English translation of German military peak oil study now available

Image via WikipediaSo you think "Peak Oil" is some imaginary problem?  The whimsical folks in the German Army would like a word with you.

WORD: Tired of partisan gridlock? Reforming electoral rules gives voters real choice. - CSMonitor.com

What he said.

Coal companies: Planet-wrecking greed that knows no limits

Cover via Amazon

  The evil bastards atop the coal industry (to put the most charitable possible name to them), hell bent for profits at the expense of a habitable planet, have Salem and other towns in the Northwest in their sights.  The plan is to export coal to China, where they will use the power and send us the pollution (mercury, polonium, and other nasties) in abundance.

According to an article in Saturday's The World newspaper and in Monday's Statesman, there is indeed a discussion occurring regarding the shipment of coal to Coos Bay.  I'm not sure what rail line connects Montana and Wyoming with Coos Bay but the UP line through Salem seems the most likely.  Should we be concerned?  Maybe we should all watch "The Last Mountain," recently shown at the Salem Progressive Film Festival in September.

======================================================================
"COOS BAY -- The Oregon International Port of Coos Bay has signed an exclusive negotiating agreement with an unnamed company interested in shipping coal from the North Spit of Coos Bay.

At the port commissioners' monthly meeting Thursday night, port CEO Jeff Bishop said the Dutch consulting firm Portolan had helped port staff evaluate four proposals, code-named Versatile, Mainstay, Clover and Glory.  They ranged from a plan to export 100,000 metric tons of zinc and chrome annually to a plan to export 26 million tons of coal.

The proponents' experience, environmental track record and financial strength were the most heavily weighted criteria in the committee's selection process. How each proposal fit in with the port's other projects was an important factor. Proponents had  to demonstrate an understanding of the project and a familiarity with what Bishop called the state's 'permitting culture."

They also had to explain what commitments they'd need from the port, how they'd expect a port facility to be financed and their  proposed timeline.  Project Mainstay, a scheme to export 6 million to 10 million tons of thermal coal per year, got the approval.  Thermal coal is burned to fuel power plants".
==========================================================

I also have heard that up to 16 a day mile-long coal trains may find their way through Salem with the desire to make these two-mile long trains.  As you can see from the above article, zinc and chrome are also being considered.  The coal trains that I have seen heading north along I-5 are uncovered, spewing coal dust all along the rail line.

I, for one, don't want to wait until this is a done deal but I don't know what to do next.  Any suggestions?

More like this please -- Rooftop Produce Hits the Supermarket

Your one-good- thing-a-day email AUGUST 30, 2011 BROUGHT TO YOU BY New Company Brings Produce From the Roof to the Supermarket Aisle Growing produce on your roof is a productive way to take advantage of the space, but is it possible to make it commercially viable on a larger scale? A new company's business model may show the way. New York-based BrightFarms, which builds rooftop greenhouses, hopes to turn a profit while cutting shoppers' "food miles" down to zero by growing vegetables where people buy them: the supermarket. BrightFarms is trying to convince major supermarket chains to hire them to cover vacant roofs with heirloom tomatoes, salad greens, and other produce. The company's business plan is simple: they handle the labor and expense of farming—greenhouse design, construction, planting, and harvest—while participating supermarkets sign a 10-year contract agreeing to purchase whatever is grown on their rooftop. A store's rooftop garden can produce as much as 500,000 pounds of produce a year, BrightFarms told Edible Manhattan. "We grow for taste, not for shelf-life, and we pick when the vegetables are ripe," CEO Paul Lightfoot explains in a video on BrightFarm's website. Unlike industrial vegetable breeds, grown to endure cross-country road trips in the back of a truck, BrightFarms can pick the tastiest crop varieties with the highest nutrient content. And with hydroponic methods, they'll use one-10th the water and one-20th the space of commercial agriculture. BrightFarms intends to have their first three greenhouses up and running by summer 2012. But the team has had plenty of practice already, consulting on a demonstration greenhouse at a Whole Foods in New Jersey and the Science Barge, an educational urban farm located on a ship in the Hudson River.  What kind of veggies should your supermarket grow? Let us know on GOOD.is photo courtesy of BrightFarms Share on Facebook Tweet this Email to a friend Subscribe to The Daily GOOD GET IT SHARE IT CURIOUS LATELY? GOOD is a collaboration of individuals, businesses, and nonprofits pushing the world forward. www.good.is  GOOD Worldwide    915 N. Citrus Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90038

Corporation Nation: Screwing Oregonians for fun and big profit

Image via WikipediaIf you ever wondered whether the initiative process had wound up being captured by the very corporations its was originally meant to corral, wonder no more:

Mark Nelson, the veteran Salem lobbyist and political consultant, is now getting involved in the business of gathering signatures for proposed ballot measures.

