The Obama administration supports a study of the effects of natural-gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale in upstate New York but doesn't want to wait for the results of the investigation to begin drilling in the area. "Gen. Peter 'Duke' DeLuca of the Army Corps of Engineers outlined the position in a letter written to Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) and released today," Mike Soraghan of Greenwire reports for The New York Times. "The letter offers the first indication of the administration's position on gas drilling in the Northeast since the day after the Nov. 2 midterm election when President Obama highlighted gas drilling as a potential area of common ground with Republicans."
The drilling would take place in the watershed that supplies drinking water to New York City and Philadelphia. "DeLuca, the Army Corps' North Atlantic division engineer, is the federal representative on the Delaware River Basin Commission, which is developing regulations for gas drilling in eastern Pennsylvania and upstate New York," Soraghan writes. Hinchey and local environmentalists want the commission to maintain a drilling moratorium until results of the study are available, a process that could take years.
"The administration's position is to continue fully supporting the need for a cumulative impact study," DeLuca wrote. "Simultaneously, all these agencies support the DRBC's decision to develop and release draft natural gas regulations." DRBC last week issued "its proposed regulations, which would allow drilling to resume once they are finalized," Soraghan writes. "The commission is planning to hold several hearings during a 90-day comment period. DRBC, which we previously reported on here, is controlled by governors of Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware and New Jersey along with DeLuca. (Read more)
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Rural jobs up, jobless rate not down so much
Two-thirds of rural counties saw an increase in jobs between October 2009 and October 2010, but unemployment rate dropped just one tenth of a percent from September 2010 in rural, urban and exurban counties. The national rural unemployment rate stood at 8.8 percent in October, slightly less than the national rate of 9 percent, Bill Bishop and Roberto Gallardo report for the Daily Yonder. "Generally, the rural communities that were hit the hardest by the recession initially show the greatest decline in unemployment rates over the last year," Bishop and Gallardo write, pointing to the Carolinas, Alabama, Tennessee, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan as examples.
"The trend reverses as you head west of the Mississippi, where rates are often higher than a year ago," Bishop and Gallardo write, pointing to Colorado, Utah, Idaho, New Mexico, Nevada, California, western Montana and parts of Oregon. Farming counties have seen unemployment rates remain remarkably low at 5.1 percent, Dante Chinni of PBS recently reported. Bishop and Gallardo caution that lower unemployment rates don't necessarily mean more jobs, as the decrease can also reflect a fewer number of people looking for work. (Read more) (Yonder map)
"The trend reverses as you head west of the Mississippi, where rates are often higher than a year ago," Bishop and Gallardo write, pointing to Colorado, Utah, Idaho, New Mexico, Nevada, California, western Montana and parts of Oregon. Farming counties have seen unemployment rates remain remarkably low at 5.1 percent, Dante Chinni of PBS recently reported. Bishop and Gallardo caution that lower unemployment rates don't necessarily mean more jobs, as the decrease can also reflect a fewer number of people looking for work. (Read more) (Yonder map)
New data on small, rural counties show they continued to lose people over the last decade
The majority of the country's most rural counties lost even more population over the last decade, says new data from the Census Bureau. Some of roughly 1,400 counties with fewer than 20,000 people, "particularly those in the Mountain West — saw population gains that may be the result of retirees striking out for areas that are both scenic and affordable," Dough Smith and Richard Fausset of the Los Angeles Times report. The data, which also showed a growing Latino presence in those counties, offer the first detailed portrait of heartland America in a decade, Smith and Fausset write.
"Such data had been hard to come by previously," the reporters write. "Concentrated from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountain region, the counties constitute half of the United States by area, but were too sparsely populated to provide meaningful statistics as the Census Bureau rolled out a new yearly national survey in the mid-2000s." The new data, from the American Community Survey, compensates for low number by averaging results over five years. "That makes some of the data difficult to interpret, particularly income figures, because the five-year period spans the pre-recession boom, the recession and the beginning of the recovery," Smith and Fausset write.
Population drops in rural America have been the trend for much of the 20th century, said Ken Johnson, a demographer with the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire. Population growth in rural America was the exception over the last decade, but Spencer County, Kentucky, which is just 45 minutes from downtown Louisville and home to a Corps of Engineers lake impounded 25 years ago, led the way with a 42 percent population growth. The Great Plains appear to be particularly hard hit by the rural population drop as fewer young people are sticking around to have children. "The only thing that might break them [Midwest rural counties] out of it," Johnson told the reporters, "is an influx of young Hispanics." (Read more)
"Such data had been hard to come by previously," the reporters write. "Concentrated from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountain region, the counties constitute half of the United States by area, but were too sparsely populated to provide meaningful statistics as the Census Bureau rolled out a new yearly national survey in the mid-2000s." The new data, from the American Community Survey, compensates for low number by averaging results over five years. "That makes some of the data difficult to interpret, particularly income figures, because the five-year period spans the pre-recession boom, the recession and the beginning of the recovery," Smith and Fausset write.
Population drops in rural America have been the trend for much of the 20th century, said Ken Johnson, a demographer with the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire. Population growth in rural America was the exception over the last decade, but Spencer County, Kentucky, which is just 45 minutes from downtown Louisville and home to a Corps of Engineers lake impounded 25 years ago, led the way with a 42 percent population growth. The Great Plains appear to be particularly hard hit by the rural population drop as fewer young people are sticking around to have children. "The only thing that might break them [Midwest rural counties] out of it," Johnson told the reporters, "is an influx of young Hispanics." (Read more)
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
A 60,000-circulation newspaper without its own copy desk? It's happening in Winston-Salem
Financially squeezed newspaper chains are consolidating their operations, especially in smaller towns. Sometimes it's the press and the pressroom employees, and/or the copy desk, with one or both functions being transferred to larger papers. Folks at the Winston-Salem Journal, circulation 60,000 in a city of 215,000, never thought they would lose their copy desk. But they are, as Media General Inc. moves its copyediting to its big papers in Richmond and Tampa.
More than one of the 18 people on the desk, interviewed for a YouTube video, called the move "inconceivable." One voiced the concern that has arisen in many smaller towns, that copy editors in distant places won't catch mistakes and even make correct copy erroneous. "If you can't know that Robinhood Road is one word, and you keep putting it in the newspaper as two words, that's your credibility," Karen Parker said, citing a significant local road. "Why should anybody believe that you're right about anything else? And a newspaper runs on its credibility. Its success is its credbility, not its bottom line."
Copy editor Tom Radulovic disputed Media General's assertion that the move would help it improve local newsgathering. "We are a source of local knowledge," he said. "I don't think they really appreciate what it means to have 15 additional people in the community as a set of ears." Here's the video:
More than one of the 18 people on the desk, interviewed for a YouTube video, called the move "inconceivable." One voiced the concern that has arisen in many smaller towns, that copy editors in distant places won't catch mistakes and even make correct copy erroneous. "If you can't know that Robinhood Road is one word, and you keep putting it in the newspaper as two words, that's your credibility," Karen Parker said, citing a significant local road. "Why should anybody believe that you're right about anything else? And a newspaper runs on its credibility. Its success is its credbility, not its bottom line."
Copy editor Tom Radulovic disputed Media General's assertion that the move would help it improve local newsgathering. "We are a source of local knowledge," he said. "I don't think they really appreciate what it means to have 15 additional people in the community as a set of ears." Here's the video:
Families of the miners killed at Upper Big Branch 'continue to live in grief'
"We're just going to be forgotten," Jones told Berkes, while mine disasters are "going to continue and continue and continue to go on. We need it fixed." He pointed out that in the national outpouring of support following the disaster, "They mourn for you, and it's unbelievable how this nation came together. But if [we] don't speak out and continue to speak out, it's just forgotten." Gene's mourning turns from grief to anger when he considers Dean's complaints he made about safety at Upper Big Branch. "Alice Peters, Dean's mother-in-law, testified in a congressional hearing in Beckley in May that Dean had been threatened with dismissal seven times because he resisted putting his crew in danger," Berkes writes.
Because Dean's insurance provided for his 14-year-old son with cystic fibrosis, "Dean needed his job to make sure his son could get the medical care he needed," Peters testified. Gene noted that in the eight months since the explosion that killed 29 miners, Congress has rejected mine safety reform, the investigations of the explosion drag on, and Massey Energy retiring CEO Don Blankenship will receive at least $12 million, four times the amount of the settlement that Massey offered his family.
"It's so sad to hear these crazy things," he told Berkes. The miners "were there every day risking their lives for that black coal, for us, surviving in this country. And because of that, I lost my brother." (Read more)
Committee to study efficacy of electronic health records on patient safety
The Obama administration pledged $19 billion of stimulus package funding to convert the nation's hospitals to electronic health records, but the conversion has been slow. "Only about one in four doctors, mostly in large group practices, is using the electronic record system," Milt Freudenheim of The New York Times reports. "A vast majority of physicians in small offices, the doctors who serve most Americans, still track patients’ illnesses and other problems with pen and paper." A recent report on North Carolina hospitals in the New England Journal of Medicine reveals deadly medical errors are still all too common.
The Food and Drug Administration notes "parts of a patient’s electronic medical records have disappeared or been saved in the wrong patient’s file," Freudenheim writes. "Incorrect entries have sometimes been posted for drug allergies and blood pressure readings, the agency said." To tackle those concerns, the Institute of Medicine created the Committee on Patient Safety and Health Information Technology to run a yearlong study and issue recommendations. "We said we value innovation, but we don’t value it more than safety," said Kenneth W. Goodman, a University of Miami bioethicist who headed an association advisory group on patient safety.
"In an indication of interest from Congress, Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, wrote to the health information industry and to Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of Health and Human Services, to ask what was being done to make sure the systems were being reviewed and monitored for patient safety concerns and what role the FDA. played in regulating health information technology," Freudenheim writes. Dr. David Blumenthal, the Obama administration’s national coordinator for health information technology, explained, "All options for assuring safety are on the table." (Read more)
The Food and Drug Administration notes "parts of a patient’s electronic medical records have disappeared or been saved in the wrong patient’s file," Freudenheim writes. "Incorrect entries have sometimes been posted for drug allergies and blood pressure readings, the agency said." To tackle those concerns, the Institute of Medicine created the Committee on Patient Safety and Health Information Technology to run a yearlong study and issue recommendations. "We said we value innovation, but we don’t value it more than safety," said Kenneth W. Goodman, a University of Miami bioethicist who headed an association advisory group on patient safety.
