Moderate Republicans: An Endangered Species

Since the surprise election of Scott Brown (R-MA) to replace the senate seat owned by the late liberal lion Ted Kennedy, Democrats have been shifting gears towards corralling Republicans instead of leaving them in the dust. Even though Obamacare passed the house and Senate under reconciliation, the political victory almost seems a tiny bit pyrrhic. My opinions about process and how the bill was written and passed aside, Democrats have hit a nearly immovable wall in the run up to the Midterm elections.

It’s no secret that process in Washington moves at a snail’s pace. Arguments about the definition of biomass for Agricultural states and appeals to use political time to change the nature of the college football BCS system are a just a few roadblocks to meaningful progress. But, in a time where a snail’s pace has turned into something akin to the velocity of plate tectonic movement, the ability to compromise and move to the middle has become an anomaly, even for lawmakers who had a history of such an act.

The prime example for such a description would be Arizona Senator and multi-presidential candidate John McCain. This is the same John McCain who supported rights for gays, was waffly on the Republican pro-life litmus test, cosponsored campaign finance reform with liberal Russ Feingold, supported a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants (with Ted Kennedy cosponsoring) and helped draft one of the first (but failed) climate bills with, then Democrat (now Independent), Joe Lieberman.

Where is he now? Since losing the election in 2008, he has abandoned his centrist ideals, stuck his tail between his legs and scampered towards the right. He has abandoned support for any climate legislation, released a statement that practically supports an Arizona immigration law that would amount to ethnic profiling and has dropped his support of gay marriage. He was also the supporter of an actual strategy of opposing every Democrat supported bill, even on traditionally bipartisan issues like nuclear non-proliferation and defense spending. He recently called the Supreme Court decision that specifically shot down his campaign finance law (I will try to post on the Campaign Finance law decision in the near future) “disappointing.” That is surely a tepid answer to a direct assault on ones principles.

McCain is not alone, unfortunately. The once-cool Senator Lindsay Graham from South Carolina has recently dropped his support of a tripartisan (Democrat John Kerry, Independent Joe Lieberman and himself in cahoots) comprehensive climate bill. Once a senator who dismissed hecklers who said he was a RINO and repeatedly voiced his support for bipartisanship on issues like immigration reform, has also bowed to pressure from his own party. By announcing that he is discontinuing his negotiations with his two counterparts on a climate bill because of the White House’s ambition to pass immigration reform he is essentially destroying his bipartisan credentials (besides the fact that he threatened to abandon his support of immigration if healthcare passed).

But, there is some hope. One of the first things that Scott Brown voted on when he got into office was a small jobs bill supported by the White House. His affirmative vote on the bill to pass out of cloture included yes votes from Susan Collins (R-ME), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Kit Bond (R-MO) and George Voinovich (R-OH). The bill passed on the Senate floor with support from the likes of Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and (GASP!) James Inhofe (R-OK). I also suspect that the new Supreme Court nomination will not be filibustered by Republicans (although anything could happen) and that the nuclear non-proliferation treaty signed by Russian president Dmitri Medvedev and President Obama will also pass with some Republican support.

Although there have been small incidents of bipartisanship, the overall environment in Washington has been one of extreme opinions and lot of yelling. From the tea parties to the unprecedented breaks in procedural décor (“It’s a baby killer” and “you lie”), it does not seem there will be much fruitful negotiation on any important issue in the next couple of months. I have a feeling that this warning will ring true, especially when our lawmakers choose to gain political points instead of political progress, and move farther towards the fringe and away from the middle.

As for financial market reform, which has a 66% support from the public, bipartisan support has broken down. But, hey…who wants to regulate a derivative market with a $600 trillion (yes, that is trillion) value? Maybe some people like bailouts with taxpayer money and investment companies who use “naked” derivatives (credit default swaps, etc) for low return and high risk. But, of course, those are the people who didn’t think bubbles could burst.

Coal Power in Los Angeles

I know I haven't updated my blog in over 3 months...so here it goes!

Since I started my position in LA as Program Assistant for the Beyond Coal Campaign at the Sierra Club, I have been graced with a slew of information that I was not aware of in relation to the city's power mix. In other words, I learned a whole bunch about how Los Angeles gets its power. In a less surprising note, I found out that many who live in Los Angeles are unaware of how they get their electricity. Here it goes...brace for impact....

Los Angeles gets 44% of its power from coal-fired power plants in Utah and Arizona.

