9-21-08

 9-21-08 Fresno BeeWhat in our area is just 'too big to fail'?...Bill McEwenhttp://www.fresnobee.com/columnists/mcewen/v-printerfriendly/story/882255.htmlHere's the latest shorthand and conversation-starter for our economically perilous times: TBTF. These four letters stand for "too big (to be allowed) to fail" and explain the Bush administration's rationale for pouring billions of taxpayer dollars into the rescue of private financial firms. Stripped to their core, the bailouts are government's signal that with economic disaster at hand, the customarily rancorous debates about the values of conservatism and liberalism must be suspended for another day. It's all about preventing hard times now...But the notion of TBTF -- first described by Alan Greenspan on the eve of the 1979 government bailout of automaker Chrysler, then the country's 10th-largest company -- provides a prism for evaluating institutions, policy and even people. So, who and what around here is protected by the TBTF umbrella? I'll start with the obvious: water for agricultureThough enforcement of the Endangered Species Act and the drought have reduced the flow of water south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, agriculture is too important to our economy to be allowed to collapse. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is aligned with environmentalists, but she'll cobble together something that opens the delta spigot -- and takes federal judges off the hook. The national parks in our backyard -- Yosemite, Kings Canyon, Sequoia -- are TBTF. Sure, someone in Congress looking to pay for the AIG, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac handouts will suggest paring the parks' budgets to the bone.But besides being national treasures, the parks are vital because they attract visitors from all over the world. No matter how big the federal deficit is, I don't expect the parks to be padlocked. If they are, the Valley's congressional delegation should be tossed from office...Sacramento BeeCouncil rescinds disputed Sunrise Douglas plans...Cathy Lockehttp://www.sacbee.com/101/v-print/story/1253457.htmlRancho Cordova officials have taken the first step to comply with court orders affecting development in the Sunrise Douglas area.The City Council during a special meeting Friday agreed to rescind the Sunrise Douglas Community Plan and a detailed plan for the SunRidge section. The council also set aside portions for the environmental studies pertaining to long-term water supplies and groundwater-pumping for the plan area east of Sunrise Boulevard and south of Douglas Road.City Attorney Adam Lindgren said a firm has been hired to redo the environmental studies. Revised documents are expected to be released for public review in 2009.The call for revisions is the result of a lawsuit filed by the Vineyard Area Citizens for Responsible Growth challenging the adequacy of the environmental studies initially approved by the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors in July 2002. When Rancho Cordova incorporated, it inherited the development plans and the legal issues.The Conversation: How do we become less dependent?Hosted by Daniel Weintraub...By Daniel Lerchhttp://www.sacbee.com/740/v-print/story/1251435.htmlWith a peak oil conference in Sacramento this week and the 100th anniversary of the first mass-market automobile coming up, it's a perfect time to re-visit our relationship with that most ubiquitous icon of the American (and California) Dream: The Car.Ford's 1908 Model T didn't just mark the start of widespread private automobile ownership. It heralded the complete restructuring of America around petroleum-powered cars and trucks. By mid-century we had discovered massive oil fields in Texas and the Middle East, and World War II had effectively modernized our industrial base. The stage was set for the true mass consumption of the car, a shift that would fundamentally change our economy, our landscape and even our culture.These days it's pretty well accepted that we can't all drive everywhere. California was home to some of the earliest suburban sprawl, so its metropolitan areas experienced early on what happens when everyone tries to drive everywhere: unending congestion (despite more and bigger highways), more sprawl and overall greater dependence on oil.For years we've tried to limit sprawl and promote transit, bicycling and walking – first in the name of conservation and quality of life, more recently to fight global warming. Today peak oil (the looming high point of global oil production) and the end of cheap oil make it more urgent than ever to reduce our dependence on cars.There's a problem, though. We're stuck with the landscape we've built over the past 60 years, much of which is literally uninhabitable without a car. Trying to make our communities less car-dependent simply by adding more buses, streetcars and light rail is like trying to make a bowl of chicken soup vegan simply by picking the chicken out. It's just not that simple: like the chicken broth in my chicken soup, car dependence is an inherent property of nearly every city, town and suburb in this country and especially so in car-loving California.That said, it's not impossible to quickly scale up transportation alternatives in our communities. High and medium-density urban areas can boost their transit and bicycle systems in just a few years with targeted funding and policy. Lower-density areas will have a harder time, but can still act quickly with targeted programs supporting modern car-sharing, hybrid "smart jitneys" and, where possible, mixed-use and higher density developmentMoving away from the car doesn't mean reducing our quality of life, either. Cities