Would the Japanese government allow TEPCO to face billions in claims? No. The government has in its power the decision as to whether or not this is a natural disaster (no lawsuit) or a human disaster (negligence – lawsuit).
The Japanese government will decide that this was a natural disaster. Count on it. The government despite TEPCO’s incredible record of poor judgment has little choice. Letting the company go bankrupt would put the Japanese government on the hook for billions in cleanup costs. It also would remove a valuable layer of blame.
The government and the utility company were Siamese twins of disaster. Each facilitated the other’s incompetence. This disaster would not have been possible if either one had acted with competence and judgment. But the intertwined nature of industry and government not only made disaster inevitable but had produced serious incidents in the past that should have been a warning.
Stay tuned for more poor judgment on the part of the Japanese government.
James Pilant
Courtesy of KEZI
Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) may face as much as 2 trillion yen ($23.6bn; £14.5bn) in compensation claims, according to JP Morgan.
From further down in the article –
Tepco shares have lost more than 75% of their value since 11 March, in the process hitting all-time lows.
From further down in the article –
Under Japanese law, operators of a nuclear facility can be waived of any liability if the accident is deemed to have been triggered by a natural disaster of an exceptional character.
Whether the current crisis fits that classification will determine the course for Tepco, analysts say.
“A key issue concerning damage compensation is whether the Fukushima nuclear plant accident is considered an unavoidable natural disaster,” said Tomohiro Jikihara of JP Morgan.
A sincere God Bless to Charlie and to Georgie, my wife’s cat who shared the same fate.
James Pilant
We were heading out as a family on Friday evening and had just driven a few hundred metres onto the main road when we saw the body of our cat ‘Charlie’ lying there. He had only recently been knocked down as his body was still warm and limp, though quite lifeless. I carried him home and we buried him in the garden the next morning. I remember reading a church magazine years ago where there was a section called ‘The Wise Owl”. People wrote lette … Read More
The fight against corruption is an American problem, an Indian problem and a worldwide problem. Their fight is our fight, our fight is theirs. Corruption takes different forms in the two countries. In America it is more a matter of corrupting legislators and buying influence, subverting regulators and rewriting the rules behind closed doors. In India, it may in some cases, be more public and related often to the official duties of various officials. However, there have been national scandals on a humongous scale.
We in the United States should pay more attention to developments in India. That nations economic and diplomatic power are on a steep rise and I strongly suspect their long term goals are more peaceful than their neighbor to the East.
James Pilant
Here is my colleague in blogging, Manoje Nath. He is often witty and very often profound. Here is a selection from his latest post –
Democracy attributes good sense and judgment to its citizenry at large and it is supposed to exercise its control over the day to day functioning of the government through public opinion,(as if there is a body of opinion, fully formed, ubiquitous and all knowing, which once alerted to wrongdoing, will come down like a ton of bricks and ensure immediate remedial measures. ) That, alas! is not true. Generally speaking people are ignorant and indifferent, people are resistant to mobilization and sustained activism. Wrapped in their own petty little concerns and anxieties they are easily satisfied with cosmetic changes. As a worst case they get used to everything – just about everything. This is where the charismatic leader comes in.
And from a little further down –
The ambiguity in the public attitude towards ill-gotten money is the result of our peculiar situation. Our economy is half white and half black, half over-ground and half underground. We condemn black money but deal in it, nevertheless. Under our very eyes, criminals and gangsters acquire wealth, then political power, then more wealth and with it acceptability and social esteem. Political banditry as a mode of creation of surplus value has long been accepted as a legitimate vocation. To displace the awareness of these contradictions, we have devised various overt and covert strategies to acknowledge and accommodate the criminality with in our midst. Lawyers, chartered accountants, investment advisors, honestly work for the legitimization of dishonest earnings by politicians, government officials, corporate CEOs, etc. Dirty money courses through our formal and informal financial system in different ways, with different consequences. We do not seek to know hard enough about the offshore funds being routed in our economy for fear of discovering their actual provenance. We are so enamoured, even over awed with power and manipulation that we tend to ignore what David Bell calls “the economic fulcrum underneath”.