Well...it may not be so dramatic. But, it has implications that affect the average ratepayer living in Los Angeles. Lets take a look on how many problems are caused by these coal fired plants, and how the cost will affect YOU, the ratepayer of Los Angeles, in the near future:

The Plants

Intermountain Power Plant - A 1,640MW coal fired power plant located near Delta, Utah, owned by Intermountain Power Agency and operated by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP). Amongst a slew of other small utilities, the LADWP owns 45% of the power from this plant.

Navajo Generating Station - A 2,409MW coal fired plant located on a Navajo reservation near Paige, Arizona that is owned and operated by the Salt River Project. The LADWP owns a 21% share in the power that Navajo produces.

The Cost

Intermountain Power Plant - Coal supply cost represents the highest expenditure for Intermountain Power. The plant buys its coal from the Sufco, Dugout Canyon and West Ridge mines in Utah and is transported via Union Pacific railcars. Starting in 2008, the price of coal began to fluctuate coinciding with an increase in price for all coal markets in the US. Cost fluctuation was caused by increasing demand and decreasing supply from the closing of several mines in Utah. New contract prices for Intermountain Power will be set higher than the historic average due to high commodity price in UT and increases in transportation costs. The new average price for coal is forecasted to be $65/ton. An increase from the historic average price ($36/ton) by just $10 would result in a yearly cost of $35 million. Because the utility has a "take-or-pay" contract with Intermountain Power, any reduction in use of coal power from the plant will result in the same cost. A take-or-pay contract sets a price at the beginning of the contract agreement, and the utility pays that price regardless of whether or not they decide to get the same amount power from the plant they agreed upon in the agreement. These costs will be shouldered by the utilities that have a share in Intermountain Power and their ratepayers.

Navajo Generating Station -

The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has ruled that the Navajo Generating Station must install the best available retrofit technology to reduce its emissions. The EPA has set pollution concentration benchmarks that Navajo must achieve in order to continue operation. The costs to reduce pollutants, according to the Salt River Project (owner and operator of Navajo) will be shouldered by utilities like LADWP, and their ratepayers. Coupled with a rise in the cost of coal per ton (due to increases in the cost of transporting coal to the station on railcars) Navajo Generating Station’s operations will translate to higher costs for utilities (and their ratepayers) who purchase power from the station.

Conclusion - Due to volatility in the price of coal caused by mine closures, contract renegotiations, pollution retrofits, increased cost of transportation and impending carbon controls and regulations from federal and state governments, the cost to operate these coal plants will go up. This means one thing:

The costs will be shouldered by the utilities and customers that get their power from these plants, including LADWP ratepayers!

Pollution

Together, Intermountain Power Plant and Navajo Generating Station produce 36 million tons of carbon dioxide, 75,000 tons of nitrogen oxide and 1,973 pounds of mercury. Here are some "fun" facts about these pollutants:

Mercury (Hg) -

Once mercury is absorbed into the body as a vapor, the health affects can be both physical and psychological. Symptoms associated with high mercury exposure include tremors, emotional changes, insomnia, neuromuscular degeneration (twitches, weakness, atrophy), headaches, changes in nerve sensations and performance deficits. Higher exposure can produce kidney failure, respiratory failure and death.

Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) -

The health impacts of Nitrogen Oxides, according to the EPA, include airway inflammation in healthy individuals and increased respiratory problems in those suffering from asthma. There has also been a correlation between short-term exposure and increased hospital and emergency room visits. Nitrogen oxide emissions come from both stationary sources (coal fired boilers, etc.) and non-stationary sources (vehicles, etc). Nitrogen oxides react with ammonia, moisture and other components in the air to form small particles that can penetrate into the lungs. This can lead to complications associated with bronchitis and emphysema and can exacerbate symptoms of heart disease. This leads to increased visits to the emergency room and premature death. When nitrogen oxides react with sunlight, they form ozone, which can be dangerous to children, the elderly, those with respiratory illnesses and people who work outside. Some of the symptoms of ozone exposure include decreased lung function, respiratory illness and premature death.

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) -

Increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere caused by man made behemoths like coal-fired plants is the main driver for global climate change. Some of these affects include dramatic sea level rise, increased extremes of drought and flood, less snowpack, glacial melt, irregular snowpack melt, increased severity of wildlfires hurricanes

and

global warming. Drought, flood, sea level rise and increased severity of wildfires and hurricanes have a direct effect on the pocketbooks and livelihoods of Southern California residents. Drought and flood will affect the growing of produce in the Central Valley, hurricanes will affect oil rigs causing short term price spikes in the cost of gasoline and wildfires will be more frequent causing higher property damage and destroy sensitive forest ecosystems.

