RoguePundit

Pig Mist

A year or so ago, I blogged a couple of times about a new type of disease being suffered by a few slaughterhouse employees who'd been using air pressure to blast pig brains out of their skulls.  The symptoms were similar to those of Guillain-Barre syndrome (also known as chronic inflammatory demyelinating neuropathy), an auto-immune disorder where the body starts attacking parts of the nervous system.  Earlier this week, researchers provided an update on the condition and its victims.

"By all objective measures they're a lot better than they were before," [Dr] Dyck told Reuters Health. The two workers who were the sickest--one with encephalitis, and another with a disorder of the spinal cord--have gone back to work. But many of the workers continue to have pain, Dyck added, and none are completely back to normal.

The Mayo Clinic team determined that the workers developed a new type of sensory predominant polyradiculoneuropathy. A previously undescribed antibody was isolated from all of the patients. The investigators suggest that the disorder is autoimmune in origin--with the patients developing an immune reaction in which their own nervous system is attacked.

Neurological testing in the patients had revealed many abnormalities, including changes in nerve impulse conduction, sensory nerve function and body temperature regulation.

Seventeen of the patients received treatment to blunt their autoimmune response, including steroids, immunoglobulin, or other therapies. Twelve of them showed "marked" improvement, while four more had moderate or mild improvements and one worker has not yet been re-evaluated. Among the seven patients who didn't receive immune treatment, six got better on their own, and one was lost to follow-up.

None of the patients are completely symptom-free, the researchers note, and many still have some pain.

The condition was found in workers at three plants--in Minnesota, Indiana, and Nebraska.  Fortunately, few slaughterhouses harvested pigs in a manner where the workers were exposed to breathing aerosolized brains.  Yes, they've stopped that practice.  It's possible that some victims couldn't be located...many of the workers in the plants were illegal aliens.

Oregon's Average Teacher Salaries, 2007-08

The Oregon School Board Association recently published a map showing the average teacher salaries in each of Oregon's 36 counties for the 2007-08 school year.  Once again, rural and financially-challenged Josephine County easily topped the state at nearly $60,000 a year, over $8,000 above the state average.  The JoCo average rose by $1,948 over the previous school year, while the state average rose by just $980.  Here's the map, which the OSBA needs to fix by shifting the Coos County totals. 

Yesterday here in JoCo...

Tears streamed down Marcy Quist's face on Thursday night as she sobbed over the news that Wolf Creek Elementary School will close in June.

...

The Three Rivers School Board voted 4 to 1 on Thursday to close the rural elementary school at the end of this school year and merge its students with Manzanita Elementary School.

Wolf Creek is the smallest school in the district.  With the cost structure here, how much longer will it be until we lose an elementary school in the Applegate Valley?   

Strahan apologized to those in the crowd from Wolf Creek. He also asked to have the issue of interdistrict transfers placed on the March meeting agenda. Several parents have said they want to send their children to Glendale Elementary in Douglas County if Wolf Creek closes. To do that, parents would need approval from the Three Rivers board.

That's another tough issue.  Wolf Creek is closer to Glendale, and not having to traverse Sexton Summit makes for a safer drive and might save a snow day or two.  However, the Three Rivers School District would lose the funding for any students it allowed to change districts.  

At least it looks like the district won't be cutting school days this year.  Legislative leaders have said that they plan to spend $166 million of the federal stimulus money to cushion the impact of the school budget cuts across the state.  If the teachers had taken Governor Kulongoski's suggestion and worked a few days for free, that stimulus money could have been invested in ways that benefit Oregonians who don't have good jobs with great benefits.  However, that type of shared sacrifice was out of the question.  

In Love With Tobacco Sales Taxes

At least this time it wouldn't end up in our Constitution. 

A key supporter of a 60-cent-a-pack increase in the state cigarette tax says he believes the tax will pass in the Oregon Legislature this year, despite voters' rejection of a similar effort in 2007.

The latest proposal, which would raise money for tobacco prevention and public health programs, has already drawn criticism from a tobacco industry lobbyist who calls it an unfair burden on smokers.

But state Rep. Mitch Greenlick says he thinks lawmakers will overcome the industry's opposition this time around this and enact a tax hike outright without having to send it to the ballot.

"I am absolutely ready to take on the tobacco industry," Greenlick said after a House panel heard testimony Wednesday. "Their product kills people."

...says the obese public health expert who's supporting the effort to allow soda and junk food vending machines in teachers lounges (previous blog here). 

