Wednesday, March 31, 2010
North Carolina getting more passenger trains
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
When big employers move out, small towns struggle to pay the bill for sewage treatment
Small towns across the country are struggling to pay for federally required upgrades to sewage-treatment facilities because major employers have left town. In Buffalo, Mo., residents approved a $3.4 billion bond issue two years ago to comply with a federal order to upgrade the city's treatment plant with the expectation that its largest employer and biggest water user, Petit Jean Poultry, would pay back the bulk of the loan. But the factory shut down in October 2008, months before the upgrade was completed, leaving the community with the bulk of the bill and 500 fewer jobs to help pay it back, Peter Urban reports for Greenwire in The New York Times.
Many such towns are in similar binds; the cost of a wastewater treatment system varies little with the amount of water used, because the major costs are plant and personnel. "It costs as much, really, to treat a smaller amount as it does to treat a larger capacity," said Barbara Jones, interim city manager in Mount Airy, N.C., which in the last two years has increased water and sewer rates by more than a third and frozen capital improvements to make up lost revenues from a series of textile factory closings. "So much of it is fixed costs, including the bonds that were taken out just a few years prior to increase capacity."
Chris Hornback, senior director of regulatory affairs for the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, told Urban that factory closings typically hit smaller communities harder; in larger ones, more users can make up for lost revenue more easily. "Larger communities can spread the cost of these losses out during economic downswings; small communities are more likely to struggle," Hornback said. Federal support for local water systems has dropped dramatically since the 1980s, leading groups like NACWA to blast Congress for "authorizing a 'costly and increasing wave of mandates' while essentially abandoning any effort to provide 'meaningful financial assistance' to local governments," Urban writes. (Read more)
Many such towns are in similar binds; the cost of a wastewater treatment system varies little with the amount of water used, because the major costs are plant and personnel. "It costs as much, really, to treat a smaller amount as it does to treat a larger capacity," said Barbara Jones, interim city manager in Mount Airy, N.C., which in the last two years has increased water and sewer rates by more than a third and frozen capital improvements to make up lost revenues from a series of textile factory closings. "So much of it is fixed costs, including the bonds that were taken out just a few years prior to increase capacity."
Chris Hornback, senior director of regulatory affairs for the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, told Urban that factory closings typically hit smaller communities harder; in larger ones, more users can make up for lost revenue more easily. "Larger communities can spread the cost of these losses out during economic downswings; small communities are more likely to struggle," Hornback said. Federal support for local water systems has dropped dramatically since the 1980s, leading groups like NACWA to blast Congress for "authorizing a 'costly and increasing wave of mandates' while essentially abandoning any effort to provide 'meaningful financial assistance' to local governments," Urban writes. (Read more)
Partnership hopes to improve and expand Appalachian forests and fight climate change
A new carbon-offset program may help replenish Appalachian forests while helping to fight global climate change. The Mountain Association for Community Economic Development in Kentucky, Rural Action in Ohio and Appalachian Sustainable Development in Virginia have joined to create the Appalachian Carbon Partnership, says a news release from the groups. The program pairs individuals, families, groups and businesses with family forest owners who are practicing sustainable forest management and storing additional carbon in their forests.
The project's Web site provides a calculator for interested parties to estimate their greenhouse gas emissions from travel, home energy use, and other everyday activities. Participants can then purchase carbon offsets from a corresponding family forest to become carbon neutral. The Web site estimates the average American family can reach that goal for $285 a year. Participating landowners are required to develop a management plan in consultation with a certified forester or state forester that will qualify them for forest certification through the international Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification. They must maintain their forest certification for a minimum of 15 years from the date of enrollment. Landowners will also be required to report the species and diameter of any trees harvested or lost yearly.
"We created the Appalachian Carbon Partnership to promote sustainable forest management," Scott Shouse, the program's manager, said in a release. "We are tapping into the growing market for carbon offsets to provide the economic help family forest owners in Central Appalachia need to implement sustainable management on their land. The money from the offsets goes directly to family forest owners who have made long-term commitments to practice sustainable forest management, which will benefit families and forests for generations to come."
The project's Web site provides a calculator for interested parties to estimate their greenhouse gas emissions from travel, home energy use, and other everyday activities. Participants can then purchase carbon offsets from a corresponding family forest to become carbon neutral. The Web site estimates the average American family can reach that goal for $285 a year. Participating landowners are required to develop a management plan in consultation with a certified forester or state forester that will qualify them for forest certification through the international Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification. They must maintain their forest certification for a minimum of 15 years from the date of enrollment. Landowners will also be required to report the species and diameter of any trees harvested or lost yearly.
"We created the Appalachian Carbon Partnership to promote sustainable forest management," Scott Shouse, the program's manager, said in a release. "We are tapping into the growing market for carbon offsets to provide the economic help family forest owners in Central Appalachia need to implement sustainable management on their land. The money from the offsets goes directly to family forest owners who have made long-term commitments to practice sustainable forest management, which will benefit families and forests for generations to come."
Time to clear up recent news reports about the role of animal agriculture in climate change
Reporting on climate science has been anything but smooth, and evidence suggests some news media have misreported the relationship between animal agriculture and global warming. Since 2006, many outlets have cited a "United Nations study which found that livestock production is responsible for about 18 percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions—a larger share than comes from all planes, trains, and automobiles combined," Curtis Brainard writes for Columbia Journalism Review. That study was back in the news last week when Dr. Frank Mitloehner, an animal scientist at the University of California at Davis, undermined those claims at an American Chemical Society meeting.
The report, "Livestock’s Long Shadow," calculated its impact over the entire life cycle, including "emissions from things like fertilizer production and land-use change in addition to those from cow burps and manure," Brainard writes. The researchers didn't do likewise for transportation but compared the two. Now one of the original study's authors says Mitloehner is correct. "I must say honestly that he has a point – we factored in everything for meat emissions, and we didn’t do the same thing with transport, we just used the figure from the [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change]," UN Food and Agriculture Organization livestock-policy officer Pierre Gerber told the BBC.
So, animal agricultuire's role was overstated. But some news outlets have incorrectly understood Mitloehener to have dismissed the whole study, and have "left the impression that he believes there is no link whatsoever between livestock production and warming," Brainard reports, citing examples. So where is the true middle? "Mitloehner does not think curtailing livestock production would make no dent in warming," Brainard writes. "He just thinks it would be an insignificant dent and that there are far more effective ways to reduce emissions." (Read more)
Meanwhile, a House of Commons investigation has found "no evidence to support charges that the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit or its director, Phil Jones, had tampered with data or perverted the peer review process to exaggerate the threat of global warming," MSNBC reports, with help from The Associated Press and Reuters. (Read more)
The report, "Livestock’s Long Shadow," calculated its impact over the entire life cycle, including "emissions from things like fertilizer production and land-use change in addition to those from cow burps and manure," Brainard writes. The researchers didn't do likewise for transportation but compared the two. Now one of the original study's authors says Mitloehner is correct. "I must say honestly that he has a point – we factored in everything for meat emissions, and we didn’t do the same thing with transport, we just used the figure from the [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change]," UN Food and Agriculture Organization livestock-policy officer Pierre Gerber told the BBC.
So, animal agricultuire's role was overstated. But some news outlets have incorrectly understood Mitloehener to have dismissed the whole study, and have "left the impression that he believes there is no link whatsoever between livestock production and warming," Brainard reports, citing examples. So where is the true middle? "Mitloehner does not think curtailing livestock production would make no dent in warming," Brainard writes. "He just thinks it would be an insignificant dent and that there are far more effective ways to reduce emissions." (Read more)
Meanwhile, a House of Commons investigation has found "no evidence to support charges that the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit or its director, Phil Jones, had tampered with data or perverted the peer review process to exaggerate the threat of global warming," MSNBC reports, with help from The Associated Press and Reuters. (Read more)
Coal states try to block EPA on greenhouse gases
As the Environmental Protection Agency moves to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions, several states are trying to block those efforts. At least 25 legislators in 17 states have introduced measures aimed at halting or limiting EPA's authority to regulate greenhouse gases, Robin Bravender of Environment & Energy Daily reports. Five of the bills came from Democrats, and at least seven such measures have been adopted. Legislators in Illinois, Alabama, Kansas, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah have "passed measures encouraging Congress to step in and block EPA climate rules or for the agency to halt its regulatory plans," Bravender writes, and lawmakers in Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Missouri, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Washington and West Virginia are considering similar resolutions.
"I believe that Congress should adopt legislation if we're going to regulate greenhouse gases from stationary sources," Illinois state Rep. Dan Reitz, a Democrat and former coal miner whose bill passed the House, told Bravender. "We should be able to do that within the context of a bill and not do it within the regulatory measures that are out there right now."
The other side: "Under the Clean Air Act, they've been given the right to do that," Democratic Rep. Elaine Nekritz, who filed a motion to reconsider Reitz' resolution after it passed, told Bravender. "States don't need to upset all that pre-existing law." Glen Andersen, a program principal at the National Conference of State Legislatures, points out that states that rely heavily on coal are more likely to adopt resolutions to block EPA. "I think it's partially just states seeing the potential costs based on what their [fuel] mix is," he told Bravender. E&E also includes a breakdown of each of the 25 bills before state legislatures. (Read more, subscription required)
"I believe that Congress should adopt legislation if we're going to regulate greenhouse gases from stationary sources," Illinois state Rep. Dan Reitz, a Democrat and former coal miner whose bill passed the House, told Bravender. "We should be able to do that within the context of a bill and not do it within the regulatory measures that are out there right now."
The other side: "Under the Clean Air Act, they've been given the right to do that," Democratic Rep. Elaine Nekritz, who filed a motion to reconsider Reitz' resolution after it passed, told Bravender. "States don't need to upset all that pre-existing law." Glen Andersen, a program principal at the National Conference of State Legislatures, points out that states that rely heavily on coal are more likely to adopt resolutions to block EPA. "I think it's partially just states seeing the potential costs based on what their [fuel] mix is," he told Bravender. E&E also includes a breakdown of each of the 25 bills before state legislatures. (Read more, subscription required)
Once upon a time there was a perfect bull . . .
The bull was exceptional and becoming much sought-after for his semen, but "one warm October morning in 2007" he was "inert as a lump of clay. The bull could not get up. Donnell bent over to find that its right rear leg had been mangled, most likely in a fight with another bull, a battle for turf or just a boyish tussle for fun. Revelation was crippled, and a crippled bull is worthless. A crippled bull produces less and weaker sperm. A crippled bull is sent straight to the packinghouse."
