Regarding a recent Tribune story on the Los Osos CSD's settlement of the Taxpayer Watch's lawsuit, Ron Crawford wasted no time asking the Tribune one of his on-point, annoying questions. Over at http://www.sewerwatch.blogspot.com/ Awwww, and I thought we'd be able to get through one week without the hideous sewer wars commencing. Ah, well. The Tribune's coverage of all things sewerish have certainly been, uh, very, very curious, indeed.
The Tribune also reported that the federal bankruptcy judge approved the settlement of the TPW suit and the CSD's insurance company will pay "the bulk of the money." Some of the regular Sewer Wars Commenters on this blog have gleefully and adamently declared, of this lawsuit, that the CSD directors named would go to jail! The Tribune story doesn't mention that, which I know will come as a great disappoint to certain folks.
Left on the to-do list at the CSD is the breach of contract lawsuit with the state water board & etc. Now THAT'S the one I really, reeeeellly want to see persued because I'd reeeeeely, reeeeeely like to know exactly who (and when) breached that contract. I know, I know, that'll never happen. That info will be forever buried and the community forced to eat it all, or at least most of it. Too bad. That's the (almost) final and in many ways most interesting part of the whole Sewer Saga.
Oh, a reminder to some readers: mind your manners, now.
Meanwhile, Down In The Gulf
More interesting wrinkles coming to light on the gulf oil spill. One of the more interesting seems to be that if you are spilling X number of barrels, then chemical dispersment is the least harmful way to go. But, if you're spilling Y number of barrels, the least harmful is to leave it alone and get out the booms and start gathering it up -- that dispersment chemicals on Y is waaaaay more damaging.
In the case of BP, it appears that BP knew they were spilling Y number early on but since they would be fined on the amount of Y and if Y was allowed to remain visible (undispersed) the reality of this disaster would be manifest, so they low-balled the number they gave out to the public/government, used dispersment to hide and make it sort of disappear into an even more lethal, uncontainable, hidden (and unproveable-in-court?) cloud until it was too late.
If true, then BP's actions will result in a worse disaster than if they'd come clean in the first place and openly went ahead with best practices right off the bat. Why they didn't do that is likely because we have set up a system that rewards concealment and punishes honesty. We'll see the result of that system play out in the Gulf.
And, if true, maybe we need to think about changing that "system" into one that says, simply, if you lie to us and that lie causes more damage, then we'll take over your company and shut you down, seize all your assets and that's that. BUT, if you come clean right out of the box, you'll still be responsible for the clean up, but your company won't be seized. Would that apply sufficient "moral hazard" to companies to do the right -- smart -- thing?
Yeah, not likely. Sigh.
Showing posts with label Gulf oil spill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gulf oil spill. Show all posts
Friday, June 18, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
What I Learned On My Summer Vacation
Calhouns Can(n)ons for June 11, 2010
When I first heard about the Gulf oil spill I was concerned, then alarmed. But after a while, the media started bombarding us with stories about all the Lessons We Have Learned since the blowout started. So I figured I’d better pay close attention in case I needed to learn something new and important.
We were told the only real fail-safe way to shut this well-head down was to drill a second relief well, which will take months. But then, we already learned that lesson some 30 years ago when the Xxtoc exploratory well blew and spewed about 420,000 gallons of oil into the Gulf until it could be capped months later. After that disaster a few countries (but, clearly, not America) learned the lesson and required all offshore deep wells to have a relief well drilled simultaneously with the main well. That way if something goes wrong at the head, relief is just a valve-turn away. But America decided years ago that that lesson wasn’t important and could be ignored.
Then we were told that we shouldn’t worry, that the President had his “boot on the neck of BP” and would make sure they paid for everything and made all the communities damaged by this spill “whole again.” Of course, we were given that lesson way back 1989 when the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Alaska and spilled 10.9 million gallons of crude all over the place.