Pending & Existing Regulations

Mercury - By 2011, the EPA will introduce a new rule, regulating mercury emissions from power plants (obviously including coal fired plants). The two plants that LADWP gets its power from will have to spend millions of dollars installing maximum achievable control technology to meet these standards.

Greenhouse Gases (carbon dioxide included):

1. EPA Endangerment Finding - The Supreme Court decision Massachusetts v. EPA gave the EPA authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. In 2009, the EPA declared that greenhouse gases are a threat to human health and therefore can be regulated by the agency.

2. Tailoring Rule - Sources of pollution that emit more than 25,000 tons of greenhouse gases must get a permit that says they are investing in the best available control technology. Installation of best available technology will result in high costs for the power plants, which will be shouldered by utilities and ratepayers. The businesses effected represent about 2% of total businesses in the country.

3. AB32 - A bill that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions in California to 1990 levels by 2020. Like the aforementioned bills, this will put a price on carbon emissions for the electricity sector. High emitters, like coal fired plants, will have to pay more and will most likely translate those costs back onto consumers.

4. AB1368 - California based utilities cannot renew a long term contract with a electricity source or plant that does not have the efficiency and pollution of a combined cycle natural gas plant. This will prevent the LADWP (or any other CA utility w/coal power) from renegotiating contracts with coal plants.

CONCLUSION

Residents of Los Angeles can no longer divorce themselves from coal power and the consequences of coal mining. While we may live in a progressive city which is willing to invest in clean energy, we cannot ignore the fact that our power comes from mostly coal. This coal is mined in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah, shipped to massive coal plants on Native American Lands and transmitted to homes in Los Angeles. The price to extract, burn and transport coal are out of state, and out of our control, but we end up facing higher electricity bills because of it. The only solution is to get Los Angeles OFF of coal and replace it with clean energy.

What's in Store for 2010

2010.

A decade has passed in the New Millennium, and as Paul Krugman pointed out, we are back to where we started. We learned nothing. As not to totally quote a Nine Inch Nails album...but we are back at Year Zero.

2009 is a goner. KO'd without as much as a complaint or obstruction. It left us in an eco-friendly, universally-covered, surge-inspired, financially-reformed, slow-to-recover backlog of problems, dropped into the lap of the new decade.

But, I don't want to be completely pessimistic about the end of the first year of one of the most anticipated administrations in United States history. But, as many Americans celebrated the election of the first black president, many political strategists began to lose sleep over the burden that they were about to take on. Here we have it:

Deficit

The Economy

War in Afghanistan

War in Iraq

Guantanamo Bay

Health Care

Climate Change

Housing Bubble

Credit Crisis

Unemployment

Stimulus

Torture

While some of these were campaign promises, many were legacies of the last couple months of the Bush administration. Of course one cannot harp forever about the problems of the Bush administration, as that would not produce any results.

Let's take a look at the current situation:

Deficit - Even higher (about 1/7 of GDP)

The Economy - Recession done, slow recovery commencing, emphasis on SLOW

War in Afghanistan - +30,000 more troops w/end date, still out of control

War in Iraq - first month without a single death, surge worked!

Guantanamo Bay - Not closed, prisoners successfully moved to Illinois, deadline for closure 01/20/10

Health Care - Bill passed Senate and House, going to Committee, then to Prez desk for passage

Climate Change - Energy bill passed house, waiting for Kerry-Graham-Lieberman rewrite in Senate, Copenhagen produced iffy results, IE Politically binding agreement

Housing Bubble - First time buyer credit extended, new rules still circulating

Credit Crisis - CARD Act in place, Banks bought out, TARP extended, TARP mostly paid back, banks continue to fail, Reg Reform pushed

Unemployment - 10.2% and rising

Stimulus - Passed, 2-yr plan for total implementation, job stimulus on the way

Torture - Memos released, on back burner?

This means?

Obama will face the same amount of work he did coming into the job. And, I will bet dollars-to-donuts that he will face harsher challenges, and more obstacles in getting his domestic and international legislation passed.

This also means that there will be a low-down-and-dirty, no-holds-bar, mudslingin' Wild West shootout/bar fight (can I give you anymore hyphenated anecdotes?) when the 2010 midterm elections arrive. If the Dems lose control of Congress, its going to be an uphill battle for the administration, fraught with compromise.

But, for 2010, compromise will be the name of the game.