"In an indication of interest from Congress, Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, wrote to the health information industry and to Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of Health and Human Services, to ask what was being done to make sure the systems were being reviewed and monitored for patient safety concerns and what role the FDA. played in regulating health information technology," Freudenheim writes. Dr. David Blumenthal, the Obama administration’s national coordinator for health information technology, explained, "All options for assuring safety are on the table." (Read more)
N.Y. governor vetoes fracking moratorium in favor of his own plan
In November we reported that the New York Assembly had approved a six-month moratorium on hydraulic fracturing. On Saturday, Gov. David A. Patterson vetoed that legislation in favor of an executive order that more narrowly defines the types of drilling to be restricted. Patterson's executive order includes a fracking moratorium until July 1, 2011, a period longer than the one specified by the bill, Tom Zeller Jr. of The New York Times reports. "This legislation, which was well intentioned, would have a serious impact on our state if signed into law," Paterson said in a prepared statement. "Enacting this legislation would put people out of work – work that is permitted by the Department of Environmental Conservation and causes no demonstrated environmental harm, in order to effectuate a moratorium that is principally symbolic."
Fracking, a controversial drilling technique, "uses the high-pressure injection of water, sand and a variety of chemicals to crack and prop open shale seams and more economically release gas deposits," Zeller writes. "Industry groups have argued that the process is safe, but opponents fear that those chemicals, or displaced natural gas, could be leading to the contamination of drinking water in places where fracking is already well under way, including large portions of Pennsylvania." The vetoed legislation would have implemented a fracking moratorium until May 15, 2011.
"Industry representatives complained that such a sweeping moratorium would outlaw virtually all drilling in New York, including its portion of the Marcellus shale, a vast and deep deposit of natural gas stretching under several states," Zeller writes. Patterson's order distinguishes between vertical wells and "horizontal drilling" techniques. "The governor’s order restricts permits for 'high-volume, horizontal hydraulic fracturing,'" Zeller writes.
The announcement was met with support from the natural gas industry. "We are very pleased that the governor saw the bill for what it was – a flawed piece of legislation replete with unintended and dire consequences for the people and businesses in our industry, " said Brad Gill, the executive director of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York, in a statement. Craig Michaels, the watershed program director for the environmental group Riverkeeper, worried the order provides a potential loophole for companies. (Read more)
Fracking, a controversial drilling technique, "uses the high-pressure injection of water, sand and a variety of chemicals to crack and prop open shale seams and more economically release gas deposits," Zeller writes. "Industry groups have argued that the process is safe, but opponents fear that those chemicals, or displaced natural gas, could be leading to the contamination of drinking water in places where fracking is already well under way, including large portions of Pennsylvania." The vetoed legislation would have implemented a fracking moratorium until May 15, 2011.
"Industry representatives complained that such a sweeping moratorium would outlaw virtually all drilling in New York, including its portion of the Marcellus shale, a vast and deep deposit of natural gas stretching under several states," Zeller writes. Patterson's order distinguishes between vertical wells and "horizontal drilling" techniques. "The governor’s order restricts permits for 'high-volume, horizontal hydraulic fracturing,'" Zeller writes.
The announcement was met with support from the natural gas industry. "We are very pleased that the governor saw the bill for what it was – a flawed piece of legislation replete with unintended and dire consequences for the people and businesses in our industry, " said Brad Gill, the executive director of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York, in a statement. Craig Michaels, the watershed program director for the environmental group Riverkeeper, worried the order provides a potential loophole for companies. (Read more)
Rural students revive Oregon university
Three years ago Eastern Oregon University was on the brink of collapse. This fall enrollment hit a record 4,137 students. School administrators say the key to the turnaround focusing on recruiting rural students, Bill Graves of The Oregonian reports. "We are a rural university," President Bob Davies, who arrived on campus in July of 2009, told Graves. "We serve a group that is unique to us." Eastern Oregon draws more than half its campus from east of the Cascades, an area that "is bigger than Florida and nearly the size of all of Washington, yet it contains only 529,100, or 14 percent, of Oregon's people," Graves writes.
"To stay affordable, Eastern continues to charge the lowest tuition and fees -- $6,639 a year for a full-time undergraduate student -- in the state system, and it charges no more for out-of-state students," Graves writes. "Its foundation has launched the first phase of a campaign to raise about $12 million, which would triple its $6 million endowment, primarily to provide students more financial aid." Eastern Oregon has also had success with off-campus learning. "Only about half of Eastern's students attend college on campus," Graves writes. "Another 2,200 mostly rural students take classes and earn degrees online through 16 centers scattered across Oregon." (Read more)
Three years ago, "Eastern's reserves were drained, its enrollment had dropped, its relations with the community had soured, faculty and staff morale was in the tank, the president had just resigned, and some members of the State Board of Higher Education were asking whether they should just close the university," Graves writes. Today, after focusing on helping rural students succeed at Eastern by making the university more accessible, affordable and personally engaging, foundation leaders are launching a campaign to triple the school's endowment, Graves reports. "It is about connections," Davies said. "When we have that strong connection, we thrive." (EOU Photo of first year students)
Monday, December 13, 2010
Feds plan anew to take gray wolf off endangered species list in Western Great Lakes states
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Secretary Matt Frank said his state has more than 700 wolves, “nearly twice the level prescribed by the Wisconsin Wolf Management Plan,” and “Problems with wolves killing valuable livestock and hunting dogs have grown to intolerable levels.” For the service's Web page on the gray wolf in the region, go here.
Online classroom could replace 'snow days'
In Kentucky and Ohio, the states' education departments are working on creating an online school program for use during snow days, reports Cindy Kranz for the Cincinnati Enquirer. In Ohio, the state has already launched a pilot project to provide online assignments to snowbound students as a way to satisfy the requirements of a school day. In Kentucky, the education department is planning its own pilot program, as early as next year, asking the districts in eastern and central Kentucky that often miss up to three weeks of school due to inclement weather, to participate.
For rural students, treacherous or impassable roads often close schools for extended periods of time. Online classwork could help reduce the number of snow days, but not before a number of hurdles have been cleared, including lack of home Internet access for many children. Brad Hughes, spokesman for the Kentucky School Boards Association, said superintendents with high numbers of snow days would prefer that students not have the big gap in learning that snow days create. But they have to be able to reach all of the kids. "It's not impossible, but we don't have in many of those counties the Web-based infrastructure to pull it off right now," said Hughes.
Teachers must have five days of lesson plans prepared ahead of time that are appropriate to the course of study. "We want these lessons to be directly related to what is being emphasized instructionally at the time of the calamity day and aligning these in the short time frame we have when the weather is bad is problematic,'' said Greg Power, director of curriculum and instruction for the Little Miami School District in Ohio. (Read more)
For rural students, treacherous or impassable roads often close schools for extended periods of time. Online classwork could help reduce the number of snow days, but not before a number of hurdles have been cleared, including lack of home Internet access for many children. Brad Hughes, spokesman for the Kentucky School Boards Association, said superintendents with high numbers of snow days would prefer that students not have the big gap in learning that snow days create. But they have to be able to reach all of the kids. "It's not impossible, but we don't have in many of those counties the Web-based infrastructure to pull it off right now," said Hughes.
Teachers must have five days of lesson plans prepared ahead of time that are appropriate to the course of study. "We want these lessons to be directly related to what is being emphasized instructionally at the time of the calamity day and aligning these in the short time frame we have when the weather is bad is problematic,'' said Greg Power, director of curriculum and instruction for the Little Miami School District in Ohio. (Read more)
Alaska parents may pay big fines for truant kids
Courts in Western Alaska are now fining parents if their children are truant. Kyle Hopkins writes for the Anchorage Daily News that parents can be fined hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars if their kid misses too many days of class, according to court records and rural school district officials in Alaska. The laws regarding truancy are not new, but whether parents get a ticket depends partly on where they live, reports Hopkins. The Anchorage school system has not pursued a truancy violation in the past 10 years. In some rural districts are increasingly turning to the mandatory-attendance laws in hopes of boosting test scores and slashing dropout rates, writes Hopkins.
Sgt. Duane Stone, a supervisor for the trooper post in Kotzebue, said,"[Fines are] not to get people into court. It's to get kids in school." A series of warnings and meetings with parents generally come first, and courts allow the families to reduce or avoid the fees simply by improving attendance. In northwest Alaska, one attendance counselor said she's found that working with the regional nonprofit agency to withhold public assistance payments to families is the single best way to improve attendance. (Read more)
Sgt. Duane Stone, a supervisor for the trooper post in Kotzebue, said,"[Fines are] not to get people into court. It's to get kids in school." A series of warnings and meetings with parents generally come first, and courts allow the families to reduce or avoid the fees simply by improving attendance. In northwest Alaska, one attendance counselor said she's found that working with the regional nonprofit agency to withhold public assistance payments to families is the single best way to improve attendance. (Read more)
Mississippi, North Dakota and Hawaii among states that benefit most from earmarks
The biggest loser if earmarks are limited may be Mississippi, which "pulls in 11 times as much in earmarked funds as it sends back to Washington in taxes, according to an analysis from Brandon Arnold, director of government relations at the Cato Institute, a libertarian group," Prah writes. The University of Southern Mississippi recently received a half million dollars worth of earmarks for its cannabis eradication program, which is designed to help law enforcement officials detect indoor marijuana growing operations. That money was "tucked away in the federal Commerce, Justice and Science appropriations bill for fiscal year 2010," Prah writes.
"These states will still get federal funds" if an earmark ban goes through, said Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, "but no doubt about it, they will get dinged." Earmark supporters say a ban would "would rob lawmakers of their authority to set the spending and taxing policies of the nation, relinquishing it to the executive branch," Prah writes. Both sides of the argument agree a ban on earmarks is symbolic; they account for only about 1 percent of federal spending.
"Critics questioned the GOP's resolve to curb earmarks after House Republicans selected U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers of Kentucky to head the House Appropriations Committee in the next Congress," Prah writes. "Some in Congress call Rogers, who is credited with winning some 135 earmarks for his district, at a cost of $246 million over the past two year the 'Prince of Pork.'" Rogers, however, has spoken out in favor of the earmark ban. he represents the nation's most rural district, covering most of Appalachian Kentucky. (Read more)
N.Y. Times blasts GOP for killing mine safety bill
The New York Times' editorial board has been outspoken in favor of strengthening mine safety laws in the wake of the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster that killed 29 West Virginia miners in April. Now the newspaper has blasted congressional Republicans for blocking the legislation. "Republicans predictably shielded mine owners, citing warnings from the National Association of Manufacturers that the reform might drive up coal prices by expanding government authority and exposing mining companies to greater criminal penalties and damage litigation," the newspaper writes. "That is exactly what this perilously dangerous industry needs. Too many lives have already been lost for the sake of cheap coal."