Today, I received the following e-mail. I am honored to be listed among the recipients. I bring it and the issues raised to your attention.
James Pilant
Courtesy of Techpin
Dear All,
While we are discussing anti-corruption, Anna Hazare, etc., it is important for all of us to also understand what is going in the telecom industry (2G scam and so on) and the health hazards of cell phone and cell tower radiations and how telecom industry and policy makers are completely ignoring this fact.
I had attended TRAI Green Telecom open house in Delhi on March 18, 2011 and subsequently submitted attached 1+4 pages report. Please find time to go through the report and share it with all your known people to create awareness.
Brief Report and Recommendations
on
Open-house conducted by TRAI on
Green Telecommunications
on March 18, 2011
Submitted to
Dr. J.S. Sarma
Chairman, TRAI
Prepared
by
Prof. Girish Kumar
Electrical Engineering Department
IIT Bombay, Powai, Mumbai – 400076
(022) 2576 – 7436
gkumar@ee.iitb.ac.in
Report on Open-house conducted by TRAI on Green Telecommunications on
March 18, 2011 at PHD chamber, New Delhi
Introduction
TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India), Delhi had floated a consultation paper on
Green Telecommunications on Feb. 3, 2011. It consisted of total 58 pages and was divided in
Preface, Introduction and three chapters.
Chapter I – Carbon Footprint of Telecommunications Industry
Chapter II – Moving towards Green Telecom
Chapter III – Issues for consultation
Chapter I described what is Green Telecom, what are Green House gases and carbon
footprint, motivation for Green Telecom and estimating carbon footprint. It mentioned that
India has around 3.1 Lakh telecom towers of which about 70% are in rural areas. Presently,
40% power requirements are met by grid electricity and 60% by diesel generators (DG).
Total consumption of diesel is 2 billion litres and 5.3 million litres of CO2 is produced.
(GK comments – Number of telecom towers are more than 4.5 Lakhs in 2011, so the above
numbers are outdated. Currently, Indian Govt. gives Rs. 7/litre subsidy to diesel, so total
subsidy for 2 billion litres of diesel is Rs. 14 Billion = Rs. 1400 crores per year to Telecom
operators.)
Chapter II deals with domestic and global efforts for reduction of carbon footprint, methods
of reducing carbon footprint, promoting R&D for green telecom, and corporate social
responsibility. Several measures for reducing carbon footprint are described, such as,
adoption of energy efficient equipment, innovative technologies, renewable energy (solar,
wind, tidal, biomass, fuel cell, etc), infrastructure sharing, better network planning,
monitoring and reporting, incentive for green telecom, etc.
(GK comments – Why industry wants incentive for green telecom? Is it not our duty as an
Indians, not to pollute our own country, should we not care for our people and environment?
What are we going to give to the future generation?)
Chapter III consists of total 33 issues for consultation – 3.1 to 3.33
(GK comments – Some of the issues are much better known to TRAI, so asking for too
many issues deter common man to reply and that’s why there were only 25 responses from
the entire country.)
Report on Open House on March 18, 2011
Open-house regarding consultation paper on Green Telecommunications by TRAI started at
10:30 am. It was reported that there were total 25 responses and the distribution was:
3 from Consumer’s Group, 2 from Service Providers Association
5 from Service Providers and 15 from Individuals.
A brief presentation was made about Green Telecom and its importance. It was mentioned
that 59% of power consumption for various telecom towers is met by DG due to lack of
power supply. Total 33 questions were sub-divided into 3 groups. It was mentioned that as a
normal practice, first chance will be given to the consumer’s group and individuals followed
by Service providers and associations.
People from Telecom User Group and individuals mentioned about subsidy of diesel to the
tune of Rs. 1400 crores per year is given to Telecom industry, which should be recovered.
Also, DG creates lots of air pollution, sound and vibration. Telecom systems must be
optimized so that overall energy consumption is reduced. Antenna radiation pattern must be
optimized, cable losses to be reduced, transmitted power should be switched off or reduced
considerably in the night as cell phone use is only around 10%.
