August 27, 2007. Volume VI, Number 35
A PROJECT OF THE CASCOGREENS
Paul Stephens, Editor and Publisher 406.216.2711 greateco@3rivers.net
Much of the content of this Bulletin is now being posted at http://greateco.blogspot.com/
and http://www.myspace.com/greateco
Table of Contents:
UPCOMING AND ONGOING EVENTS
Vedic-based Natural Law Party becomes US Peace Government http://www.uspeacegovernment.org/
FROM DEMOCRACY NOW
Naomi Klein: From Think Tanks to Battle Tanks, "The Quest to Impose a Single World Market Has Casualties Now in the Millions" http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/15/1432250
FROM PEN
ADMINISTRATION SOURCE CONFIRMS THEIR DETERMINATION TO ATTACK ON IRAN
ACTION PAGE ON CHENEY IMPEACHMENT:
http://www.usalone.com/cheney_impeachment.php
Coalition of peace groups attempting to pass anti-war resolution in Billings
GREEN SOLUTIONS by Paul Stephens, CasCoGreens
The Highwood Generating Station and community action
MORE COAL PLANT ISSUES
Buying into a Coal Plant
KUFM commentary by Tom Power, UM Econ professor
FROM THE MISSOULIAN
Guest column: Power up thinking caps for city's energy future
By JOHN ENGEN, Mayor of Missoula http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2007/08/26/opinion/opinion1.txt
West Goes Wild in Battle Over Greenhouse Gas Emissions
By Matthew Yi
The San Francisco Chronicle http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/08/23/MNMQRNACP.DTL
WAR AND PEACE
For a Man in the Middle on Iraq, Church Provides No Sanctuary http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/23/AR2007082302011_pf.html
FROM MAZIN QUMSIYEH http://qumsiyeh.org/ http://justicewheels.org
Palestinian links and issues
A Boycott Of Israel: Something Has Changed
By John Pilger http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2007-08/22pilger.cfm
TESTER'S FOLLY?
Do we really need a USS Montana?
MORE MILITARY HISTORY
Wild, Wild Westside Story, or Miles City, Puerto Rico
FROM THE GREEN PARTY OF CALIFORNIA http://www.cagreens.org/
Democratic Party sacrificed the planet, children to appease Republicans, get credit for budget deal, charges Green Party of California
NORWEGIAN POLICY FOR PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT
Promoting peace and development (lecture)
by HRH Crown Prince Haakon at Korea University and New Delhi, India
http://www.kongehuset.no/c28627/tale/vis.html?tid=31777&strukt_tid=28627
http://www.kongehuset.no/c28627/tale/vis.html?tid=28477&strukt_tid=28627
Army Too Stretched If Iraq Buildup Lasts
By Lolita C. Baldor
The Associated Press http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/082007J.shtml
ZNET COMMENTARIES
The Ghosts Of Pinochet Haunts The Campaign Against Chavez
By John Pilger
http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2007-08/19pilger.cfm
FROM ALTERNET
The Last Days of American Democracy? (excerpts)
By James Harris and Joshua Scheer, Truthdig
http://www.alternet.org/story/59308/
A NOTE ABOUT THIS PUBLICATION
WEBSITES AND OTHER RESOURCES
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THE GREENS SUPPORT:
HEALTH CARE DOLLARS FOR HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS -- NOT INSURANCE COMPANIES AND CORPORATE PROFITS http://www.pnhp.org/
STOP THE WARS! BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW! WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION ARE NOT A LOCAL GROWTH INDUSTRY!
COAL DEVELOPMENT MUST BE MINIMIZED, NOT MAXIMIZED: GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL!
END CORPORATE DOMINATION AND PREDATION: CORPORATIONS AREN'T PEOPLE, AND THEY DON'T HAVE "PROPERTY" OR OTHER RIGHTS! http://reclaimdemocracy.org/
For an introduction to Green Party philosophy and programs, go to http://www.gp.org/welcome.shtml
You can join the Montana Green Party at the NEW MONTANA GREEN PARTY WEBSITE!!
http://www.mtgreens.org/
Please read the Platform to find out what we support and oppose:
http://www.mtgreens.org/node/25
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UPCOMING AND ONGOING EVENTS
Wednesdays, 5:30 to 6 pm, on the Great Falls Civic Center steps. Join the Quakers Peace Vigil.
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Why join the party?
We are circulating petitions to regain Green Party ballot status
Please help us circulate petitions to regain our ballot status. Information is available at http://www.mtgreens.org/node/112
The petitions and other information sheets are printable from the website. You must register or log in first. For assistance, call 216-2711 or send me an e-mail greateco@3rivers.net , and I'll send you one to print out or copy, or contact Chris Frazier, MGP Secretary in Billings greenfuture2000@yahoo.com or Steve Kelly, MGP Coordinator in Bozeman at 586-0180 botanica@imt.net
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FROM DEMOCRACY NOW
Naomi Klein: From Think Tanks to Battle Tanks, "The Quest to Impose a Single World Market Has Casualties Now in the Millions"
'Is Another World Possible?' That was the theme of this year's annual meeting of the American Sociological Association that was held in New York City this past weekend. "We did not lose the battles of ideas. We were not outsmarted and we were not out-argued," journalist and author Naomi Klein said. "We lost because we were crushed. Sometimes we were crushed by army tanks, and sometimes we were crushed by think tanks. And by think tanks I mean the people who are paid to think by the makers of tanks." Klein is author of the forthcoming book, "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism."