The editorial continues, "The failure was even more egregious in the Senate, where strong reform proposals never saw the heat of debate as the Republican minority wielded its brute dogma of filibustering. . . . The owner of the Upper Big Branch, Massey Energy, can now rest easier. The defeated reform would have toughened enforcement against serial violators like Massey — it had 515 violations in 2009 — which routinely game the system and count on years of appeals to allow them to keep flouting the law." The Times concludes, "We fear reform is even less likely in the new Congress where pro-industry Republicans will have greater power. This year they warned against a “rush to judgment” about what precisely happened at Upper Big Branch. We know what happened, 29 people died. And Congress failed in its duty." (Read more)
The editorial continues, "The failure was even more egregious in the Senate, where strong reform proposals never saw the heat of debate as the Republican minority wielded its brute dogma of filibustering. . . . The owner of the Upper Big Branch, Massey Energy, can now rest easier. The defeated reform would have toughened enforcement against serial violators like Massey — it had 515 violations in 2009 — which routinely game the system and count on years of appeals to allow them to keep flouting the law." The Times concludes, "We fear reform is even less likely in the new Congress where pro-industry Republicans will have greater power. This year they warned against a “rush to judgment” about what precisely happened at Upper Big Branch. We know what happened, 29 people died. And Congress failed in its duty." (Read more)
Securing ethanol subsidies may be difficult
The ethanol industry earned a victory last week with the one-year extension of key federal subsidies, but securing those subsidies next year may be a tougher battle. "Industry officials say they're open to changing the way the government subsidizes producers next year, but there is disagreement within the industry about the best way to do it," Philip Brasher of the Des Moines Register reports. "A one-year extension of the subsidy buys the industry some time." With the federal deficit and an influx of conservative Republicans to Congress, the battle for those subsidies is expected to be more difficult in 2011.
"This allows us to have that debate next year but to figure out how we want to support the industry in a way that is fiscally responsible," said Bob Dinneen, president and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association. Nathanael Greene, an energy policy analyst for the Natural Resources Defense Council and a critic of corn ethanol, said the industry has "got to be nervous," given the deficit issue. "It doesn't look like corn ethanol is always going to get all it wants," Greene told Brasher.
"What happens in 2011 is up in the air," Brasher writes. "A rival trade group to the Renewable Fuels Association, called Growth Energy, has proposed to phase out the tax credit and shift the money into financing ethanol pipelines and retrofitting service stations to sell gasoline with higher ethanol content." RFA says "everything is on the table" in the discussion of how to continue federal support. "We have committed to reforming the tax incentive to make it more fiscally responsible, but it has to be one that works and one that encourages investment in new technologies and continues the evolution of the industry," Dinneen told Brasher. "I don't think we've seen a proposal out there yet that necessarily does all that." (Read more)
"This allows us to have that debate next year but to figure out how we want to support the industry in a way that is fiscally responsible," said Bob Dinneen, president and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association. Nathanael Greene, an energy policy analyst for the Natural Resources Defense Council and a critic of corn ethanol, said the industry has "got to be nervous," given the deficit issue. "It doesn't look like corn ethanol is always going to get all it wants," Greene told Brasher.
"What happens in 2011 is up in the air," Brasher writes. "A rival trade group to the Renewable Fuels Association, called Growth Energy, has proposed to phase out the tax credit and shift the money into financing ethanol pipelines and retrofitting service stations to sell gasoline with higher ethanol content." RFA says "everything is on the table" in the discussion of how to continue federal support. "We have committed to reforming the tax incentive to make it more fiscally responsible, but it has to be one that works and one that encourages investment in new technologies and continues the evolution of the industry," Dinneen told Brasher. "I don't think we've seen a proposal out there yet that necessarily does all that." (Read more)
Newspaper series tells the stories of rural residents who are 'full of charisma and verve'
Inspired by a multimedia series from The New York Times, a rural Washington newspaper has launched its own multimedia series to highlight the often unsung residents of its community. The project, "Voices from the Walla Walla Valley," was designed by the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin and includes a story and slideshow about each Walla Walla resident profiled. "Last year, I fell in love with a New York Times multimedia series called 'One in 8 Million,'" Katrina Barlow of the Union-Bulletin explains on the project Web site. "Each weekly episode featured an everyday New Yorker, who shared something about his or her occupation or lifestyle. I realized that characters like those New Yorkers, who were so full of charisma and verve, lived in rural areas."
"The Walla Walla Valley is full of people who have remarkable stories," Barlow writes. "This is our attempt to highlight these untold stories." The project, which includes an episode every Sunday, will feature both longtime and new residents of the valley. A summary of each episode is included in Sunday print edition of the Union-Bulletin with the full story and video appearing on the newspaper's Web site. You can view the first three episodes of the series here or read more about the project from its founders here.
"The Walla Walla Valley is full of people who have remarkable stories," Barlow writes. "This is our attempt to highlight these untold stories." The project, which includes an episode every Sunday, will feature both longtime and new residents of the valley. A summary of each episode is included in Sunday print edition of the Union-Bulletin with the full story and video appearing on the newspaper's Web site. You can view the first three episodes of the series here or read more about the project from its founders here.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Reform of largest rural electric cooperative seems complete with conviction of ex-manager
UPDATE 12/15: A Gillespie County jury sentenced Fuelberg to probation and a $30,000 fine. "The jury's sentence does not state a term of probation, to be determined by state District Judge Dan Mills in January," Patrick George of the Austin-American Statesman reports. "In remarks from the bench, Mills suggested Fuelberg might have to pay $84,000 in restitution , and serve jail time as a condition of his probation." Fuelberg's attorney said he was pleased with the sentence and Assistant Attorney General Harry White added the verdict "sends a powerful message to the community that people in positions of trust will be held accountable for their actions when they violate that trust." (Read more)
The former manager of the nation's largest rural electric cooperative, who resigned two years ago, was convicted Friday of theft, money laundering and fiduciary misapplication of property, all third-degree felonies that could cost him two to 10 years in prison and $10,000.
Bennie Fuelberg, 66, now faces sentencing by the Gillespie County jury that reduced the charges from first-degree felonies. He was accused of "funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars in co-op members' money between 1996 and 2007 to his lobbyist brother" and the son of a former Pedernales Electric Cooperative board member, Patrick George of the Austin American-Statesman reports.
The utility came under scrutiny after customer-members member sued it in 2007, leading to "disclosures of large salaries, excessive expenditures and money-losing ventures at the co-op, which Fuelberg ran with little oversight by the well-compensated board of directors," George writes. "A reform movement" purged the entire board, Fuelberg and other officials. "Today, the co-op has levels of openness unheard of during Fuelberg's tenure, including democratic board elections and more open records." (Co-op map shows its service areas)
Co-op member Andy Wilson of Public Citizen Texas said the verdict is a warning. "This should send a chill down the spine of other corrupt co-op boards and managers across the country," he told the Statesman. "We can take back our co-ops, as we've done in Pedernales, and so can others across the country." (Read more)
The former manager of the nation's largest rural electric cooperative, who resigned two years ago, was convicted Friday of theft, money laundering and fiduciary misapplication of property, all third-degree felonies that could cost him two to 10 years in prison and $10,000.
Bennie Fuelberg, 66, now faces sentencing by the Gillespie County jury that reduced the charges from first-degree felonies. He was accused of "funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars in co-op members' money between 1996 and 2007 to his lobbyist brother" and the son of a former Pedernales Electric Cooperative board member, Patrick George of the Austin American-Statesman reports.
Co-op member Andy Wilson of Public Citizen Texas said the verdict is a warning. "This should send a chill down the spine of other corrupt co-op boards and managers across the country," he told the Statesman. "We can take back our co-ops, as we've done in Pedernales, and so can others across the country." (Read more)
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Postal Service is closing offices and branches at a rate not seen for at least 15 years, Globe says
Squeezed by the recession and increasing use of the Internet to send documents once sent by mail, the U.S. Postal Service is closing post offices and branches at a rate "substantially steeper ... than at any time in the past 15 years," David Abel reports for The Boston Globe from Windsor, Mass., which lost its post office this year.
"For 113 years, the post office in Windsor brought people together in the small town in the Berkshires, providing a place to chitchat, do business, and send their precious parcels where they needed to go," Abel writes. "But this fall, to the dismay of many of the town’s 900 residents, the U.S. Postal Service closed its local branch, located most recently inside a general store." (Globe photo by Nancy Palmeri)
"This year there are 742 fewer post offices across the country than last year, more than three times the number of offices that were closed last year," Abel reports. (Read more) It's unclear whether his numbers include those where the USPS says it has only suspended service, a strategy it appears to be using to avoid the procedures required to close an office, we reported in February.
"This year there are 742 fewer post offices across the country than last year, more than three times the number of offices that were closed last year," Abel reports. (Read more) It's unclear whether his numbers include those where the USPS says it has only suspended service, a strategy it appears to be using to avoid the procedures required to close an office, we reported in February.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Rural detention center for youth may be closed
California is trying to "plug a $25.4 billion budget gap," writes Lagos, and closing Preston would save the state $30 million this fiscal year, officials estimate. Preston is the oldest of of five juvenile facilities in California and houses just 224 youths of 1,300 juvenile offenders in the state. Most of the youths there are hours away from their families. By most accounts, the building is in terrible condition. Sumayyah Waheed, who runs a campaign at an Oakland civil rights group, called Preston a "dungeon" and rattled off a litany of incidents that have occurred there, including suicides and the use of Mace by guards. "Preston is also the most remote, the furthest away from youths' families," she said. "Everyone has to ask their family to travel ... it's really a burden."
The facility employs about 450 people in a county with just 38,000 residents and a 12.4 percent unemployment rate, reports Lagos. Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesman Bill Sessa said closing Preston is a budget decision, noting that the Department of Juvenile Justice was ordered to cut $39 million from its budget this fiscal year and has already closed eight facilities this decade. The agency is working to place Preston's employees in other corrections facilities within communting distance. (Read more)
Ag secretary outlines strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced steps that his department is taking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The U.S. Department of Agriculture will provide $15 million in Conservation Innovation Grants to promote carbon sequestration on private lands and test ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through large-scale demonstration projects. Vilsack's comments came at international climate talks in Cancun, Mexico, Amanda Peterka of Environment & Energy News reports. In a conference call with reporters Vilsack said he wanted to assure U.N. delegates that "we are taking steps to put our farmers and ranchers and forested-land owners in a better position" to reduce emissions.
