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Attorneys general: No new coal plants
Jan 30, 2008The Wise County coal-fired power plant controversy mirrors a similar ongoing debate in South Carolina. In that case, eight attorneys general from other states are intervening in an attempt to halt the permitting process.
The (Florence, S.C.) Morning News reports:
Attorneys general from across the country have signed a letter asking the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control to stop the permitting process for the proposed Santee Cooper coal-fired power plant in Kingsburg.
The letter was sent to DHEC office’s during the public comment period for the 600-megawatt coal-fired generation facility, which would be located on a 2,709-acre tract in Kingsburg. It is scheduled to become operational sometime after 2012. Santee Cooper officials have said the energy produced by the plant is necessary to South Carolina to prevent a power shortage in the next five years.
The attorneys general are contending that carbon dioxide emissions from the South Carolina plant will jeopardize their states’ efforts to reduce these greenhouse gas emissions. It seems likely that the same argument could be made about the Wise County plant. Wonder if the attorneys general will seek to intervene here as well?
Posted by Andrea Hopkins The lobbyist as puppet master
Jan 30, 2008The revelation that Sen. Phillip Puckett, a Democrat, didn’t write his own column in support of his citizen board elimination bill came as a bit of a surprise. Sure, I’ve long suspected that junior staff members have a hand in crafting opinion columns (and even legislation) for their bosses. But an industry hack?
You can read more about Puckett, the lobbyist and the op-ed here
But I’m interested in what you think. Did Puckett do something wrong?
I’ve spoken with ethicists at the Poynter Institute and Washington and Lee. Both believe there was an ethical lapse here, but have divergent views on the seriousness of the offense. At any rate, it appears this sort of behavior is pretty common for lawmakers, both on the state and national level. The message seems to be don’t get caught.
When you read a column with a lawmaker’s byline, is there an expectation that the lawmaker actually wrote it? Or is he merely signing off on someone else’s work? Does it make it worse that a lobbyist rather than a legislative aid wrote the piece?
What should happen to Puckett as a result?
Longer school days?
Jan 16, 2008The Sullivan County Board of Education floated a proposal Tuesday to add 30 minutes to the school day. What do you think about that?
A member of the newspaper’s Readers Advisory Panel is concerned. Her grandchildren catch the school bus at 7:30 a.m. and don’t get home until 3 p.m. After homework and basketball games, there isn’t much time left.
She writes: Whoever is making the suggestion of a longer day, could not possible have a child in his home, trying to fit everything into an average school day. There is no time left over to just be a child!
I sympathize, but I’m at least somewhat supportive of the concept of extending the school day. Most children in this area live in families where both parents work. That means they are in some form of extended day program after school ends. If you replace unstructured and costly afterschool care with an extended school day - particularly if this gives times for more instruction in the arts, physical education and reading - that might be a worthwhile trade.
Just beautiful
Jan 14, 2008
I’m taking a break from politics and controversy for a moment. Indulge me.
On Sunday during a particularly miserable 4-mile run in a cold, driving rain, I rounded a corner on the lake trail at Steele Creek Park in Bristol to see not one, but two blue herons (at least I believe that’s what this particular bird is) soaring across the lake. They were an amazing sight. I stopped for a moment to watch them.
My running partner and I had seen one of the birds on Saturday standing quite close to the trail, but I had never seen two of them. I’d love to know more about them. Are they a nesting pair? If you have more information, please share.
Conservation vs. new power plants
Jan 10, 2008The New York Times has an interesting article today about the potential benefits if power companies would give consumers tools to manage their energy use in real time.
Here’s the part that caught my eye: The results of the research project by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory of the Energy Department, released Wednesday, suggest that if households have digital tools to set temperature and price preferences, the peak loads on utility grids could be trimmed by up to 15 percent a year.
Over a 20-year period, this could save $70 billion on spending for power plants and infrastructure, and avoid the need to build the equivalent of 30 large coal-fired plants, say scientists at the federal laboratory.
The article goes on to talk about how government incentives, as they exist now, work against this sort of innovation because they don’t reward power companies for energy savings.
Instead, they provide guaranteed rates of return (read: profits) from new power plant construction.
We need to move toward this sort of innovation and away from the notion that American consumers will continue their wasteful, over-consumptive ways in spite of the fiscal and environmental costs.