Well, not right away. Not this bull. "Revelation was like Barbaro, the racehorse. If ever there was an animal worth going the extra mile for, it's Revelation." So Brown and his partners tried to save the animal, but ultimately failed, and he became steak and hamburger. Laskas tells Revelation's saga in detail from his care, his slaughter and his almost-cloning to the cowboys and communities involved along the way. Read the story.
'Pic' Firmin, a small-town editor who advocated civil rights in Mississippi during the 1960s, dies
From 1966 to 1975, Firmin was managing editor of The Delta Democrat Times in Greenville, "one of the few Mississippi papers that reported intolerance and wrote editorials urging change," The Associated Press reports. The paper was owned by Hodding Carter Jr., whose son Hodding Carter III told AP that Firmin "cared passionately about bringing his own region into line with the principles that created the country, and the moral teachings of all religions central to America. He followed my father's tradition in that respect: to speak loudly and carry a big stick."
In 1976, Firmin became editor of The Sun and The Daily Herald in Biloxi and then executive editor of the merged Sun Herald. Before he retired in 1991, the American Society of Newspaper Editors named the paper one of the 10 best small dailies. "I can't think of a better journalist who has a lower profile outside of the state in which he lives, when you compare expertise and accomplishments," Will Norton, dean of the University of Mississippi's Meek School of Journalism, who worked with Firmin in Greenville, told AP. (Read more)
Dairy bubble(s) of another kind raise a stink in east-central Indiana
UPDATE, April 2: The state has given the farm permission to release the gas as long as it uses a vale or valves to control the release, Seth Slabaugh of The Star Press in Muncie reports.
Monday, March 29, 2010
For more than 40 years, former nun from New York has helped communities in Appalachia
Caroline Kennedy, who worked on a 1973 video project with Cirillo in Tennessee's narrow Clearfork Valley, east of Interstate 75 and just south of the Kentucky border, told Vines simply, "She's a saint." We agree, and no short blog item can do justice to the work she has done. Read the story. (News-Sentinel photo by Amy Smotherman Burgess)
Skepticism of government limits response to census in rural Texas
"Getting rural Texans to mail back their census forms is much tougher compared with their urban counterparts," reports Eric Aasen of The Dallas Morning News. Major urban and suburban counties have response rates around 65 percent, "while rural counties often had response rates below 55 percent," and some around 40 percent.
"Residents in the country say they’re skeptical of government," Aasen reports. "They either have no interest in filling out the forms or are answering just some of the census questions. Others in rural areas are simply hard to find. And residents near the Mexican border face language barriers or are afraid of divulging information."
The Census Bureau Web site says Texas is one of the least responsive states so far, with only 27 percent of census forms mailed back as of today. The national figure was 34 percent. (Read more) To track your community's response rate through a page on the site, click here.
"Residents in the country say they’re skeptical of government," Aasen reports. "They either have no interest in filling out the forms or are answering just some of the census questions. Others in rural areas are simply hard to find. And residents near the Mexican border face language barriers or are afraid of divulging information."
The Census Bureau Web site says Texas is one of the least responsive states so far, with only 27 percent of census forms mailed back as of today. The national figure was 34 percent. (Read more) To track your community's response rate through a page on the site, click here.
Lack of abbatoirs strains local-food movement
"It’s pretty clear there needs to be attention paid to this," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told Zezima. "Particularly in the Northeast, where there is indeed a backlog and lengthy wait for slaughter facilities." Vilsack's Department of Agriculture reports the number of slaughterhouses nationwide dropped from 1,211 in 1992 to 809 in 2008 while the number of small farmers has increased by 108,000 in the past five years. Brian Moyer, director of the nonprofit farm advocacy group Rural Vermont, described the problem to Zezima as an hourglass. "At the top of the hourglass we’ve got the farmers," he said. "The bottom part is consumers, and in the middle, what’s straining those grains of sand, is the infrastructure that’s lacking."
The Agriculture Department is encouraging farmers to band together to form local cooperatives or mobile slaughterhouses, and is financing some mobile units and helping build a regional facility near the Quad Cities of Illinois and Iowa, Zezima reports. "The mobile units have been popular for poultry, and many farmers are trying to replicate the system with larger animals," Zezima writes. Some local opposition exists to the location of abbatoirs. "We’re not against slaughterhouses," Vince Galluccio, who helped organize successful opposition to a proposed slaughterhouse in Woodstock, Vt., told Zezima. "But you wouldn’t open up a discotheque next to a church." (Read more)
Tennessee, Delaware win first Race to the Top
Just two of 15 finalists, Tennessee and Delaware, won funding from the Department of Education's Race to the Top program today. "By announcing only two winners in the first round, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan held to his repeated vow that only a tiny number of states with extremely bold plans would receive money in the competition, which aims to promote educational innovation by rewarding a few states for exemplary progress in areas President Obama considers crucial to education reform," Sam Dillon of The New York Times reports.
UPDATE, March 30: The two states won because of strong support from local districts and teachers' unions, Michele McNeil of Education Week reports. But in another post, she notes what her colleague Alyson Klein pointed out to her: "Tennessee and Delaware just happen to be the home states of two powerful, Republican lawmakers the Obama administration is trying to court in its bipartisan push to renew the Elementary and Secondary Education Act: Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del. Both are the ranking minority members in the subcommittees in their respective chambers dealing with K-12 policy, and both are considered leading moderate voices on education who have worked well with Democrats in the past."
The news surprised Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen. "We put in for half a billion dollars with no expectations whatsoever of getting all that money," he said. "We got it all." Jennifer Brooks of The Tennessean reports, "The state plans to give half the money to the school districts and use the rest for other programs." Districts will make proposals to the state over the next 90 days. "Tennessee had to commit to raise school standards, to overhaul the way it evaluated teachers and held them responsible for students' performance, and to hold the state responsible for fixing failing schools." (Read more)
Delaware is getting about $100 million. The competition awarded states for a variety of education overhaul initiatives, including improving test standards and quality, developing computerized systems to track student academic progress, improving teacher recruitment and evaluation, turning around failing schools and fostering the growth of charter schools. Several states with large rural populations voiced concerns that they were at a disadvantage in the competition because charter schools didn't or wouldn't work in such areas, the Times notes. (Read more)
UPDATE, March 30: The two states won because of strong support from local districts and teachers' unions, Michele McNeil of Education Week reports. But in another post, she notes what her colleague Alyson Klein pointed out to her: "Tennessee and Delaware just happen to be the home states of two powerful, Republican lawmakers the Obama administration is trying to court in its bipartisan push to renew the Elementary and Secondary Education Act: Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del. Both are the ranking minority members in the subcommittees in their respective chambers dealing with K-12 policy, and both are considered leading moderate voices on education who have worked well with Democrats in the past."
The news surprised Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen. "We put in for half a billion dollars with no expectations whatsoever of getting all that money," he said. "We got it all." Jennifer Brooks of The Tennessean reports, "The state plans to give half the money to the school districts and use the rest for other programs." Districts will make proposals to the state over the next 90 days. "Tennessee had to commit to raise school standards, to overhaul the way it evaluated teachers and held them responsible for students' performance, and to hold the state responsible for fixing failing schools." (Read more)
Delaware is getting about $100 million. The competition awarded states for a variety of education overhaul initiatives, including improving test standards and quality, developing computerized systems to track student academic progress, improving teacher recruitment and evaluation, turning around failing schools and fostering the growth of charter schools. Several states with large rural populations voiced concerns that they were at a disadvantage in the competition because charter schools didn't or wouldn't work in such areas, the Times notes. (Read more)
New coal-fired plants on hold amid impending emissions regulations, competition from gas
Last week's announcement of the cancellation of a Nevada coal-fired power plant in favor of one that will burn natural gas may be the latest example of shrinking demand for coal-fired energy. Nearly two dozen coal plants are scheduled to go online in the next three years, but plans for virtually all new projects have disappeared as electricity demand decreases and Congress considers carbon-dioxide emissions regulation, Mark Peters of Dow Jones Newswires reports. "The Sierra Club says developers haven't broken ground on a new unit in more than a year, and the list of canceled plants continues to grow," Peters writes, with the Blackstone Group L.P.'s Sithe Global Power in Nevada being the latest casualty.
"Last year brought the largest annual addition of coal-fired generation in nearly two decades as projects planned several years ago were finished," Peters writes, but development of additional units faces serious threats from cheap, plentiful gas. In the future, "You're only building one kind of [central station] power plant, and that's natural gas," Kevin Book, managing director of the Washington, D.C., consulting firm Clearview Energy Partners, told Peters.
Many of the coal projects being built were approved before the recession and subsequent drop in electricity demand, which fell 5 percent in the last two years but has begun to recover. Some new plants will replace old ones scheduled for retirement, Peters writes, and other plant closures are expected as the Environmental Protection Agency adopts and enforces stricter rules for mercury, sulfur dioxide and other pollutants. Many are looking to Congress for leadership on the future of coal, Peters writes. Theresa Pugh, director of environmental services for the American Public Power Association, explains, "This is the biggest challenge I have ever seen in any industry." (Read more)
"Last year brought the largest annual addition of coal-fired generation in nearly two decades as projects planned several years ago were finished," Peters writes, but development of additional units faces serious threats from cheap, plentiful gas. In the future, "You're only building one kind of [central station] power plant, and that's natural gas," Kevin Book, managing director of the Washington, D.C., consulting firm Clearview Energy Partners, told Peters.
Many of the coal projects being built were approved before the recession and subsequent drop in electricity demand, which fell 5 percent in the last two years but has begun to recover. Some new plants will replace old ones scheduled for retirement, Peters writes, and other plant closures are expected as the Environmental Protection Agency adopts and enforces stricter rules for mercury, sulfur dioxide and other pollutants. Many are looking to Congress for leadership on the future of coal, Peters writes. Theresa Pugh, director of environmental services for the American Public Power Association, explains, "This is the biggest challenge I have ever seen in any industry." (Read more)
Local opinions mixed after state board approves largest utility-scale wind farm in Ohio
A proposal to build the largest utility-scale wind farm in Ohio has been approved by the Ohio Power Siting Board, but local opinions remain mixed on whether the board included enough protection for the communities affected. The Buckeye Wind Project, proposed by Everpower Wind Holdings Inc., will cross six townships and spread across about 9,000 acres of rural land in Champaign County in western Ohio, Matt Sanctis of the Dayton Daily News reports.
Officials estimate the 50-turbine farm could power as many as 32,000 to 33,000 homes a year. The siting board included several provisions designed to alleviate local concerns, including requirements that Everpower establish an informal process to receive project-related complaints from the public; decommission the facility, and individual turbines, at its own expense; repair all affected roads and bridges after construction and decommissioning; and repair any damage to agricultural land, including field tile. Still, one local group that had protested the farm said it still might file an appeal and seek a second hearing.