The money provided by the USDA "will be administered through the department's Natural Resources Conservation Service and will also support farmers who carry out conservation measures associated with the projects," Peterka writes. "In another initiative to begin next year, USDA's Farm Service Agency will provide information to landowners on the carbon dioxide they save when they voluntarily plant trees through the farm bill's Conservation Reserve Program."
To launch the Carbon Net program, the USDA will draw from its electronic Hay Net service, which tracks farmers in need of hay and those with an excess. "The service will identify those in need of carbon credits and link them up with others who may be producing credits," Peterka writes. Vilsack explained "What we're doing here is not establishing credits. We're creating demonstration projects that will allow us to better measure and more accurately measure the benefits that are accrued by certain practices." (Read more)
The money provided by the USDA "will be administered through the department's Natural Resources Conservation Service and will also support farmers who carry out conservation measures associated with the projects," Peterka writes. "In another initiative to begin next year, USDA's Farm Service Agency will provide information to landowners on the carbon dioxide they save when they voluntarily plant trees through the farm bill's Conservation Reserve Program."
To launch the Carbon Net program, the USDA will draw from its electronic Hay Net service, which tracks farmers in need of hay and those with an excess. "The service will identify those in need of carbon credits and link them up with others who may be producing credits," Peterka writes. Vilsack explained "What we're doing here is not establishing credits. We're creating demonstration projects that will allow us to better measure and more accurately measure the benefits that are accrued by certain practices." (Read more)
New Web site to help agricultural communities prepare for disaster
A recently launched Web site from the Center for Food Security and Public Health at Iowa State University aims to help rural communities prepare for hazardous events. By preparing for those events, the center hopes to help communities prevent or minimize the impact on human and animal health as well as crop production or property damage, says the Web site. The center writes, "Agricultural communities are at risk for a number of hazardous or emergency situations, such as natural disasters or emerging diseases, as well as man-made or technological hazards (e.g., agrochemical spills, bioterrorism). Any of these situations can greatly impact the individuals, farms and their commodities, as well as businesses in the affected areas."
"This Web site houses a database of numerous resources to help citizens of rural agricultural communities – individuals, farmers and producers, businesses – prepare for and recover from a number of natural and man-made threats," the center writes. The Web site is divided into five sections: natural disasters, biological threats, technological man-made threats, general preparedness and all resources. The center also provides links for contacting federal and state officials and submitting your own resources. You can access the Web site at http://www.prep4agthreats.org/.
"This Web site houses a database of numerous resources to help citizens of rural agricultural communities – individuals, farmers and producers, businesses – prepare for and recover from a number of natural and man-made threats," the center writes. The Web site is divided into five sections: natural disasters, biological threats, technological man-made threats, general preparedness and all resources. The center also provides links for contacting federal and state officials and submitting your own resources. You can access the Web site at http://www.prep4agthreats.org/.
Ethanol subsidy and tariff to be extended
Congressional lawmakers have reached an agreement to extend the 45 cents per gallon subsidy for ethanol for one year and continue a tariff on the imports of the biofuel. The tariff will remain at 54 cents per gallon through 2011, said Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley. The provisions would be included in tax legislation worked out with the White House, Philip Brasher of the Des Moines Register reports. "The bill also would resurrect and extend for another year the $1-a-gallon subsidy for biodiesel that expired at the end of 2009," Brasher writes.
Grassley on Thursday announced the provisions would be included in the tax bill but the level of each provision was still uncertain. "The ethanol subsidy and tariff were due to expire at the end of this month," Brasher writes. Extending these provisions "will boost jobs and investment in the alternative energy sector, exactly when the economy needs a real shot in the arm," Grassley said. Critics of the growing federal deficit had targeted the subsidy and tariff as a move to cut deficit spending. (Read more)
Grassley on Thursday announced the provisions would be included in the tax bill but the level of each provision was still uncertain. "The ethanol subsidy and tariff were due to expire at the end of this month," Brasher writes. Extending these provisions "will boost jobs and investment in the alternative energy sector, exactly when the economy needs a real shot in the arm," Grassley said. Critics of the growing federal deficit had targeted the subsidy and tariff as a move to cut deficit spending. (Read more)
Massey foremen sentenced to probation for role in fire that killed two miners at Aracoma
Four Massey Energy foremen were sentenced Thursday to a year of probation and a total of $7,000 in fines for their role in the 2006 fire that killed two workers at Massey's Aracoma Alma No. 1 Mine in Logan County, W.V. The foremen, Donald R. Hagy, Terry L. Shadd, Edward R. Ellis and Michael A. Plumley, admitted to not conducting required mine-evacuation drills prior to the fire, Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston Gazette reports. "Family members of the foremen filled one side of the courtroom, and [U.S. District Court Judge John T.] Copenhaver said he had received letters from their friends, neighbors and pastors speaking up for their character," Ward writes.
Bruce Stanley, an attorney for the two miners' widows, told Copenhaver his clients were not looking for the judge to be overly harsh in sentencing. "The true culpability in this matter rests in a higher position of authority than the four gentlemen in this courtroom," Stanley said. The two widows, Delorice Bragg and Freda Hatfield, spoke out in early 2009 "against a deal in which Massey's Aracoma Coal Co. subsidiary pleaded guilty to 10 mine safety crimes and paid a $2.5 million fine, while prosecutors agreed they would not pursue any charges against the Massey parent company or any of its officers or employees," Ward writes. (Read more)
Bruce Stanley, an attorney for the two miners' widows, told Copenhaver his clients were not looking for the judge to be overly harsh in sentencing. "The true culpability in this matter rests in a higher position of authority than the four gentlemen in this courtroom," Stanley said. The two widows, Delorice Bragg and Freda Hatfield, spoke out in early 2009 "against a deal in which Massey's Aracoma Coal Co. subsidiary pleaded guilty to 10 mine safety crimes and paid a $2.5 million fine, while prosecutors agreed they would not pursue any charges against the Massey parent company or any of its officers or employees," Ward writes. (Read more)
Thursday, December 09, 2010
Editor and one of five grant-funded reporters in Ark. promote community journalism at Ark. State
Write for Arkansas, a grant-funded program to place an additional reporter at five community newspapers in the state, has as a secondary goal to raise awareness of the need for trained, professional journalists to cover local issues. "To that end, Write for Arkansas reporter Sarah Morris of the Stuttgart Daily Leader and her editor, Lesley Valadez, traveled to Arkansas State University last month to speak to first-year journalism students about the field of community journalism," The Arkansas Publisher Weekly reports today.
Morris said their main message was “Journalism is still alive and the need for community reporting is still there.” She and Valadez gave students advice on advancing their careers in journalism. “We talked about how internships and multimedia skills were also important in grabbing the jobs,” Morris said.
Reporters in the program "plan to seek additional opportunities to reach out to student journalists and encourage a future generation of community reporters," the story reports. In addition to the Leader, the program has funded reporters at the Texarkana Gazette, The Courier of Russellville, Areawide Media of Salem and the Madison County Record. The program was started by the Arkansas Community Foundation and has a $252,000 matching grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Morris said their main message was “Journalism is still alive and the need for community reporting is still there.” She and Valadez gave students advice on advancing their careers in journalism. “We talked about how internships and multimedia skills were also important in grabbing the jobs,” Morris said.
Reporters in the program "plan to seek additional opportunities to reach out to student journalists and encourage a future generation of community reporters," the story reports. In addition to the Leader, the program has funded reporters at the Texarkana Gazette, The Courier of Russellville, Areawide Media of Salem and the Madison County Record. The program was started by the Arkansas Community Foundation and has a $252,000 matching grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Mine safety bill defeated, but funding approved
The House of Representatives on Thursday voted down a new version of the long-stalled mine safety bill even after its sponsors removed language that would expand Occupational Safety and Health Administration enforcement authority at all workplaces. "The mine safety bill, which would improve federal regulators' power to crack down on unsafe coal mining operations, failed to advance on the suspensions calendar, with a two-thirds majority required for passage," Elana Schor of Environment & Energy News reports. "The 214-193 vote on the bill, introduced last week by House Education and Labor Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.), came with one Republican voting in favor and 27 Democrats opposed."
Republicans and business groups had raised concerns about the added power the original bill would have given OSHA, but after removing that language, the House bill likely would have faced a delay in the Senate if it had been passed. "Republicans in the upper chamber recently objected to an attempt to unanimously clear the Senate version of the bill, named for the late Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), charging Democrats with abandoning bipartisan talks on a compromise," Schor writes.
Miller said he was pleased that a majority of the House backed the bill, but criticized. Republicans for "turn[ing] their backs on those who go underground every day, 600 of whom who have died in the last decade." Minnesota Republican Rep. John Kline countered that the Democrats set up a failed vote by putting the bill on the suspensions calendar. "Republicans will continue to hold accountable the agency charged with enforcing the law and use the findings of the ongoing investigations to ensure any future legislative or regulatory steps to protect miners are well-informed," said Kline. (Read more, subscription required)
While the House defeated the mine safety package, it did approve additional mine safety money in a spending bill, Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston Gazette reports on his Coal Tattoo blog. California Democratic Miller noted that the full-year continuing appropriations act includes "$5.3 million for the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission, which will enable the agency to hire an additional ten administrative law judges to hear cases." (Read more)
Republicans and business groups had raised concerns about the added power the original bill would have given OSHA, but after removing that language, the House bill likely would have faced a delay in the Senate if it had been passed. "Republicans in the upper chamber recently objected to an attempt to unanimously clear the Senate version of the bill, named for the late Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), charging Democrats with abandoning bipartisan talks on a compromise," Schor writes.
Miller said he was pleased that a majority of the House backed the bill, but criticized. Republicans for "turn[ing] their backs on those who go underground every day, 600 of whom who have died in the last decade." Minnesota Republican Rep. John Kline countered that the Democrats set up a failed vote by putting the bill on the suspensions calendar. "Republicans will continue to hold accountable the agency charged with enforcing the law and use the findings of the ongoing investigations to ensure any future legislative or regulatory steps to protect miners are well-informed," said Kline. (Read more, subscription required)
While the House defeated the mine safety package, it did approve additional mine safety money in a spending bill, Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston Gazette reports on his Coal Tattoo blog. California Democratic Miller noted that the full-year continuing appropriations act includes "$5.3 million for the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission, which will enable the agency to hire an additional ten administrative law judges to hear cases." (Read more)
States look to private sector for help attracting businesses; would it help or hurt rural areas?
