Pro-ATV Tofte board throws hissy fit

Confronted with safety concerns cited by Cook County engineer Shae Kosmalski about connecting Highway 61 and the "600 Road" where ATV trails begin via the Sawbill Trail, Tofte township chair Paul James said that ordinances have "driven people out of the woods." "What are kids supposed to do? Stay home and watch TV?" (quotes from the Cook County Star). James was backed up by Supervisors DC Olsen and Tom Muntean.
Might True respectfully suggest that kids could hike, canoe, kayak, swim, backpack, camp out, bird watch, or in any of a thousand other ways enjoy the North Country woods without the devastation caused by ATVs, not to mention the egregious waste of gas and concomitant carbon emissions that hasten the day of reckoning when global warming destroys life as we know it on the planet? This could happen in our lifetime.
True uses gas only sparingly, only for basic necessities of life. Why the hell should spoiled kids squander gas for their destructive ATVs, and in the process erode yet more of our dwindling soils?
The "recreational" use of gas-guzzling and habitat-destroying ATVs should be going the way of the horse-and-buggy if we are to survive the 21st century.

Let them eat Triscuits

Dear readers,
Who will speak for those of us devastated by rampant inflation of food, gas, heat and electricity? Hmm, looks like it is up to little old me...
What is the deal here in Cook County? While the busy-ness elected officials continue to seek new sales taxes-a regressive burden on the poor-look out! Prices are rising at alarming rates.
Maybe not so surprising, since the world we know is also disintegrating (carbon emissions, melting Arctic permafrost releasing methane that humans can't breathe...)
Back to the point: True tries to eat right while respecting sustainable agriculture. For True, this does not mean buying organic fruits and vegetables! Ya ya it is the right thing to do BUT...
True is broke. So far not reduced to seeking macaroni from the food shelf, but no way being able to afford organic produce. Is that a sin?
There's a disconnect here. The rich can afford to buy organic, but I can't. I still owe big bucks for my winter fuel bills. My well water line doesn't work.
And yet I get guilt-tripped by the organic PC club?
Hello, folks. I used to have Triscuits and (Wisconsin, no hormones) cheese for dinner. Ya? When you are old and creaky maybe this will look good to you too.
Somehow I manage to buy fairly healthy food for myself and my beloved companion animals.
But, I won't be buying any more Triscuits, my former fave, 100 percent whole wheat with no trans fats.
Last week the price of a box was $3.19 for 9.5 ounces (a reach, by the pound this would buy some very fancy cheese at the coop); this week it is $4.00....
Like lots of poor folks, I can still get fat on the cheap stuff: white bread, pasta, potatoes, and corn chips. Nobody in Cook County need go without Kraft Dinner! Yum yum, everybody loves comfort food...
But what to do to make a difference in this world where people in Burma starve without even empty calories? True can't afford to make a difference!

Oberstar Speaks on "Harsh Realities" of Record Diesel Prices

STATEMENT OF
THE HONORABLE JAMES L. OBERSTAR
SUBCOMMITTEE ON HIGHWAYS AND TRANSIT
HEARING ON “RISING DIESEL FUEL COSTS IN THE TRUCKING INDUSTRY”
MAY 6, 2008

I am pleased that the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit is holding this important hearing today to shed light on the reasons behind ever-escalating prices for gasoline and diesel fuel, and the tremendous impact this continues to have on the trucking industry, its drivers, consumers, and our national economy.

The price of both gasoline and diesel are currently at an all-time high. Consumers, who are squeezed by having to pay $3.61 per gallon at the pump, are hit again with escalating costs for food and other basic consumer goods, in part due to the rising costs of getting these goods to market.

The men and women in the trucking industry who bring these goods to market are also facing situations that were unimaginable just a few years ago. The cost of a gallon of diesel fuel has risen 48 percent in the past year; 78 percent in the last three years; and 166 percent since 2003. Every one-cent increase in the price of diesel fuel translates to an annual additional cost of $391 million to the trucking industry. It costs nearly $800 more for a driver to fill a standard tractor-trailer than five years ago.

As hard-working Americans struggle to adjust to the harsh realities of record fuel prices, oil companies continue to report record profits. ExxonMobil, which earned over 25 percent of the $155 billion profit enjoyed by the oil industry in 2007, reported a quarterly profit last week of $10.9 billion dollars – the second biggest quarterly profit in the history of this nation. The record for the largest quarterly profit in U.S. history is held, perhaps not surprisingly, by ExxonMobil.