Claiming that they would make Alaskan waters “whole,” Exxon’s lawyers really just fought that case in court for years and years while sympathetic judges kept cutting the awards down to slivers and by the time the real lesson was on display – privatize all profits, get Congress to “cap” liabilities and then stick as many of those liabilities as possible onto the taxpayer, and count on dragged-out litigation to whittle judgments and fines down to pennies on the dollar – Americans had forgotten the original incident and it’s final outcome. So, that lesson was an old one and had already been dismissed.
Pretty soon, as the present spill continued to roll on unabated, we were told that one key lesson we were learning here was that BP had a long slipshod record of repeated disasters, from the Alaska pipeline leaks to explosions in refineries, all caused by what EPA special agent Scott West called “ . . . a corporate philosophy that it was cheaper to operate to failure and then deal with the problem later rather than do preventive maintenance.” This record was loaded with lessons available for learning over the years, but, once again, the American public, Congress, and government agencies headed by ex-oilmen and Presidential cronies didn’t think they were useful lessons and so BP ended up with lots of drilling contracts and is now one of the biggest suppliers to the Pentagon to fuel its various wars. No new lessons there.
As Newsweek reported, in 2006 the EPA and the Justice Department decided to briefly learn a lesson from the “two massive BP oil leaks in Alaska caused by corroded pipelines,” and when they proceeded to try to take corrective action – which is what “learning lessons” should be all about – they were told to shut their case down, take a quick, cheap plea and just continue business as usual. When Jeanne Pascal, a lawyer in the EPA’s Seattle office, pushed for BP’s debarment from government contracts, she learned a valuable lesson: “When a major economic and political giant . . . tells you it has direct access to the White House, it’s very intimidating.”
But heck, that lesson is an old one that the American people didn’t think was worth learning in the first place. They’re fine with not understanding that when government is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Oil Industry, the oil industry will simply do what they like and the American people will cover all costs and suffer all the damages. Hiding oil’s true cost so they can continue to see fake “cheap” prices at the pump is just fine with Americans.
Which means all our present media hype about “learning lessons” from this spill is just more hokum. Americans know all the lessons and have dismissed them all. This present spill will be no different. Congress will make a political dumb-show of faux gruffness, the courts will stick it to a few low-level officials, and BP will count on careful PR and -- thanks to Justice Robert’s Supreme Court -- unlimited corporate political contributions to erase everything from our collective memory in only a few months. Then it’s back to business as usual. No need for corrective rules and profit-reducing regulations; let the market take care of itself.
And for BP, that means about $17 billion in profits a year. So that’s a huge relief! Now we can stop watching news that’s filled with boring “lessons” that we have no intention of learning, pictures of dead pelicans, and interviews with whiny fishermen – boo-hoo, waah-waah -- and can once again relax and go back to watching our favorite TV show: “America: The Biggest Loser.”
When I first heard about the Gulf oil spill I was concerned, then alarmed. But after a while, the media started bombarding us with stories about all the Lessons We Have Learned since the blowout started. So I figured I’d better pay close attention in case I needed to learn something new and important.
We were told the only real fail-safe way to shut this well-head down was to drill a second relief well, which will take months. But then, we already learned that lesson some 30 years ago when the Xxtoc exploratory well blew and spewed about 420,000 gallons of oil into the Gulf until it could be capped months later. After that disaster a few countries (but, clearly, not America) learned the lesson and required all offshore deep wells to have a relief well drilled simultaneously with the main well. That way if something goes wrong at the head, relief is just a valve-turn away. But America decided years ago that that lesson wasn’t important and could be ignored.
Then we were told that we shouldn’t worry, that the President had his “boot on the neck of BP” and would make sure they paid for everything and made all the communities damaged by this spill “whole again.” Of course, we were given that lesson way back 1989 when the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Alaska and spilled 10.9 million gallons of crude all over the place.
Claiming that they would make Alaskan waters “whole,” Exxon’s lawyers really just fought that case in court for years and years while sympathetic judges kept cutting the awards down to slivers and by the time the real lesson was on display – privatize all profits, get Congress to “cap” liabilities and then stick as many of those liabilities as possible onto the taxpayer, and count on dragged-out litigation to whittle judgments and fines down to pennies on the dollar – Americans had forgotten the original incident and it’s final outcome. So, that lesson was an old one and had already been dismissed.