Several Republican gubernatorial victors made campaign promises about privatizing various sectors of state government, but the devil is in the details, Melissa Maynard of Stateline.org reports. Incoming Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich proposed privatizing the Ohio Development Department, saying, "The days of trying to connect to business leaders through bureaucrats are over." Govs.-elect Terry Branstad of Iowa, Jan Brewer of Arizona and Scott Walker of Wisconsin also made similar privatization campaign promises designed to spur economic development.
"The question of how to empower business leaders to play a more meaningful role in state economic development efforts without sacrificing the accountability and transparency with which public funds are used is hardly a new one," Maynard writes. "A number of states — including Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Texas, Utah and Virginia — have privatized some aspects of their economic development functions in recent years, with mixed results." The structures of each state's programs may be different but "the governing principle behind all of these approaches is the same: Let local business leaders, rather than bureaucrats, take the lead on state economic development and marketing efforts," Maynard writes.
"This is one of those skill sets that government just doesn’t have as a core competency in-house," insists Leonard Gilroy, director of government reform for the Reason Foundation, a free-market think tank. Texas has enjoyed some success with its public-private partnership with nonprofit TexasOne, which is able to use strategies like sporting-event tickets to attract businesses that state agencies can't. Other states have run into some trouble. In Michigan the "semi-privatized Michigan Economic Development Corp. last year awarded $9.1 million in tax credits to a convicted embezzler," Maynard writes. (Read more)
Privatization proposals may pose a risk for rural areas. "States should constantly evaluate and adapt their economic-development programs to changes in the private sector, but I feel obliged to raise a caution flag about privatization: It has the potential to shortchange rural communities, because most business consultants and perceived 'experts' are urbanites and may not be familiar with the distinct challenges and opportunities in rural areas," said Al Cross, the director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues.
Meanwhile, a nonprofit group has issued a report showing how well each state does at disclosing information about economic-development subsidies. Good Jobs First "seeks to shed light on how well or poorly economic subsidies work," Steven Greenhouse reports for The New York Times. Illinois was rated best, followed by Wisconsin and North Carolina; 13 states got Fs. "The study links to AccountableUSA, a new set of Web pages about every state that contains an overview of each state’s subsidy practices as well as profiles of major subsidy deals, Greenhouse reports.
"The question of how to empower business leaders to play a more meaningful role in state economic development efforts without sacrificing the accountability and transparency with which public funds are used is hardly a new one," Maynard writes. "A number of states — including Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Texas, Utah and Virginia — have privatized some aspects of their economic development functions in recent years, with mixed results." The structures of each state's programs may be different but "the governing principle behind all of these approaches is the same: Let local business leaders, rather than bureaucrats, take the lead on state economic development and marketing efforts," Maynard writes.
"This is one of those skill sets that government just doesn’t have as a core competency in-house," insists Leonard Gilroy, director of government reform for the Reason Foundation, a free-market think tank. Texas has enjoyed some success with its public-private partnership with nonprofit TexasOne, which is able to use strategies like sporting-event tickets to attract businesses that state agencies can't. Other states have run into some trouble. In Michigan the "semi-privatized Michigan Economic Development Corp. last year awarded $9.1 million in tax credits to a convicted embezzler," Maynard writes. (Read more)
Privatization proposals may pose a risk for rural areas. "States should constantly evaluate and adapt their economic-development programs to changes in the private sector, but I feel obliged to raise a caution flag about privatization: It has the potential to shortchange rural communities, because most business consultants and perceived 'experts' are urbanites and may not be familiar with the distinct challenges and opportunities in rural areas," said Al Cross, the director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues.
Meanwhile, a nonprofit group has issued a report showing how well each state does at disclosing information about economic-development subsidies. Good Jobs First "seeks to shed light on how well or poorly economic subsidies work," Steven Greenhouse reports for The New York Times. Illinois was rated best, followed by Wisconsin and North Carolina; 13 states got Fs. "The study links to AccountableUSA, a new set of Web pages about every state that contains an overview of each state’s subsidy practices as well as profiles of major subsidy deals, Greenhouse reports.
What were most important food stories of 2010? Rural Web site takes issue with magazine's list
The Atlantic recently published its list of the top 10 food stories of 2010, but something important was missing: rural America. "The only farmer (and only farm) the magazine mentions is First Lady Michelle Obama and her White House garden," Bill Bishop and Richard Oswald write for the Daily Yonder. "When it comes to 'food policy,' according to The Atlantic, rural America doesn’t exist." Bishop and Oswald developed their own list of the 10 most important food stories of 2010 and agreed on just three stories from the Atlantic's list: the egg recall, the battle over genetically modified food and the ongoing debate over the food safety bill.
Headlining the Yonder's list of most important food stories is the new proposed regulations that would remake the relationship between livestock raisers and meat packers issued by the federal Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration.The Yonder also includes peak phosphorus (we're running out of it), food monopolies, seed-industry worries, the dairy implosion, land prices, the rural grocery crisis, Gulf Coast fishing, the Humane Society of the United States war with livestock producers and meat processors, and speculation in grain and grain elevators.
"It’s probably not too much of a surprise that there is little overlap between The Atlantic's list and The Yonder," Bishop and Oswald write. "The Atlantic’s list of important stories includes 'foraging,' for example." The Atlantic's first story was "The Meat Trend," which associate editor Daniel Fromson explains as "foodie passion for cured meats, braised veal cheeks, jammy bone marrow, and do-it-yourself butchering." Highlighting the rural/urban divide, Bishop and Oswald conclude of the meat trend: "In much of Yonder, butchering and curing meat isn’t so much a trend as what you do in the fall." (Read more)
Headlining the Yonder's list of most important food stories is the new proposed regulations that would remake the relationship between livestock raisers and meat packers issued by the federal Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration.The Yonder also includes peak phosphorus (we're running out of it), food monopolies, seed-industry worries, the dairy implosion, land prices, the rural grocery crisis, Gulf Coast fishing, the Humane Society of the United States war with livestock producers and meat processors, and speculation in grain and grain elevators.
"It’s probably not too much of a surprise that there is little overlap between The Atlantic's list and The Yonder," Bishop and Oswald write. "The Atlantic’s list of important stories includes 'foraging,' for example." The Atlantic's first story was "The Meat Trend," which associate editor Daniel Fromson explains as "foodie passion for cured meats, braised veal cheeks, jammy bone marrow, and do-it-yourself butchering." Highlighting the rural/urban divide, Bishop and Oswald conclude of the meat trend: "In much of Yonder, butchering and curing meat isn’t so much a trend as what you do in the fall." (Read more)
Wild-horse preserve idea worries Nev. ranchers
If the plan went through, "something has got to give, and it will be cattle," Robin Boies, a rancher who grazes her cattle on federal land adjacent to her Nevada ranch, told Carlton. Hunters and off-road enthusiasts also oppose the plan because they fear it would restrict them from the popular recreation area. "Pickens' ranch includes the rights to graze stock on surrounding federal land in return for payments to the government and general upkeep of the land," Carlton writes. "Her proposed mustang monument would be on these federal lands around her ranch."
Pickens told Carlton she wants to buy enough other Nevada ranches with grazing rights on federal lands to create sanctuaries for as many as 10,000 horses, adding "I'm sorry, but there's no putting this back in the bag." The preserve would be open to the public, Pickens said, and while she acknowledged local support would be nice she noted she has the support of the BLM. Some locals do support the plan, hoping it would bring tourists to the area. At a Nov. 15 meeting, Pickens told one of her local supporters "I don't know how anything bad can come of it. As long as I'm alive, it won't." (Read more)
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
W.Va. coal-industry group opposes Obama strategy to end black-lung disease
The Obama administration's plan to end black-lung disease was met with criticism from the West Virgina coal industry during the first public hearing on the proposal. No one disputed the need for stronger efforts to eradicate black lung, but some faulted the strategy, Taylor Kuykendall of The Register-Herald in Beckley reports.
"We strongly object to the proposal in its current form," Chris Hamilton, senior vice president of the West Virginia Coal Association, said. He said it was "fraught with technical and operational impracticalities, misapplication of dust control technologies" and "relies on an inappropriate, convoluted or uneven enforcement scheme." Hamiltion also said he was concerned that the proposal circumvented Congress and its efforts to regulate mine safety and eradicate black lung, or coal workers' pneumoconiosis. The Mine Safety and Health Administration's actions "represent a departure from the cooperative approach deemed necessary to eradicate CWP from within our industry," Hamilton said.
Hamilton lumped the black lung proposal, which would cut the allowable level of respirable coal dust in mines by half, with environmental regulations that he called the Obama administration's attack on the coal industry. "We would hope that this rule, as proposed, is not part of that strategy, as some submit that it clearly is," Hamilton said.
The proposal did receive some support at the meeting. Joe Massie, retired coal miner and president of the National Black Lung Association, and the Fayette County Black Lung Association support any changes MSHA can make to prevent miners from getting black lung, Kuykendall writes. The meeting was held at the National Mine Health and Safety Academy in Beaver, W.Va. Joseph Main, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety, said the proposal would "significantly improve health protections for underground and surface coal miners." (Read more)
"We strongly object to the proposal in its current form," Chris Hamilton, senior vice president of the West Virginia Coal Association, said. He said it was "fraught with technical and operational impracticalities, misapplication of dust control technologies" and "relies on an inappropriate, convoluted or uneven enforcement scheme." Hamiltion also said he was concerned that the proposal circumvented Congress and its efforts to regulate mine safety and eradicate black lung, or coal workers' pneumoconiosis. The Mine Safety and Health Administration's actions "represent a departure from the cooperative approach deemed necessary to eradicate CWP from within our industry," Hamilton said.
Hamilton lumped the black lung proposal, which would cut the allowable level of respirable coal dust in mines by half, with environmental regulations that he called the Obama administration's attack on the coal industry. "We would hope that this rule, as proposed, is not part of that strategy, as some submit that it clearly is," Hamilton said.
The proposal did receive some support at the meeting. Joe Massie, retired coal miner and president of the National Black Lung Association, and the Fayette County Black Lung Association support any changes MSHA can make to prevent miners from getting black lung, Kuykendall writes. The meeting was held at the National Mine Health and Safety Academy in Beaver, W.Va. Joseph Main, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety, said the proposal would "significantly improve health protections for underground and surface coal miners." (Read more)
Ark. to require disclosure of fracking chemicals
In Arkansas, the Oil and Gas Commission has decided to require companies drilling in the Fayetteville Shale to disclose the chemicals they are using when fracking for natural gas, reports Kelly MacNeil for KUAR. The agency is requiring that companies disclose chemicals they plan to use and list the names of additives actually in use.
