TMI’s future, federal policy in spotlight on Smart Talk program

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As director of journalism, I work on things like newsroom strategy, culture, ethics, and training; I work with reporters (mainly climate reporter Rachel McDevitt) on stories; and I'm deeply involved with our community engagement efforts and collaborations with other news organizations.

My roots in journalism go back to growing up outside Washington, D.C., reading Woodward and Bernstein in my hometown paper, and being drawn to the ideals of freedom of the press and holding the powerful to account. I also idolized the Post’s sports columnists, and in fact was a sports reporter/editor before I moved to news.

I followed journalism’s call to the University of Missouri, then to jobs in Virginia and Maryland before landing in Pennsylvania, and I’ve lived near Gettysburg for more than two decades. Living in rural Pa. helps inform my work as a journalist and my belief that listening is one of the most important things we can do.

If I’m not doing journalism stuff, I may be traveling, bird-watching, or both.

Jeff Fusco / Getty Images

Three Mile Island

January 22, 2018 | 7:12 AM

Jeff Fusco / Getty Images

Three Mile Island

If you missed it last week, here’s a snippet from WITF’s Smart Talk program on the future of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, and how that could be affected by a recent decision by federal regulators to reject a Trump Administration plan that would have propped up the coal and nuclear industries.

Republican state Sen. Ryan Aument said the administration’s plan addressed real issues, including the issue of whether power plants should have a 90-day supply of power on-site. Only coal and nuclear plants can do that.

“I’ve been very supportive of the natural gas industry in Pennsylvania during the time that I’ve been in the General Assembly,” Aument said. “But I’m not rooting for the success of one industry over the other.”

It “kind of sounds that way,” Smart Talk host Scott LaMar said.

“I haven’t,” Aument responded. “But I’m not rooting for the failure … of the nuclear energy industry. ”

Later in the program, LaMar welcomed Carl Marrara, vice president of government affairs for the Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association, and a member of Citizens Against Nuclear Bailouts Coalition, who recalled Aument’s comments about pitting one industry against another.

The manufacturing association, he said, is “not rooting against a nuclear industry or a specific nuclear plant to fail in any way. We are for all energy. We are for energy infrastructure. We spend a lot of our time advocating on behalf of pro production, pro energy. We are in favor of every megawatt hour, every rivet of infrastructure that can bolster Pennsylvania’s energy economy, because what that means for manufacturers is competitiveness.”

Go here to listen to the whole program.