I mentioned that the transmitted power from the cell towers must be reduced from 100’s of
Watts to 1 to 2 W. This will reduce the harmful effects of cell tower radiation as it is causing
severe health problems to people, birds, animals, trees and environment. I asked all the
people present in the auditorium that I was told by one Taiwanese manufacturer that
maximum amount of power amplifiers sold in India has output power rating of 200W, is it
true? No Service Provider or Association answered that. After that, I said that since this open
house is not on cell tower radiation and it is on green telecom but by reducing the power
transmission from 100’s W to 1 to 2 W, the energy requirement will be substantially reduced,
there will be no need of cooling the high power amplifier, and thereby air-conditioning is also
not required in most of the cases. This substantially reduced power can be easily met by solar
energy or other renewable sources. This way, we can solve both the problems – reduce the
health hazard and reduce the carbon emission. Of course, reducing the transmitted power will
mean lesser distance coverage. This may require 10 to 20 Lakhs of towers or micro or pico
repeaters or in-building solutions, instead of approximately 5 Lakhs towers, which means
more cost.
It was mentioned that renewable energy is expensive and also it is not available all the time.
For example, solar energy is not present all the times, wind is not everywhere, biomass may
not be convenient, etc. The operators said that it must be subsidized.
There was a discussion on Self regulation of the industry, there were divided opinions. It was
mentioned that Govt. should not try to regulate everything, Telecom operators must be
allowed to give self certification that they are meeting all the norms but other mentioned that
self regulation will not work until and unless forced.
(GK comments – Why self regulation/certification is only allowed to Telecom operators?
Why not all the people on the road give self certification that they did not jump red light, why
not all the criminals self certify that they did not do any crime, and so on – then we will not
need police, courts, lawyers, and so on. It will be true Ram Rajya.)
It was mentioned that 60% of cell phone calls are made from home, so fixed mobile
convergence should be used, i.e. transfer from mobile to fixed landline using copper or fiber,
which will also be useful for high speed broadband communication. However, compared to
other countries, India has a very small percentage of landline/fiber connectivity.
It was stated that in a village near Delhi, the cow’s milk yield has gone down from 5
liters/day to 0.5 liters/day after installation of cell towers. Also, sound and vibration of DG
disturbs animals/birds.
People from service providers mentioned several measures being taken by them to reduce the
carbon footprint. They are now moving indoor BTS to outdoor BTS, which saves airconditioning
cost, newer BTSs are mainly outdoor, switching off few transmitters, automatic
frequency plan, air cooling instead of air-conditioner, better DG, better battery, using solar
and hydrogen fuel, use of e-bills will save paper, etc. However, it was countered that these
measures are incremental in nature, some tweaking done here and there, whereas what is
required is, orders of magnitude change.
Person from Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUSPI) mentioned
that Telecom industry has created Lakhs of jobs, provided cell phones to even extremely poor
people at an affordable price, and hence Govt. should not ask them to do anything which will
increase the cost. He said that others are jealous of growth of telecom industry and many
ministries are after them. He even mentioned that an IIT professor is talking about the
radiation hazard because he wants to sell his radiation shield. Since the attack was directly on
me, I replied that yes, I have a company named “Wilcom Technologies Pvt. Ltd.”, and we
have developed Radiation shield. Yet, I am insisting on reducing the radiation level to protect
the people and environment, and if the radiation levels are reduced then who will buy
radiation shield? I mentioned that it is the vested interest of telecom industry that they are
pumping out large power to save money but creating health hazard to the people. At this
point, chairman intervened, not to get personal.
(GK comment– Why chairman did not intervene when AUSPI person was getting personal?)
There were several other comments/suggestion, such as, umbrella coverage for reducing
carbon foot-print, more fiber optic networks, other countries do not have to use too much of
DG as they have better power grid, etc. It was also mentioned that indigenous development
should take place; more money must be spent on R&D activities, etc.
One thing was loud and clear, Service providers and their Associations want that they should
not be monitored, there should not be any regulation on them, and nothing should be
demanded which will increase the cost. I asked, “What is the cost of the human being, birds,
animals, trees, environment, etc.” – no answer given.