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/15/1432250
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Matt Renner Blue Dog Democrats, Staunch Bush Allies
Matt Renner reports for Truthout: "A tightly-knit group of self-styled moderate and conservative Democrats in the House of Representatives known as the Blue Dog Coalition supported controversial legislation granting the Bush administration expanded powers to spy on Americans. The group was instrumental in passing legislation that was opposed by a vast majority of Democrats." [There's 48 of them, and the profile seems to be representing military bases and contractor districts. North Dakota's lone Congressman is one, as is Salazar from Colorado. Here's the whole list of 48: http://www.house.gov/ross/BlueDogs/Member%20Page.html ]
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FROM PEN
ADMINISTRATION SOURCE CONFIRMS THEIR DETERMINATION TO ATTACK ON IRAN
http://www.usalone.com/cheney_impeachment.php
If you thought the Cheney White House could not be so crazy as to attack Iran given the existing debacle in Iraq, we have news for you. They ARE that crazy. As reported by Time magazine on line yesterday, an administration official declared unilaterally "There will be an attack on Iran", based on the totally bogus assertion that they are the source for the IEDs being used in Iraq. And the only way to stop the insanity is to impeach the Vice President immediately.
ACTION PAGE ON CHENEY IMPEACHMENT:
http://www.usalone.com/cheney_impeachment.php
Never mind that all one of the strategic Keystone Cops in the Vice President's office would have to do is Google the words "ieds copper discs" and in seconds they too would find all the links to how local machine shops in Iraq were cranking out the parts needed to make all those IEDS as a cottage industry, given that they now have enough stolen high explosives stockpiled for a 200 year insurgency at current rates of attacks. And yet still the push is from Cheney's office to tell even bigger lies about Iran than he ever told about Iraq, and to escalate yet another fraudulent casus belli into world war with a billion Muslims, 99.999 percent of whom would have rather just be left alone in peace had we not gone out of our way to bomb their cities.
ACTION PAGE ON CHENEY IMPEACHMENT:
Remember that Cheney is the originator of the irrational 1 percent doctrine, by which he asserted that even if the chance of potential threat is very small we must act preemptively to take that threat out. As a result of such doctrinaire dogma, 99 percent of the million Iraqis killed so far, and of the millions more made into refugees or maimed, have been innocent bystander civilians. That's a whole lot of hearts and minds. Operating with at most 1 percent intelligence, and 99 percent of the certainty of a paranoid, delusional madman, Dick Cheney has turned U.S. foreign policy into a self-fulfilling disaster.
This is the same Dick Cheney who when interviewed in 1994 explained (in a private assessment he wishes he could suppress now) what a bad idea it would have been to try to depose Saddam by ourselves all alone with nobody from the region with us, and how it would lead to nothing but a quagmire and Iraq flying apart into sectarian pieces. THAT 9/11 did not change. But were they candid with the American people about the risks of an occupation of Iraq? No, they lied about that too. They told us it would be a six week cake walk with candy and flowers, to sucker us into sacrificing thousands of American lives and a trillion dollar from our treasury to Cheney's war profiteering cronies, only to then tell us that's the reason we can't just leave now.
Only impeachment can save us now. Only impeachment can remove Cheney from office before he executes the final solution leading inevitably to all out nuclear war and to the end of civilization. We do not have time for the next election to save us. With more and more evidence surfacing that the last two presidential elections were stolen outright, with them putting into place secret presidential directives to declare martial law and worse in response to the crisis they themselves are determined to precipitate, only if you speak out now can we save ourselves.
ACTION PAGE ON CHENEY IMPEACHMENT:
Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed to be ours, and forward this message to everyone else you know.
If you would like to get alerts like these, you can do so at
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Coalition of peace groups attempting to pass anti-war resolution in Billings
Hello all,
I'm hoping to have elegantgypsy/Tammara (scroll down) speak at our Eyes Wide Open event on Sept 15th at Granite Towers, downtown Billings. She'll be of course talking about the American Friends Service Committee's renowned display of Boots of soldiers killed from Montana and Civilians Killed in the Illegal Occupation of Iraq. She is from Helena and is currently working on the Iraq Summer project for AAEI (Move On) in Michigan and is the wife of a soldier.
Tammara has done about 10 engagements with the Eyes Wide Open project and we'd be very fortunate to have her here.
If you can be of assistance in working on the Resolution; Or spending a couple hours vigiling the EWO project on some bizzy corner in Billings some September evening or helping with media, sound stuff, letters to Ed or council member or production herein please call: 406.697.9156 or E me.