Julie Johnson, a member of Union Neighbors United, questioned aspects of the decision, including a provision that only construction and maintenance personnel should receive additional training to recognize potential issues such as protection from ice being thrown from turbine blades. Opponents also fear turbines won't be far enough from homes, Sanctis reports. Supporters of the project voiced relief that construction could finally move ahead, with the local jobs it could possibly bring. (Read more)
Officials estimate the 50-turbine farm could power as many as 32,000 to 33,000 homes a year. The siting board included several provisions designed to alleviate local concerns, including requirements that Everpower establish an informal process to receive project-related complaints from the public; decommission the facility, and individual turbines, at its own expense; repair all affected roads and bridges after construction and decommissioning; and repair any damage to agricultural land, including field tile. Still, one local group that had protested the farm said it still might file an appeal and seek a second hearing.
Julie Johnson, a member of Union Neighbors United, questioned aspects of the decision, including a provision that only construction and maintenance personnel should receive additional training to recognize potential issues such as protection from ice being thrown from turbine blades. Opponents also fear turbines won't be far enough from homes, Sanctis reports. Supporters of the project voiced relief that construction could finally move ahead, with the local jobs it could possibly bring. (Read more)
Towns in Arizona, only state to close a state park so far, look for donations to keep others open
Earlier this month we reported the growing trend of states closing or severely trimming budgets at state parks to fill holes in state budgets. Arizona appears to be the leading state in that trend, but has recently seen an uptick in private donations to keep some of its parks open, Nicole Santa Cruz of the Los Angeles Times reports.Since 2007, the Legislature has reduced park funding by almost 80 percent, closed five of the state's 30 parks and scheduled six more for closure by June. One park, Lost Dutchman State Park in Apache Junction, was temporarily spared when retired airline captain Taylor Sanford Jr. wrote a check for $8,000, the estimated cost of keeping the park open for one month.
While 400 state parks across the country have been scheduled for closure in the last year, Arizona is the only state to actually close any so far. The closures have been a "devastating blow for some rural areas," Santa Cruz writes. Residents of Apache Junction, which city's economic development director describes as "hiking, horses and Harleys," is fighting to keep Lost Duntchman open but faces a $12,000 gap between the money currently raised and the $25,000 needed to keep the park open during the quiet summer months.
Payson Mayor Kenny Evans says partnerships like the one his community forged between individuals, corporations and the Tonto Apache tribe to keep Tonto Natural Bridge State Park open "will become more common as states continue to wrestle with budget shortfalls," Santa Cruz writes, and he said the plan "spells a real sea change in terms of how certain public functions will have to be funded." Bob Burnside, mayor of Camp Verde, which is fighting to keep Fort Verde State Historic Park open, explained that these parks are part of the town's fabric: "Can you imagine being in New York and telling your kids you're going to take them out West to see the cowboys and Indians, and they're not there?" (Read more)
While 400 state parks across the country have been scheduled for closure in the last year, Arizona is the only state to actually close any so far. The closures have been a "devastating blow for some rural areas," Santa Cruz writes. Residents of Apache Junction, which city's economic development director describes as "hiking, horses and Harleys," is fighting to keep Lost Duntchman open but faces a $12,000 gap between the money currently raised and the $25,000 needed to keep the park open during the quiet summer months.
Payson Mayor Kenny Evans says partnerships like the one his community forged between individuals, corporations and the Tonto Apache tribe to keep Tonto Natural Bridge State Park open "will become more common as states continue to wrestle with budget shortfalls," Santa Cruz writes, and he said the plan "spells a real sea change in terms of how certain public functions will have to be funded." Bob Burnside, mayor of Camp Verde, which is fighting to keep Fort Verde State Historic Park open, explained that these parks are part of the town's fabric: "Can you imagine being in New York and telling your kids you're going to take them out West to see the cowboys and Indians, and they're not there?" (Read more)
Md. bill would make census count inmates where they came from, not places where they are held
In a fight that is likely to be repeated in many other states, the Maryland House of Delegates gave a preliminary approval last week to a bill that would prohibit the census from counting prisoners in the counties where they are detained unless they resided there before their imprisonment. The bill is similar to one the Maryland Senate previously approved and "could come to a final vote in the House within days," Andy Rosen reports for MarylandReporter.com. The bills are opposed by rural lawmakers whose districts may be disadvantaged if prisoners housed there are counted elsewhere, because the census is used to redraw legislative districts.
"It’s a blatant attempt to pad urban districts like Baltimore City that lost representation in the last redistricting," House Minority Whip Chris Shank, a Republican whose district houses 8,000 inmates at three correctional facilities near Hagerstown, told Rosen. "Shank proposed an amendment that would have imposed similar restrictions on people living in military barracks and college campuses, but it was defeated by a vote of 45-92," Rosen writes. Bill sponsor Joselyne Pena-Melnyk, a Democrat whose district contains part of the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area and the capital of Annapolis, said the legislation is not designed to affect state funding, and it would only provide a more accurate count of where people live.(Read more)
"It’s a blatant attempt to pad urban districts like Baltimore City that lost representation in the last redistricting," House Minority Whip Chris Shank, a Republican whose district houses 8,000 inmates at three correctional facilities near Hagerstown, told Rosen. "Shank proposed an amendment that would have imposed similar restrictions on people living in military barracks and college campuses, but it was defeated by a vote of 45-92," Rosen writes. Bill sponsor Joselyne Pena-Melnyk, a Democrat whose district contains part of the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area and the capital of Annapolis, said the legislation is not designed to affect state funding, and it would only provide a more accurate count of where people live.(Read more)
Bristol reporter wins another national award for series on natural-gas mess in southwest Virginia
Daniel Gilbert, left, of the Bristol Herald Courier, circulation 33,000, has won another national award for his investigation of the mess Virginia and its natural-gas companies have made of a law and program to develop the state's coalbed methane and pay royalties to those who have a claim on it. Last month he won the first community-journalism prize in the National Journalism Awards; today he won the category for newspapers under 100,000 circulation in the Investigative Reporters and Editors contest."Gilbert tackled a subject that many would find incomprehensible," the judges wrote. "Using extensive open records requests and building his own database, Gilbert not only found a state escrow fund of $25 million that could not be accessed to pay land owners but also gas and oil companies that never paid into the fund. He found reporting errors and redundancies that showed the fund was losing money and he brought it all home with engaging interviews with shortchanged land owners. The series led to the first audit of the decade-old escrow fund, more attention by the department that runs it and $700,000 in back payments by oil and gas companies and pending state legislation to make it easier for people to get paid." For more on the series, click here. For the latest story, here.
The award certificate for local-circulation weekly newspapers went to the Lake Oswego Review, in a suburb of Portland, Ore., for a series of stories revealing that the local police lieutenant had been "forced to leave a job 17 years earlier after he sexually assaulted a woman while on duty; was arrested on charges of assaulting his wife and driving drunk; and that powerful friends saved his career," the judges said.
Finalists in the small-daily circulation category won by Gilbert were Eric Eyre of The Charleston Gazette for revealing how a state official funneled grant money to her son and tried to cover it up; Duaa Eldeib of the Daily Southtown of Chicago for exposing what IRE called "irresponsible and corrupt" spending by a regional school superintendent; and The News-Democrat of Belleville, Ill., for reporting on a state prison; and Melissa Nann Burke of the York (Pa.) Dispatch for her investigation of a local charity that paid a family $2.5 million to run it. The York Daily Record was a finalist for the IRE Freedom of Information Award for its creation on an open-records Web site and related investigations, including one of the same charity.
Some other IRE awards went to journalism with strong rural implications. The highest award, the IRE Medal, went to The New York Times for its "Toxic Waters" series and KHOU-TV's stories on discrimination and corruption in the Texas National Guard.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
States with less generous Medicaid programs face new burden under health-insurance reform law
The new health reform law has caused individuals to celebrate its benefits, but there may be a delayed hangover among officials in states with less generous Medicaid programs, mainly in the South, who will have to find ways to pay part of the bill. "The law may be as much of a burden to some state budgets as it is a boon to uninsured consumers," The New York Times' Michael Luo reports.
In 2014, Medicaid will begin expanding to cover the uninsured. In 2017, states will have to start contributing to the cost and pay 10 percent of it by 2020. The state-by-state burden is indicated by this Times map, which shows what percentage of those who were uninsured in 2007-08 would qualify for Medicaid in 2014.
"States with the largest uninsured populations, like Texas and California, might be considered by its backers the biggest winners to emerge from the law, because so many additional residents will have access to health insurance. But because those states are being required to significantly expand their Medicaid programs, they are precisely the ones that will face the biggest financial strains, in many cases magnified by existing budget shortfalls," Luo writes. "In contrast, states like Massachusetts and Wisconsin, which already have extensive health care safety nets, do not expect to spend much more money, while still taking in billions in federal grants." (Read more)
UPDATE, April 2: The Georgia Budget and Policy Institute says "reform is a great bargain for Georgia," if state officials plan effectively for it.
For more information and resources, see The Rural Blog's Rural Health and Reform page or a similar page on the Web site of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues.
"States with the largest uninsured populations, like Texas and California, might be considered by its backers the biggest winners to emerge from the law, because so many additional residents will have access to health insurance. But because those states are being required to significantly expand their Medicaid programs, they are precisely the ones that will face the biggest financial strains, in many cases magnified by existing budget shortfalls," Luo writes. "In contrast, states like Massachusetts and Wisconsin, which already have extensive health care safety nets, do not expect to spend much more money, while still taking in billions in federal grants." (Read more)
UPDATE, April 2: The Georgia Budget and Policy Institute says "reform is a great bargain for Georgia," if state officials plan effectively for it.
For more information and resources, see The Rural Blog's Rural Health and Reform page or a similar page on the Web site of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues.
Friday, March 26, 2010
EPA makes first move to formally veto a permit for a mountaintop-removal coal mine
The Envirionmental Protection Agency started a process today that could result in its first formal veto of an Army Corps of Engineers water-pollution permit for a mountaintop-removal coal mine, and it involves one of the largest such mines and one of the nation's largest producers, Arch Coal.
EPA said in a press release that it acted "after extended discussions with the company failed to produce an agreement that would lead to a significant decrease of the environmental and health impacts of the Spruce No. 1 mine," in southern West Virginia's Logan County. Region 3 Administrator Shawn Garvin said environmental damage from the Spruce Mine would be "irreversible." As permitted, the mine would cover 2,278 acres and affect seven and a half miles of streams.