Pretty soon, as the present spill continued to roll on unabated, we were told that one key lesson we were learning here was that BP had a long slipshod record of repeated disasters, from the Alaska pipeline leaks to explosions in refineries, all caused by what EPA special agent Scott West called “ . . . a corporate philosophy that it was cheaper to operate to failure and then deal with the problem later rather than do preventive maintenance.” This record was loaded with lessons available for learning over the years, but, once again, the American public, Congress, and government agencies headed by ex-oilmen and Presidential cronies didn’t think they were useful lessons and so BP ended up with lots of drilling contracts and is now one of the biggest suppliers to the Pentagon to fuel its various wars. No new lessons there.
As Newsweek reported, in 2006 the EPA and the Justice Department decided to briefly learn a lesson from the “two massive BP oil leaks in Alaska caused by corroded pipelines,” and when they proceeded to try to take corrective action – which is what “learning lessons” should be all about – they were told to shut their case down, take a quick, cheap plea and just continue business as usual. When Jeanne Pascal, a lawyer in the EPA’s Seattle office, pushed for BP’s debarment from government contracts, she learned a valuable lesson: “When a major economic and political giant . . . tells you it has direct access to the White House, it’s very intimidating.”
But heck, that lesson is an old one that the American people didn’t think was worth learning in the first place. They’re fine with not understanding that when government is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Oil Industry, the oil industry will simply do what they like and the American people will cover all costs and suffer all the damages. Hiding oil’s true cost so they can continue to see fake “cheap” prices at the pump is just fine with Americans.
Which means all our present media hype about “learning lessons” from this spill is just more hokum. Americans know all the lessons and have dismissed them all. This present spill will be no different. Congress will make a political dumb-show of faux gruffness, the courts will stick it to a few low-level officials, and BP will count on careful PR and -- thanks to Justice Robert’s Supreme Court -- unlimited corporate political contributions to erase everything from our collective memory in only a few months. Then it’s back to business as usual. No need for corrective rules and profit-reducing regulations; let the market take care of itself.
And for BP, that means about $17 billion in profits a year. So that’s a huge relief! Now we can stop watching news that’s filled with boring “lessons” that we have no intention of learning, pictures of dead pelicans, and interviews with whiny fishermen – boo-hoo, waah-waah -- and can once again relax and go back to watching our favorite TV show: “America: The Biggest Loser.”
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Well, Ya Gotta Laugh
Yesterday’s L.A. Times story on Republican Senate candidate Tom Campbell said it all: “Three outside groups are stepping into the GOP race to try to drive home the message that the former congressman’s view on same-sex marriage and abortion rights – he favors both – and on gun rights, where he favors some restrictions, are at odds with the voters who will decide the party’s nominee June 8.
“Campbell’s argument has been that as a fiscal conservative and social moderate he is more in line with California voters than his two opponents, former Hewlett-Packard chief Carly Fioina and Orange County Assemblyman Chuck DeVore. His positions make him the stronger candidate against Sen. Barbara Boxer, he argues.
“Conservative groups disagree, saying that the strongest candidate for Republicans will be one who can mobilize the party’s rank and file.”
In other words, for Republicans extreme batshit crazy trumps views that are “more in line with California voters.” that is “mainstream, middle of road, majority.” Which, of course, explains a lot of what’s all going wrong with our system – batshit crazy extreme is taking the place of a more traditional middle way of pragmatism and compromise and actually fixing things.
And so we have a candidate like Rand Paul, named after his daddy’s God, Ayn Rand, who can be fairly called a Randian but in his case, he’s a Randian who obviously hasn’t read or understood Rand’s opus magnum, “Atlas Shrugged,” since it is singularly un-Galtian to stand for an office that is based on “service to others.” That’s so anti-Galtian that Ayn must be rolling over in her grave in a Russian fury! Anti-Galtian, anti-Randian and totally oxymoronic.