WE have a chance here to put the issue in the City Fathers lap - However, we are not here to forge outcomes.
By dovetailing: EWO Project & Out of Iraq Resolution we tactically alert many many citizens - charge of the Billings Democracy Brigade = and the City Fathers are so moved by the ominous Boots of Dead Montanan Soldiers, and Civilians, both old and young, Killed in Iraq in this Illegal Occupation for Oil, they put it on the ballot. They have nothing to lose.
The finale of this total endeavor would be a handing of the Out of Iraq Resolution to the City Fathers, backdropped by the EWO Project at the Granite Towers with our speaker Saturday Sept 15th at 11 AM to 11:50 AM... we'd like to get some music or drummers if possible. The quiet location is in solemn recognition of the LOSS in our presence. Far from the Bizzy and loud Protests at Rehbergs. We need to hear speakers and watch the Resolution reach the finger tips of the City Fathers (maybe 2 or more will show :) And we need the Media to show up.
This isn't a an impeachment exercise nor anti anyone campaign it's to get the Issue on the Ballot. Our part is to put the Issue to the first level in our governmental structure connections. And, we need the City Fathers to connect with us.
please pass this on
Thank You,
William Crain
Co-State Coordinator PDA Montana
Viet Nam drafted WIA Veteran, '67 - '68
[See related stories later in this Bulletin under WAR AND PEACE]
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GREEN SOLUTIONS by Paul Stephens, CasCoGreens
The Highwood Generating Station and community action
It looks as though the HGS will soon be consigned to the dustbin of history. For the second time. At the cost of untold tears, thousands of hours of (mostly taxpayer funded) advocacy, consulting, meetings, lobbying, and back-room power politics, and at least $10 million in taxpayer/ratepayer dollars. Dozens of people will have lost their jobs, their families, their reputations, their dreams and aspirations. A few may even have their lives shortened or ended over this monumental folly.
Why did it happen? At one of the early meetings of Citizens for Clean Energy, I asked George Paul: "Who is driving this insane project, and for what reasons?" George was in a unique position to know. A friend and classmate of Tim Gregori, former director of the Great Falls Food Bank (after the previous director, on trial for murder, was discovered to have embezzled over $100,000 from this vital lifeline for the poor), former boss of the Montana Farmer's Union, and then a candidate for County Commissioner -- George should have known who was responsible for foisting a dirty, obsolete, unnecessary power plant on the taxpayers of Great Falls and the nation. I asked George to have a talk with Tim, and report back to us. Needless to say, he never did. Most likely, he was there to spy on us for Tim, the City, and the local Democratic Machine.
From the very beginning, the opposition was fragmented and without coherent leadership. I never work well in groups, and no one wants to follow me, for obvious reasons. I am the scapegoat, the whipping boy, the "hippy," the libertarian-libertine whom everyone blames when things go wrong. My good friend Stuart Lewin, more than anyone else, tried to organize opposition to the power plant from the start. The group he founded a decade or more ago, Missouri River Citizens, took the point. But I knew, from past experience, that Stuart was almost universally distrusted (if not hated and reviled) by the people of Cascade County. Part of the reason for this is that he's a lawyer. Another part is that he's Jewish, and from Chicago. He's been targeted by the City and others for some time as a trouble-maker, and whatever he says, they tend to do the opposite.
I have a similar problem, which is why I no longer try to take a leadership role in local affairs. I have run for local office three times, which is two times more than I should have. After first running for City Commissioner, and having the Tribune and various other corporate media treat me like an idiot and criminal, I concluded, like Proudhon (who I was reading, then,) "Running for office is like putting your hands in excrement."
After becoming a Green Party activist in 2000, I decided to try it again. Now, I would not be alone. I would have a national party with a clear agenda behind me. All I would have to do is publicize and run on that agenda, and people would know where I stood and vote for me. I spent over $2000 of my own money printing and distributing 20,000 copies of a four-page tabloid flyer, explaining the Green Party's positions and how they applied to local issues and campaigns. Again, the Tribune sabotaged me. They were paid to distribute the flyer as an insert in their papers. Most people didn't get it. The very neighborhoods and groups I had targeted didn't get it. My own backers (who did see it) were outraged. There were things in the flyer with which they didn't agree, like a Living Wage ordinance, less military spending and converting Malmstrom to constructive, tax-paying uses. People kept asking, "Are you a Democrat or a Republican?" I answered, truthfully, that I was both, but I was independent of any party organization. Since the Green Party was a party, they thought I was lying. I must be financed by outside agitators, and under their control. Wasn't the Nader party that put Bush in the White House? They wanted no part of it - even, or especially, if they were Republicans.