FDR Speech to Congress

The Sacrifices of the Greatest Generation

Today, December 7th, 2009, is the 68th anniversary of the attack of Pearl Harbor that left thousands of Americans dead, and began World War II. I wouldn't be doing the WWII generation justice if I called WWII the defining point of 20th century US history. WWII had implications for the entire human race, and left and indelible mark on the psyche of those who fought and labored to see its end. Pearl Harbor, the second worst attack on US soil (Sept 11th being the worst) polarized an already sympathetic nation to unite to defeat totalitarianism, from the navy yards in San Francisco, to the beaches of Normandy, to the islands of the Pacific.

As someone who had widely read about WWII, I find that the 20th century is defined by two eras: Pre and Post-war. The brave soldiers who fought and died in the Pacific, N Africa, Europe and Russia were working towards protecting the world from the threats of Nazis and imperialists, but their actions had wider implications for the following 68 years. WWII spawned the atomic age, the cold war, the modern American family, affordable universities, cheap housing, suburbia, the FDR amendment, the Berlin Wall, cherry blossom festival, Rosie the riveter, modern healthcare, racially integrated armed forces, the defense industry and defined the "united homefront." All of these legacies spawned their own set of principles and ideals that still define what it means to be American. It brought us out of a depression, put us on the world stage and set that stage for the beginning of the most prolific generation: the baby boomers.

Most importantly, WWII gave us the greatest generation. They survived two world wars and a economic depression, to come out during one of the most prosperous times in our history. Both of my grandfathers fought in WWII, one as a bombadier and one as a dive bomber. My living grandfather, who flew divebombers against the Japanese in the pacific with Marine Corps, is 92 years old and flies the Marine flag from his home in North Hollywood every day. Its a simple gesture whose meaning transcends many generations.

If there is something we can take from remembering Pearl Harbor, its that decisions to go to war, to respond to an attack on our homeland, is something that will inevitably reverberate through many generations. And, the sacrifices of soldiers put in harms way should, and will always be held in the highest honor.

The Folly of Conservative Guerrilla Tactics: Open Note to Lila Rose and Hannah Giles

Two events in the last year, involving young conservatives using guerrilla media tactics, have been shortsighted and disgustingly partisan at the expense of the livelihoods of the less fortunate.

The first happened when UCLA student Lila Rose went into a Planned Parenthood with a camera, and a story about statutory rape. The worker told her to lie on her application, and it was all caught on tape. This whipped up the pro-life community (as if they were not whipped up already), and Planned Parenthood took the necessary actions to fire the worker. But, this wasn't enough. The video evidence was used as the reason for revoking funding from some Planned Parenthood locations.

Here's what grinds my gears: the worker at planned parenthood made a mistake, and the worker got fired. This is NO reason to consider revoking funding from such an organization. People who don't want to see planned parenthood on the streets are just looking for that one slip-up to throw the baby out with the bathwater (no pun intended). Lila Rose's ruse turned into a fiasco for reproductive rights and threatened to set us back 35 years. Planned parenthood is not only about abortion. Planned parenthood gives reproductive health counseling, parenthood advice and information about adoption. Abortion consultation is only one element. And, if funding is cut, it affects every aspect of the organization, which could have terrible implications for women seeking reproductive and/or parenthood counseling.

The pro-life movement is incredibly short-sighted and their reasoning is ethically and physically unproven. No one has the right to define where life starts. The argument that it starts at conception is arbitrary and ethically spurious. Ethics aside, other people's reproductive choices are none of their business! How dare someone even consider that they have the power to make decisions about the body of someone else! A woman has an inherent right to choose what she does with the baby that she carries. To pass any kind of law restricting abortion in any term would be an affront to privacy.

The second event involved Hannah Giles, young conservative, who dressed as a prostitute and went into ACORN. An ACORN worker gave her advice on tax evasion, human smuggling and child prostitution. The worker was fired and the conservative wingnuttosphere went...nutty. ACORN received flak stemming from voter fraud allegations during the election, and many criticisms levied against Obama during his run were stemmed from his work with ACORN. An outraged congress passed a resolution that cut all federal spending from ACORN.

