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Transit advocates stop cuts using civil rights legislation

by nension Posted on February 21, 2013

Transit advocates stop cuts using civil rights legislation

By Susie Cagle

No justice, no ride to work! The vast majority of transit systems in the U.S. have cut service, raised fares, or both over the last two years, affecting those who rely on public transportation especially hard.

An article in the current issue of the Boston Review outlines the struggle for more justice and more buses:

For millions of American families, the commute to work is more than stressful: it can also be cripplingly costly. While the average family spends around 19 percent of its budget getting around, very low-income families (defined as families who make less than half of an area’s median income) can see as much as 55 percent of their earnings eaten up by transportation costs, according to a report by the Center for Transit-Oriented Development. …

Nationwide about 80 cents out of every federal transportation dollar goes toward highways—used disproportionately by more affluent drivers — and only 20 cents goes toward mass transit systems, which are heavily used by people of color and by lower-income workers. When it’s time to distribute that 20 percent, regional authorities often favor light-rail systems for suburban commuters over bus lines for city riders.

Some hope, though: A few cities have managed to wrest money away from the ‘burbs and back to the urbs by filing lawsuits claiming civil rights violations.

That tactic may not work for New Yorkers, though, who are about to see yet another fare hike, their fourth in five years — and it’s not because transit workers are getting a raise. Here, New Yorkers campaigning against fare hikes explain how debt service has increased train costs.

If there’s one thing the status quo has no answer for, it’s digging out of debt. Sorry, New York.

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Obama confirms: No big moves on climate in the works

by Obeey99 Posted on February 15, 2013

Obama confirms: No big moves on climate in the works

By Philip Bump

The White House

Based on conversations with senior White House officials this week, we reported that the president’s State of the Union threat to act unilaterally on climate change didn’t appear to have any force behind it. The largest weapon Obama has to that effect is the power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants — something that officials suggested isn’t in the works.

Yesterday, Politico asked the president directly what he’s planning to do about climate change:

Obama said in his State of the Union address that he is prepared to take action if Congress doesn’t act, but he didn’t detail what that action might look like. He hinted during the chat Thursday that it could resemble what his administration did to require higher fuel efficiency standards in automobiles.

“The same steps that we took with respect to energy efficiency on cars, we can take on buildings, we can take on appliances, we can make sure that new power plants that are being built are more efficient than the old ones, and we can continue to put research and our support behind clean energy that is going to continue to help us transition away from dirtier fuels,” he said.

As we noted on Wednesday, the administration’s action to increase fuel-efficiency standards for cars was a good one that will have a significant effect on greenhouse-gas and particulate pollution. But it is also a very different political fight than the one over emissions from existing power plants, and far less important.

In other words: Obama himself confirms that he’s not prepared to take drastic action in the absence of Congress doing anything. His threat, as we suggested two days ago, is empty.

Source

Obama acknowledges climate-change difficulties, Politico

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Are San Francisco oysters a wilderness wrecker or a pollution solution?

by NielPostma231 Posted on February 13, 2013

Are San Francisco oysters a wilderness wrecker or a pollution solution?

By Susie Cagle

OrinZebest

The San Francisco Bay Area has been having some mixed feelings about oysters lately: Are they good for the environment, bad for the environment, or just treats for happy-hour drinkers at the downtown Ferry Building?

Just north of San Francisco in Point Reyes, Drakes Bay Oyster Co. has been fighting to keep harvesting oysters on what was set to become protected wilderness land on Jan. 1. Local environmentalists are split on whether fewer oysters will allow the estuary to “quickly regain its wilderness characteristics” or instead/also lead to a big unfiltered load of seal poop in that wilderness. (Wilderness: It’s kind of gross!)

Either way, we’ll soon find out, as Drakes Bay just lost its federal appeal to stay beyond a Feb. 28 deadline.

Meanwhile, some miles east across the bay on the Point Pinole Regional Shoreline, Christopher Lim and the Watershed Project are bringing oysters back. The bay had a large native oyster habitat that was wiped out by overharvesting and hydraulic mining. From KQED:

“Oysters, I think, definitely have that connection to people whether it’s through food … (or) the history of oysters in San Francisco Bay,” Lim said. “Part of the reason we would like to restore oysters is because we know of their ecosystem benefits in the Bay, and they were probably here in much greater numbers in the past.” …

Olympias, the only oyster species native to the Bay, are smaller — around two inches long — than the larger and more fast-growing Pacific you probably ordered at a restaurant. Lim said he enjoys the taste of Olympia oysters, but he makes one thing clear.

“The oysters that we’re researching here … we’re not meaning for them to be eaten,” he said. “We’re doing it for the ecosystem benefits that oysters bring to the shoreline and to the subtidal habitat.”

The Bay Area has that Wild West pioneer spirit, though, Christopher Lim. All I’m saying is, don’t be surprised if you attract some rogue divers out there searching for a snack.