It was Governor Kulongoski who requested the cigarette tax increase via HB 2112.  Switching links...

Though the bill proposes raising taxes on cigarettes by 60 cents per pack, lawmakers may adjust that amount, Greenlick said. The bill also proposes increasing the tax on the wholesale price of other tobacco products from 65 percent to 95 percent, though no more than 50 cents per cigar.

The current state cigarette tax, $1.18 per pack, brought in $240 million in the 2006-07 fiscal year. And President Barack Obama signed a bill earlier this month that raises the federal tax on cigarettes by 62 cents per pack--to $1.01 per pack--to expand health care coverage for children.

So if Oregon raised taxes by 60 cents a pack, state smokers would face a total state and federal tax of $2.79 a pack by next January. That would bring the total price of a pack of cigarettes at an Oregon grocery store to about $6.60.

That's going to stimulate food insecurity, because we know that a percentage of the poor will keep on smoking and short themselves and their families on food (end of previous blog here).  It's a fact of life that one has to deal with.

Note that the new cap on the federal cigar tax is 40 cents per cigar (previous blog here).  Why in the heck is the Democratic leadership at both the state and federal level taking it easy on the smokers of expensive cigars?  Because so many of them are rich cigar smokers? 

Unions Rank Second

Unions and environmentalists aren't natural allies, but they've usually coexisted pretty well underneath the big tent.  There have been occasional rifts, such as when several unions chose to support drilling in ANWR.  But the Democratic Party can usually depend upon the support of both groups...if for no other reason than their mistrust of Republicans.  The growing budgetary problems here in Oregon are helping to highlight a twitch in that dynamic.      

It was a pleasant surprise earlier this month with the SEIU offered to forego cost-of-living increases and to take eight unpaid furlough days.  But with the size of the budget hole, the Governor thinks there needs to be more sacrifice. 

The governor wants workers to take two furlough days during this budget year, which ends June 30, and 24 furlough days during the 2009-11 budget cycle, said SEIU executive director Leslie Frane. State negotiators laid out this new demand during contract talks Monday with SEIU.

The concession amounts to one furlough day per month for two years. It equals a 5 percent pay cut for workers, Frane said.

If all state workers, both union and nonunion, take 24 furlough days during the next budget cycle, it could save the state $105 million, Kulongoski spokesman Rem Niven said. The state is facing a shortfall of as much as $3 billion in 2009-11 because of lower-than-expected state tax collections and lottery proceeds.

Meanwhile, he's desperate to spend more in battling climate change.  For instance earlier this month...

Oregon would have one of the toughest limits on greenhouse gas emissions--affecting everything from industry smokestacks to car tailpipes--under a new program pushed hard Thursday by Gov. Ted Kulongoski.

The governor, making a rare appearance before a legislative committee, argued the state should take a leading role in combating climate change and that his "cap and trade" proposal would put it on the cutting edge.

...

According to testimony give today, it would cost the state an additional $750,000 over the next two years to develop the cap-and-trade program.

$750,000 isn't a huge amount, but bear in mind that it's in preparation to institute a regional cap-and-trade program.  Switching links...

Detractors, who range from Oregon business leaders to U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., say there are better, less risky ways to ramp down the pollution that adds to global warming.

"What the governor has to do is convince manufacturers that pushing up their costs is going to make them more healthy," said John Ledger, lobbyist for Associated Oregon Industries. "Everyone is worried about job losses and moving companies overseas." 

It's not impossible that a regional cap & trade system could "create tens of thousands of new jobs," but it would be at the expense of an even greater number of jobs.  Guess we're supposed to ignore the fact that Europe has been learning this the hard way...though advocates are loathe to admit it.  Oregon AFL-CIO is amongst the unions that are concerned the system "could potentially put Oregonians out of work."  Kulongoski says opponents of his plan are "in denial."

The Governor is also trying to further boost the use of expensive solar power.  Here's some info on a couple of the bills he introduced this session.  

Oregon already has some of the strongest tax credit and loan programs in the nation to encourage solar energy, but the average Oregon building owner still can expect to wait 25 years or more to recover the initial capital costs of a solar energy system through savings on electricity bills.

HB 2121 would establish a feed-in tariff pilot program for up to 17 megawatts (MW) of new solar energy. A feed-in tariff requires utilities to purchase solar energy according to a pre-established rate or set of rates. If the price for the solar power exceeds the price at which the building owner purchases electricity back from the utility, solar panels become an income source for the homeowner. The greater the difference between the "buy" and "sell" rates, the greater the incentive for building owners to install solar panels.