"This EPA notice starts another long process of review and debate — including a mandatory public hearing if EPA finds a significant degree of public interest — before EPA would actually veto the permit," Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston Gazette notes on his Coal Tattoo blog. "Department of Justice lawyers have filed papers asking U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers to stay legal proceedings — in a case where environmental groups challenged the Corps’ approval of the Spruce Mine — pending completion of EPA’s possible veto action." (Read more)
EPA Region 3 says in its "proposed determination" that the agency's process could have three outcomes: denial of any permit, issuance of "a modified permit with more environmentally protective conditions" or an EPA decision that the current Corps permit "is sufficiently protective" after all. (Read more)
EPA said in a press release that it acted "after extended discussions with the company failed to produce an agreement that would lead to a significant decrease of the environmental and health impacts of the Spruce No. 1 mine," in southern West Virginia's Logan County. Region 3 Administrator Shawn Garvin said environmental damage from the Spruce Mine would be "irreversible." As permitted, the mine would cover 2,278 acres and affect seven and a half miles of streams.
"This EPA notice starts another long process of review and debate — including a mandatory public hearing if EPA finds a significant degree of public interest — before EPA would actually veto the permit," Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston Gazette notes on his Coal Tattoo blog. "Department of Justice lawyers have filed papers asking U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers to stay legal proceedings — in a case where environmental groups challenged the Corps’ approval of the Spruce Mine — pending completion of EPA’s possible veto action." (Read more)
EPA Region 3 says in its "proposed determination" that the agency's process could have three outcomes: denial of any permit, issuance of "a modified permit with more environmentally protective conditions" or an EPA decision that the current Corps permit "is sufficiently protective" after all. (Read more)
Rural school consolidation remains hot-button topic as states look to trim budgets
As states cut budgets while trying to keep as much money as possible going to classrooms, school-district consolidation is becoming a more attractive option. Maine mandated consolidation in several districts in 2007, "Vermont is considering a range of proposals that would dramatically reduce its number of school districts and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour has asked a blue-ribbon commission to come up with a plan for reducing the state’s number of school districts by a third," Melissa Maynard of Stateline.org reports.
While savings promised by many consolidation plans are attractive, "Consolidation of anything related to schools is notoriously difficult, and doesn’t always turn out to provide the fiscal windfall states hope for," Maynard writes. Many plans promise the changes will be largely administrative as opposed to actually losing schools, but that hasn't stopped locals from fighting back. "It’s very easy to conflate consolidating school districts with consolidating schools," Jennifer Bradley, a senior research associate at the Brookings Institution, told Maynard. "The subject seems to drop straight to, ‘We're going to lose our football team.’ I don't think anybody particularly rallies around their school district administration building."
Rural-school advocates say administrative consolidation is just the first step toward communities being forced to close their schools. "It's never about district consolidation, even when they say it is; it's always about closing schools," Marty Strange, policy program director at the Rural School and Community Trust, told Maynard. "School district consolidation is just a shoehorn. It's a lot more pleasant to talk about off wasteful administrators than it is to talk about laying off someone's child's teacher." In many small towns where the school district consists of only one school the terms are often synonymous, Maynard writes.
Brookings and the National Governors Association are among those encouraging states to consider some form of consolidation as a way to offset cuts to K-12 education, Maynard reports. "We are in such a financial crisis in this country that we can't afford to worry anymore about some of these considerations that in light of the financial situation appear minor," John Thomasian, director of NGA's Center for Best Practices. "Now that we are in such a clear and long-run fiscal climate of austerity, issues like school district consolidation have to be taken straight on." (Read more)
While savings promised by many consolidation plans are attractive, "Consolidation of anything related to schools is notoriously difficult, and doesn’t always turn out to provide the fiscal windfall states hope for," Maynard writes. Many plans promise the changes will be largely administrative as opposed to actually losing schools, but that hasn't stopped locals from fighting back. "It’s very easy to conflate consolidating school districts with consolidating schools," Jennifer Bradley, a senior research associate at the Brookings Institution, told Maynard. "The subject seems to drop straight to, ‘We're going to lose our football team.’ I don't think anybody particularly rallies around their school district administration building."
Rural-school advocates say administrative consolidation is just the first step toward communities being forced to close their schools. "It's never about district consolidation, even when they say it is; it's always about closing schools," Marty Strange, policy program director at the Rural School and Community Trust, told Maynard. "School district consolidation is just a shoehorn. It's a lot more pleasant to talk about off wasteful administrators than it is to talk about laying off someone's child's teacher." In many small towns where the school district consists of only one school the terms are often synonymous, Maynard writes.
Brookings and the National Governors Association are among those encouraging states to consider some form of consolidation as a way to offset cuts to K-12 education, Maynard reports. "We are in such a financial crisis in this country that we can't afford to worry anymore about some of these considerations that in light of the financial situation appear minor," John Thomasian, director of NGA's Center for Best Practices. "Now that we are in such a clear and long-run fiscal climate of austerity, issues like school district consolidation have to be taken straight on." (Read more)
Some states move to protect hunting; critics say moves are solutions in search of a problem
Fear that animal-rights groups might persuade the Democratic-controlled Congress would move to ban hunting has lead several states to try and include "right to hunt and fish" clauses in their constitutions. "This year, residents of Tennessee, Arkansas, and South Carolina will vote on right-to-hunt initiatives, and North Carolina and other states may yet add hunting-related constitutional amendments to their ballots," Suzi Parker reports for The Christian Science Monitor. "It's better to be safe on the front end than wait and deal with the problem when it's too late," Steve Faris, an Arkansas Democratic legislator who sponsored a ballot measure to make hunting a constitutional right, told Parker.
Ten states include the right to hunt in their constitutions, with Vermont first adding the protection when it was created as an independent entity in 1777, and Oklahoma most recently adding it in 2008. "It goes to the liberal nature of our nation's government and California's government. We are going to lose all our gun rights," South Carolina Republican Assemblyman Bill Berryhill, told Parker. "They do it incrementally. We should lock in the right to hunt for hunters and outdoorsmen and ensure it won't be taken away."
While the National Rifle Association and other pro-gun groups see a hunting ban as a real risk, critics of such measures call them a "manufactured 'wedge' issue – like gay marriage and so-called partial-birth abortion – to bring out voters for conservative candidates in swing states," Parker writes. Michael Markarian of the Humane Society of the United States told Parker, "We haven't opposed these measures. We don't really view them as having much of an impact. These proposals are a solution in search of a problem. Every state allows hunting."
The NRA says hunting restrictions are already underway, pointing to Michigan, which recently banned the the shooting of mourning doves. "There's an urbanization of life," Stephen Halbrook, a Virginia lawyer and author of the book The Founders' Second Amendment, told Parker. "People think meat comes from the grocery. Rural values are going by the wayside." (Read more)
Ten states include the right to hunt in their constitutions, with Vermont first adding the protection when it was created as an independent entity in 1777, and Oklahoma most recently adding it in 2008. "It goes to the liberal nature of our nation's government and California's government. We are going to lose all our gun rights," South Carolina Republican Assemblyman Bill Berryhill, told Parker. "They do it incrementally. We should lock in the right to hunt for hunters and outdoorsmen and ensure it won't be taken away."
While the National Rifle Association and other pro-gun groups see a hunting ban as a real risk, critics of such measures call them a "manufactured 'wedge' issue – like gay marriage and so-called partial-birth abortion – to bring out voters for conservative candidates in swing states," Parker writes. Michael Markarian of the Humane Society of the United States told Parker, "We haven't opposed these measures. We don't really view them as having much of an impact. These proposals are a solution in search of a problem. Every state allows hunting."
The NRA says hunting restrictions are already underway, pointing to Michigan, which recently banned the the shooting of mourning doves. "There's an urbanization of life," Stephen Halbrook, a Virginia lawyer and author of the book The Founders' Second Amendment, told Parker. "People think meat comes from the grocery. Rural values are going by the wayside." (Read more)
Report says rural Midwest needs to rethink development strategy of direct incentives
A new report from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs says the rural Midwest must "move past silos and smokestacks" to remain competitive in the 21st Century global economy. To encourage new industry and job creation, the region needs to "partner regionally to compete globally," writes report lead author Dr. Mark Drabenstott, founding director of the Rural Policy Research Institute Center for Regional Competitiveness. He reveals that nearly 80 percent of the money in development budgets in the 12 Midwestern states goes to recruitment incentives for projects like factories.
"The Midwest can no longer base its 21st Century future on this 20th-Century playbook," Drabenstott writes. The report, "Past Silos and Smokestacks: Transforming the Rural Economy in the Midwest," was released as the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development directors for the 12 states -- Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin -- meet in Chicago today to discuss how to allocate nearly $722 million in funding, according to a Newswise release.
"Regional action across traditional political boundaries, targeted investment in public goods such as transportation and telecommunications, active efforts to spur innovation, and a focus on regional competitive advantages will stimulate the rural economy," says the release. Drabenstott calls for federal representatives, state governments, businesses, and nonprofit organizations to provide leadership and action for regional collaboration. (Read more)
"The Midwest can no longer base its 21st Century future on this 20th-Century playbook," Drabenstott writes. The report, "Past Silos and Smokestacks: Transforming the Rural Economy in the Midwest," was released as the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development directors for the 12 states -- Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin -- meet in Chicago today to discuss how to allocate nearly $722 million in funding, according to a Newswise release.
"Regional action across traditional political boundaries, targeted investment in public goods such as transportation and telecommunications, active efforts to spur innovation, and a focus on regional competitive advantages will stimulate the rural economy," says the release. Drabenstott calls for federal representatives, state governments, businesses, and nonprofit organizations to provide leadership and action for regional collaboration. (Read more)
Younger evangelicals more willing to blame human activity for climate change
Evangelical Christians tend to be among the most ardent climate-change skeptics, but some are believers in both ways, and a new movement is emerging to tie God and green together. Many younger evangelicals "are making a spirited effort to show that their religious beliefs and their environmental concerns are not only compatible but inextricably linked," Gregory M. Lamb of The Christian Science Monitor reports.