There are two questionable things about the ACORN case. Congress passing a bill that targets ACORN is a bill of attainder and illegal under the constitution. If Congress wanted to cut spending from ACORN, it could have done it without a bill and not made it such a public humiliation for ACORN. If they applied the same rules in the ACORN bill to other federally funded contractors, half of the organizations rebuilding Afghanistan would have their funding cut. I guess the mistake of one worker is worth more punishment than the electrocution of American soldiers by faulty wiring or the rape and humiliation of a woman working for Halliburton. ACORN provides valuable services to underprivileged and underrepresented groups, employing ethnic and racial minorities to get them off the street and out of gangs. They register those communities to vote, train local leaders for social justice grassroots movements and do advocacy for communities that cannot advocate for themselves. And, because of this selfish, unbelievably short-sighted act, all of these programs will lose out. One can surely see the folly in it all.

When the LA Times did a cover story on Ms. Giles and her speech in Santa Barbara to young conservatives, her audience sounded like they were the oppressed minority of the CA political world. Here's some advice from our esteemed governor: Stop Whining! To add insult to injury, Giles had the audacity to quote great community organizer Saul Alinsky. Saul Alinsky was a champion of community organizations and grassroots movements that defined ACORN. If Alinsky were alive, he would have opposed, and probably organized a campaign against what Giles did. I'm sure he's turning in his grave.

Some Hearing Updates: CEJAP, Cap and Trade and Fraudulent Letters

These last couple weeks I haven't been updating my blog, mostly because I have been very busy. Busy with what? Well, other than busy not being paid, I have been rushing around the Hill from hearing to hearing over the new energy bill. That is: Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, Boxer-Kerry, CEJAP or S.1733. This is the Senate version of the American Clean Energy and Security Act, Waxman-Markey, ACES or H.R.2454. Here are a couple highlights from the last two weeks:

-I went to the Environment and Natural Resources Hearing on Cap-and-trade economics. The emphasis was on trying to find a way to give money back to the consumer, who would inevitably bear the brunt of cap and trade. The panel questioned witnesses from Academia and non-profits, including my favorite Resources for the Future (sounds cool, huh?) Senator Bingaman, Cantwell and Dorgan asked how rates of electricity would vary across regions and how money could be funneled back to low income communities for transitional support into new low energy appliances. Sen Murkowski harped on regional differences between her home state of AK and those "coastal regions." Bunning, Bennett and Barrasso made their usual diatribes about an energy tax and how carbon dioxide is not a pollutant, etc. Polemics aside, they had the same question about how the average consumer was going to be helped to transition to a green economy. Some good ideas from the witnesses were cap and dividend which gives money back in the form of a stimulus-like check, and a 15% rebate for low income communities.

-The big enchiladas were the Environment and Public Works hearings on the new bill, featuring various experts on national security, adaptation, trade and economics and a panel of Obama Administration secretary members (DOE, EPA, DOT, DOI, etc). Senator Boxer took control of the hearing quickly, and acted as a moderator for the witnesses and Sen Inhofe. Inhofe was surprisingly less crazy about his global warming denial and stuck to the tax complaint. Sen Alexander made his point about building 100 new nuclear power plants, electrifying 50% of the vehicle fleet and creating mini "Manhattan Projects." There were some questions about agriculture from Sen Klobuchar, but mostly the democrats asked about the need for regulation of GHG emissions and the availability of technology. The most interesting segments involved Boxer and Inhofe's exchanges and questioning of retired Vice Admiral McGill, of the Center for Naval Analysis. His reiteration that climate change was a threat to national security, and my experience reading over his work, has given me great respect for him.

-Lastly, I attended the Fraudulent Letters hearing by the House Selection Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. This was held by chairman Ed Markey, who I have great respect for from his authorship in H.R.2454. He questioned representatives from the NAACP, the American Association of University Women, Bonner and Associates and the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE). Fraudulent letters supposedly sent by a temp worker at Bonner and Associates, who was contracted by ACCCE, were sent to congressmen on behalf of senior, veterans and ethnic groups opposing the Waxman-Markey bill. These letters were fake, and the transgression was found out 2 days before the bill was sent to the floor. ACCCE and Bonner took slow action to remedy this, as the parties involved, representatives and groups who were victims of the fraud were not notified until almost 1 month after the vote. Markey and Rep Jay Inslee shamed Bonner and ACCCE and called what they did an affront to democracy. Markey and Inslee went a step further to say that the memos that ACCCE was putting out about higher energy bills were as fraudulent as the letters. Steve Miller of ACCCE gave contraditing statements about whether or not he intended on supporting the bill, which Markey did not believe. Markey concluded the hearing by telling Miller to go to global warming naysayers like Sen Inhoff and tell them that ACCCE supports a cap on emissions and thinks global warming is an important threat to deal with. Most importantly, Markey said that this kind of rhetoric about energy bills gets to the floor debate and hinders good discussion.

That's all folks.