This would drive up the cost of power for everyone, including state and local government.  Bear in mind though that most solar panels only last 20-25 years.  In other words, Kulongoski is hoping that building owners will choose to make an investment in renewable energy that probably won't pay off. 

HB 2181 approaches the problem of high initial costs for solar power from a different angle. It enables local governments to finance solar installations using their authority to create local improvement districts (LIDs). Participation in a solar LID would be wholly voluntary by owners of residential property of any size, or of any commercial building of 20,000 square feet or less.

The local government would make loans to participating property owners to help pay to install a solar energy facility. The loans would be repaid over time in the form of a special tax assessment on the LID. In turn, HB 2181 would enable the local government to obtain a loan from the state to help defray the carrying costs of the property owner loans.

In a sense with both HB 2121 & 2181, the Governor is trying to ensure that the already well-subsidized solar industry here in Oregon isn't at a loss for business.  That's nice, but really expensive...wind is far more affordable, and it's still not cheap.  Kulongoski evidently thinks there's enough money in the budget to further promote the Cadillac of renewable energies, but not to keep paying our government employees--union or otherwise--to work full-time. 

Now switching to an example from the ever-contentious subject of timber harvests.  Oregon's O&C counties have been sternly warned that the most recent extension of timber funding will be the last.  The residents in these counties have shown little willingness (at best) to pay higher property taxes in response to the federal government reneging on its obligations under the O&C Act.  That wouldn't be an issue if it weren't for the endless environmental roadblocks to the logging of the former O&C lands, most of which now belong to the BLM. 

The loss of funding means that the O&C counties--especially those in Southern Oregon plus Lane County--will have less money to spend.  This will lead to an increase in the already high unemployment rates, because many government workers will lose their jobs.  Rural politicians get this.  Many of their urban peers sneer that it's so 20th century to log federal lands and resist higher taxes.  That split was plain to see a couple of weeks ago...          

Oregon lawmakers, including some Democrats, are aligning in support of the Bureau of Land Management's latest logging plan for federal forests in Western Oregon.

Two resolutions are being drafted showing Oregon lawmakers support the plan and urging congressional and executive branch support. The resolutions are in opposition to the position of Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski.

In December, the Governor published a press release and lengthy memo explaining his reasons for opposing the WOPR (Western Oregon Plan Revision).  The folks who wrote this editorial clearly saw through the charade.

Kulongoski said he is concerned the BLM failed to go through formal consultation with federal scientists over the potential harm to salmon and the spotted owl. He also expressed concern over water quality issues. And he still isn’t sure if the WOPR will help fight global warming.

Presumably his representatives have made his interests known during the four years they have been part of the plan development. Ten state agencies have been very involved in the planning since a judge ruled the BLM needed a plan by the end of 2008 to increase logging on O&C lands in Western Oregon. As a result of the participation of the state, and extensive public comments, the draft WOPR proposal was substantially modified.

Federal scientists representing agencies known as formal cooperators, including the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Forest Service, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have been very active in the discussions. The governor knows that, or should know it, but he works a legal distinction, currently under consideration by the courts, when he questions “formal consultation.” That question considers when formal consultation is necessary—during planning or after a site is chosen.

The BLM responds that the Endangered Species Act requires timber sales to be reviewed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service before proceeding under the plan.

Though considerations of climate change were not required under the court order, the BLM, with the formal cooperators, researched and addressed climate change and carbon sequestration. The governor’s representatives participated. Presumably he doesn’t like the answers.

Governor Kulongoski has made it increasingly clear that nothing is more important to him than the environment, especially when it comes to climate change.  Unfortunately, he's become a catastrophist on the subject, which has him trying to address climate change with an exaggerated and sometimes destructive sense of urgency.  

Kulongoski's focus on green jobs hasn't kept Oregon from seeing its economy plunge faster than the nation's in this recession (previous blog here).  His latest environmental initiatives won't change that.  Environmentalism doesn't have to hurt economic prosperity, but it certainly tends to here in Oregon. 

Possibly Going Paperless

Evidently, the following looked like a good investment at the time. 