Nelson and other fellow business interests have started a non-profit firm called The Signature Gathering Company of Oregon.  It's first big client is a proposed initiative from the Oregon Association of Realtors that would ban new real-estate transfer fees.

"It's our feeling that the business community cannot be left exposed in this state without access to a quality and affordable signature-gathering company," said David Reinhard, who works for Nelson and helped set up the firm. . . .

This is what peak oil looks like up close -public budget meltdown

Image by Earthworm via Flickr     A LOVESalem HQ foreign correspondent who reports from Bellingham, Washington, sends his comments on a note to him suggesting that this Salem-area story " is what peak oil looks like up close.  He discusses the effects of similar budget implosions on his developmentally disabled daughter, L____.

     Salem has a LOT of people who are going to be in similar, terrible straights as L_____ as the constant erosion of our unsustainable way of life proceeds.  When you build a society that is 100% dependent on abundant cheap energy, don't be surprised when the effects of the end of cheap energy are bad.

Subject: Re: This is what peak oil looks like up close -public budget meltdown

Thx - this really is the face of peak oil, and our human reactions are mostly as expected (see any number of peak oil task force reports now gathering dust).  

There's already significant pressure to cut school busing budgets in our area --- this will really clobber strung-out districts like the one we're in --- kids get to Mt. Baker Jr/Sr high from as much as 30 miles away.  We are about 6 miles distant, ok for biking (in good weather).  AFAIK, nobody in our district's school management system is even thinking about the implications of this.  It Will Not Be Pretty when Those Who Vote find their kids stranded at home.  [They always] pick off the most defenseless first, per this article, but in our situation that ain't where it ends.  

Back when I was riding the transit bus one-way with my bike for commuting, people I talked with usually said they didn't like to ride the bus because of odd people on it, and viewed the transit system as rides for the disabled (meaning in effect those who could not get/keep a driver's license) --- and to a large degree that was and is very true out here in the county (less true in town because of colleges & greenies).  And the first place the WTA wanted to cut when the time came?  Easy to guess, eh?   County routes (on the basis of 'low occupancy').  "Those people" don't vote . . .

Several programs L_____ depends on for her way of life are now under annual attack --- housing subsidy, job assistance, social security, medical.  I'm nearly certain we'll be having to change the way she's living in town in the next few years.  Would be nice to f---- over some bank in the process.  

tooj 

Sanity on End of Life: Quality of Life and the importance of Oregon's Death with Dignity option

Image via WikipediaThere are still a lot of people who would be delighted to see Oregon return to the dark ages of enforced suffering through repeal of its landmark "Death with Dignity" act.   So it's worth listening to people like this gentle, decent man:

Cancer Patient Believes Quality of Life Should Come Before Treatment

John Wish, diagnosed with bladder cancer earlier this year, says it’s time to ration healthcare for people his age and focus on quality of life rather than more treatment

Diane Lund-Muzikant 

October 27, 2011 -- Faced with cancer, it’s very unusual to hear someone talk about refusing to have chemotherapy or enduring more surgeries -- even though it might increase their chance of living longer.   

But this decision came easy to John Wish, who was diagnosed with Stage 3 bladder cancer earlier this year and had surgery to remove his bladder, prostate and the lymph nodes surrounding his groin.

“Old folks like me don’t deserve as much care as younger folks,” said Wish, who’s 77.  “The problem is, we don’t have a good way of defining who gets what. We need to talk about it, and have a moral and political discussion so we can get healthcare costs under control.  As a Quaker, I find it easy and helpful to talk about these matters of illness and death -- they are matters of equality and justice.”

Quality of life is just as important as having another medical intervention said Wish, who’s had arguments with his doctors. . . .

After his surgery, they urged him to have four rounds of chemotherapy, where he could have lost his hearing, had kidney failure and neuropathy. One chemotherapy treatment alone would have cost $10,000, he learned,while the total cost of his care could have reached into the tens of thousands of dollars.

