Top Tweets for #STOPTHESCAM

California's $2.2 billion solar plant is shutting down. Once hailed as a breakthrough, the Ivanpah Solar Facility in the Mojave Desert is now a case study in failed technology and environmental risk. Built with $1.6 billion in federal loans in 2014, the plant was hailed as a symbol of America's clean energy future. It used 173,000 mirrors to focus sunlight onto three massive towers heating fluid to drive steam turbines. Complicated. Expensive. And it never delivered on its promise. After just 11 years, the technology is now obsolete. On top of that, the facility became notorious for its environmental toll, with estimates of at least 6,000 birds incinerated each year by the concentrated beams. The promise was affordable, reliable, green power. The reality was high costs, technical failures and ecological damage.

The public do not want either the current creditors to have control or the previous investors, who happily profited from the pollution and exploitation. We want nationalisation. Not special administration, nationalisation. “Don’t allow a takeover of Thames Water,” says spurned bidder https://t.co/ip59Ep4sn3

300,000 people are calling for the renationalisation of the water industry. Thames Water, which serves 16 million customers, is reportedly close to a deal that would spare it from new fines until 2030 — despite being handed a record £122.7m penalty last year for sewage spills and illegal dividend payments to investors. Under the proposed arrangement, financial penalties would be replaced with commitments to fix the problems that caused them. Performance targets on pollution and leaks are also being renegotiated. The offer has been put forward by creditors who are hoping to save the struggling utility from being temporarily renationalised. At the same time, customers face a 37% rise in their bills by 2030. Ed Acteson, who started the petition to renationalise the water industry, says: "Greedy, profiteering companies are exploiting this essential natural resource to generate record profits — money that should instead be reinvested in maintaining and upgrading our infrastructure to modern standards." Petition link 👉 https://t.co/K9fSeU5Kui