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Exelon issues dumbest threat in the history of dumb threats

by RubinkJoseph Posted on February 8, 2013

Exelon issues dumbest threat in the history of dumb threats

By Philip Bump

Here’s the stupidest threat ever. From The Hill:

Exelon Corp. CEO Christopher Crane told the Chicago Tribune in comments published Friday that his company might eventually have to close nuclear facilities “if we continue to build an excessive amount of wind and subsidize wind.” …

Crane explained the subsidy reduces the rate Exelon receives from nuclear generation by encouraging wind turbines to rotate when power demand is low. That means the utility sometimes pays customers to take its nuclear power in wind-heavy regions.

Ha ha. Oh no! You’ll have to close nuclear plants if we keep building wind turbines? Oh man what will we do? Everyone, we clearly need to rethink this wind energy thing if it means fewer nuclear facilities like Three Mile Island and Chernobyl and Fukushima. [BIG FUCKIN’ FROWN EMOTICON]

Exelon was last in the news after being kicked off the board of the American Wind Energy Association, presumably for being idiots.

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Outgoing energy secretary denies lurid allegations from prominent news outlet

by Michalak876 Posted on February 7, 2013

Outgoing energy secretary denies lurid allegations from prominent news outlet

By Philip Bump

Earlier today, The Onion newspaper dropped a bombshell:

Sources have reported that following a long night of carousing at a series of D.C. watering holes, Energy Secretary Steven Chu awoke Thursday morning to find himself sleeping next to a giant solar panel he had met the previous evening. “Oh, Christ, what the hell did I do last night?” Chu is said to have muttered to himself while clutching his aching head and grimacing at the partially blanketed 18-square-foot photovoltaic solar module whose manufacturer he was reportedly unable to recall.

The newspaper, which hails itself as “America’s Finest News Source,” somehow acquired this image of the dalliance.

The Onion

The news follows last week’s announcement by Chu that he planned to resign his post. The secretary quickly took to Facebook to quelch rumors that his torrid affair was what prompted his exit. He writes:

I just want everyone to know that my decision not to serve a second term as Energy Secretary has absolutely nothing to do with the allegations made in this week’s edition of the Onion. While I’m not going to confirm or deny the charges specifically, I will say that clean, renewable solar power is a growing source of U.S. jobs and is becoming more and more affordable, so it’s no surprise that lots of Americans are falling in love with solar.

Our calls to the solar panel were not returned.

Source

I just want everyone to know…, Facebook
Hungover Energy Secretary Wakes Up Next To Solar Panel, The Onion

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Biggest cities with biggest transit systems still face biggest congestion

by MayeskiLatouf679 Posted on February 7, 2013

Biggest cities with biggest transit systems still face biggest congestion

By Susie Cagle

Congestion is gross whether it’s in your sinuses or your city. Urbanists spend a lot of time complaining about clogged up city roads and all the cars full of only one commuter that contribute to the traffic.

But here’s some good news for a change: Public transportation takes a huge chunk out of that congestion in dense cities. Transit saved drivers nearly a billion hours of potential car-driving delay in cities nationwide last year, according to the new annual congestion report from the Texas Transportation Institute.

“The 2012 Urban Mobility Report makes clear that without public transportation services, travelers would have suffered an additional 865 million hours of delay and consumed 450 million more gallons of fuel,” the American Public Transportation Association said. “Had there not been public transportation service available in the 498 U.S. urban areas studied, congestion costs for 2011 would have risen by nearly $21 billion from $121 billion to $142 billion.”

The biggest winners by these metrics were not necessarily the most transport-heavy metros, but the most congested ones: New York, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. I mean, duh, right? But the study misses a lot of other salient factors that contribute to congestion, such as where people live in relation to work and how long their commute times really are. Take those into consideration, and big metros, while super-congested, still win at public transit (because, you know, they at least have some). Diana Lind at Next City pretty much sums it up:

I guess the bad news is that we don’t have more transit, in these places and elsewhere, and that the stuff we do have doesn’t necessarily run super well and on-time, which is the most alienating thing for would-be riders.

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The USDA is gearing up to steal candy from babies

by Myrna Posted on February 7, 2013

The USDA is gearing up to steal candy from babies

By Susie Cagle

The USDA seems a little conflicted about what it wants you to eat, kids. A year ago, it put out new rules intended to make school lunches healthier. Then in December, it backed away from restrictions on servings of meat and grains. Now the agency says it wants to crack down on greasy ‘n’ sweet snacks sold both in vending machines and in school lunches. From the Associated Press:

Under the new rules the Agriculture Department proposed Friday, foods like fatty chips, snack cakes, nachos and mozzarella sticks would be taken out of lunch lines and vending machines. In their place would be foods like baked chips, trail mix, diet sodas, lower-calorie sports drinks and low-fat hamburgers. …

Under the proposal, the Agriculture Department would set fat, calorie, sugar and sodium limits on almost all foods sold in schools. Current standards already regulate the nutritional content of school breakfasts and lunches that are subsidized by the federal government, but most lunchrooms also have “a la carte” lines that sell other foods. Food sold through vending machines and in other ways outside the lunchroom has never before been federally regulated.

Let’s just hope the USDA doesn’t backtrack on these new standards.

The proposed rules would apply to anything sold directly by the schools, but not fundraising bake sales or after-school event concessions, where a lot of parents would probably be pretty annoyed about having to eat low-fat hamburgers and baked chips.