A 2009 Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life poll revealed only 34 percent of white Evangelicals agreed there is solid evidence that Earth is warming because of human activity, while 48 percent of white mainline Protestants agreed. But conservative Christian students at Baylor University in Texas are more likely to accept the evidence of human-induced climate change, Susan Bratton, chair of its environmental science department, told Lamb. Bratton, who has had seminary training and teaches a course on Christian environmental ethics, explained her students come from "probably the greenest generation we've ever had here." (Read more)
Religious affiliations becoming more important in the climate change debate as "apocalyptic visions and the muscular language of religious fervor" invade the climate arena, Jeremy Lovell of ClimateWire reports for The New York Times. The religious appeals are "replacing issues of fact with those of faith and bringing high emotion into science -- an area where it should have no place -- politicians and religious leaders complain," Lovell writes. "It is a mistake to use a form of religious language, because it is unnecessary and misses the central point that we have 200 years of scientific data that tells us we are playing a very dangerous game with our environment. This is a matter of fact. It should not be muddied by faith," Andrew Simms of the New Economics Foundation public policy think tank, told Lovell. (Read more)
A 2009 Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life poll revealed only 34 percent of white Evangelicals agreed there is solid evidence that Earth is warming because of human activity, while 48 percent of white mainline Protestants agreed. But conservative Christian students at Baylor University in Texas are more likely to accept the evidence of human-induced climate change, Susan Bratton, chair of its environmental science department, told Lamb. Bratton, who has had seminary training and teaches a course on Christian environmental ethics, explained her students come from "probably the greenest generation we've ever had here." (Read more)
Religious affiliations becoming more important in the climate change debate as "apocalyptic visions and the muscular language of religious fervor" invade the climate arena, Jeremy Lovell of ClimateWire reports for The New York Times. The religious appeals are "replacing issues of fact with those of faith and bringing high emotion into science -- an area where it should have no place -- politicians and religious leaders complain," Lovell writes. "It is a mistake to use a form of religious language, because it is unnecessary and misses the central point that we have 200 years of scientific data that tells us we are playing a very dangerous game with our environment. This is a matter of fact. It should not be muddied by faith," Andrew Simms of the New Economics Foundation public policy think tank, told Lovell. (Read more)
Bill to protect non-commercial signs, like those fighting rural adult stores, could cost Ky. money
UPDATE, March 27: The possible loss of federal funds means the bill "is not going anywhere," Senate President David Williams said.
As adult stores have sprung up along interstate highways in rural areas, appealing mainly to travelers, some locals have fought back by erecting religious signs and symbols near or next to the businesses. But at least one such billboard in Kentucky appears to run afoul of federal law, and a state legislative bill to protect the sign and other non-commercial billboards could cost the state as much as $42 million in federal highway funds, the chief federal highway official in Kentucky has warned.
"Having been warned, the Transportation Cabinet opposes the bill and has forwarded the federal government's concerns to the Senate, where the bill awaits committee action," John Cheves reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader. Cabinet spokesman Chuck Wolfe told him, "At a time when we're cutting back on road maintenance because of the budget, we simply cannot afford to lose more than $40 million."
The bill was prompted by this billboard on Interstate 65 at Upton in LaRue County, across the road from an adult store (with an "ADULT" sign) that was established several years ago. "A judge ruled the 'Hell' billboard to be advertising and therefore subject to laws restricting its location and size," Cheves reports. "The bill would exempt non-commercial billboards — defined as those that don't advertise products or services — that are on private property from the state Transportation Cabinet's permitting process." (Read more)
As adult stores have sprung up along interstate highways in rural areas, appealing mainly to travelers, some locals have fought back by erecting religious signs and symbols near or next to the businesses. But at least one such billboard in Kentucky appears to run afoul of federal law, and a state legislative bill to protect the sign and other non-commercial billboards could cost the state as much as $42 million in federal highway funds, the chief federal highway official in Kentucky has warned.
"Having been warned, the Transportation Cabinet opposes the bill and has forwarded the federal government's concerns to the Senate, where the bill awaits committee action," John Cheves reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader. Cabinet spokesman Chuck Wolfe told him, "At a time when we're cutting back on road maintenance because of the budget, we simply cannot afford to lose more than $40 million."
The bill was prompted by this billboard on Interstate 65 at Upton in LaRue County, across the road from an adult store (with an "ADULT" sign) that was established several years ago. "A judge ruled the 'Hell' billboard to be advertising and therefore subject to laws restricting its location and size," Cheves reports. "The bill would exempt non-commercial billboards — defined as those that don't advertise products or services — that are on private property from the state Transportation Cabinet's permitting process." (Read more)
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Tribal lands ripe for renewable energy, but face many obstacles for development
A new report from the National Wildlife Federation says Indian tribes have the resources to generate vast amounts of renewable energy, but been hurt by a lack of tax incentives and insufficient transmission infrastructure. "The potential is tremendous," Bob Gough, secretary of the Intertribal Council on Utility Policy, which represents 15 tribes in the northern Great Plains, told Phil Taylor of Environment & Energy Daily. The 15 tribes represented by the council account for an estimated 200,000 megawatts of renewable energy potential.
Tribal leaders say tapping that energy potential "will require tribes and their development partners to overcome regulatory hurdles that typically extend project development by about two or three years," Taylor reports. Only one commercial-scale wind farm has been built on tribal land. Until more tribal energy projects are put through the permitting process, investors are likely to shy away from such partnerships,Tracey LeBeau, interim executive director of the Indian Country Renewable Energy Consortium, told Taylor.
Chief among the hurdles is a restriction in federal tax law prohibiting tribes "from receiving energy tax credits designed to add incentives to wind, solar and geothermal development," Taylor writes. Several bills currently before Congress would allow tribes to transfer their share of tax credits to taxable business partners. The fact that "even with abundant renewable energy potential, many of the 77 federally recognized tribes that could support such projects are located in remote areas that lack even the most basic electricity infrastructure, much less the kind of transmission lines needed to move large quantities of power to market," also has prevented development Taylor writes. (Read more, subscription required)
Tribal leaders say tapping that energy potential "will require tribes and their development partners to overcome regulatory hurdles that typically extend project development by about two or three years," Taylor reports. Only one commercial-scale wind farm has been built on tribal land. Until more tribal energy projects are put through the permitting process, investors are likely to shy away from such partnerships,Tracey LeBeau, interim executive director of the Indian Country Renewable Energy Consortium, told Taylor.
Chief among the hurdles is a restriction in federal tax law prohibiting tribes "from receiving energy tax credits designed to add incentives to wind, solar and geothermal development," Taylor writes. Several bills currently before Congress would allow tribes to transfer their share of tax credits to taxable business partners. The fact that "even with abundant renewable energy potential, many of the 77 federally recognized tribes that could support such projects are located in remote areas that lack even the most basic electricity infrastructure, much less the kind of transmission lines needed to move large quantities of power to market," also has prevented development Taylor writes. (Read more, subscription required)
Natural gas escalates its war with coal
In the latest example of the growing feud between coal and natural-gas interests, the chief executive of oil giant BP said Wednesday that coal jobs weren't worth sacrificing the U.S.'s "clean energy" future. Tony Hayward told an audience at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington that the nation's attempts to save coal jobs have come at the expense of clean-fuel industries and there is no reason to keep building coal-fired power plants in the U.S., Mike Soroghan of Environment and Energy Daily reports.
"Hayward's comments reflect an increasingly bitter political rift between two of the largest elements of the country's energy industry -- coal and natural gas," Soroghan writes. Gas-industry executives were angered by extra protections afforded coal in the House climate bill passed last fall, and say if lawmakers want to cut carbon emissions, they should look more to gas, which emits about half as much carbon as coal when burned. Proponents view gas as, at worst, a bridge fuel to a low-carbon future, or, at best, "a permanent fixture of a diverse approach to lowering emissions," Soroghan writes.
"Mr. Hayward is obviously unaware that coal is America's most abundant energy resource," Carol Raulston of the National Mining Association told Soroghan. "I'm consistently surprised that one of the world's wealthiest companies would suggest Americans should forgo good jobs and affordable electricity from coal so that oil and gas can increase their market share." (Read more, subscription required)
Hayward's frustration is illustrated by a new report released Wednesday from the international energy consultantcy Brattle Group, projecting that despite vast gas reserves recently made available through new drilling techniques, gas demand will decrease in the coming years thanks to incentives for renewable energy and free emission allocations for coal in climate legislation.The report concludes "The [climate] bills won't push prices of carbon dioxide emissions up enough for natural gas to displace coal at power plants in the first decade of the program," Katherine Ling of E&E reports, adding "incentives and mandates will spur more renewable energy." (Read more, subscription required)
"Hayward's comments reflect an increasingly bitter political rift between two of the largest elements of the country's energy industry -- coal and natural gas," Soroghan writes. Gas-industry executives were angered by extra protections afforded coal in the House climate bill passed last fall, and say if lawmakers want to cut carbon emissions, they should look more to gas, which emits about half as much carbon as coal when burned. Proponents view gas as, at worst, a bridge fuel to a low-carbon future, or, at best, "a permanent fixture of a diverse approach to lowering emissions," Soroghan writes.
"Mr. Hayward is obviously unaware that coal is America's most abundant energy resource," Carol Raulston of the National Mining Association told Soroghan. "I'm consistently surprised that one of the world's wealthiest companies would suggest Americans should forgo good jobs and affordable electricity from coal so that oil and gas can increase their market share." (Read more, subscription required)
Hayward's frustration is illustrated by a new report released Wednesday from the international energy consultantcy Brattle Group, projecting that despite vast gas reserves recently made available through new drilling techniques, gas demand will decrease in the coming years thanks to incentives for renewable energy and free emission allocations for coal in climate legislation.The report concludes "The [climate] bills won't push prices of carbon dioxide emissions up enough for natural gas to displace coal at power plants in the first decade of the program," Katherine Ling of E&E reports, adding "incentives and mandates will spur more renewable energy." (Read more, subscription required)
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Health reform offers much for rural America but some rural hospitals fear its impact on them
Many of the rural Democrats who voted against the health-care reform bill this week cited its impact on rural hospitals, but some who voted for it said the law will help such hospitals. At least one expert in rural health policy believes the law will be a "net gain" for rural populations, but the effect on rural hospitals is still unclear. The impact might be greatest in the Southeast, where the "no" votes were concentrated.
Rep. Ben Chandler of Kentucky, a Blue Dog Democrat, told the Lexington Herald-Leader, "This bill still does not address the concerns I had about its effect on our seniors, rural hospitals, and the overall cost to taxpayers. Rural hospitals might be hurt by a cut in payments they receive for providing indigent care, and senior citizens might suffer from Medicare reductions, both of which the bill requires to help pay for its staggering cost."
But the effect may be different in other regions, states or congressional districts. Dr. Keith J. Mueller of the Rural Policy Research Institute at the University of Nebraska, said in an interview that rural hospitals, primarily in the Southeast, will feel the bite when Disproportionate Share Hospital payments, known as DSH ("dish") payments, are gone. But in other parts of the country, not so much.