Quality of Life Came First   

“Is that quality of life?” he asked. “I’m 77 years old. How much more expensive care is worthwhile to me or the community?” Even without the chemotherapy, he estimates Medicare has spent more than $35,000 on his medical care.

“There’s something wrong in our society with people believing they’re never going to die, and they only need another medical intervention and will have a happy life forever, Wish said. “It’s ridiculous. There comes a time when we need to let go. This is an important conversation that’s not yet occurring. We have to face it, or medical costs will continue going up. We’re 20 years behind with the Oregon Health Plan on figuring out what a procedure is worth, and how much the taxpayers should pay for.”
From an economic standpoint, his family is secure, his wife is capable, and Wish doesn’t want her devoting months on end taking care of him. . . .

His primary care physician argued with Wish about not wanting any further interventions. “When it came right down to it, he felt he had more responsibility for my body than I do, and we had a very distressing big time argument. It should be easier for me to make those choices and not have to fight with my doctors. It’s my body.”

Since then, he’s found a palliative care specialist in Portland -- Dr. Angela Kalisiak – calling her his advocate.

“She likes to see people who’ve made a choice about their condition, and aren’t in denial, and has been very helpful to me,” he said.

He believes in Oregon’s Death with Dignity law and wouldn’t hesitate to get the prescription for the cocktail from Kalisiak if his cancer returns, and he has less than six months to live. Fortunately, his family hasn’t raised any objections.    

“Given my diagnosis, I’m interested in high quality life – being in control of the choices I make, where I go and what I do,” Wish said. “Having a kidney infection is not high quality life. Having someone change my diaper is not high quality life. Or, having a stroke and not being able to make decisions about how much medical intervention I want.”

And, happily, we have an attorney general who gets it.

(And it's also good that we have a knowledgeable, independent reporter on issues within the medical-industrial complex in Oregon, the nonprofit Lund Report.  Send her some money if you have it to spare.)

Five ways income inequality happens

(Reuters) – As if on cue for an Occupy Wall Street commercial, the latest Congressional Budget Office report highlighted the large crevasse between the upper 1 percent of U.S. households and the rest of us.

When it comes to income inequality, this is what U.S. politicians should be digesting now. While it’s hardly a major revelation that for the top 1 percent of earners real after-tax income rose 275 percent between 1979 and 2007, the top 20 percent made more in after-tax income than the remaining 80 percent. That’s quite a difference since the lowest-income group’s median income only rose 18 percent.

Income inequality couldn’t be more of a mainstream issue as some 70 percent of Americans surveyed want wealth shared more equally.

The reasons for the growing disparity, which the CBO, without irony, measured by an increasing “Gini coefficient,” were buried deep in the report. It’s how income was taxed that allowed the ultra-wealthy to keep more of what they earned compared to middle- or lower-class Americans.

INVESTMENT INCOME EARNERS ARE TAXED LESS

Most lower- and middle-class earners make their money from wages, which are subject to Social Security, Medicare, federal and state taxes. But income from businesses, capital gains and dividends may be taxed at lower rates. In the CBO study period, the share from capital gains and business income increased, meaning upper-income families reaped greater after-tax benefits just from the kinds of non-wage income they reported.

When you’re on salary, you get taxed regularly through your paycheck. If you hold stocks, bonds, business equity and property, your capital gains — if any — can be delayed for years. Holding securities in tax-deferred retirement accounts can put off taxes for decades.

EXECUTIVES AND FINANCIAL PROFESSIONALS DID BEST

Again, no surprise here. But when you can structure your compensation so that it’s tax-deferred, paid in stock options or paid as capital gains, dividends or carried interest, you can pay much less to Uncle Sam and keep more of your income. Long-term capital gains, dividends and carried interest are taxed at a maximum 15 percent rate.

When the bulk of your income comes in those forms, you avoid taxes at the maximum 35-percent marginal federal rate. So those at the top of the compensation pyramid not only made more in gross income, their overall tax rates were lower because of how their pay was received. Billionaire Warren Buffett is a good example. His average rate was 17.4 percent.

LOWER-INCOME HOUSEHOLDS PAY MORE IN PAYROLL TAXES

Since the highest earners were paying less in overall taxes because they were paid in non-wage income, their payroll tax rate was also lower. The CBO found that the lowest fifth of families paid an average 8 percent in payroll taxes while the highest-income group paid under 2 percent.