Hearst owned The San Francisco Examiner for more than a century, but the rival Chronicle became the city’s dominant paper. In 2000, Hearst bought The Chronicle for $660 million, and sold The Examiner. But it kept many Examiner workers, significantly increasing the size and cost of The Chronicle’s staff.

The Examiner has since been reduced to a free newspaper, leaving the Chronicle the only major newspaper in town.   

From a Tuesday press release...

Hearst Corporation announced today that its San Francisco Chronicle newspaper is undertaking critical cost-saving measures including a significant reduction in the number of its unionized and nonunion employees. If these savings cannot be accomplished within weeks, Hearst said, the Company will be forced to sell or close the newspaper.

Hearst said that the Chronicle lost more than $50 million last year and that this year’s losses to date are worse. The Chronicle has had major losses each year since 2001.

... Survival is the outcome we all want to achieve. But without the specific changes we are seeking across the entire Chronicle organization, we will have no choice but to quickly seek a buyer for the Chronicle or, should a buyer not be found, to shut the newspaper down.”

The newspaper has about 1,500 employees and a circulation of 339,000.  I haven't found the 2008 statistics, but from 2003-2007, the Chronicle lost 147,000 subscribers.  A subscription for home delivery in the city limits now costs $62 for eight weeks, which is a touch over $400 a year.      

Switching to a link from the Chronicle itself...

The company did not specify the size of the staff reductions or the nature of the other cost-saving measures it has in mind. The company said it immediately will seek discussions with Northern California Media Workers Guild Local 39521 and International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 853, which represent the majority of workers at The Chronicle.

...

Doug Cuthbertson, executive officer of the local newspaper guild, said, "We're extremely concerned for our members and we have a meeting planned for 10 a.m. Wednesday with management to hear what plans they have and offer any plans we may have to address what's obviously a serious problem."

Rome Aloise, secretary-treasurer at the Teamsters, added, "It remains to be seen what they think is needed. I'm a bit skeptical that any further cuts on the wage side and the staffing side will make up the difference that's needed when revenues are nonexistent. The problems are on the revenue side. The solution is not necessarily on the worker side. I'm hopeful they have some ideas, but I'm not optimistic."

The only Hearst Corporation newspaper here in the Northwest is the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which is also on deathwatch.  From its January 9 press release...

Hearst Corporation announced that it is offering for sale the SeattlePost-Intelligencer (P-I) and its interest in the Joint Operating Agreement (JOA) under which the P-I and The Seattle Times are published.

Hearst said that should a sale of the P-I not occur within 60 days, it will pursue other options for the property. These options include a move to a digital-only operation with a greatly reduced staff or a complete shutdown of all operations. In no case will Hearst continue to publish the P-I in printed form following the conclusion of this process.

The PI lost $14 million last year. 

Ecologically Appropriate Thought

The following guest editorial on the potential environmental impacts of renewable energy projects on California's deserts happened to contain a couple pet peeves of mine.

California's desert lands are in some ways a perfect fit with the renewable energy industries necessary to combat climate change. There's sun. There's wind. There's space.

But without careful planning and regulation, these "climate solutions" could irrevocably damage the planet they are intended to protect.

The biologically rich but arid desert ecosystems are remarkably fragile. Once topsoil and plant life have been disrupted for the placement of solar arrays, wind farms, power plants, transmission lines and CO2 scrubbers, restoration would be cost-prohibitive, if not technically impossible. And widespread desert construction--even of projects aimed at environmental mitigation--would devastate the very organisms and ecosystems best able to adjust to a warming world.

Biologically rich?  A hallmark of desert (and arctic) ecosystems is low biodiversity because the conditions are so harsh.  And is there a master list somewhere that officially classifies what is and isn't a fragile ecosystem?    

This isn't to say that there aren't a number of good and/or compelling reasons to protect the ecosystems in question.  But, activism--for or against the projects--doesn't excuse being sloppy or misleading with science.   

That gets me to who wrote this editorial...someone who should know better.

Bruce M. Pavlik is a professor of biology at Mills College, Oakland, and the author of "The California Deserts: An Ecological Rediscovery."

He's also someone who's paid to do better. 

Mills College...  Just yesterday I was following links on botanic gardens and arboretums in the region and started reading about one I haven't visited yet, the Mills College Botanic Garden...which is under the Department of Biology.  The garden is supposed to be small but nice.  However, the web page contained this noxious concept.

The Botanic Garden is developing into a center for ecologically appropriate thought, native plant propagation for restoration, and general environmental sustainability.