Mueller explained that phasing out DSH payments is designed to occur in tandem with the increase in other forms of insurance. For areas that will have mostly privately insured or Medicare patients, losing the DSH payments will be inconsequential or financially advantageous. But the Southeast — with high unemployment, poor health and poor access to health care — the newly insured (based on the new criteria for eligibility, 33 percent above the poverty line) will likely be covered by Medicaid. Some believe Medicaid payments won't fully replace DSH payments, leaving hospitals holding the financial bag. And even with increased numbers of insured, 23 million people will still likely be uninsured. Someone will have to continue to pay for their health care, and hospitals assume it will be them.
Mueller also points out that with the reform, those folks who are newly insured will be more likely to see a doctor than when they were uninsured. Presumably, they will have better health care, but the question remains: Will the Medicaid payment cover the cost of service?
One important factor in rural health remains unchanged: Critical access hospitals, which are all rural, will continue to be funded as they are now. Their payment structure is based on a different regulation and will continue to be the cost of service, plus 1 percent.
Ultimately, Mueller says, the health reform act is designed with individuals and small groups in mind and the rural population is typically made up of individuals and small groups. "The is one more giant step towards universal coverage," he said, adding that while rural folks will not be a disproportionate share of the newly insured population, rural residents now uninsured should benefit greatly.
Rep. Ben Chandler of Kentucky, a Blue Dog Democrat, told the Lexington Herald-Leader, "This bill still does not address the concerns I had about its effect on our seniors, rural hospitals, and the overall cost to taxpayers. Rural hospitals might be hurt by a cut in payments they receive for providing indigent care, and senior citizens might suffer from Medicare reductions, both of which the bill requires to help pay for its staggering cost."
But the effect may be different in other regions, states or congressional districts. Dr. Keith J. Mueller of the Rural Policy Research Institute at the University of Nebraska, said in an interview that rural hospitals, primarily in the Southeast, will feel the bite when Disproportionate Share Hospital payments, known as DSH ("dish") payments, are gone. But in other parts of the country, not so much.
Mueller explained that phasing out DSH payments is designed to occur in tandem with the increase in other forms of insurance. For areas that will have mostly privately insured or Medicare patients, losing the DSH payments will be inconsequential or financially advantageous. But the Southeast — with high unemployment, poor health and poor access to health care — the newly insured (based on the new criteria for eligibility, 33 percent above the poverty line) will likely be covered by Medicaid. Some believe Medicaid payments won't fully replace DSH payments, leaving hospitals holding the financial bag. And even with increased numbers of insured, 23 million people will still likely be uninsured. Someone will have to continue to pay for their health care, and hospitals assume it will be them.
Mueller also points out that with the reform, those folks who are newly insured will be more likely to see a doctor than when they were uninsured. Presumably, they will have better health care, but the question remains: Will the Medicaid payment cover the cost of service?
One important factor in rural health remains unchanged: Critical access hospitals, which are all rural, will continue to be funded as they are now. Their payment structure is based on a different regulation and will continue to be the cost of service, plus 1 percent.
Ultimately, Mueller says, the health reform act is designed with individuals and small groups in mind and the rural population is typically made up of individuals and small groups. "The is one more giant step towards universal coverage," he said, adding that while rural folks will not be a disproportionate share of the newly insured population, rural residents now uninsured should benefit greatly.
Environmentalists say planned solar plant in California would harm rare species
A weekend protest from environmentalists directed at a planned solar energy power plant is the latest example of growing tension between environmental groups and renewable-energy interests. About 20 people hiked several miles of the 3,400-acre site of the planned Ivanpah Solar Field, just on the California side of the Nevada border, to raise awareness of the rare and endangered plants and animals that would be harmed by construction, Stephanie Tavares of The Las Vegas Sun reports. Participants belong to environmental groups including the Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Western Watersheds Project and Basin and Range Watch, but were reported to be acting independently of those organizations.
"Renewable energy developers have long been the darlings of environmental groups, but Saturday’s event highlights a growing rift within those groups," Tavares writes. These environmentalists support renewable energy, but only as a form of "distributed generation," where rooftop solar panels and backyard wind turbines replace massive new power plants and new transmission lines. "I don’t understand why so much emphasis has to be put on these gigantic projects that are taking up wild open space," hiker Laura Cunningham told Tavares. "Reducing electricity consumption even a tiny bit and deploying urban technologies like rooftop solar first, before we start bringing out the bulldozers, would be better for everyone."
The Ivanpah Solar Field, owned by BrightSource Energy, is the first planned U.S. mega-solar plant, and was the first "solar project to receive approval for a federally backed loan guarantee through the Energy Policy Act," Tavares reports. BrightSource says it will uproot many of the most important plants and either transplant them or keep them in a nursery for the estimated 30-year lease of the federal acreage, while desert tortoises would be moved.The company's environmental impact statement estimates one in six tortoises would die. (Read more)
"Renewable energy developers have long been the darlings of environmental groups, but Saturday’s event highlights a growing rift within those groups," Tavares writes. These environmentalists support renewable energy, but only as a form of "distributed generation," where rooftop solar panels and backyard wind turbines replace massive new power plants and new transmission lines. "I don’t understand why so much emphasis has to be put on these gigantic projects that are taking up wild open space," hiker Laura Cunningham told Tavares. "Reducing electricity consumption even a tiny bit and deploying urban technologies like rooftop solar first, before we start bringing out the bulldozers, would be better for everyone."
The Ivanpah Solar Field, owned by BrightSource Energy, is the first planned U.S. mega-solar plant, and was the first "solar project to receive approval for a federally backed loan guarantee through the Energy Policy Act," Tavares reports. BrightSource says it will uproot many of the most important plants and either transplant them or keep them in a nursery for the estimated 30-year lease of the federal acreage, while desert tortoises would be moved.The company's environmental impact statement estimates one in six tortoises would die. (Read more)
Ky. conducting survey about broadband service
As the federal government begins spending billions in stimulus money, one state is using the funds to conduct a survey of businesses and organizations around the state to evaluate broadband services. The Kentucky Commonwealth Office of Technology has designed a 15-minute survey. If you live or have a business location in the state, click here to take the Broadband Availability Survey or copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://sngoup.qualtrics.com/WRQualtricsSurveyEngine?Q_SS=884A8iOLtnmmXKk_3ekfUCRAs7nC5dq&SVID=Prod&_=1
The department asks that the survey be completed by Friday, April 9, to be included in the state-wide assessment of broadband availability.
The department asks that the survey be completed by Friday, April 9, to be included in the state-wide assessment of broadband availability.
Massey changes mind, will help build new school
Tenn. officials fear Asian carp may breed in state
We've been following the attempts of Great Lakes states to thwart migration of Asian carp from the Mississippi River system, most recently here, but now one Southern state is voicing concerns about the invasive species. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency says the carp have been spotted in the Cumberland River as far upstream as Cheatham Dam in Ashland City, upstream from Lake Barkley and downstream from Nashville, Anne Paine of The Tennessean reports. "Every year they just get thicker and thicker," Thomas Peach, a commercial catfish fisherman in Camden, Tenn., told Paine. "Each year they get further up the river. We're worried about what's going to happen to our fish — all fish. Not just commercial fish."
Tennessee officials are now trying to determine if the carp can spawn in state waters other than the Mississippi. One fisherman reported hauling in as much as 5,000 pounds of silver carp in a day from the northern portion of Kentucky Lake, which is part of the Tennessee River. "It's one thing to deal with migrants coming through locks. It's another thing if they get to Pickwick," the next Tennessee Valley Authority dam and lake upstream, Bill Reeves, chief of TWRA's fisheries division, told Paine. "If the numbers are there and the flow is there that creates the optimum conditions for spawning, they'll fill the lake up."
"Tennessee has a lot to lose, with $1 billion a year spent on sport fishing and about $3 million coming from commercial fishing. Plus the state, which is highly bio-diverse, has 315 fish, 120 mussel and 84 crawfish species to protect," Paine writes. Tennessee, like other states affected along the Mississippi River, is beginning to consider tactics to use the carp to its advantage, like selling them for food. The Tennessean also posted this 14-page presentation about Asian carp on its Web site. (Read more) The carp were brought to the south to control grass in fish-farm ponds and escaped during floods.
Tennessee officials are now trying to determine if the carp can spawn in state waters other than the Mississippi. One fisherman reported hauling in as much as 5,000 pounds of silver carp in a day from the northern portion of Kentucky Lake, which is part of the Tennessee River. "It's one thing to deal with migrants coming through locks. It's another thing if they get to Pickwick," the next Tennessee Valley Authority dam and lake upstream, Bill Reeves, chief of TWRA's fisheries division, told Paine. "If the numbers are there and the flow is there that creates the optimum conditions for spawning, they'll fill the lake up."
"Tennessee has a lot to lose, with $1 billion a year spent on sport fishing and about $3 million coming from commercial fishing. Plus the state, which is highly bio-diverse, has 315 fish, 120 mussel and 84 crawfish species to protect," Paine writes. Tennessee, like other states affected along the Mississippi River, is beginning to consider tactics to use the carp to its advantage, like selling them for food. The Tennessean also posted this 14-page presentation about Asian carp on its Web site. (Read more) The carp were brought to the south to control grass in fish-farm ponds and escaped during floods.
Sides are still debating how the health-care reform law will affect rural America
West Virginia health officials say their state stands to benefit from several of the elements of the new national health reform law because of its rural nature. "As a rural state, West Virginia will receive a major influx of dollars for preventative medical care" under the law, Kate Long of The Charleston Gazette reports. "This will prevent a lot of unnecessary hospital and emergency room bills," Louise Reese, director of the West Virginia Primary Care Association, told Long."We are gearing up to expand affordable preventative care in underserved areas of the state." (Could you ladies please say "preventive"? --Editor)
Long lists several rural-centric elements of the law, including a $11 billion investment for expansion of low-cost community health centers, $1.5 billion to support doctors in paying off their student loans in exchange for practicing in underserved rural areas, increased funding for medical school residencies in rural areas and expansion of Medicaid eligibility to those who make less than 133 percent of poverty level. (Read more)
Kentucky Democratic Rep. Ben Chandler told John Cheves of the Lexington Herald-Leader he voted against the law because, among other things, "rural hospitals might be hurt by a cut in payments they receive for providing indigent care."
Of course, not everyone shares the same view of the law's effect on rural America. Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley is working to restore what he calls "rural health care equity" to the Senate consideration of the House-approved changes, Matt Kelley of Radio Iowa reports. "The issue is how Medicare is going to calculate payments to physicians and unfairly penalize rural doctors, making it harder for rural Medicare beneficiaries to find a doctor," Grassley told Kelley. Grassley said his amendment to the original bill was undermined by language that provided extra help to so-called "frontier states" Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Utah.