Without a doubt, the gross imbalance between enriched oil companies and captive consumers must be addressed. Yet some have called for a myopic, short-term “solution” to this complex and pervasive problem by proposing to suspend the Federal gas tax for the summer months.

Leading economists have confirmed that this proposal would provide little relief to consumers while providing another multi-billion dollar windfall profit for the oil companies. This irrational proposal will bring the Highway Trust Fund to the edge of insolvency; will eliminate approximately 300,000 family-wage, highway construction jobs; will cut highway safety funding; and increase the cost of congestion.

The problem of high fuel prices is unrelated to the Federal gas tax. The 18.3-cent gas tax rate was established in 1993, when the average retail price of a gallon of gasoline was $1.05. The Federal gas tax has not changed in the last 15 years, yet the average price of a gallon of gasoline has more than tripled.

High diesel prices have also brought into sharp focus fuel surcharges in the motor carrier industry. Today’s hearing will examine the relationship among motor carriers, brokers, shippers, and independent drivers with respect to setting and collecting fuel surcharges. Currently, fuel surcharges are left to the discretion of an individual motor carrier or broker arranging for transportation, with few disclosure requirements and without any government oversight.

This lack of transparency affects independent owner-operators and drivers who often do not control if, and what amount, a broker or motor carrier charges a shipper for the rising cost of fuel. This makes it very difficult for drivers to verify whether the fuel surcharge is being passed through. When it is not, drivers are nonetheless the ones stuck paying the higher price at the pump.

I commend Chairman DeFazio for holding this hearing, and for his strong leadership on this important issue.

Oberstar Announces Energy Assistance Funds for Minnesota

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Washington DC – Minnesota seniors and low-income families will receive additional assistance to help pay their heating bills. Congressman Jim Oberstar announced today that Minnesota will receive nearly $20 million in emergency funding for heating assistance programs. The funding is Minnesota’s share of a $450 million disbursement of emergency funding from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).

“Skyrocketing crude oil prices are driving the cost of heating oil and natural gas to an all-time high. We need to act quickly to make sure that seniors and low-income families can get the help they need,” said Oberstar.

Oberstar has worked for an increase in LIHEAP funding in his role as the chair of the Northeast Midwest Coalition, a bipartisan group of lawmakers who are concerned about legislative issues that impact the northeast and midwest states. The coalition’s efforts led to an increase in the emergency LIHEAP account in the current budget

Between 2003 and 2007, the number of households receiving LIHEAP assistance increased by 26 percent from 4.6 million to about 5.8 million or about 15.6 percent of the eligible population. During this same period, the federal appropriation increased by only 10 percent with the resulting average grant declining from $349 to $305.

The Energy Information Administration estimates that households can expect to pay between 10 to 22 percent more for heating fuels than during the 2006-2007 winter, and many of these families are carrying energy debt from previous years.

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Scrubbing the air

True hates ugly, smelly, polluting and global-warming coal plants. Minnesota Power's Tac Harbor project was reviewed in this Strib story. Two points of interest:
One, "air shed." This means the area covered by polluting toxic emissions from Tac Harbor and it covers all of Cook County including our national and state forests. The glowing PowerPoint presentations by MP don't really say much about this damage. They are basically trying to keep their filthy coal plant going far into the future by posing as cutting edge clean.
Two, "scrubbing" to reduce mercury and other toxic emissions has ZERO effect on global warming. Read the story below.
True

Scrubbing the air

Japan nuke plant leak worse than thought - Yahoo! News

Here's a late-breaking story that proves my point. "Worse than thought," Ha! Worse than admitted is more to the point.

Japan nuke plant leak worse than thought - Yahoo! News

Ice Nine

The so-called "clean" nuclear energy is a fraud perpetrated by the powerful energy industry and their well-paid Bushco apologists. The truth has been, would you believe, concealed from the public consistently over many years.

Nuclear power is the closest we have yet come to Ice Nine, that destroyer of life posited by dear Kurt Vonnegut: adding a molecule to ice enabled it to bond to every molecule of water, and guess what? Ice Nine took over everything.

True will be hammering the horrors and dangers of nuclear power home early and often from now on.

Beginning with this news story today:


Nuclear Power No Panacea, Critics Say - CommonDreams.org