If you think this country’s going to hell in a hand basket (again, something it keeps doing every generation or so) then Rand Paul would be the poster child of political disconnect. Ditto Tom Campbell. An oxymoron running for elected office and a middle of the roader deemed to be unelectable. Nuts. We’ve all gone nuts.
Oh, Shut Up!
Today we may know whether the “top kill” on the gulf oil blow-out will work or not. In the meantime, will any and all Americans wringing their hands and pounding the table in outrage, please, please shut up. This blow-out is simply the natural, physical manifestation of The Reagan Revolution – government is the problem, we don’t need regulations, the market will take care of all things and tax breaks for the rich (corporate and private) will cause money and benefits to trickle down over us all.
And so, often in the dead of night, oil lobbyists and vast sums of money trickled – flooded – into Washington resulting in back-room-written laws and softened rules, lax oversight, and federal support and tax breaks and subsidies and exceptions from royalty payments, and waivers and more subsidies that encouraged deep-water drilling that otherwise would have been economically prohibitive. Translation: If the oil companies had to take on the deep-water risk all on their own, they wouldn’t have done it. But they were being supported by all those dead of night sweet deals made in Congress that was constantly prodded by an electorate that demanded cheap gas, no matter what the price to the environment.
And so, according to the L.A. Times story, “If it wasn’t profitable for them to do it, then that’s a good argument for leaving the oil in the ground,” said Robert Gramling, who studies the history of the oil industry at the University of Lousiana, Lafayette. The government-subsidized rush to deep-water exploration led to a situation where the industry was doing ‘things that were technically possible but were beyond our ability to undo them if we find out we have a problem.’”
And this, “At the industry-funded American Petroleum Institute, policy advisor Allison Nyhold disputes Gramling’s conclusions and points out that the incentives yielded an enormous jump in energy resources. In addition, she said, the expansion of drilling in the gulf created tens of thousands of jobs.”
The result is what we’re seeing now. Instead of waking up years ago, removing all the subsidies from oil, thereby keeping the price nearer to the “real” price for that form of energy, we allowed (demanded!) the back room deals, swallowed whole the free-market mantra (privatize profits, put the liabilities onto the public) and now we’re seeing the logical outcome and we’ll pay for it all.
But in the meantime, please hold all the whining. We can change all this, shift gears on our whole energy program, remove the price-distorting subsidies on “dirty” energy, make sure the price of our energy actually reflects its real cost, but we won’t do that. We like cheap, subsidized gas and we don’t want to know how much we’re actually paying for that gallon. Appearance trumps reality.
Plus, in order to shift energy gears, we’ll have to change our election laws so as to remove the money that’s absolutely turning Washington into a wholly owned corporate subsidiary. And we don’t want to do that, either. Too much work.
So we’ll continue to see oil spills, our energy policy will continue to be a pastiche of special interests that will make sure that any tweaks only be minor ones so that the quo will remain status. And we’ll continue to pay through the nose for a system that’s dooming us and the environment. But that’s the way we like it, so no whining.
But That’s O.K. Because The World May End In A Few Days
Which is when Congress is supposed to vote (or not) to change the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell law which will go into effect after the military finishes their “study” on the matter sometime next year, maybe. If the vote passes, then gays, like their straight bretheren and sisteren, can legally serve and die for their country, which they have been doing (illegally) all along, but we don’t want to talk about that.
So, when that comes to pass, if it does – I’m not counting out the Party of NO blocking it so as to pander to their truly base base – that will mean the world will end.
So, we won’t have to worry about oil spills.
And Anyway, It’s Much Easier To Holler About Mexicans
Yes, it’s the American Way. Instead of rolling up our sleeves when times get tough and getting to work first taking a hard look up-line at the structures we’ve allowed to go into place, ask whether they’re still working or have been corrupted and are now corrupting us, then doing the heavy lifting of actually fixing our broken system, it’s much easier and much more fun to look down-line and just holler about Mexicans.
“Campbell’s argument has been that as a fiscal conservative and social moderate he is more in line with California voters than his two opponents, former Hewlett-Packard chief Carly Fioina and Orange County Assemblyman Chuck DeVore. His positions make him the stronger candidate against Sen. Barbara Boxer, he argues.