Ecologically appropriate thought?  Thankfully when one googles that phrase, it only comes up once...though this post will change that.  Evidently the students there have intellectual freedom, so long as they think inside a particular box.  Few institutions of higher learning proudly admit that.

Indoctrinate, not educate.

Poplar Ethanol

For decades now, economical production of cellulosic ethanol has been just around the corner.  That remains true today, though it seemed even closer when oil was approaching $150 a barrel.  With the plunge in both the economy and the price of oil, most proposed cellulosic ethanol plants that were making headlines are now being delayed.  That isn't true for one in Oregon.

Next-gen ethanol maker ZeaChem says it is still on track to start construction of its 1.5 million gallon per year demo plant in Boardman, Ore., this year, and the company says engineering work on the plant has already started with contractor CH2M Hill.

It’s a baby step, far from commercial scale production, but 7-year-old ZeaChem seems to be keeping on the steady track that it has set for itself. We took a tour of the lab last month, and witnessed the process by which the company takes a common microbe (found in termite guts and regular soil) and uses it to break down trees and plants into ethanol. The company claims its hybrid process, which combines the microbe steps with a gasification step, enables it to produce 40 percent more ethanol per ton of biomass than competitors.

Corn is in genus Zea, but ZeaChem's process is feedstock agnostic--which in this case means it can use anything with cellulose.  The company is currently testing the process in its lab and is making about five gallons of ethanol a day.  What does ZeaChem intend to use as feedstock in the proposed plant?

In 2007, Greenwood Resources purchased a tree farm which uses subsidized irrigation water from the Columbia River to grow thirsty hybrid poplar trees in a semi-arid climate (previous blog here).  Believe it or not, the Forest Stewardship Council has certified the operation as sustainable forestry.  And then about a year ago...  

GreenWood Resources, new operator of the 17,000-acre tree farm near Boardman, has signed a non-binding letter of intent to supply poplar feed stock to ZeaChem Inc.

The long-term agreement is intended to support an initial 1.5-million-gallon-per-year cellulosic biorefinery ZeaChem plans to build at the Port of Morrow. Plant engineering already has started.

Additionally, ZeaChem and GreenWood agreed to explore increasing the scope of the relationship to accommodate additional capacity at the proposed refinery and other future sites through the potential development of short-rotation poplar biomass energy tree farms integrated with ethanol conversion technology.

Switching back to the original article...

ZeaChem has been moving slower on commercial production than those folks, but it was able to raise a round recently, demonstrating that investors think the company’s technology is valuable. Last month, ZeaChem said it has raised $34 million from giant petroleum refiner Valero Energy Corp., as well as Globespan Partners, Mohr Davidow Ventures, and Firelake Capital. While ZeaChem won’t likely be the first to produce cellulosic ethanol at commercial scale — that’s looking to be Range Fuels for now — it looks like it’s one of the more solid firms that can weather the current recession.

Valero, which is best known as an oil refiner, is spreading money around a number of speculative renewable energy efforts, including algae fuel.  

Random Nature #204

Scary Words:  Advertising agencies get paid big money to come up with attractive names for complex drugs.  Food manufacturers are getting increasingly clever when it comes to naming ingredients in ways that won't alarm label readers.  The following helps show why these can be a good investment. 

We all have different criteria for what we consider risky. However, numerous studies have suggested that we tend to perceive familiar products and activities as being less risky and hazardous than unfamiliar ones. If something is familiar, the thinking goes, it is comfortable and safe. But how do we know if something is familiar? We often rely on a simple shortcut: If it is easy to perceive, remember or pronounce, we have probably seen it before.

Therefore, people would tend to initially think that Liechtenstein is less safe than Georgia?  Maybe the answer would be different if they saw Georgia spelled in Georgian--საქართველო.  By the way, that actually spells Sakartvelo, which is what Georgians call their nation.  There are several theories--none conclusive--as to why they've long been referred to as Georgians.  Our State of Georgia was named after King George II.  Anyway...

A group of students were given a list of made-up food additives and were asked to rate how harmful they were. The additives all contained twelve letters, with Magnalroxate being one of the easiest to pronounce and Hnegripitrom one of the hardest to pronounce. The students rated the difficult to pronounce additives as being more harmful. In addition, the hard to pronounce additives were considered to be more novel than those with easier names. In another experiment, students were shown a list of made-up names of amusement-park rides and were asked to rate the rides on how adventurous they would be and how risky (and therefore most likely to make them sick) the rides would be. The names ranged from being easy to pronounce (such as Chunta) to very difficult to pronounce (such as Vaiveahtoishi). Consistent with the first experiment, the students rated the rides with the difficult to pronounce names as being more risky, but also more exciting.