Against two highschool graduates, a barber and a carpenter, and neither of them born in Montana, I received 5% of the vote. My UCLA degree, my teaching experience, my farm and ranch background, all meant nothing. Like Stuart Lewin, I was threatened with forcible removal or arrest if I campaigned in public places, including the public schools where I had worked for 7 years. After the election, some Republicans thanked me, thinking I had taken enough votes away from the Democrat (actually the Air Force candidate) to cause the Republican to win. Isn't that what the Greens always do? When I applied for a County job, though, they weren't interested. Since it was in the Youth Detention facility, they must have figured I was a pedophile. Who else would want to work there?
It was during this period (2000-2002) that someone (we still don't know who it was) decided that the City of Great Falls should join Mr. Gregori, CEO of the Southern Montana Electric Co-ops, and build a coal-fired power plant here in Great Falls. No research was done, no alternatives considered, no critics listened to or meaningful questions answered. In fact, the whole project was kept off the radar for several years, while land was acquired, the permitting process started, etc. Then-Mayor Randy Gray is certainly one of the people to blame, since he had a high profile as an environmentalist, civic leader, long-time Russell Museum board member, etc. He was the identifiable member of the Ruling Elite who supported the Highwood Generating Station from the start.
Randy has lots of friends, and I used to count myself among them. Even though Randy was a Republican, the city government is non-partisan, and Randy didn't seem to be much of a Republican before he was first elected to the City Commission. (That was when I ran, too, so we appeared at many forums together, and I usually made the better showing). As soon as he became Mayor, though, it was clear that his only concerns were financial and appeasing his corporate sponsors, the Tavern Owners, and the Chamber of Commerce. City Manager John Lawton (here, now, for 17 years, thus long antedating the power plant and most other current issues) is the person most people blame for whatever goes wrong, and he has been the implacable advocate for the power plant as well as privatizing the golf courses and other city services. Current Mayor Stebbins actually ran on an anti-Lawton campaign two years ago, and won. She promised to "maintain better oversight" over Lawton and his activities, which proved to be a hollow promise, indeed.
Perhaps her point is that Lawton is a law unto himself, and no one can limit or control his activities -- least of all the Mayor and City Commission. He is virtually a dictator over the affairs of the City of Great Falls, but the surprising thing to me is how this town of fighters, sports fans, and gun-toting outdoorsmen and militia members are totally unwilling to stand up to him. Is he Mafia? Has he had people killed? He's certainly had a lot of people fired, lose contracts, and the like, but so far as I know, he's never committed or ordered any violence against anyone, even though he was explicitly granted the authority to replace the police chief when he retired.
Thus, most impartial (or rather, uninformed) observers probably think Lawton is doing a good job. They support him -- especially city employees. And it is not merely out of fear of losing their own jobs. They genuinely like the guy, and his "hands on" style of management!
So, if the City Commissioners and Mayor had decided differently -- NOT to get involved in the Highwood Generating Station -- would Lawton have quit over it, or punished people for failing to realize his "dream" and future retirement job on ECP's board? I sincerely doubt it. He probably wouldn't have cared much either way. Obviously, the HGS has been a massive headache for him. He must have been paid (or promised) quite a lot to do what he does.
So, the question still remains unanswered: Who, exactly, proposed and carried out this disastrous plan? Some people blame Tim Gregori, a Great Falls native from a leading family (his uncle is a much-loved and respected priest, known for standing up to local Malmstrom boosters in his opposition to nuclear weapons.) Tim no doubt believes that building a coal-fired power plant is a blow against the nuclear industry. Alstom, the company which will get most of the contracts for the construction of the plant, is now French-owned. And it does build nuclear power plants, as well. So much for that argument.
I've been pretty sure, all along, that it was Alstom which came to Gregori and other rural, publicly-funded power companies, and tried to sell them technology which it couldn't sell anywhere else, because it is essentially obsolete. This was what I wanted George Paul to investigate. His friend, Tim, could tell him who was promoting this rotten coal-fired power plant idea. That was the time for Tim to come clean, and admit he had made a mistake. Needless to say, it never happened.
We should have been able to blame the Bush-Cheney Oil-and-Coal Junta, which sabotaged our energy policy, gutted environmental standards, corrupted the judicial system, and opened the door to hundreds of new coal and nuclear power plants. This was done in secret, and even Congress has not yet been able to find out who was behind this disastrous policy, but we know it was a Who's Who of major energy company CEO's and "think tanks" like FREE and PERC in Bozeman. Since these are all Republicans, we can take as totally worthless any pretended local Republican opposition to the coal-fired HGS. And the "labor Democrats" who favor it are equally uninformed or disingenuous. Wind-farms, retrofitting buildings and the infrastructure, public transportation, and the like will produce far more local economic growth, and hundreds of times more good-paying jobs, than the HGS -- with none of the costs or liabilities.