Kentucky Democratic Rep. Ben Chandler told John Cheves of the Lexington Herald-Leader he voted against the law because, among other things, "rural hospitals might be hurt by a cut in payments they receive for providing indigent care."
Update 3/24: On average the 34 Congressional Democrats who voted against the health care reform bill represent more rural districts than Democrats who voted for the bill. The rural population of the Democratic no-voters’ districts was nearly 39 percent, while yes-voters' districts were only 14 percent rural, Julie Ardery and Bill Bishop report for The Daily Yonder. The Yonder story also includes a chart breaking down the rural percentage of each district from the 34 Democrat no-votes and the map below which shows how each of the 100 most rural congressional districts voted. (Read more)
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Isolated, rural community 'wrapped itself around education' and found success for students
Peter Geiger, a member of the Maine Coalition for Excellence in Education and a former chairman of the State Board of Education, told the Press Herald, "The community has wrapped itself around education ... They want their kids to go somewhere and be something, whether or not they come back. They want what's best for the kids because they realize that's what's best for the community. They really have thought it through." (Read more)
Utah community colleges' trend to four-year programs bucks national trend
Rural colleges in Utah are headed toward extinction, according to Brian Maffly of the Salt Lake Tribune. "Utah's two-year institutions have become hybrids offering four-year degrees, whose administrators yearn for university status," he writes. "The changes have unfolded without much planning from the State Board of Regents, and could mean less access for the state's most marginalized residents: minorities, the poor and students whose high schools didn't prepare them well for college." Most of Utah's institutional leaders endorse the direction, saying students increasingly enjoy access to four-year programs in every corner of the state and can seamlessly matriculate into the universities.
Policy experts say mergers and mission expansions undermine the community-college role, according to the story. "Over time the mission changes. It's less about open access and serving students who need developmental education and support, and much more about transfer [to four-year degrees]. That's the function that is valued within the university environment," Kay McClenney, who directs the Center for Community College Student Engagement at the University of Texas, told Maffly. (Salt Lake Tribune map)
Utah is running against a national tide that is elevating the role of community colleges. Two-year schools have never been more popular across the U.S., and now account for more than half of all college enrollment. Nationwide, rural community colleges are experiencing extraordinary enrollment growth, according to Stephen Katsinas of the University of Alabama's Education Policy Center. The nation's 553 rural schools account for 64 percent of the nation's community colleges and 38 percent of enrollment. Between 2001 and 2006, rural enrollment grew by more than 1 million students to 3.4 million. (Read more)
Policy experts say mergers and mission expansions undermine the community-college role, according to the story. "Over time the mission changes. It's less about open access and serving students who need developmental education and support, and much more about transfer [to four-year degrees]. That's the function that is valued within the university environment," Kay McClenney, who directs the Center for Community College Student Engagement at the University of Texas, told Maffly. (Salt Lake Tribune map)Utah is running against a national tide that is elevating the role of community colleges. Two-year schools have never been more popular across the U.S., and now account for more than half of all college enrollment. Nationwide, rural community colleges are experiencing extraordinary enrollment growth, according to Stephen Katsinas of the University of Alabama's Education Policy Center. The nation's 553 rural schools account for 64 percent of the nation's community colleges and 38 percent of enrollment. Between 2001 and 2006, rural enrollment grew by more than 1 million students to 3.4 million. (Read more)
Rural wages rarely exceed U.S. average, but rural places with high compensation may surprise you
The average compensation for a U.S. worker in 2008 was $56,117, and that figure was exceeded in only 41 of the 2,037 rural counties, Bill Bishop of the Daily Yonder reports, citing data from the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis.
BEA counts both pay and benefits in its measure of total compensation, and factors in only compensation of the employed, leaving out benefits for unemployment, disability and so on.) While rural areas of the Great Plains have boasted lower unemployment rates than the national average during the recession, these areas also have some of the lowest average compensation of any U.S. counties. Conversely, "coalfield counties of southern West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky are always listed among the nation’s poorest, but for those who have jobs, compensation is among the highest in rural America," Bishop writes.
The Yonder has compiled a list of the top 50 and bottom 50 rural counties by average employee compensation, and the top 50 and bottom 50 exurban counties by average compensation. Among rural counties, Alaska’s oil-rich North Slope County led with an average total compensation of over $98,000 a year; ironically, Montana's Petroleum County ranked last, at just over $27,000 a year. (Read more)
BEA counts both pay and benefits in its measure of total compensation, and factors in only compensation of the employed, leaving out benefits for unemployment, disability and so on.) While rural areas of the Great Plains have boasted lower unemployment rates than the national average during the recession, these areas also have some of the lowest average compensation of any U.S. counties. Conversely, "coalfield counties of southern West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky are always listed among the nation’s poorest, but for those who have jobs, compensation is among the highest in rural America," Bishop writes.
The Yonder has compiled a list of the top 50 and bottom 50 rural counties by average employee compensation, and the top 50 and bottom 50 exurban counties by average compensation. Among rural counties, Alaska’s oil-rich North Slope County led with an average total compensation of over $98,000 a year; ironically, Montana's Petroleum County ranked last, at just over $27,000 a year. (Read more)
Climate-and-energy bill would discourage but not ban EPA regulation of hydraulic fracturing
The bipartisan climate-and-energy bill being written in the Senate reportedly includes language to discourage the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating the oil-and-gas drilling technique of hydraulic fracturing, Mike Soraghan of Environment & Energy Daily reports. A "discussion draft" from three oil-and-gas companies obtained by E&E reveals they are lobbying Congress to include language in a climate bill that would leave "fracking" regulation up to the states.
Amy Mall of the Natural Resources Defense Council told Soraghan that the federal government needs to provide "a minimal regulatory floor" for states because "Communities across the country have completely lost trust in state regulators to protect their drinking water." However, the language in the proposal regarding fracking would be non-binding, "'sense of the Senate' language with no real legal impact," Soraghan writes. (Read more, subscription required) UPDATE: Soraghan notes in a follow-up report, "But if the House were to pass legislation ordering federal regulation of fracturing, it could serve as a counterweight in conference negotiations."
Meanwhile, environmental groups have grown weary of vote-attracting compromises in the bill, to be sponsored by Democrat John Kerry of Massachusetts, Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Independent Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut. One deal would open U.S. coastlines to expanded drilling, Darren Samuelsohn of Greenwire reports for The New York Times. "We're not sure what we're getting now," Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth U.S., told Samuelsohn. The new Senate bill isn't expected to be unveiled for another month. On Friday, 22 Democratic senators sent a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid calling for floor action on a climate bill this year, Samuelsohn reports for E&E.
Amy Mall of the Natural Resources Defense Council told Soraghan that the federal government needs to provide "a minimal regulatory floor" for states because "Communities across the country have completely lost trust in state regulators to protect their drinking water." However, the language in the proposal regarding fracking would be non-binding, "'sense of the Senate' language with no real legal impact," Soraghan writes. (Read more, subscription required) UPDATE: Soraghan notes in a follow-up report, "But if the House were to pass legislation ordering federal regulation of fracturing, it could serve as a counterweight in conference negotiations."
Meanwhile, environmental groups have grown weary of vote-attracting compromises in the bill, to be sponsored by Democrat John Kerry of Massachusetts, Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Independent Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut. One deal would open U.S. coastlines to expanded drilling, Darren Samuelsohn of Greenwire reports for The New York Times. "We're not sure what we're getting now," Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth U.S., told Samuelsohn. The new Senate bill isn't expected to be unveiled for another month. On Friday, 22 Democratic senators sent a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid calling for floor action on a climate bill this year, Samuelsohn reports for E&E.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Local budget cuts will outlast the recession
The recession may be ending, but local government budget cuts resulting from the downturn may have long-lasting implications, at least in Georgia, where the state has cut its budget too. "Experts say those lean years will finally dissipate to reveal a new reality: Local government will have been right-sized or wrong-sized, depending on your perspective, but it will be smaller," Richard Halicks reports for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "And our assumptions about it and our expectations of it will be altered, too."
Alan Essig, a former state budget analyst who heads the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, told Halicks, "In most past recessions you have that one year of pain and then you can put things back together. This is going to be very different. We are fundamentally resizing government ... If we’re not going to increase revenue some sizable amount, all these budget cuts are permanent." Hawkins concludes, "If you can think of a service provided by local or state government, chances are good that you’ll be able to find either a reduction in that service or an increase in what you pay for it, or both."
In Georgia, local and state budget cuts will be reflected in fewer teachers and more students, increases in college tuition, shortened school years, cuts to the lottery-funded scholarship program, teacher salaries and school arts programs. Also, expect increased buyout offers for government employees before eventual layoffs, Hawkins writes. Katherine Willoughby, a professor of public administration and urban studies at Georgia State University, thinks the paring of local government may be good in the long run. "To me, you just kind of have to have your back against the wall before you’re going to start moving forward," she told the AJC. "I don’t want to say I’m glad, but it has taken this for people to understand just what government does — the breadth of it, what's possible." (Read more)
Alan Essig, a former state budget analyst who heads the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, told Halicks, "In most past recessions you have that one year of pain and then you can put things back together. This is going to be very different. We are fundamentally resizing government ... If we’re not going to increase revenue some sizable amount, all these budget cuts are permanent." Hawkins concludes, "If you can think of a service provided by local or state government, chances are good that you’ll be able to find either a reduction in that service or an increase in what you pay for it, or both."
In Georgia, local and state budget cuts will be reflected in fewer teachers and more students, increases in college tuition, shortened school years, cuts to the lottery-funded scholarship program, teacher salaries and school arts programs. Also, expect increased buyout offers for government employees before eventual layoffs, Hawkins writes. Katherine Willoughby, a professor of public administration and urban studies at Georgia State University, thinks the paring of local government may be good in the long run. "To me, you just kind of have to have your back against the wall before you’re going to start moving forward," she told the AJC. "I don’t want to say I’m glad, but it has taken this for people to understand just what government does — the breadth of it, what's possible." (Read more)
Study points to stew of pesticides as possible cause of colony collapse disorder among bees
Results from a two-year study have focused more attention on one possible cause of the mysterious colony collapse disorder affecting beehives across the country: pesticides. "Christopher Mullin of Pennsylvania State University in University Park and his colleagues describe widespread pesticide tainting in 749 samples of bee-dom, some of those chemicals at levels that would be toxic if they occurred alone," Janet Raloff of Science News reports. "Except that most bees aren’t exposed to just a single pesticide."
