Fairfax, VA: Ralph Nader Sunday, Oct 12 at George Mason University
News Advisory
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Ryan Mehta, 408-348-0681, rmehta@votenader.org
NADER TO HOLD PRESS CONFERENCE AND RALLY SUNDAY, OCT. 12 AT GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY IN VIRGINIA
WHO: Ralph Nader
WHAT: Press Conference and Rally
WHEN: Sunday, October 12 at 5 and 5:30 p.m., respectively
WHERE: News conference in VIP II, Rally in Ballroom, George Mason University, 10423 Rivanna River Way, Fairfax, VA 22030
On
Sunday, October 12 at 5 p.m. Ralph Nader will hold a press conference
in the VIP II room of the Student Union II, followed by a 5:30 p.m.
rally in the Ballroom at George Mason University, 10423 Rivanna River
Way, Fairfax, VA 22030
Nader/Gonzalez stands with the local
Virginian activists opposing Dominion Virginia Power’s construction of
a new coal-fired power plant outside St. Paul, Virginia. Last month,
police arrested 11 opponents of the plant outside the energy company’s
offices where dozens of local demonstrators, including a teacher,
nurse, retired coal miner and a Vietnam veteran dutifully spoke out
against the dirty and dangerous proposition threatening the community.
65,000 Americans die each year from air pollution and 100,000 Americans
die from occupational toxic exposures and cruel environmental racism
where low-income Americans bear the brunt of dangerous corporate
development. Nader/Gonzalez warns that construction of these wasteful
and hazardous coal plants will wreak further havoc on health and the
environment, especially in a region of Virginia with already high rates
of asthma.
Dominion Virginia Power has in large part been
able to secure approval for the power plant, as well as the
controversial new power lines set to be erected 65-miles across
Virginia which Nader/Gonzalez opposes, because of the state’s weak
regulatory commission. The State Corporate Commission, whose intended
purpose is to regulate industry and ensure corporate accountability,
has been thoroughly disassembled over the past decade by the state’s
general assembly at the behest of Dominion through the company’s
powerful lobby. The consequences of this deregulation has helped
Dominion keep a monopoly over the industry enabling the company to
artificially inflate energy prices. Nader/Gonzalez calls on the
Virginia legislature to re-install appropriate authority to the
regulatory commission to protect Virginians from menacing corporations
like Dominion.
Mr. Nader will also address these and many
other critical issues the major party candidates have taken "off the
table" that the Nader/Gonzalez Campaign has put on the table, including:
- a plan to reverse the $700 billion bailout and protect homeowners;
- a comprehensive, negotiated military and corporate withdrawal date from Iraq;
- a single-payer, private delivery, free-choice public health insurance system for all;
- a living wage and repeal of the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act;
- a no-nuke, solar-based energy policy supported by renewable, sustainable, energy-efficient sources;
- a carbon tax to deter global warming;
-
an end to the corporate welfare and corporate crime that has resulted
in millions losing pensions, savings and jobs and squandered tax
dollars; and,
- more direct democracy reflecting the preamble to our
constitution which starts with "we the people," and not "we the
corporations."
About Ralph Nader
Attorney, author, and
consumer advocate Ralph Nader has been named by Time Magazine one of
the "100 Most Influential Americans in the 20th Century." For more than
four decades he has exposed problems and organized millions of citizens
into more than 100 public interest groups advocating solutions. He led
the movement to establish the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the
Consumer Product Safety Commission, and was instrumental in enacting
the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Motor Vehicle Safety Act, the Freedom
of Information Act (FOIA) and countless other pieces of important
consumer legislation. Because of Ralph Nader we drive safer cars, eat
healthier food, breathe better air, drink cleaner water, and work in
safer environments. Nader graduated from Princeton University and
received an LL.B from Harvard Law School.
About the Nader/Gonzalez Campaign
According
to a CNN-Opinion Research Corp. poll conducted from July 27-29, Ralph
Nader is at 6 percent nationally (equivalent to about 10 million
eligible voters), higher than his highest major poll numbers during the
same time period in 2000 and approaching the 10 percent threshold
required for eligibility to participate in "America’s Presidential
Debate in New Orleans," a Google-sponsored event scheduled for
September 18. In the key swing state of Michigan — whose Democratic
voters were partially disenfranchised by the Democratic National
Committee — an EPIC-MRA poll found Nader at 8-10 percent.
For more information on the Nader/Gonzalez campaign, visit: votenader.org.