People who talk about building more coal-fired power plants in the midst of global warming and epidemics of coal-related illnesses and disabilities have to be insane. This was true 30 years ago, and it's still true, today. The Age of Coal is so over! But the bureaucracies and corrupt city government care nothing about science, medicine, or even economics, let alone history. Is there free money out there? Can they "create" a few "jobs"? What more do they care about? What more do the voters care about? As long as they're talking tax cuts and punishing the victims of global capitalism, the voters cheer them on. The Gannett Tribune still denies global warming, and there are few if any corporate journalists who will actually risk their jobs to tell us the truth. And then they have the temerity to blame the environmentalists and advocates of fiscal responsibility ("money conservationists") for "obstructing progress", and "being against everything." QED. -- Paul Stephens
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At World Bank, Climate Change Isn't Part of the Equation http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/081307EC.shtml
Judy Pasternak of The Los Angeles Times says, "At the World Bank - heavily influenced by its largest shareholder, the United States - the effect of projects on climate change is not even calculated."
Carbon Market Encourages Chopping Forests: Study http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/081407EA.shtml
Deborah Zabarenko, Reuters, reports: "The current carbon market actually encourages cutting down some of the world's biggest forests, which would unleash tons of climate-warming carbon into the atmosphere, a new study reported.
"Wolfowitz "Tried to Censor World Bank on Climate Change"
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/081407EB.shtml
The Independent UK's Andrew Gumbel says, "The Bush administration has consistently thwarted efforts by the World Bank to include global warming in its calculations when considering whether to approve major investments in industry and infrastructure, according to documents made public through a watchdog yesterday.
"With Coal Boom, More Miner Risks
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/081307LA.shtml
Faye Bowers, The Christian Science Monitor, says, "A herculean effort to rescue six coal miners trapped deep inside the Crandall Canyon Mine in central Utah is focusing national attention on a downside of the nation's coal boom. As the industry gears up to extract record amounts of coal for growing US energy needs, it's employing a growing cadre of workers in an inherently dangerous occupation."
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MORE COAL PLANT ISSUES
Buying into a Coal Plant
by Tom Power, UM Econ professor and public radio commentator - August 20, 2007
Missoula Buying into a Great Falls Coal Plant
The City of Missoula apparently is on the verge of correcting its image as a flamingly liberal center of environmental activism by buying into a dirty coal-fired generating plant outside of Great Falls. The citizens of Missoula can thank the City of Great Falls for this significant help in correcting Missoula's "green" image.
The City of Great Falls has set up a power company, Electric City Power Incorporated, to buy and sell electricity. It plans to get its electricity by financing and owning a share of the proposed coal- fired Highwood Generation Station just outside of town. The original idea was that the City of Great Falls would force its citizens buy electricity from this plant. The Montana Legislature blocked that when it finally ended the electric deregulation fiasco and turned back to having citizens served by regulated electric and natural gas utilities.
That left Great Falls with no market for most of the output from its share of the proposed coal-fired plant. With no captive customers, Great Falls will not be able to borrow the money to build the plant. For that reason it has sent out traveling salesmen, going city to city in Montana, hoping to sign up municipal customers. So far Helena has turned them down, but Missoula, or at least Missoula's mayor, is toying with the idea of signing up to support the construction of this dirty generating plant.
This is somewhat puzzling. If this proposed coal-fired plant were located west of Missoula, say along the Clark Fork River at the historical Council Grove treaty site, I doubt that Missoula's mayor would be quite as enthusiastic. The prevailing winds would bring the pollutants including sulfur, fine particulates, mercury, and other toxic chemicals right into the city. The threat to the Lewis and Clark portage site in Great Falls would be removed and a historical site in Missoula would be trashed instead.
A Missoula Valley location for this plant would make it harder for Missoula's mayor to argue that building this coal plant was consistent with his commitment to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The old-fashioned technology that will be used in this plant will spew out not only huge quantities of carbon dioxide but also the much more powerful greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide.
What is puzzling is that most utilities, including NorthWestern Energy, are currently abandoning consideration of new coal-fired plants because of the uncertainty about what it will cost to build and operate them. Wall Street is nervous about funding such plants given the high likelihood of federal regulation and taxation of greenhouse gasses. Markets for electricity from coal-fired plants are shrinking too as California and other Western states are blocking the importation of electricity from new coal-fired facilities.
The price at which Great Falls is shopping the electricity from the Highwood Plant does not include any of the costs associated with controlling greenhouse gas emissions or taxes or charges associated with those emissions. In that sense Electric City Power is engaged in a bit of a bait and switch ploy: offer cheap prices based on unrealistic estimates of the costs of constructing and operating the plant but then selling the electricity, as it will have to do, at the actual, much higher, costs associated with the plant. This is all the more risky because the plant would not come on line until, at the earliest, 2011.
One of the pitches being made by Great Falls and the mayor of Missoula is that this will be "public power" controlled by the people, free of the shenanigans of profit hungry private corporations such as Montana Power and NorthWestern Energy. But there is nothing "public" about this plant. Great Falls has set up the equivalent of a private electric utility that will own a share of a coal-fired plant.
That utility will then sell electricity to a variety of customers around the state and across the region. This will be a merchant plant signing contracts with a variety of customers, some private companies, some government agencies. But the customers will not control the operations, Electric City Power Incorporated will. Even Electric City Power will not control the plant because it will only own 15 percent of it. The public, in the sense of the citizens of Missoula, will have no control whatsoever. This is private power that happens to be owned indirectly by the City of Great Falls. It bears no resemblance to a democratically controlled, people-oriented real public power system. The public power label is just a public relations ploy.
