuclear power as a very short term and unnecessary '''solution'' for a very long term radioactive waste legacy we leave future generations.
MATRR members have studied energy efficiency and different forms of power generation enough to know that we do not need to risk the health of our children and grandchildren with a radioactive Bellefonte power plant and waste dump. We demand that the TVA not place this risk on our communities, but rather places its resources into providing smart, affordable, efficient and renewable energy for our valley. We have repeatedly heard TVA executives deny and misrepresent the financial and health dangers of nuclear power, so we decided to provide citizens this website as a resource for actual data and studies addressing this pressing issue. MATRR members assert that if Tennessee Valley residents are allowed to make informed choices, they will make the decision to discontinue the pursuit of nuclear power in order to protect the future financial and physical health of our children – Because It Matters.
website: MATRR.org
email: best@matrr.org
BREDL Legal Action
BEST/BREDL/SACE File Lawsuit Against TVA Nuclear Plant
June 6, 2009 -- Citizens groups announced their legal challenge to stop the proposed Bellefonte nuclear power plant. The groups filed a lawsuit which lists 19 major arguments against nuclear power at a proposed TVA site near Scottsboro, AL.
The 176-page petition to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) detailed serious concerns: the emission of radioactive air and water pollution during routine operations and the negative impacts on human health, the effects of hot water discharges on Tennessee River's fish and other wildlife, the large number of sinkholes and caves near the Bellefonte site indicating unstable terrain, the unsolved problems of nuclear waste, the uncertainties about uranium fuel supply and the potential for terrorist attacks.
Recent droughts in the Tennessee Valley have called into question TVA's ability to produce electricity while safeguarding our water supply. "We are incredibly concerned about the impacts two more nuclear reactors could have on the Tennessee River, which is already stressed," said Sara Barczak, safe energy director with Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, partnering organization in the intervention. "More reactors mean more water will be wasted along with ratepayer and taxpayer dollars." The petition is posted at www.BREDL.org
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Contact Your Elected Representatives
Join BEST /MATRR - Because It Matters
Print our 'check'' voucher and send it in with your electric bill payment.
Support Green Legislation in Your State.
Send a link to your friends
so they can learn about energy at MATRR.org.
Bellefonte Efficiency & Sustainability Team
BEST
Mothers Against Tennessee River Radiation
MATRR
Because It Matters
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