Why are the poor paying quadruple the amount of payroll taxes than the rich?

They are unlikely to report investment or business income at the lowest rates. Attention tax reformers: You could make a case that the wealthiest Americans are not paying their fair share for Social Security, Medicare, state and federal programs. But since the tax code allows them to avoid paying any more, it’s perfectly legal now.

CONVERSION TO S CORPS ALSO HELPED WEALTHY

Those who ran their income through corporations (even small ones) reaped even more breaks by converting from a standard “C” to an “S” corporation. The S corporation essentially taxes business earnings at your personal rate in the year that you make the money. That opens up a number of ways to legally pare tax liability and gave many high-income households yet another loophole. I know, because I had an S Corp for years. “The observed growth in the conversion of C corporation income into S corporation income has contributed to the rapid growth in income for the highest-income households,” the CBO reported.

THOSE WHO HAVE MOST LOOPHOLES BENEFITS MOST

It’s a cumulative giveaway: The more deductions you can take at the most-favorable rates, the lower your after-tax income. Who did the best? No surprises here. “Employees in the financial and legal professions made up a larger share of the highest earners than any other group.” Hello Wall Street and K Street.

In addition to these plums, if you were in the elite class that benefited from low rates and a bevy of write-offs, you had more money to spare to hire lobbyists to keep your after-tax income higher than wage earners. You and your affiliated special-interest groups were also able to donate copious amounts of money to Congressional candidates who want to keep the tax code working in favor of the well-heeled.

Unless you can find a way of living off of an investment portfolio, create an S corporation and avoid payroll taxes, you’re going to pay more than your fair share of taxes. Has the Congressional debt reduction supercommittee considered this low-hanging fruit? There’s no way to tell since their proceedings or minutes have not been made public. Lobbyists have had better access than other citizens.

Only one thing is certain. If the status quo prevails, the tax code will continue to serve as a wealth enhancer for the ultra-wealthy and corporations. Without meaningful tax reform, the gap between the 99 percent and the top 1 percent will widen from a chasm — to a canyon.

 WORD. 

More excellence on this same idea here.  And here.

Public works follies redux: anti-sustainability fee schemes

Image via Wikipedia  So, the city water department (the folks who insist on printing and sending paper bills through the US Mail to people who pay online and who don't want a paper bill at all) has decided that those among us who put in an underground irrigation system -- and who already must pay $40 a year extra to have our backflow prevention devices tested -- should also pay a special $15 a year charge to the city just to pay for paper-pushing by the bureaucrats who "administer" the program.

  We put in an underground irrigation system at LOVESalem HQ so we could install timed drip irrigation throughout our many gardens.  We paid extra -- quite a bit extra, actually-- for a high-quality, high-end, backflow preventer with redundancy, though we could have used a cheaper, less-reliable one, and still met the state requirements.  But we know that backflow prevention is important.  (Backflow prevention is about avoiding contaminants getting sucked into city water pipes if the system pressure dips, such as when fighting fires.)

  Drip uses a tiny fraction of the water of conventional sprinkler irrigation, reducing the demand for water substantially just when demand is most likely to strain the city's water supply system.  Instead of charging more, a city actually interested in promoting sustainability would waive the backflow prevention test fee for anyone who uses drip rather than broadcasting water into the air.  Or add the annual testing charge into rates for everyone, since everyone who gets water from the system benefits from the testing.

  The notice letter says that the $15 cost of pushing the paper in the backflow prevention program "were included in your utility rates" but "will now be charged on your utility bill on a prorated monthly basis."  Great -- so instead of figuring out how to reward or reduce the blow for those of us who are helping reduce the strain on the system in the drought months, the city has decided that we should pay extra on top of the extra we already pay for a public health measure that benefits everyone. 

  And they no doubt justified this brainwave by saying that those of us who have a backflow preventer should pay for the testing, not those households that don't.  Sounds right at first glance -- except that what it does is create is a fee system that gets the incentives wrong.  It hits people with an additional charge for doing what's right (protecting the health of the system) instead of raising rates generally, which tends to reward those who do what's right (such as use drip) and discourage doing what's wrong (using water wastefully).

WORD: When the pipe dream turns into the pipe bomb

Image via WikipediaYowsah, this guy had better watch out.  He sure is shrill, going around not only noticing things but actually writing about them in the "Newspaper of Record."  All props to him.