These results show that people consistently classify difficult to pronounce items as risky, and this is the case for both undesirable risks (such as getting sick on a roller coaster or hazardous food additive) as well as desirable risks (such as an adventurous amusement park ride).

Which sound better, NutraSweet, aspartame, or aspartyl-phenylalanine-1-methyl ester? 

Influential Movies:  If you let a child watch South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, I'm not sure the first concern would be the movie influencing the child to smoke.

The researchers found that parental permission to watch R-rated movies was one of the strongest predictors of the perception that cigarettes are available, about as strong as having friends that smoked. If allowed to watch R-rated films, nonsmokers were almost twice as likely, and smokers were almost three times as likely to say it would be easy for them to get cigarettes.

...

"We don't know why this is so. It may have to do with a parenting style that is permissive of activities that are not age-appropriate. Or it may be an outcome of all the smoking scenes in R-rated movies," says lead author of the study Chyke Doubeni, PhD, with the University of Massachusetts Medical School. ...

"But we do know that kids who believe it is easy to get a cigarette are at risk of smoking. Our prior research has already shown that kids who perceive cigarettes as readily accessible are more likely to end up as regular smokers," Doubeni said.

Unfortunately, one of the co-authors couldn't resist editorializing about something the study didn't prove...which is something one finds all-too-often in science journalism.   

"Parents need to be mindful about the movies their children watch for a variety of obvious reasons. This study points out one more reason for not allowing children to watch movies that are not appropriate for their age," added co-author Dr. Joseph DiFranza with the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

There's little doubt though that movies can influence children to smoke.  Last year, the National Cancer Institute published a study on the power of the media to encourage and discourage tobacco use.  Amongst its conclusions... 

The agency analyzed studies from around the world, finding strong evidence that children exposed to on-screen smoking have a more positive attitude toward cigarettes and that there's a link between youth smoking and exposure to movies.

But, is smoking much more prevalent in R-rated movies than others?  Some activists want an R rating for all movies with smoking in them--with the possible exception of historical biopics.      

For Everyone's Sake, Abandon Hope:  While the following was published in a scientific journal (Ecology), note that it's an essay not based upon research.  The authors are an animal ecologist and an environmental ethicist who believe that we are on the brink of environmental disaster.

For decades, say Vucetich and Nelson, we have been hammered by the ceaseless thunder of messages predicting imminent environmental cataclysm: global climate change, air and water pollution, destruction of wildlife habitat, holes in the ozone. The response of environmentalists—from Al Gore to Jane Goodall—to this persistent message of hopelessness has focused on the need to remain hopeful.

But hope may actually be counter-productive, Vucetich and Nelson suggest. "I have little reason to live sustainably if the only reason to do so is to hope for a sustainable future, because every other message I receive suggests that disaster is guaranteed," they explain.

Maybe this is why many religious folks are less prone to environmental catastrophism...they have more hope.

People are hearing radically contradictory messages:

• Scientists present evidence that profound environmental disaster is imminent.
• It is urgent to live up to an extremely high standard of sustainable living.
• The reason to live sustainably is that doing so gives hope for averting disaster.
• Yet disaster is inevitable.

"Given a predisposition to mistrust authorities, such contradictions justifiably elicit mistrust," say Vucetich and Nelson.

Let's not forget the elephant in the room.  So much of the science that predicts imminent environmental disaster is shoddy, exaggerated, and/or politicized (example here) that some of the mistrust of authorities has definitely been earned.  If everything's a crisis... 

If hope for averting environmental disaster is not the right reason to live sustainably, what is? The scholars say we must provide people with reasons to live sustainably that are rational and effective, based on virtues rather than consequences. That means equating sustainable living not with hope for a better future, but with basic virtues such as sharing and caring, virtues that we recognize as good in themselves and fundamentally the right way to live in the present, they explain.

One advantage to such an approach is that it can motivate even people who do not believe that we are on the brink of environmental disaster, Vucetich and Nelson point out. It also clarifies the connection between environmental and social problems, a connection many people fail to grasp.