The state wants "to ensure they know what those chemicals are, so if there is a potential contamination in that particular water well, they’d be able to know what the chemicals are and be able to test for that particular chemical," said Oil and Gas director Larry Bengal. Arkansas is one of the first states to require drilling companies to disclose what chemicals they are using. The additives will be posted on the commission's Web site on a well-by-well basis. (Read more)
Alison Sider reports for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that the Fayetteville Shale formation, which runs from Northwest Arkansas to the Mississippi River, has been actively drilled for the past six years. "It seems like Arkansas is moving in the direction where everybody ultimately will go," said Amy Mall, a senior policy analyst with the National Resources Defense Council, a New York-based environmental advocacy group.
The most recent version of the rule requires a more complete listing of the chemicals than the previous rule. Bengal said the newer rule is intended to report 100 percent of the chemicals used for drilling. In order to protect the proprietary nature of the fluids, Sider reports, companies will be able to ask that some chemical names be withheld as trade secrets, if the director approves the exemption. In this case, chemical family names will be released instead. (Read more, subscription required)
The state wants "to ensure they know what those chemicals are, so if there is a potential contamination in that particular water well, they’d be able to know what the chemicals are and be able to test for that particular chemical," said Oil and Gas director Larry Bengal. Arkansas is one of the first states to require drilling companies to disclose what chemicals they are using. The additives will be posted on the commission's Web site on a well-by-well basis. (Read more)
Alison Sider reports for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that the Fayetteville Shale formation, which runs from Northwest Arkansas to the Mississippi River, has been actively drilled for the past six years. "It seems like Arkansas is moving in the direction where everybody ultimately will go," said Amy Mall, a senior policy analyst with the National Resources Defense Council, a New York-based environmental advocacy group.
The most recent version of the rule requires a more complete listing of the chemicals than the previous rule. Bengal said the newer rule is intended to report 100 percent of the chemicals used for drilling. In order to protect the proprietary nature of the fluids, Sider reports, companies will be able to ask that some chemical names be withheld as trade secrets, if the director approves the exemption. In this case, chemical family names will be released instead. (Read more, subscription required)
Fracking fall-out continues in Texas
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has overstepped Texas regulators by issuing an emergency order against a gas driller. The EPA is accusing the company of contaminating an aquifer and giving it 48 hours to provide clean drinking water to affected residents. "The order is unprecedented in Texas, partly because in issuing it the federal body overstepped the state agency responsible for overseeing gas and oil drilling in Texas," Ramit Plushnick-Masti of The Associated Press reports. "The EPA's move could ratchet up a bitter fight between Texas and the EPA that has evolved in the past year from a dispute over environmental issues into a pitched battle over states rights."
The order was issued against Range Resources of Fort Worth because EPA regional director Al Armendariz said he felt "the Texas Railroad Commission was not responding quickly enough to contamination found in two water wells belonging to Parker County residents in North Texas," Plushnick-Masti writes. Range Resources was using hydraulic fracturing, in which thousands of gallons of water and other chemicals are injected into a well to release natural gas from shale formations, at their drilling operations. The drinking water contamination is believed to be the first possibly associated with fracking operations in Texas, AP reports.
Armendariz said "the Railroad Commission had said it would be 'premature' to issue an emergency order regarding the contamination and asked for more time to evaluate the data," Plushnick-Masti writes. The EPA inspected the wells with the Railroad Commission in August after receiving complaints from locals who were having problems with their drinking water. The agency found high levels of explosive methane, as well as other contaminants, including cancer-causing benzene, AP reports. "We thought what we found in the homes was alarming," Armendariz told AP. (Read more)
The order was issued against Range Resources of Fort Worth because EPA regional director Al Armendariz said he felt "the Texas Railroad Commission was not responding quickly enough to contamination found in two water wells belonging to Parker County residents in North Texas," Plushnick-Masti writes. Range Resources was using hydraulic fracturing, in which thousands of gallons of water and other chemicals are injected into a well to release natural gas from shale formations, at their drilling operations. The drinking water contamination is believed to be the first possibly associated with fracking operations in Texas, AP reports.
Armendariz said "the Railroad Commission had said it would be 'premature' to issue an emergency order regarding the contamination and asked for more time to evaluate the data," Plushnick-Masti writes. The EPA inspected the wells with the Railroad Commission in August after receiving complaints from locals who were having problems with their drinking water. The agency found high levels of explosive methane, as well as other contaminants, including cancer-causing benzene, AP reports. "We thought what we found in the homes was alarming," Armendariz told AP. (Read more)
New 'MBA' spreads a positive beef image
Some agriculture college students across the country are earning their MBA's, but it's not a Masters of Business Administration. Those students are completing a Masters of Beef Advocacy. The industry-funded online program is designed to train college students and others in the agriculture industry to fight back against critics of big agri-business, Wes Enzinna reports for Mother Jones. The MBA's "focus has really become young people on the big land-grant campuses," from which more than one-fifth of future farmers and industry leaders will emerge, Daren Williams, the communications director for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, said.
"Since its launch in March 2009, the MBA has trained nearly 3,000 students and farmers to spread the 'positive beef message,' offering online lessons on how to combat PETA and organizing a Twitter and Facebook 'Food Fight' against its 'campus critics,'" Enzinna writes. Among the biggest targets of the MBA program is journalist and author Michael Pollan, whose books about the food industry were assigned to over 35,000 college students last year, Enzinna reports. "Some of what you are hearing is organic, grassroots debate — they have different opinions about agriculture and beef production — and that's good for a democracy," Pollan told Enzinna before noting he was wary of the interests behind the campaign.
Carrin Flores, a graduate student in veterinary medicine at Washington State University-Pullman, told Enzinna that the MBA program was not just a public relations campaign for big-agriculture. "We're not Astroturf," she said. "We're just worried about our futures in agriculture." Crystal Young, a recent graduate of Kansas State University, where she received degrees in animal science and journalism, added, "We know the environment is in crisis and we don't want to contribute to that, but we're also farmers, so the hard thing for us is to take into account all the criticisms of conventional agriculture, and to also continue to feed the world on the scale we are doing now." (Read more)
"Since its launch in March 2009, the MBA has trained nearly 3,000 students and farmers to spread the 'positive beef message,' offering online lessons on how to combat PETA and organizing a Twitter and Facebook 'Food Fight' against its 'campus critics,'" Enzinna writes. Among the biggest targets of the MBA program is journalist and author Michael Pollan, whose books about the food industry were assigned to over 35,000 college students last year, Enzinna reports. "Some of what you are hearing is organic, grassroots debate — they have different opinions about agriculture and beef production — and that's good for a democracy," Pollan told Enzinna before noting he was wary of the interests behind the campaign.
Carrin Flores, a graduate student in veterinary medicine at Washington State University-Pullman, told Enzinna that the MBA program was not just a public relations campaign for big-agriculture. "We're not Astroturf," she said. "We're just worried about our futures in agriculture." Crystal Young, a recent graduate of Kansas State University, where she received degrees in animal science and journalism, added, "We know the environment is in crisis and we don't want to contribute to that, but we're also farmers, so the hard thing for us is to take into account all the criticisms of conventional agriculture, and to also continue to feed the world on the scale we are doing now." (Read more)
Rural newspapers still fear loss of Saturday mail, try to recruit more allies to lobby Congress
Rural newspapers, still waiting to hear if the Postal Regulatory Commission will endorse the U.S. Postal Service's request to eliminate Saturday mail delivery, now worry that the push to reduce the federal deficit and national debt will give the proposal more momentum.
No matter what the PRC says this month, Congress is expected to guarantee Saturday delivery in whatever stopgap spending bill it passes. However, "The six-day mail question will become tougher as USPS tries to drill down to financial solutions," National Newspaper Association lobbyist Tonda Rush writes. "Though our principal allies on the Hill remain strong, we will need many more in 2011."
The concern goes beyond newspapers that use the mail to publish on Saturday or Friday, to the communities they serve. "It became clear during the PRC hearings that rural communities will be more affected than their urban counterparts," Rush told NNA members, citing testimony from the president of the National Grange, Edward Luttrell. He made some of the same points that the writer of this item made to the PRC: Rural areas have less access to high-speed Internet service, and rural people rely on six-day delivery for critical items such as prescription drugs.
Luttrell also said cutting a day of mail delivery would inhibit "the national trend to encourage and eequire greater mail voting and participation in elections," and hurt rural entrepreneurs. "Rural America has the highest proportion of individuals (compared to urban and suburban communities) who are either self employed or who work for someone who is self-employed," Luttrell said. "These businesses disproportionately benefit from the predictability of six-day postal delivery service. In fulfilling orders, in receiving payments, in complying with responses for legal, accounting and other basic services, the Postal Service provides unique and irreplaceable service advantages to micro-entrepreneurs operating in rural communities." For Luttrell's full testimony, click here.
NNA is trying to keep the 200,000-member Grange involved recruit other rural organizations to help its lobbying effort, such as rural electric cooperatives, telephone companies, Farm Bureaus "and other uniquely rural community interests who might contact their own national leadership to urge a voice in this debate," Rush writes. "We have won it so far. But it hasn’t truly heated up yet. By mid-spring, we will be in the thick of it."
No matter what the PRC says this month, Congress is expected to guarantee Saturday delivery in whatever stopgap spending bill it passes. However, "The six-day mail question will become tougher as USPS tries to drill down to financial solutions," National Newspaper Association lobbyist Tonda Rush writes. "Though our principal allies on the Hill remain strong, we will need many more in 2011."
The concern goes beyond newspapers that use the mail to publish on Saturday or Friday, to the communities they serve. "It became clear during the PRC hearings that rural communities will be more affected than their urban counterparts," Rush told NNA members, citing testimony from the president of the National Grange, Edward Luttrell. He made some of the same points that the writer of this item made to the PRC: Rural areas have less access to high-speed Internet service, and rural people rely on six-day delivery for critical items such as prescription drugs.
Luttrell also said cutting a day of mail delivery would inhibit "the national trend to encourage and eequire greater mail voting and participation in elections," and hurt rural entrepreneurs. "Rural America has the highest proportion of individuals (compared to urban and suburban communities) who are either self employed or who work for someone who is self-employed," Luttrell said. "These businesses disproportionately benefit from the predictability of six-day postal delivery service. In fulfilling orders, in receiving payments, in complying with responses for legal, accounting and other basic services, the Postal Service provides unique and irreplaceable service advantages to micro-entrepreneurs operating in rural communities." For Luttrell's full testimony, click here.