There is also the question of the reliability of the Highwood Generating Station as a source of supply. This would be almost the sole source of supply for Electric City Power. As Montana Power and Northwestern Energy have discovered, coal-fired plants such as the Colstrip facilities, often fail for shorter or longer periods. For a while NorthWestern Energy was calling Colstrip "Coal-trip" because technical problems knocked it off-line so often, forcing the utility to rely on other sources it had under contract. In general, it is not prudent to rely on just one source of supply when serving a group of customers, but that is exactly what Electric City Power is proposing to do.
It may be that Missoula's mayor is embarrassed by the green and liberal image of Missoula in Montana and wants to tarnish and dirty that image a bit so that he can hold his head up when he attends meetings of the Montana League of Cities and Towns. But we Missoulians should evaluate this dirty coal plant as if it were being proposed to be built on our river and in our valley. If we do that, we already know the answer we would give to the sponsors.
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FORWARDED BY RICH LIEBERT, Citizens for Clean Energy
FYI Paul........maybe now Helena and Missoula's 'no' decision will prompt action toward a public power authority, and that certainly means clean and green, otherwise it's not advancement - AND we have deal with the rural electric co-ops, who are still two centuries behind us............
FROM THE MISSOULIAN
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2007/08/26/opinion/opinion1.txt
Guest column: Power up thinking caps for city's energy future - Sunday, August 26, 2007
By JOHN ENGEN
About three weeks ago, I asked the Missoula City Council to support a letter of intent to enter into an agreement with Electric City Power, a nonprofit corporation created by the city of Great Falls. That agreement would have allowed the city of Missoula to purchase electricity from Electric City Power at a discount estimated at between 10 percent and 15
percent.
I've now asked the City Council to withdraw that letter of intent. I endorsed the idea initially for reasons that I still believe are sound. Ideally under the agreement, the city of Missoula would:
Save about $70,000 each year. That's $700,000 over a decade and much more over time.
Support the concepts of public power, local choice and alternative energy.
Support the city of Great Falls, a Montana community that is demonstrating leadership on the front lines of complicated, contentious energy policy in a state that's not been well-served by deregulation.
And I've recommended that we reject the idea because of the Highwood Generating Station.
As mayor of the city of Missoula, I have to confess to spending most of my time paying attention to what's happening in and around the 25-odd square miles we call home. But in recent weeks, I've been learning the details of the Highwood project.
The more I've learned, the less I've found to support. I had assumed that the dust had long settled on any controversy, the plant was in the works and its product would be a welcome addition to the energy mix in Montana. I had also assumed it would burn cleaner than the old coal plants upon which we rely, provide good jobs for Montanans and reduce electric bills for customers around the state.
Those assumptions were, and are, incorrect. The controversy's far from over, environmental concerns abound, financial questions linger and there's just no time to adequately address those concerns and answer those questions. I don't want the city of Missoula in the middle of it. The costs are too dear, we have too much work to do and I'm not interested in wasting more time on an issue where there's no room left for building
consensus and pursuing compromise. I hope the City Council agrees.
Over the last week, my e-mailbox has been overflowing with notes from folks expressing outrage or concern, all questioning the wisdom of hitching our wagon to Electric City and, eventually perhaps, Highwood. Some are thoughtful, some not. I've had worried calls and visits from state legislators, and I've studied public testimony from citizens.
One radio commentary went so far as to suggest that I'm somehow embarrassed by Missoula's reputation as a community respectful of its environment. That's hogwash; I love my hometown, our community, our passion and our place. But the commentator made a point that was dead on: If someone proposed a coal-fired power plant in Missoula, we'd rise in opposition. And I'd be leading the pack.
I respect and appreciate all of that concern and the many questions. Now I need help with a few of my own:
Energy costs for the city of Missoula, its residents and its businesses are high and unpredictable. I think the Montana Legislature is trying to help with that through regulatory mechanisms such as House Bill 25, which locks ³large customers, including the city of Missoula, into NorthWestern Energy's customer base unless that customer opts out by Oct. 1, 2007.
Is the Legislature ³reregulating² energy in Montana, and if so, would its leaders consider spending some time with cities and other customers, large and small, to help us understand its intention? NorthWestern, after all, was for sale earlier this year and nearly purchased by an Australian financial company. The folks who serve NorthWestern's customers on the ground throughout Montana are good, hard-working folks, but some of us are a bit skeptical based on the company's board and shareholders' recent actions.
Public utilities have a long record of success throughout the country. If the Legislature is interested in restoring a regulated monopoly electric utility in the state, would it consider supporting a public utility as much as a private, investor-owned operation?
Where and how can we purchase clean, green, affordable energy for our cities, homes and businesses? Research suggests that a majority of our electricity comes from old coal plants and some dams.