“Conservative groups disagree, saying that the strongest candidate for Republicans will be one who can mobilize the party’s rank and file.”
In other words, for Republicans extreme batshit crazy trumps views that are “more in line with California voters.” that is “mainstream, middle of road, majority.” Which, of course, explains a lot of what’s all going wrong with our system – batshit crazy extreme is taking the place of a more traditional middle way of pragmatism and compromise and actually fixing things.
And so we have a candidate like Rand Paul, named after his daddy’s God, Ayn Rand, who can be fairly called a Randian but in his case, he’s a Randian who obviously hasn’t read or understood Rand’s opus magnum, “Atlas Shrugged,” since it is singularly un-Galtian to stand for an office that is based on “service to others.” That’s so anti-Galtian that Ayn must be rolling over in her grave in a Russian fury! Anti-Galtian, anti-Randian and totally oxymoronic.
If you think this country’s going to hell in a hand basket (again, something it keeps doing every generation or so) then Rand Paul would be the poster child of political disconnect. Ditto Tom Campbell. An oxymoron running for elected office and a middle of the roader deemed to be unelectable. Nuts. We’ve all gone nuts.
Oh, Shut Up!
Today we may know whether the “top kill” on the gulf oil blow-out will work or not. In the meantime, will any and all Americans wringing their hands and pounding the table in outrage, please, please shut up. This blow-out is simply the natural, physical manifestation of The Reagan Revolution – government is the problem, we don’t need regulations, the market will take care of all things and tax breaks for the rich (corporate and private) will cause money and benefits to trickle down over us all.
And so, often in the dead of night, oil lobbyists and vast sums of money trickled – flooded – into Washington resulting in back-room-written laws and softened rules, lax oversight, and federal support and tax breaks and subsidies and exceptions from royalty payments, and waivers and more subsidies that encouraged deep-water drilling that otherwise would have been economically prohibitive. Translation: If the oil companies had to take on the deep-water risk all on their own, they wouldn’t have done it. But they were being supported by all those dead of night sweet deals made in Congress that was constantly prodded by an electorate that demanded cheap gas, no matter what the price to the environment.
And so, according to the L.A. Times story, “If it wasn’t profitable for them to do it, then that’s a good argument for leaving the oil in the ground,” said Robert Gramling, who studies the history of the oil industry at the University of Lousiana, Lafayette. The government-subsidized rush to deep-water exploration led to a situation where the industry was doing ‘things that were technically possible but were beyond our ability to undo them if we find out we have a problem.’”
And this, “At the industry-funded American Petroleum Institute, policy advisor Allison Nyhold disputes Gramling’s conclusions and points out that the incentives yielded an enormous jump in energy resources. In addition, she said, the expansion of drilling in the gulf created tens of thousands of jobs.”
The result is what we’re seeing now. Instead of waking up years ago, removing all the subsidies from oil, thereby keeping the price nearer to the “real” price for that form of energy, we allowed (demanded!) the back room deals, swallowed whole the free-market mantra (privatize profits, put the liabilities onto the public) and now we’re seeing the logical outcome and we’ll pay for it all.
But in the meantime, please hold all the whining. We can change all this, shift gears on our whole energy program, remove the price-distorting subsidies on “dirty” energy, make sure the price of our energy actually reflects its real cost, but we won’t do that. We like cheap, subsidized gas and we don’t want to know how much we’re actually paying for that gallon. Appearance trumps reality.
Plus, in order to shift energy gears, we’ll have to change our election laws so as to remove the money that’s absolutely turning Washington into a wholly owned corporate subsidiary. And we don’t want to do that, either. Too much work.
So we’ll continue to see oil spills, our energy policy will continue to be a pastiche of special interests that will make sure that any tweaks only be minor ones so that the quo will remain status. And we’ll continue to pay through the nose for a system that’s dooming us and the environment. But that’s the way we like it, so no whining.