(GK comments – Telecom people are providing lakhs of jobs but they are also giving cancer
and serious health problems to lakhs of people, birds, animals, trees, etc. They claim that it is
the fastest growing industry but it is also creating fastest growing health problems, and that is
the reason, why health and environment ministries are after them. Telecom people say that
they are providing cheapest services in the world, but they take money from even the poorest
of the people in the country and take Govt. subsidy, and then nearly 40% of the total
collected money is given to foreign vendors. The technology could have been developed and
manufactured in India and then money would have remained in the country and also created
millions of jobs.)
Recommendations
1. Govt. must adopt immediate policy, say from March 28, 2011, to reduce the transmitted
power to maximum 1 to 2W, which will protect health of the people from harmful effects
of cell tower radiation. This may create signal problem to the people living near the edge
of the circle in the beginning, so public announcement must be made that this is being
done to protect health of the people. People must be educated about adverse health effects
of cell phone and cell tower radiations.
2. Once power transmitted is reduced, power amplifiers may not be required at most of the
places and no cooling will be required. This will reduce the energy requirement
substantially, which can be easily managed by renewable energy sources.
3. Once power requirement is reduced, DG will not be required in most of the places. This
will also save diesel subsidy amount of Rs. 1400 crores/year
4. The above measures will reduce carbon footprint thereby generating carbon credits.
5. Self certification/regulation must not be allowed. Govt. must enforce stringent policies to
monitor the radiation level, air pollution level, etc. near the cell towers. Monitoring must
be done by third party and extremely heavy penalty must be handed out in case of any
violation as it is directly related to the health of the people, birds, animals, trees,
environment, etc.
6. All the people living close to the tower, who have suffered from the high radiation, must
be compensated. It should come under corporate social responsibility.
7. Greater emphasis must be given to R&D to develop better solutions.
8. Indigenous development and Indian manufacturers must be given the preference.
9. Govt. must make a rule that atleast 90% of the telecom related products must be
manufactured in India, this will help create millions of jobs in India and also most of the
money will remain within the country.
(Prof. Girish Kumar)
P.S.- GK comments in the above text are my comments, which I would have liked to make
but could not, and are not part of open house
I appreciated this article. I among many who have serious doubts about CSR. There are some authors who believe the term is so undefinable to be useless.
It may be used to green the company’s issue when there is no real justification. That’s where my suspicion lies. The company takes something it is already doing it, gives it an environmental angle and then explains to the world in best corporate flack manner, how they “give back.”
It’s just taking under a PR screen.
James Pilant
Thanks! to Kilnen’s Thought!
So what is CSR? It basically means giving back to society, through environment or social projects. I have been research CSR recently and have surprise by the amount of businesses that claim to carry out this process. From KLM producing fuel-efficient winglets to co-operative fair trade. Everyone and their dog seems to be interested. However, it always appears to benefit the company first and society second. I mean, what a surprise that KLM’s wing … Read More
Exactly right. The people of Fukushima were told those plants were perfectly safe. They were told they were the way to economic success. They were told that the power plants would bring prosperity and jobs for decades.
And what they got was a nuclear dead zone. Most will never be able to return to their homes.
They were lied to. If the nuclear industry were honest and stopped telling us how many chest x-rays their latest disaster was equivalent to, we might have an idea of how much nuclear power we want to use and where. But they are not. They are wretched lying propagandists, readily assisted by hack writers beguiled by the opportunity of turning the nuclear industry’s talking points into quick gotcha articles to persecute the tree huggers.
It gets old after a while. You get tired of seeing the same old talking points over and over again while new radiation plagues the earth.
James Pilant
InfoWars The Yomiuri Shimbun April 10, 2011 Fukushima Gov. Yuhei Sato has expressed anger at the central government and Tokyo Electric Power Co., saying both “betrayed” the people of Fukushima Prefecture with repeated assurances about the safety of nuclear power plants. “We feel we were betrayed [by the central government and TEPCO,” Sato said during an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun on Thursday, nearly a month after the March 11 earthquake a … Read More
This guy is measuring his radiation and deciding on the level of risk he finds acceptable. This is from someone on the ground in the area. I’m sure if you read Japanese, you can find hundreds, probably thousands of blogs from the area, but I only speak English. I imagine more than a few of you are in the same situation.