Montana has serious energy challenges. In Missoula, as in other parts of the state, we need to understand our limited energy options and make real efforts to deliver the best products and services we can to our citizens. We're going to need to ask some questions, talk with each other, take some risks and, for better or worse, make some mistakes along the way if we're going to face those challenges effectively.
I'm going to look at this as an opportunity for our entire community to roll up our sleeves and dig into this issue. We know we want clean energy. Now let's figure out how to do our part to make it happen.
John Engen, Mayor
City of Missoula
435 Ryman St.
Missoula, Montana 59802
[The short answer to Mayor Engen's questions is, No, the Legislature has no interest in supporting public power, or freeing itself from domination by corporate interests. Nearly all Republicans favor an "investor-owned" model which is either self-regulated, or controls the regulatory agencies as well. It's only been this year that the PSC has finally stood up to these corporations, and quite rubber-stamping whatever they were told (or paid) to do. HB 25, the incipient re-regulation bill, was almost entirely written and amended by PPL and Northwestern. It was a step backward rather than forward, and actually eliminated some public power and green co-op legislation already in place.
Unfortunately, there are a number of Democrats who also kow-tow to corporations, misguided union leaders, and others who would sacrifice the environment and the public interest for a few jobs or a few bucks in campaign contributions. Only the Green Party has any sort of coherent energy policy. The few "Green Democrats" and "Green Republicans" have been marginalized and defeated for the very fact of being Green. I'm glad Mayor Engen finally sees the light. It's more than any mayor or city council person (except Sandy Hinz, who is retiring) ever saw in Great Falls. -- PHS]
http://www.gp.org/platform/2004/ecology.html#771441
http://mtgreens.org/node/67
/\/\/\/\/\
West Goes Wild in Battle Over Greenhouse Gas Emissions
By Matthew Yi
The San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/082307EB.shtml
Thursday 23 August 2007
[Note that Montana and Alberta are NOT included in the Western states and Canadian provinces which are coordinating their efforts to fight global warming. This validates my contention that the Montana-Alberta Tie (MATL) project was based on the Highwood Generating Station going on line, so that PPL could sell our clean hydro-power at much higher prices to Canada, leaving us with a power deficit which only the Highwood Station could provide. -- PHS]
Sacramento - Following California's lead in efforts to fight global warming, six Western states and two Canadian provinces pledged Wednesday to work together to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The coalition formed six months ago when the governors of Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington created the Western Climate Initiative partnership to reduce carbon emissions. Since then, Utah and Canadian provinces Manitoba and British Columbia have joined the effort.
The governments agreed to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions 15 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. The goal is similar to California's standard set by last year's landmark legislation AB32, which requires the state to cut its emissions 25 percent by 2020.
Although the coalition represents only about 2.3 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, officials say achieving its goal could cut 350 million metric tons of carbon dioxide - roughly the same as taking 75.6 million cars off the road.
"We know that California alone cannot defeat global warming," said Linda Adams, secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency. "It's a global problem that requires a global solution."
The agreement is North America's most comprehensive and overarching regional program because it could affect every business sector, as well as consumers' daily lives, such as what type of fuel motorists pump into their vehicles, she said.
Adams said the coalition should pressure Congress and the White House to cap greenhouse gas emissions nationwide.
"Today's action sends another strong message to the federal government ... (that) at the absence of federal action, states and provinces are not waiting and will be taking action," Adams said.
Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano criticized the federal government for not doing enough about climate change.
"It has been left up to the states and provinces of North America to recognize the critical need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide the solution, not just rhetoric," she said in a statement.
Since California's Legislature passed AB32, some states have adopted similar measures. The law does not say how the state must cut emissions; a policy is being worked out by state air regulators. Similarly, the coalition does not say what specific measures might be imposed.
Adams said the new regional standard was set based on each state's and province's individual emission-reduction goals, although Utah and Manitoba don't have such measures set for 2020.
Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. said his state will develop an emission-reduction goal by June 2008 to meet the requirements of the new regional standard.
The agreement requires each government to report its greenhouse gas emissions every two years, but there are no enforcement mechanisms other than what each state or province requires for itself.
"What we need is for other states to set enforceable limits on emissions," said Bill Magavern, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club. "California has done it (with AB32). Hawaii has done it, and New Jersey has done it. Without those definable limits, we do not have a real enforceable cap on emissions."
Still, Magavern applauded Wednesday's announcement.
"I think we're seeing progress, and we need to have regional cooperation in reducing emissions," he said.
Theo Spencer, senior project manager at the Natural Resources Defense Council's Climate Center, echoed that sentiment, although he said he believes some states within the partnership could have a tougher time meeting the new regional goal than others.
"In states like Arizona, this is going to be tough, because as I understand it, this is slightly more aggressive than that state's own reduction goals," Spencer said. "In fact, they may have the toughest row to hoe than any of the states because their (population) growth is tremendous and that will impact their emissions."