But That’s O.K. Because The World May End In A Few Days
Which is when Congress is supposed to vote (or not) to change the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell law which will go into effect after the military finishes their “study” on the matter sometime next year, maybe. If the vote passes, then gays, like their straight bretheren and sisteren, can legally serve and die for their country, which they have been doing (illegally) all along, but we don’t want to talk about that.
So, when that comes to pass, if it does – I’m not counting out the Party of NO blocking it so as to pander to their truly base base – that will mean the world will end.
So, we won’t have to worry about oil spills.
And Anyway, It’s Much Easier To Holler About Mexicans
Yes, it’s the American Way. Instead of rolling up our sleeves when times get tough and getting to work first taking a hard look up-line at the structures we’ve allowed to go into place, ask whether they’re still working or have been corrupted and are now corrupting us, then doing the heavy lifting of actually fixing our broken system, it’s much easier and much more fun to look down-line and just holler about Mexicans.
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Oh, Shut Up
Ah, Yes, How’s that Drill Baby, Drill thingee working out fer ya, wink-wink? Well, America, not so good, but stop whining. Thirty years ago, President Carter told you you’d have to grow up and get off the oil teat but you went with Party Time Reagan and went on a 20 years-long SUV-Hummer binge. Sure there was a tiny blip when gas prices shot up past $4 a gallon and you collectively started re-thinking your driving/car habits, but that didn’t last long. And powerful corporate interests own a sufficient number of politicians that they can ensure that nothing meaningful regarding gas taxes and alternative energy policies won’t go into effect until the last dollar can be rung out of the last gallon of burned oil or the last mountain is ripped down and its coal removed and burned and if that damages the world, well, the hell with the world.
And we Americans like it that way, so when you’re watching pictures of the Gulf oil spill and you feel tempted to feel sick to your stomach, suck it up. It’s exactly what you wanted, so shut up.
That includes you two, too.
Steve Poizner and Meg Whitman, shut up and go away. Watching your awful ads chewing on each others ankles is nothing but pots and kettles. You don’t have any new ideas and what warmed over gruel you’re tossing up won’t work anyway, not with the CA legislature that the good people of California have elected and keep electing. This state might have a shot if we can reorganize districts so we can avoid left and right wing zealots of all stripes and maybe get districts that will turn out sane legislators. But so long as Californians want nice pudding for themselves while refusing to tax themselves for that nice pudding, we’ll stay stuck in gridlock. And running ads with sheep crawling around with glowing red eyes isn’t going to do the trick. So shut up and go away.
You, too, Sam.
I know, I know, you’re running for State Senator under your usual banner of “Blakeslee—the Get ‘r Done, reach-across-the-aisle Guy.” You blew that cover during the hideous Budget Wars when, given a choice between voting for a budget that included some minor, targeted tax raises or letting the State (and your constituent, i.e. me) fall into the sea, you took a no-tax-ever blood oath to Grover Norquist and his band of Right Wing Republican Crazies. The good of the state or Norquist and your ambition to move up within the increasingly crazy Republican Party, and you chose Norquist.
O.K., fair enough. But now you’re back asking for my vote? You chose and it wasn’t for the good of the state. It was your career. So, Nuh-huh. Sorry buddy.
And damning with faint- to- no praise, ya gotta laugh
This from the Santa Lucian, the newsletter of the local Sierra Club, ( http://www.santalucia.sierraclub.org/) on their picks for various June 8 election races, comments regarding their endorsement of Bruce Gibson, County Supervisor, District 2 candidate: “And to our friends in Los Osos who have managed to read this far but are struggling with their blood pressure: In politics, as in life, making a decision with widespread, multiple ramifications on the basis of a single issue is never a good idea. As is well known, we have disagreed sharply with Gibson over the Los Osos wastewater project. But there are too many other pressing environmental issues in the country for anyone in Gibson’s district to cast their vote on that issue alone. . . . "
Then goes on to note, “And if District 2 voters need further incentive to resist single-issue impulse: from the available evidence, Gibson’s opponent, Marshall Ochylski, was recruited to run by COLAB, the local alliance of developer-funded “property rights” extremists that is suing to overturn the County’s smart growth principles.” . . . “As pro-sprawl and anti-environment as it gets, COLAB has one goal: tip the Board back to its previous majority and return to the pave-it-all days of Ryan, Ovitt, Lenthall and Achadjian. Mr. Ochylski is their man.”