Unfortunately, we have plenty of political and environmental leaders who preach the virtues of green living but don't practice them much.  Almost no one who's proclaiming that we're on the verge of an environmental disaster is personally acting like it.  That's a contradictory message that this theory wants us to ignore.  Should we abandon hope that this will change?  

Securing Oregon's Data

For multiple reasons, the state can't afford to be wasting money like this.      

The 2005 Legislature passed a bill making the state Department of Administrative Services responsible for the state's information systems security, including security at the state data center. DAS assigned the job to its Enterprise Security Office.

...

Oregon's new Enterprise Security Office has not complied with its mandate to develop an adequate, complete security plan for the state's information systems, a state audit released Wednesday says.

The office also spent $14 million on two projects that most likely will result in no benefit to the state, according to the report, completed by the Secretary of State's Audits Division.

After reading the following, it makes one seriously wonder what we've been paying these people for.  A lot of important tasks simply aren't getting done.

According to the audit report, the office failed to:

- Develop complete security plans and associated standards, policies and procedures. The office instead assigned state agencies to develop their own security plans. However, as of August 2008, no state agencies had submitted their plans.

- Conduct vulnerability assessments of agency information systems. Instead, the office developed a master contract with a vendor to allow agencies to conduct vulnerability assessments at their discretion. As of June 2008, only two agencies had used the contract. Neither provided the office with the results.

- Review or verify the security of information systems. Staff told auditors they planned to perform such reviews only at the request of agencies.

- Ensure remedial actions were taken to resolve identified security issues. The office had no formal plans to address issues that would be identified in vulnerability assessments. And staff said they did not follow up on findings contained in previous audit reports due to staffing and budget constraints.

- Effectively manage security infrastructure projects.

Unacceptable.  FYI, Dugan Petty has led the Enterprise Security Office since September 2006.  Sure sounds like he's in over his head.

The article also included a reminder about an audit on another DAS function which is producing disappointing results. 

Last July, the Audits Division released a report critical of the $63 million State Data Center, which merged data processing for 12 state agencies. It said the center wasn't saving money or managing computer operations more efficiently and did not make agency operations more secure from hackers.

Rem Nivens, a spokesman for Gov. Ted Kulongoski, said the governor believes that agencies have made a strong effort to improve in the area of protecting Oregonians' personal information.

I suppose it's nice to know that the substandard performance isn't for lack of effort.  However, that's not the measure of merit.     

Scott Harra has been the director of DAS for almost a year now.  Here's a bit of bio from the press release announcing his appointment.

Harra has served in the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services since 1989, first as a budget manager, and then as administrator of the Fiscal and Business Services Division.  He received training in public administration and budget analysis at the Department of Administrative Services from 1987 to 1989, during which he served as an assistant budget analysis in developing the Governor’s budget.

Pretty soon, folks are going to start wondering if Harra is in over his head as well.   

Smarter Than Our Governor

Despite considerable rumbling by the public, Governor Kulongoski has continued to give ODOT the latitude to work on a mileage tax.  

- Despite what he says about climate change, the Governor can certainly look like a hypocrite on the subject.  He supports removing dams that produce renewable energy, because evidently salmon are a greater concern than climate change.  And rather than keeping a consumption tax on carbon usage, Kulongoski is considering switching to a mileage tax that reduces the incentive to drive a fuel efficient vehicle.  Yeesh.

- Implementing a mileage tax will add to the cost of new vehicles and force service station owners to invest in the necessary equipment...and recoup that cost at customers' expense.  That needlessly increases the cost of living.  

- Many folks have privacy concerns about the devices that must be installed in vehicles to make a mileage tax possible.  No amount of government denials will completely allay those concerns. 

- And when it comes to the feared decline in fuel tax revenues as cars become more efficient, here's a cynical thought on how that will impact highway maintenance.  Haven't a number of states just learned that if they put off infrastructure efforts, just wait for the next recession and whine that the feds need to come to the rescue with stimulus money?  

President Obama has a much more sensible view on the mileage tax.

As quickly as talk of taxing mileage instead of gasoline surfaced in the Obama Cabinet on Friday, the White House sank it.

Concerned that traditional gas taxes cannot keep pace with the cost of building and repairing highways, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said he was considering taxing motorists according to miles driven.

But President Obama has no interest in such a tax, the White House swiftly said.

"I can weigh in on it, and say that it is not and will not be the policy of the Obama administration," said White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

If for no other reason than Oregon's budgetary situation, Governor Kulongoski needs stop wasting our money on the mileage tax initiative.