So, get a view from near the disaster from an independent soul with his own ideas.
James Pilant
I have often had nappa cabbage and lettuce harvested in Ibaraki prefecture, which is just next to Fukushima prefecture, in the last few weeks. Some of my friends knew this and they told me I was a reckless guy. I don’t care about that. They are quite cheap now, hehe. I’m not a vegetarian but I eat a lot of veges because I love them. If there’s no meat or fish for a couple of days, it’s no problem to me. If, however, there’s no veges in one meal, … Read More
I’m more convinced of the toughness and resilience of humanity than this author. Nevertheless he has an interesting point of view. It is always possible to look at humans at the top of the food chain or at the very bottom. It’s a matter of perspective.
Is the glass half empty or half full? (Is that the champion cliche or what?)
James Pilant
Having no access to outside world for a month due to the mandatory military training, it’s joyous to be back in front of my laptop and catch up what I’ve missed. Facebook, Gmail and ESPN are my natural stops every morning, but I surfed away from those sites rather quickly and sought for articles on Japan Earthquake. It is extremely surreal that I still do not realize to my senses how serious of a tragedy this natural phenomenon has been. As final … Read More
There appear to be regular problems like this at nuclear plants all over the United States. But since they are considered local news, they attract only limited attention. While the difficulties associated with nuclear power are in the news in a major way, we see the small incidents.
Could a regular airing of these continual problems make a person more uncomfortable choosing nuclear power over other choices?
Is the media doing its job of informing the public? Are we being properly informed about these critical issues or shall we look at more critical subjects like Fashion friendly sunglasses for all types of faces? Is that the kind of media we deserve?
James Pilant
Washington State Nuclear Plant Briefly Evacuated (Reuters) – Washington state’s only nuclear power plant briefly evacuated about 25 workers after a small amount of hydrogen sprang from a pipe and ignited in a six-inch (15.5 cm) flash, plant officials said on Friday. The incident at the Columbia Generating Station late on Thursday afternoon resulted in no injuries or equipment damage, they said. Workers are now back. “It was like a little flash, l … Read More
The foreclosure crisis continues. This is a nice piece of writing highlighted by intelligent illustration. The author has my admiration.
Often, when we have been dealing with a crisis for a long time, we want it to end, to find closure. I promise you my delight in another days’ fukushima crisis is very small. I want that thing to be fixed and stop hurting people every single day. I want to write about other stuff but the nuclear industry has conspired to create a disaster that will run at least ten years. So, I continue writing about it.
I am more than a little afraid this one, the foreclosure crisis, may come to a sudden end. Let me tell you why. There is talk of a settlement of 20 billion dollars by the states attorney generals. Many of our more loathsome congressman are complaining that this is too punitive. It takes a very comfortable distance from the situation and the facts to find compassion for the financial industry. They have in many cases either directly committed crimes, assisted in illegal activity or parsed the law so closely as to send shivers up the spine of the most casual moralist.
Well, these financial industry zealots are likely to ride like some debauched cavalry to the assistance of these banks. They intend to cut the amount and it is quite likely they will gut any proposals to rein in the illegal practices of foreclosure industry. The reform they will aim at with great intensity will be the one ending the abuses of foreclosing without a proper title. Allowing the banks to foreclose with a paper trail will greatly cheapen their costs and make it extremely difficult to police the industry.
So, I want stretched out court battles to reveal to millions of Americans how cruel and unfair this process has been. I want charges filed for false affidavits, penalties assessed for failing to pay state and county fees, and I want justice for those who have suffered fraud during the housing bubble.
James Pilant
A Frightening Satellite Tour Of America’s Foreclosure Wastelands From Business Insider Gus Lubin | Jan. 30, 2011, 3:42 PM | 693,239 RealtyTrac is out with the total foreclosure numbers for 2010. On the whole things are getting worse. 72 percent of major metro areas saw an increase in foreclosure volume. Although some of the worst hit areas in Nevada, California and Florida improved from 2009, the foreclosure rate in these areas remains shockingly … Read More
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