Well, as regards the Hideous Los Osos Sewer is concerned, that’s pretty much in the hands of the Coastal Commission and will be until they vote, then the BOS has two choices: accept the project or not. As an incumbent, Gibson will win – incumbents do. (In 24 years, I can’t think of a single term Supervisor, can you?) So this race is either moot or one of those None of the Above, depending on your point of view.
On the other hand, the Santa Lucian endorses Pedro Nava for Attorney General (since AG Jerry Brown will be running for Gov.) Pedro Nava? Gee, if he gets elected, maybe HE will pay attention to the Los Osos 45 and do something about the AG-supported efforts to “prosecute” them. I know, wishful thinking. Even Nava couldn’t buck the powerful state agencies that want those 45 dead and buried so nobody will start asking too many questions.
Meanwhile, Nobody Learned Anything.
Again, in the Santa Lucian, a recap of the sadly obvious: Morro Bay/Cayucos had a chance to actually learn something from the Hideous Los Osos Sewer Wars and chose to learn nothing. In updating their wastewater treatment facilities, they will be moving to tertiary treatment but refused to take the only real, sensible next step: Recharging the aquifers with that expensively treated water and/or ag exchange of some sort. Instead, they’ll treat the water ($$$) THEN DUMP IT INTO THE SEA.
A hint to the good people of Morro Bay and Cayucos. Believe it or not, gobal warming is a reality and the first evidence of it will come in the form of changing rain/snow patterns which will most likely result in undependable availability of water for Morro Bay’s nice state water project pipe. They paid for all that nice imported water, and paid for the pipe, but they did so with no guarantee that there would be water to put into the pipe. Hence, it is beyond comprehension the City Council would vote to charge Morro Bay and Cayucos citizens big bucks to upgrade a wasteWATER project, then throw the WATER away. And why on earth would the Regional WATER Quality Control Board vote to give them a permit to do that?? Duh?
But on a happier (?) note
Sunday, May 23, from 10 a.m. – 1 pm at the Morro Rock parking lot, there’ll be a Save the Whales (Again) rally. The international Whaling Commission (IWC) created a draft package of proposals that will lift the moratorium on commercial whaling for 10 years, and has no provision for reducing or phasing out whale killing. In short the draft proposal is an awful step backward.
So, time for another rally. And if you want to volunteer to help out, contact Mandy Davis at wildheartcomm@hotmail.com
Or contact your local representative and tell them you want MORE drilling platforms which can blow out and maybe kill the whales with oil slicks. That’ll get the job done!
And we Americans like it that way, so when you’re watching pictures of the Gulf oil spill and you feel tempted to feel sick to your stomach, suck it up. It’s exactly what you wanted, so shut up.
That includes you two, too.
Steve Poizner and Meg Whitman, shut up and go away. Watching your awful ads chewing on each others ankles is nothing but pots and kettles. You don’t have any new ideas and what warmed over gruel you’re tossing up won’t work anyway, not with the CA legislature that the good people of California have elected and keep electing. This state might have a shot if we can reorganize districts so we can avoid left and right wing zealots of all stripes and maybe get districts that will turn out sane legislators. But so long as Californians want nice pudding for themselves while refusing to tax themselves for that nice pudding, we’ll stay stuck in gridlock. And running ads with sheep crawling around with glowing red eyes isn’t going to do the trick. So shut up and go away.
You, too, Sam.
I know, I know, you’re running for State Senator under your usual banner of “Blakeslee—the Get ‘r Done, reach-across-the-aisle Guy.” You blew that cover during the hideous Budget Wars when, given a choice between voting for a budget that included some minor, targeted tax raises or letting the State (and your constituent, i.e. me) fall into the sea, you took a no-tax-ever blood oath to Grover Norquist and his band of Right Wing Republican Crazies. The good of the state or Norquist and your ambition to move up within the increasingly crazy Republican Party, and you chose Norquist.