NNA is trying to keep the 200,000-member Grange involved recruit other rural organizations to help its lobbying effort, such as rural electric cooperatives, telephone companies, Farm Bureaus "and other uniquely rural community interests who might contact their own national leadership to urge a voice in this debate," Rush writes. "We have won it so far. But it hasn’t truly heated up yet. By mid-spring, we will be in the thick of it."
Congressman from nation's most rural district will head House Appropriations Committee
"Though the appropriations chairmanship has long been considered a plum assignment, the job description has changed amid mounting concern over budget deficits," notes Brian Faler of Bloomberg News. The position’s primary responsibility now will involve deciding how to make good on Republican campaign promises to cut domestic “discretionary” spending by 20 percent. Nor will Rogers have money to hand out for pet projects in lawmakers’ home states, following the decision last month by Republicans to continue a self-imposed moratorium on the so-called earmark process." (Read more)
However, we bet Rogers and his subcommittee chairmen will find ways to steer smaller sums of money to their districts, through behind-the-scenes negotiations with officials in the executive branch -- a process that would be much less transparent than the one Congress has followed for the last few years, after earmarks became an issue.
Another Kentuckian got an important job in the House yesterday. Rep. Ed Whitfield of the 1st District was picked to head the Energy and Environment Subcommittee of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Politico reports.
Tuesday, December 07, 2010
Local Texas wipeouts emblematic of Democratic Party's long-term challenges in the rural South
The depth of Democrats' despair in the rural South, in the wake of last month's elections, is brought home by R.G. Ratcliffe, statehouse reporter for the Houston Chronicle. His story starts not with a state legislative race or even a countywide race, but an election for one the most basic of community offices in a county (Wikipedia map) in the heart of "Little Dixie," the most culturally Southern part of Texas:Angelina County Justice of the Peace R.G. Bowers easily won each of his elections since 1988 as a Democrat and expected to do the same this year against his game warden Republican opponent.Similar patterns were seen in Western Kentucky, which has voted Republican in most recent federal elections, and we suspect much the same happened in Arkansas and Tennessee, other states in the "McCain Belt," counties from Pennsylvania to Oklahoma where 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain did better than George W. Bush did as an incumbent president in 2004. In Georgia, a seventh House Democrat, the newly elected minority leader, has switched to the GOP, Blake Aued of the Athens Banner-Herald reports.
After all, game wardens "are not well accepted in rural East Texas." But voter frustration with President Barack Obama, the national Democratic Party and a Republican push for straight-ticket voting did in Bowers.
"They were so anti-Obama that they just pushed one button. I said they couldn't spell R.G., so they just spelled R," Bowers said.
Ratcliffe's story is a template not just for regional stories, but local ones. "The media focus has been on Republican gains in Congress and the Legislature," he writes, but local results bode long-term ill for the Democratic Party. "The training ground for Democrats, particularly in rural areas, is dwindling fast." (Read more)
Predictions mixed about ending ethanol tax credits
We've been following the push from the ethanol industry to extend tax credits that some say are essential to its growth. Now, predictions of how expiration of the tax credits would affect the industry are mixed. Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley said last week in floor testimony, "A lapse in the ethanol tax incentive is a gas tax increase of over 5 cents a gallon at the pump." Conversely, "In a paper published in July and updated in November, an economist from Iowa State University's Center for Agricultural and Rural Development projected that an expiration of the VEETC and a 54-cent-per-gallon tariff on ethanol, taken together, could lower pump prices for drivers," Jenny Mandel of Environment & Energy News reports.
Grassley's statements were based on analysis from the Renewable Fuels Association, an industry trade group, which "equates the scheduled VEETC expiration next month with a 4.5-cent-per-gallon fuel cost increase," Mandel writes. Geoff Cooper, RFA's vice president of research and analysis, told Mandel in an email the analysis was based on a simple calculation of the VEETC's value to the refiners that blend ethanol into gasoline. "The VEETC is $0.45 per gallon of ethanol, and ethanol is blended in gasoline nationwide at a rate of 10 percent (called E10)," Cooper said. "So, it stands to reason that failing to extend the tax credit would increase the ultimate consumer tax burden on gasoline by 4.5 cents per gallon of gasoline."
The ISU study from Center for Agricultural and Rural Development Director Bruce Babcock is favored by groups including the National Resources Defense Council and Friends of the Earth that advocate ending the tax credit, Mandel writes. Babcock constructed a new economic model to assess the effects of tariff and tax changes on the markets for U.S. corn and ethanol and for Brazilian ethanol, concluding immediate impact would be negligible. "In 2011, he predicted, elimination of the tax credits would cause ethanol prices to fall by 12 cents per gallon, with domestic production falling by about 0.7 billion gallons out of the otherwise expected 13.24 billion gallons," Mandel writes. (Read more, subscription required)
Grassley's statements were based on analysis from the Renewable Fuels Association, an industry trade group, which "equates the scheduled VEETC expiration next month with a 4.5-cent-per-gallon fuel cost increase," Mandel writes. Geoff Cooper, RFA's vice president of research and analysis, told Mandel in an email the analysis was based on a simple calculation of the VEETC's value to the refiners that blend ethanol into gasoline. "The VEETC is $0.45 per gallon of ethanol, and ethanol is blended in gasoline nationwide at a rate of 10 percent (called E10)," Cooper said. "So, it stands to reason that failing to extend the tax credit would increase the ultimate consumer tax burden on gasoline by 4.5 cents per gallon of gasoline."
The ISU study from Center for Agricultural and Rural Development Director Bruce Babcock is favored by groups including the National Resources Defense Council and Friends of the Earth that advocate ending the tax credit, Mandel writes. Babcock constructed a new economic model to assess the effects of tariff and tax changes on the markets for U.S. corn and ethanol and for Brazilian ethanol, concluding immediate impact would be negligible. "In 2011, he predicted, elimination of the tax credits would cause ethanol prices to fall by 12 cents per gallon, with domestic production falling by about 0.7 billion gallons out of the otherwise expected 13.24 billion gallons," Mandel writes. (Read more, subscription required)
Human threat to park rangers worse than animals
Two recent shootings of wildlife officers have brought new attention to the daily risk for rangers and wildlife managers. A Pennsylvania wildlife officer was recently killed in a shooting while confronting an illegal hunter, and a Utah officer was seriously injured after a shooting during a traffic stop, Kirk Johnson of The New York Times reports. The incidents "highlighted what rangers and wildlife managers say is an increasingly unavoidable fact," Johnson writes. "As more and more people live in proximity to forests, parks and other wild-land playgrounds, the human animal, not the wild variety, is the one to watch out for." (Services for a Pennsylvania wildlife officer who was killed by an illegal hunter in November. Photo Darryl Wheeler/Gettysburg Times, via Associated Press)"We’re seeing a little bit more of the urban spill into the wild spaces — city violence in the country," John Evans, an assistant branch chief of law enforcement operations at the National Park Service, told Johnson. Todd Schmidt, a Colorado game warden, said he always wears a bulletproof vest on the job now, noting "I know that everybody I confront has a gun." The risk may be further heightened after guns became legal in National Parks this year. Rangers and wardens say their mixed roles of public resource stewards and full police authority sometimes leaves them vulnerable.
Farm subsidies likely to be cut, just a matter of how much and which ones
The Republicans taking over the House of Representatives are promising to cut the federal deficit. For farmers, the question is no longer if farm subsidies will be cut but which ones and how much, the vice president of DTN writes. "Some legislators want to cut direct payments; others want to preserve them," Urban C. Lehner writes for DTN. "Some want to dismantle the Conservation Reserve Program; others are horrified at the thought." Those in the agriculture industry aren't speaking with a unified voice about possible cuts, either.
Lehner notes, "A Texas farmer expressed what’s on at least some farmers' minds ... A progressive farmer does not need subsidies. What USA farmers need is crop insurance to cover the growing risk." Meanwhile the Iowa Farm Bureau and others are "looking for a richer, county-based ACRE program, and are willing to give up direct payments to get it," Lehner writes. He cautions that the "Oklahoma Farm Bureau likes direct payments and the new chairman of the House Agriculture Committee is an Oklahoman. So the chances of Congress abandoning direct payments are slim."
Lehner acknowledges some cuts in farm spending are likely no matter what, but the deep cuts projected by many may not happen as "farmers' friends in Congress will fight to hang on to as much as possible and they've been successful facing budgetary pressure in the past." He adds that defenders of the status quo have one big factor in their favor: gridlock. With political gridlock between the split-party Congress, "we're more likely to see the whole government shut down for lack of accord on raising the debt ceiling than fresh legislative initiatives," Lehner writes. (Read more)
Lehner notes, "A Texas farmer expressed what’s on at least some farmers' minds ... A progressive farmer does not need subsidies. What USA farmers need is crop insurance to cover the growing risk." Meanwhile the Iowa Farm Bureau and others are "looking for a richer, county-based ACRE program, and are willing to give up direct payments to get it," Lehner writes. He cautions that the "Oklahoma Farm Bureau likes direct payments and the new chairman of the House Agriculture Committee is an Oklahoman. So the chances of Congress abandoning direct payments are slim."
Lehner acknowledges some cuts in farm spending are likely no matter what, but the deep cuts projected by many may not happen as "farmers' friends in Congress will fight to hang on to as much as possible and they've been successful facing budgetary pressure in the past." He adds that defenders of the status quo have one big factor in their favor: gridlock. With political gridlock between the split-party Congress, "we're more likely to see the whole government shut down for lack of accord on raising the debt ceiling than fresh legislative initiatives," Lehner writes. (Read more)
Monday, December 06, 2010
State to tell railroad to stop contaminating river and banks with lead paint flaking from bridge
Shawn Cecil, manager of the Superfund branch for hazardous-waste sites, told Robyn Minor of The Daily News in Bowling Green, "We plan to discuss the flecking paint and the potential release (of contaminants) and ask them to abate that in some fashion or another. I don’t have any sort of direction they are required to go. We will tell them to meet certain goals, not how to get there. If they want to peel off (and properly) dispose of the remaining paint or seal it or paint it with a clear material, that is up to them." A CSX spokesman said, "We are reviewing options and are in discussions with the state." (Read more, subscription required)
UPDATE, Dec. 5: Philanthropist David Garvin told the Daily News that when he cleaned and painted two nearby bridges, "EPA monitored and required me to prevent any lead paint from entering the environment. We netted the entire bridges when we sandblasted off the old paint. They told me that I could not even spill a coffee cup of the lead residue into the river. Why should this same standard not apply to CSX?” The story updates the overall situation. (Read more)
Garvin told The Rural Blog that Kentucky's action has implications for other states. "If the state can force CSX's hand on this, it will be the first time that I know of anywhere in the U.S.," he wrote. "CSX has over 10,000 bridges. This would be a precedent that would have huge implications, both for the protection of the environment and for CSX's pocketbook." (Garvin photo)
Similar problems have come to light in several communities around the country but the issue has gained little national attention, For more background, click here.