The researchers found eight different pesticides on average in the 259 beeswax samples, and seven chemicals on average in the 350 pollen samples retrieved from hives. The 140 bees sampled average about two chemicals per bee, Raloff reports, although one pitiful bee contained 25 different pesticides. The researchers suggested bees were less contaminated because many died before ever making it back to the hive to be chosen in the study.
The researchers analyzed 140 bees from both healthy hives and those affected by colony collapse disorder. They also analyzed all aspects of the hives, as well, and found that just one of the wax samples, three pollen samples and 12 bee samples were free of detectable pesticides. "The biological impacts of these materials at their dietary levels on other honey bee larvae or adults remains to be determined," the researchers write. Mortality may not be the chief concern, as previous research found pesticides impacted honey bee learning, immune system functioning, and synergism of insecticide toxicity by fungicides. (Read more)
The researchers found eight different pesticides on average in the 259 beeswax samples, and seven chemicals on average in the 350 pollen samples retrieved from hives. The 140 bees sampled average about two chemicals per bee, Raloff reports, although one pitiful bee contained 25 different pesticides. The researchers suggested bees were less contaminated because many died before ever making it back to the hive to be chosen in the study.
The researchers analyzed 140 bees from both healthy hives and those affected by colony collapse disorder. They also analyzed all aspects of the hives, as well, and found that just one of the wax samples, three pollen samples and 12 bee samples were free of detectable pesticides. "The biological impacts of these materials at their dietary levels on other honey bee larvae or adults remains to be determined," the researchers write. Mortality may not be the chief concern, as previous research found pesticides impacted honey bee learning, immune system functioning, and synergism of insecticide toxicity by fungicides. (Read more)
USDA vows to improve organic program after audit finds serious problems
The U.S. Department of Agriculture vowed Friday to begin enforcing organic farming regulations after an auditor exposed major gaps in federal oversight of the industry. Among other things, USDA promised to begin enforcing rules requiring the spot testing of organically grown foods for traces of pesticides, William Neuman of The New York Times reports. Spot testing is required by the 1990 law that established the basis for national organic standards, but a report by the department's inspector general revealed regulators never made sure the testing was being carried out.
The report also found several other shortcomings in USDA's National Organic Program, including including poor oversight of some organic operations overseas and a lack of urgency in cracking down on marketers of bogus "organic" products, Neuman reports. Miles McEvoy, head of the program, said it would "require unannounced inspections of organic producers and processors and start regular reviews of organic products in stores to make sure they are correctly labeled and meet federal regulations," Neuman writes. (Read more)
New federal rules scheduled to go into effect in June will also require cows providing certified organic milk to have access to a guaranteed 120 days of pasture grazing. USDA currently only requires that organically raised livestock have access to pasture, Monte Whaley of The Denver Post reports. Emily Prisco, the director of farm resources for Aurora Organic Dairy of Platteville, Colo., told Whaley most farms could follow the new rules, but some might struggle with added recordkeeping. "They might force some of the smaller ones out," she said. "But if a company is not managed well, they probably shouldn't be in the business." (Read more)
The report also found several other shortcomings in USDA's National Organic Program, including including poor oversight of some organic operations overseas and a lack of urgency in cracking down on marketers of bogus "organic" products, Neuman reports. Miles McEvoy, head of the program, said it would "require unannounced inspections of organic producers and processors and start regular reviews of organic products in stores to make sure they are correctly labeled and meet federal regulations," Neuman writes. (Read more)
New federal rules scheduled to go into effect in June will also require cows providing certified organic milk to have access to a guaranteed 120 days of pasture grazing. USDA currently only requires that organically raised livestock have access to pasture, Monte Whaley of The Denver Post reports. Emily Prisco, the director of farm resources for Aurora Organic Dairy of Platteville, Colo., told Whaley most farms could follow the new rules, but some might struggle with added recordkeeping. "They might force some of the smaller ones out," she said. "But if a company is not managed well, they probably shouldn't be in the business." (Read more)
Canada is slaughtering more U.S. horses
New European regulations will require horses bound for slaughter to have detailed medical and drug records or be quarantined for six months, MacQuarrie reports. Race horses that have been injected with painkillers and steroids can enter the market with little or no oversight. Brenda Hemphill, a Maine horse farmer who is called a "kill buyer" by critics because she purchases horses to sell for slaughter in Canada, told MacQuarrie her business "provides an alternative for horse owners who can no longer afford their animals' upkeep or find them a suitable home."
Low-fat, high-protein horse meat can fetch prices up to $20 a pound as a delicacy in Europe, MacQuarrie reports. Critics say allowing horses not raised as food to be sold for food poses a risk to humans who consume them. Others view slaughtering as inhumane and say the industry needs to find a different solution to rising horse neglect and abandonment during the recession. Slaughter advocates counter that selling unwanted horses for meat can circumvent animal abuse. "What’s the best outcome for a horse?" Hemphill said. "That's where I'm coming from." (Read more)
An Illinois bill, which we have previously reported, would have reopened horse slaughter facilities in the state. The legislation has died in the Illinois House, Kevin McDermott of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
Police-escorted funeral processions fading away in small towns
While large cities have been abandoning police escorts for funeral processions for several years, the trend is coming to smaller cities and towns during the recession. "The funeral cortège, a staple of mourning in the USA for generations, is rolling up against modern realities," Larry Copeland of USA Today reports. Concerns about staffing, cost and officer safety forced police in Gulfport, Miss., to limit processions to only five cars. "We could either limit the number of vehicles, or not do (funeral escorts) at all," Lt. Brian Smith, head of the city's traffic unit, told Copeland.
Liability concerns have also come to the forefront of the debate. Courts in Tennessee and Florida ruled that police and funeral homes providing escorts for funeral processions can be held liable for crashes occurring during the processions, Copeland reports. Most states require the lead vehicle in the procession to obey stop signs and traffic lights, but subsequent vehicles in the chain are not required to obey traffic laws. That hasn't stopped many funeral processions from being cited for running red lights caught on traffic cameras. The Georgia House of Representatives is considering a law that would require camera companies to include on citations a box saying the vehicle owner was part of a funeral procession when the violation occurred.
Some smaller communities are still holding on to the tradition on a case-by-case basis, Copeland reports, and some even report an upswing in respect for the processions. "Years ago, everyone pulled to the side of the road and stopped when they saw a procession coming," Randall Earl of the National Funeral Directors Association told Copeland. "That tended to go by the wayside. I've noticed in the past few years, though, that there are more people doing that. I think part of it is because of the war, just respect for fallen soldiers." (Read more)
Liability concerns have also come to the forefront of the debate. Courts in Tennessee and Florida ruled that police and funeral homes providing escorts for funeral processions can be held liable for crashes occurring during the processions, Copeland reports. Most states require the lead vehicle in the procession to obey stop signs and traffic lights, but subsequent vehicles in the chain are not required to obey traffic laws. That hasn't stopped many funeral processions from being cited for running red lights caught on traffic cameras. The Georgia House of Representatives is considering a law that would require camera companies to include on citations a box saying the vehicle owner was part of a funeral procession when the violation occurred.
Some smaller communities are still holding on to the tradition on a case-by-case basis, Copeland reports, and some even report an upswing in respect for the processions. "Years ago, everyone pulled to the side of the road and stopped when they saw a procession coming," Randall Earl of the National Funeral Directors Association told Copeland. "That tended to go by the wayside. I've noticed in the past few years, though, that there are more people doing that. I think part of it is because of the war, just respect for fallen soldiers." (Read more)
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Has one of your local banks failed to pay a dividend on bailout money? It's a sign of trouble
Hundreds of community banks have yet to return their federal bailout money, indicating that some are still in trouble. Large banks were "among the quickest" to return the investments, but many community banks are failing to pay 5 percent quarterly dividends to the government because they "are struggling with losses on real estate development loans," report Binyamin Appelbaum and David Cho of The Washington Post.
"The list of 82 delinquent banks is significantly longer than the 55 banks that failed to make payments in November, according to an analysis by Linus Wilson, a finance professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette," the Post reports. Banks still in the Troubled Assets Relief Program "are not as healthy as the ones that left," Wilson told the newspaper, adding that the missed dividends indicate that the Treasury "probably extended TARP too far, and did not do a lot of due diligence." (Read more)
"The list of 82 delinquent banks is significantly longer than the 55 banks that failed to make payments in November, according to an analysis by Linus Wilson, a finance professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette," the Post reports. Banks still in the Troubled Assets Relief Program "are not as healthy as the ones that left," Wilson told the newspaper, adding that the missed dividends indicate that the Treasury "probably extended TARP too far, and did not do a lot of due diligence." (Read more)
Average interstate speed is between 65 and 70, and that's what auto manufacturers design for
Many urban Americans' primary contact with rural America is on the Interstate highways strung between metropolitan areas. For rural Americans, the roads are increasingly routes to work, health care, culture, recreation and relatives. We rarely meet on the road, but we share its rules, and even help change them. We have effectively increased speed limits. Anyone who drives these roads much knows that; now we have data to suggest a consensus limit: 70 miles per hour.
TomTom Inc., which makes devices using the Global Positioning System, has analyzed data from customers in 45 states who agreed to have their driving anyonmously monitored to help the company steer customers away from routes that become congested at certain times. "The TomTom data suggest that most drivers tend to stay within a few miles per hour of the speed limit on major roads. In 31 out of the 46 jurisdictions, average freeway speeds ranged between 65 and 70.1 mph," with the highest speed in Mississippi, Joseph B. White reports for The Wall Street Journal in his Eyes on the Road column. (WSJ map; speed limits vary)
"This helps to explain why safety advocates and conservationists are losing the long-running debate over ... freeway speed limits," White writes, noting that Virginia last week raised the speed limit on rural interstates to 70 from 65 mph. "Virginia will become the 34th state to boost interstate speed limits to 70 mph or higher. In big, empty states such as New Mexico, Idaho and Nevada, posted limits on rural interstates can be as high as 75 mph." White notes that most cars and light trucks "are designed to cruise comfortably, safely and efficiently at between 65 and 70 mph." (Read more)
"This helps to explain why safety advocates and conservationists are losing the long-running debate over ... freeway speed limits," White writes, noting that Virginia last week raised the speed limit on rural interstates to 70 from 65 mph. "Virginia will become the 34th state to boost interstate speed limits to 70 mph or higher. In big, empty states such as New Mexico, Idaho and Nevada, posted limits on rural interstates can be as high as 75 mph." White notes that most cars and light trucks "are designed to cruise comfortably, safely and efficiently at between 65 and 70 mph." (Read more)
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