Arizona officials said while the regional goal complements their own state standards, the state does face tough challenges because of population growth.
Although the Western Climate Initiative partnership won't dictate what regulations each member should enact, the group plans to create a blueprint for the so-called cap-and-trade system in the region, a proposal that would allow high-polluting businesses to buy carbon credits from low-polluting firms.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and some business organizations have championed such a system for California, although Democratic lawmakers and environmentalists have argued that AB32 requires regulations to cut emissions before considering such a market-based system of trading carbon credits.
Sarah Cottrell, energy and environmental policy adviser to Gov. Bill Richardson in New Mexico, said a regional cap-and-trade approach will be critical for her state because it has many coal-fired power plants that may end up having to buy carbon credits from other states where companies have successfully cut emissions.
[As soon as I found this article last Friday, I forwarded it to the Bulletin's Coal List. If you didn't receive it, and would like to be on that list for immediate news about Montana coal issues, let me know. And please send me any information you might have so that I can forward it to the list. This only happens rarely, when there is a time factor involved. Otherwise, you will find it in this Bulletin, but only if I actually receive the information. This Bulletin, of course, has nothing to do with the CCE organization or its tactics, which seem to be in disarray at the moment. Although Col. Liebert is the chair of that group, I continue to have a good working relationship with him. We met in a prior group, Great Falls First - Citizens for Responsible Development, which successfully shut down a proposed Wal-Mart Superstore last year. ]
-- PHS greateco@3rivers.net
_______________
Court Rebukes Bush Administration on Global Warming
Clayton Sandell says for ABC News: "A federal court today issued a harsh rebuke of the Bush administration for its failure to issue long-delayed reports assessing the impacts and consequences of global warming in the United States."
/\/\/\/\/\
WAR AND PEACE
From Tamara Rosenleaf [IraqCampaign]
GOP Rep. Tom Davis: White House Iraq 'Progress' Report Likely "Tweaked"
ok folks,
watch the wires. there are 39 more of these where this came from. not all the congressional targets are brave enough to come out for this, ya gotta know that. so, the majority of these gigs will have paper likenesses sitting in the congressional chairs, but that is not much different from getting the real guys. it's not like they ever say anything of substance anyway.
the rest of these gigs go off on august 28, in 15 states, 39 targets. here in michigan we have 5 targets, have col ann wright set to speak at two of them, congressman john conyers in detroit, an array of veterans, families, community leaders, church representatives, etc. this is the culmination of 100 organizers, 15 field directors and a national staff dedicating a summer of work (16 hour days, 7 days a week) to turning this war around.
if we move enough of these congress people, maybe the chicken dems can actually get up off of it and do something real, stop it with the NON BINDING nothing votes and DO something for real! something that actually saves our troops lives, stops bleeding our blood and our money into the sands of iraq, killing innocent iraqi people, and destroying the cradle of civilization while piling up our national debt and enriching the re-election coffers of those who put us here.
ENOUGH ALREADY!
with that said, i want to thank all of you for all you do everyday to bring our troops home, prevent any others from going and bring our government to heel.
we have our own democracy to tend to, and it is threatened to the breaking point by elected officials who line their pockets with the money of wealthy vote buyers, send our husbands, wives, sons and daughters to death and horror to devastate a country that never harmed us.
finally, we need to all remember that our troops in iraq are not different than we are. the last polls done over a year ago there tells us that they want out as badly as we want them out. only they can't do it themselves.... when they laid down their rights to pick up rifles to defend us, they laid their lives in our hands.
we need to defend them from ill use, so they will be there if we really need them someday.
Tammara Rosenleaf
Soldier's Wife
Michigan Field Director, Iraq Summer
"The more we sweat in peace, the less we bleed in war."
-- Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit (1900-1990)
_____________
August 23, 2007
Republican suggests White House will "tweak" Petraeus report
Republican Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia believes the White House will "tweak" a September report by the top U.S. officials in Iraq about military and political progress through the initial phase of the so-called "surge."
Appearing at a town hall meeting Thursday organized by a prominent anti-war group, Davis echoed the concerns of people present by suggesting the administration would filter an upcoming report by Army Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker about security and political reconciliation.
"I'm sure they will partially tweak it," Davis told the group of district residents at Accotink Unitarian Church in Burke, Va.
And just in case people didn't hear him the first time, the Virginia Republican reiterated his point moments later when the moderator asked him to clarify his remarks.
"I think they'll try to tweak it," Davis said. "I don't know that, but I assume they will."
The Virginia Republican told the group that members of Congress might have to grill Crocker and Petraeus to ensure lawmakers get a complete picture of the military and political developments in Iraq since the Pentagon increased troop levels on the ground earlier this year.
Americans Against Escalation in Iraq organized the town hall as part of the anti-war group's "Iraq Summer" campaign to pressure congressional Republicans into supporting a U.S. troop withdrawal. Davis is the only Republican who has agreed to attend.
____________
For a Man in the Middle on Iraq, Church Provides No Sanctuary
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/23/AR2007082302011_pf.html
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