Another school lunch change in the works: The USDA is launching a pilot program to test out Greek yogurt as a protein-packed alternative to meat. Somehow I think that’s more likely to excite dairy farmers than grade-school kids, though.

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New-old disaster aid may be coming for troubled farmers

by 7GrittonMaine146 Posted on February 6, 2013

New-old disaster aid may be coming for troubled farmers

By Susie Cagle

Last year, American farmers saw the worst drought in more than half a century. At the same time, some disaster aid programs went unfunded. Why? Blame the expired Farm Bill, of course.

Crop insurance and emergency disaster loans are still available to farmers and ranchers, but other relief programs designed to help during times of drought and other disasters saw their funding end more than a year ago.

But now Congress is considering a bill to reinstate that aid “until” a new farm bill happens. (Hahaha [weep].) From the Governing blog:

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) is sponsoring legislation that would retroactively restore those disaster relief programs for 2012 fiscal year as well as the rest of the 2013 fiscal year while Congress works on creating another long-term farm bill.

“These livestock disaster programs expired in September 2011, leaving our livestock producers with no safety net,” Baucus said in introducing his bill. “For over a year and a half, through one of the worst droughts in recent memory, our producers have been left to fend for themselves.”

In addition to helping to pay for dead livestock, the legislation also provides disaster relief for things like destroyed orchard trees and vines, and it helps cover losses not covered by crop insurance.

There are five disaster programs — all created in the 2008 farm bill — that are among the 37 programs that are missing out on funding. Because Congress hasn’t re-authorized them, losses due to disasters that occurred after September 2011 aren’t covered

This is good news for troubled U.S. farmers, but not the greatest for the Farm Bill in total, which looks to be going nowhere fast. Could we get some disaster relief for that, too?

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Anti-Agenda 21 bill is back in Arizona, wants to eat your brains

by anjunonstennyao Posted on February 6, 2013

Anti-Agenda 21 bill is back in Arizona, wants to eat your brains

By Susie Cagle

Charles A. Nesci

Which state is valiant and insane enough to lead the fight against the United Nations’ blueprint for a more sustainable world, i.e. those vile and dangerous plans for global social control community gardens and bike paths known as Agenda 21? Yes, it’s wild, libertarian, sprawly, water-importing Arizona!

Last May, less insane heads managed to prevail in the Grand Canyon State, shooting down a bill that would have prohibited state and local governments from adopting anything even a little bit related to sustainability and Agenda 21. But the idea has crawled out of the grave in the form of SB 1403 [PDF], a new bill that would prohibit any local government in Arizona from implementing any “creed, doctrine, principles or any tenet” of Agenda 21.

“Any way you want to describe it, Agenda 21 is a direct attack on the middle class and the working poor,” the bill’s sponsor Sen. Judy Burges said during a hearing on it in 2012. “The primary goal of Agenda 21 is to create social engineering of our citizens and it will impact every aspect of our daily lives.”

Or not at all. In fact, Agenda 21 calls for helping poor people and the environment both. Too bad it’s been sitting around gathering dust for 20ish years!

But speaking of social engineering, Arizona is also looking at a bill that would allow teachers to tell kids that climate change is but a fairy tale! Suddenly I’m not so worried about their bike lanes.

Not even sure what it’s like to live in this crazy place? Here an Arizona community meeting freaks out about both of those things. (Bonus smooth jazz soundtrack. You’re welcome.)

For extra fun, local Sierra Vista, Arizona residents can check out the “Agenda 21 and the Threat to State Sovereignty” presentation next week, presented by the Tea Party and two of the state legislature’s consultants. $5 admission at the door, BYO tin-foil hat.

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Dodge made ‘God made a farmer’ Super Bowl ad, and I made an angry face

by MayeskiLatouf679 Posted on February 4, 2013

Dodge made ‘God made a farmer’ Super Bowl ad, and I made an angry face

By Susie Cagle

Farmers: We like them! So does Dodge, I guess, because there’s not any other clear reason why the American car company would make this ad except to try to associate itself with a trade close to America’s scrappy — and white male — identity.

From Dodge’s portrayal, you’d hardly know that almost a third of farm operators are women, and the population of farm owners of color is growing by full percentage points each year. You’d also hardly know who does most of the work on most of those farms.

American farm worker conditions are likened to “modern slavery,” where a precarious force of 50 to 80 percent undocumented workers picks the vast majority of our produce by hand, earning, on average, about $10,000 each year, though the majority of these workers are also parents supporting children. The numbers vary from state to state, but a large proportion of that workforce that spends each day picking food has to pay for their own sustenance with food stamps. The cheapest Dodge Ram pickup costs more than two years of their salary.

“To the farmer in all of us,” Dodge proclaims at the end of the ad. The farmer in me doesn’t really want a pickup truck, though — she’d much rather pay those field workers 40 percent more, passing along most of the cost to massive corporate distributors such that the average person would only pay $5 more each year for the tiniest (tiniest!) bit of labor ethics and human decency with their supper.

But you know, that’s just my farmer. What does yours think?

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