UPDATE, Dec. 29: Garvin has lined up a qualified contractor to do the work and is seeking help from the state legislature, Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear and U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Bowling Green, to get things moving. (Read more)
Rural Kansas copes with fewer grocery stores
In Kansas, rural residents are sometimes living in a "food desert," reports Jill Wendholt Silva for the The Kansas City Star. On average, rural residents in Kansas travel 10 or more miles to reach a supermarket or supercenter. The Center for Engagement and Community Development at Kansas State University found that 82 out of 212 rural grocery stores in communities with fewer than 2,500 residents have closed since 2007.
Competition from large retailers and the economic downturn have caused many local grocery stores to shutter. For new ways to create access to healthy food, "I think the answer is looking at more innovative models instead of trying to replicate what is no longer there," said Diana Endicott, president of Good Natured Family Farms, an alliance of 160 small family farmers that supply Kansas City’s suburban Hen House stores. Among the possibilities: a church offered its building to be a distribution location for fresh food; creating community co-ops where residents organize and manage the store; or a virtual store where the food ordered online is picked up at a local library. (Read more)
Additional Information: The U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a report to Congress, "Access to Affordable and Nutritious Food; Measuring and Understanding Food Deserts and Their Consequences."
Slate mapped the results of the USDA report.
Competition from large retailers and the economic downturn have caused many local grocery stores to shutter. For new ways to create access to healthy food, "I think the answer is looking at more innovative models instead of trying to replicate what is no longer there," said Diana Endicott, president of Good Natured Family Farms, an alliance of 160 small family farmers that supply Kansas City’s suburban Hen House stores. Among the possibilities: a church offered its building to be a distribution location for fresh food; creating community co-ops where residents organize and manage the store; or a virtual store where the food ordered online is picked up at a local library. (Read more)
Additional Information: The U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a report to Congress, "Access to Affordable and Nutritious Food; Measuring and Understanding Food Deserts and Their Consequences."
Slate mapped the results of the USDA report.
Oregon power plant cuts deal to close state's only coal-powered plant
In a region known for its hydroelectric power, Oregon regulators may have set an important precedent. Portland General Electric is shuttering a coal-fired power plant in exchange for a smaller investment in pollution controls. PGE is planning to close the state's only coal-fired plant no later than Dec. 31, 2020, and state environmental regulators endorse the plan. The Boardman coal plant, built in 1977, "would be the youngest coal plant closed in the United States for environmental reasons, putting it on the national radar," Scott Learn and Ted Sickinger of The Oregonian report.
The proposal divided environmental groups who differed on short and long-term focus. "Supporters, including the Oregon Environmental Council and the Citizens' Utility Board of Oregon, say DEQ's recommendation would sharply reduce the state's pollution and global warming impact after 2020," Learn and Sickinger write. "Environmental critics say the recommendation low balls pollution controls and unnecessarily extends the life of Oregon's dirtiest plant." The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also spoke out against the plan, saying it "sets a precedent of regulating the nation's low-cost coal plants out of business," the reporters write.
The proposal divided environmental groups who differed on short and long-term focus. "Supporters, including the Oregon Environmental Council and the Citizens' Utility Board of Oregon, say DEQ's recommendation would sharply reduce the state's pollution and global warming impact after 2020," Learn and Sickinger write. "Environmental critics say the recommendation low balls pollution controls and unnecessarily extends the life of Oregon's dirtiest plant." The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also spoke out against the plan, saying it "sets a precedent of regulating the nation's low-cost coal plants out of business," the reporters write.
PGE had considered spending about $500 million on new pollution controls and operating the plant through at least 2040, which would have led to a significant rate increase for customers. PGE estimates the 2020 plan would bump up electricity rates by an average of 2.4 percent while the plant operates. "An ongoing lawsuit from the Sierra Club, Friends of the Columbia Gorge and three other environmental groups alleges that PGE should have installed a full suite of pollution controls three decades ago, including equipment to knock down pollution by at least 80 percent," the reporters write. (Read more)
Adoption of broadband in rural Iowa varies widely
We've written a lot about the federal investment in rural broadband, but that investment doesn't mean everyone in rural America is adopting high-speed Internet. "If 'wireless router' is about as far as you want to go with the computer terminology, don't worry," Kyle Munson of the Des Moines Register writes. "I encounter lots of Iowans in various stages of online transition -- or lack thereof -- as I travel the state." Nonprofit organization Connect Iowa and the Iowa Utilities Board report 34 percent of Iowa households remain without a high-speed or broadband Internet connection -- the vast majority by choice.
In rural Turo, Iowa, local telecommunications company Interstate Communications recently laid new fiber optic cables for broadband Internet access with the help of a $7 million, 20-year loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Local chiropractor Ann Borseth was quick to adopt high-speed Internet, but just across the street, Jerry and Charlotte Clarke said no thanks, opting to "to remain offline and let the digital revolution pass them by," Munson writes. Jerry Clarke explained, "The knowledge doesn't automatically come to you."
Librarian Betty Green told Munson as many as seven people a day access each of the local library's five computers to access the Internet every day. "If the library serves as a backup plan for local residents on the fringes of online access, the opposite end of the spectrum is just several miles away at Appcore Technology," a cloud computing company, Munson writes. The vast differences in broadband adoption is "rural Iowa for you -- a different angle on the digital revolution from mile to mile," Munson adds. Even Clarke is considering hooking up to the new fiber optic cables. "I'm going to consider hooking up to it," he said. "It's getting about compulsory." (Read more)
In rural Turo, Iowa, local telecommunications company Interstate Communications recently laid new fiber optic cables for broadband Internet access with the help of a $7 million, 20-year loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Local chiropractor Ann Borseth was quick to adopt high-speed Internet, but just across the street, Jerry and Charlotte Clarke said no thanks, opting to "to remain offline and let the digital revolution pass them by," Munson writes. Jerry Clarke explained, "The knowledge doesn't automatically come to you."
Librarian Betty Green told Munson as many as seven people a day access each of the local library's five computers to access the Internet every day. "If the library serves as a backup plan for local residents on the fringes of online access, the opposite end of the spectrum is just several miles away at Appcore Technology," a cloud computing company, Munson writes. The vast differences in broadband adoption is "rural Iowa for you -- a different angle on the digital revolution from mile to mile," Munson adds. Even Clarke is considering hooking up to the new fiber optic cables. "I'm going to consider hooking up to it," he said. "It's getting about compulsory." (Read more)
Obama administration wants to remove bears and wolves from endangered species list
The Obama administration plans to lift Endangered Species Act protection from two of the West's iconic animals: the grizzly bear and gray wolf. "The administration's intentions emerged in an interview on Wednesday with two top-ranking officials from the Interior Department, whose agency, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, oversees federal safeguards for the bulk of imperiled species," Laura Zuckerman reports for The Washington Post. Previous attempts to remove the animals from the list have been met with staunch opposition in court from wildlife conservation groups.
"Environmentalists have raised concerns that although both species have made a comeback under protection as endangered species, their recovery could falter if they were de-listed, a move that is likely to open the animals to public hunting," Zuckerman writes. "Sportsmen and ranchers, who make up a powerful constituency in Western states, have strongly advocated de-listing wolves and grizzlies, saying the predators are diminishing herds of big-game animals such as elk and are preying on livestock."
In April 2009, the federal government removed the wolf from the endangered species list in Montana and Idaho but kept protection in Wyoming. "A federal judge this year ordered full listing restored, saying the wolves' entire range in the Rockies must be treated as a whole and that protections cannot be left intact in Wyoming while they are lifted in other states," Zuckerman writes. Tom Strickland, assistant interior secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, told the newspaper the administration plans to propose lifting protection in all three states and will seek congressional action if necessary. (Read more)
"Environmentalists have raised concerns that although both species have made a comeback under protection as endangered species, their recovery could falter if they were de-listed, a move that is likely to open the animals to public hunting," Zuckerman writes. "Sportsmen and ranchers, who make up a powerful constituency in Western states, have strongly advocated de-listing wolves and grizzlies, saying the predators are diminishing herds of big-game animals such as elk and are preying on livestock."
In April 2009, the federal government removed the wolf from the endangered species list in Montana and Idaho but kept protection in Wyoming. "A federal judge this year ordered full listing restored, saying the wolves' entire range in the Rockies must be treated as a whole and that protections cannot be left intact in Wyoming while they are lifted in other states," Zuckerman writes. Tom Strickland, assistant interior secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, told the newspaper the administration plans to propose lifting protection in all three states and will seek congressional action if necessary. (Read more)
Knife-rights advocates hope to build on successes
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| Illegal knives confiscated in New York City |
Arizona, once considered an anti-knife state recently liberalized its regulations so that "everything from samurai sword to a switchblade can be carried without a quibble," Lacey writes. New Hampshire recently lifted a ban on switchblades, stilettos, dirks and daggers. Knife-rights advocates don't claim knife fights and knife attacks are not a concern, but say "the problem is with the knife wielder, not the knife itself ... sounding very much like those who advocate for gun rights," Lacey writes. D’Alton Holder, a veteran knife maker who lives in Wickenberg, Ariz., explained, "People talk about how knives are dangerous, and then they go in the kitchen and they have 50 of them."
"Knife advocates contend that the Second Amendment applies to knives as well as guns," Lacey writes. "They focus their argument elsewhere, though, emphasizing that knives fill so many beneficial roles, from carving Thanksgiving turkeys to whittling, that they do not deserve the bad name they often get." Urban areas remain the prime advocates of tighter knife control, Lacey reports. Knife rights advocates hope success in Arizona will help broaden the conversation. "Arizona is now the model when it comes to knives," Todd Rathner, the lobbyist for Knife Rights Inc., told Lacey. "We’re now going to be moving to other states, probably in the Rocky Mountains and the Southeast. There’s probably half a dozen or more places that are ripe for this." (Read more)
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