O.K., fair enough. But now you’re back asking for my vote? You chose and it wasn’t for the good of the state. It was your career. So, Nuh-huh. Sorry buddy.
And damning with faint- to- no praise, ya gotta laugh
This from the Santa Lucian, the newsletter of the local Sierra Club, ( http://www.santalucia.sierraclub.org/) on their picks for various June 8 election races, comments regarding their endorsement of Bruce Gibson, County Supervisor, District 2 candidate: “And to our friends in Los Osos who have managed to read this far but are struggling with their blood pressure: In politics, as in life, making a decision with widespread, multiple ramifications on the basis of a single issue is never a good idea. As is well known, we have disagreed sharply with Gibson over the Los Osos wastewater project. But there are too many other pressing environmental issues in the country for anyone in Gibson’s district to cast their vote on that issue alone. . . . "
Then goes on to note, “And if District 2 voters need further incentive to resist single-issue impulse: from the available evidence, Gibson’s opponent, Marshall Ochylski, was recruited to run by COLAB, the local alliance of developer-funded “property rights” extremists that is suing to overturn the County’s smart growth principles.” . . . “As pro-sprawl and anti-environment as it gets, COLAB has one goal: tip the Board back to its previous majority and return to the pave-it-all days of Ryan, Ovitt, Lenthall and Achadjian. Mr. Ochylski is their man.”
Well, as regards the Hideous Los Osos Sewer is concerned, that’s pretty much in the hands of the Coastal Commission and will be until they vote, then the BOS has two choices: accept the project or not. As an incumbent, Gibson will win – incumbents do. (In 24 years, I can’t think of a single term Supervisor, can you?) So this race is either moot or one of those None of the Above, depending on your point of view.
On the other hand, the Santa Lucian endorses Pedro Nava for Attorney General (since AG Jerry Brown will be running for Gov.) Pedro Nava? Gee, if he gets elected, maybe HE will pay attention to the Los Osos 45 and do something about the AG-supported efforts to “prosecute” them. I know, wishful thinking. Even Nava couldn’t buck the powerful state agencies that want those 45 dead and buried so nobody will start asking too many questions.
Meanwhile, Nobody Learned Anything.
Again, in the Santa Lucian, a recap of the sadly obvious: Morro Bay/Cayucos had a chance to actually learn something from the Hideous Los Osos Sewer Wars and chose to learn nothing. In updating their wastewater treatment facilities, they will be moving to tertiary treatment but refused to take the only real, sensible next step: Recharging the aquifers with that expensively treated water and/or ag exchange of some sort. Instead, they’ll treat the water ($$$) THEN DUMP IT INTO THE SEA.
A hint to the good people of Morro Bay and Cayucos. Believe it or not, gobal warming is a reality and the first evidence of it will come in the form of changing rain/snow patterns which will most likely result in undependable availability of water for Morro Bay’s nice state water project pipe. They paid for all that nice imported water, and paid for the pipe, but they did so with no guarantee that there would be water to put into the pipe. Hence, it is beyond comprehension the City Council would vote to charge Morro Bay and Cayucos citizens big bucks to upgrade a wasteWATER project, then throw the WATER away. And why on earth would the Regional WATER Quality Control Board vote to give them a permit to do that?? Duh?
But on a happier (?) note
Sunday, May 23, from 10 a.m. – 1 pm at the Morro Rock parking lot, there’ll be a Save the Whales (Again) rally. The international Whaling Commission (IWC) created a draft package of proposals that will lift the moratorium on commercial whaling for 10 years, and has no provision for reducing or phasing out whale killing. In short the draft proposal is an awful step backward.
So, time for another rally. And if you want to volunteer to help out, contact Mandy Davis at wildheartcomm@hotmail.com
Or contact your local representative and tell them you want MORE drilling platforms which can blow out and maybe kill the whales with oil slicks. That’ll get the job done!
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