and suburbs throughout Western Europe have proven for decades that people will choose walking, bicycling and public transit over personal cars if the price is right and the trip is pleasant......The car will not disappear: It's simply too useful. But how we use cars, how we plan our economies and communities around cars, and even how we build cars, all have to change.What California needs, then, is not a future without cars, but a future that uses cars intelligently... California is already on the route toward breaking its ingrained car dependence with legislation like Senate Bill 375, which links energy use with transportation and land development. The challenges we face in global warming and declining oil supplies, however, require that we do more than just tinker around with zoning codes and transportation funding. We need to fundamentally rethink the way we do urban planning and the way we fund public infrastructure, and fast.Portland, Ore., remains the best American example of this fundamental rethinking, with its vibrant downtown, pioneering light-rail system and strict constraints on suburban sprawl. Portland achieved its successes not by executive fiat, but through decades of work by countless elected officials, planners and community members to forge regional agreement on land use and transportation issues. Car independence has been a central part of the Portland vision, and today the city boasts some of the nation's highest rates of walking and bicycling, despite miserable weather half the year.There's no reason sunny California cities and towns can't do the same...Retrofitting our communities to be car-independent – car-smart – isn't rocket science. And we're fortunate that the American legal system leaves the bulk of land use and transportation decisions to the state and local levels. Every community across this country has the choice to continue increasing its car and oil dependence, or to reorient itself for the new post-oil era. If the successes of Western Europe and American cities such as Portland are any indication, car independence is clearly the smart path for California to choose.Old-growth Sierra junipers felled amid warming debate...Tom Knudsonhttp://www.sacbee.com/101/v-print/story/1253187.htmlALTURAS – Moments after he saw the centuries-old junipers on the ground, Glenn Fair felt sick to his stomach.A 60-year-old fishing guide from rural Lassen County, Fair has nothing against thinning forests to protect them from fire and disease. But the barren, dusty swath of stumps and downed junipers logged from public land last year and the adjacent house-high pile of wood chips was not that kind of cut.Not only were trees mowed down across nearly 300 acres, they were leveled under a banner of ecological restoration, energy independence and climate-friendly power. It was portrayed as a win-win by the federal government, which was paying for the removal to undo the legacy of poor land management.But to Fair, burning old-growth junipers in a wood-fired power plant to battle global warming just doesn't make sense."These trees are our carbon collectors," he said. "It's no different than if you went into a rain forest and cut it down."The government's so-called "stewardship project" here in rugged, remote northeast California is a lens through which to view the changing nature of forestry. No longer is managing woodlands in California just about balancing jobs and the environment. These days, carbon, climate and restoration are part of the equation...Even government officials acknowledge that the Modoc County job – designed to restore the land to its more open, range-like pre-settlement condition – was botched."That cut was heavier than we wanted," said Peter Hall, a forester with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. "We're learning from our mistakes and moving on."New plan covers 1.2 million acresThis spring, the bureau and the U.S. Forest Service announced plans to dramatically expand the scope of the cutting. According to a more than 500-page environmental impact statement, the two agencies propose to use cutting and burning to eradicate junipers across 1.2 million acres – an area more than 11,000 times larger than Arco Arena and its parking lots.The reason for such dramatic action, they say, is to address historic land management mistakes, including heavy livestock grazing and fire suppression, that have allowed juniper woodlands to expand. That expansion has choked out grass and brush that support wildlife such as mule deer and sage grouse."We're all in favor of forests," said Tim Burke, manager of the Bureau of Land Management's field office in Alturas. "However, what's happening here is not natural."Others question the wisdom of cutting so many trees on the arid Modoc plateau at a time when rising global temperatures are increasing the risk of desertification – the spread of desert-like conditions...What's more, some scientists say restoring the terrain to conditions that existed during the cooler 19th century – before global warming began to push temperatures higher – might not work...Western junipers' proud history... Some see 'juniper desert'...Turning wood into megawattsTwo years ago, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the executive order requiring that 20 percent of renewable energy purchased by public utilities be generated by "biomass" – a catch-all term for trees, sawmill waste, construction debris and so on. Currently, California gets just 1 percent of its power – 550 megawatts – from such sources.In a state blanketed with crowded, unhealthy forests, many say turning spindly fire-prone conifers into kilowatts makes sense.One thing on which all sides agree is that old-growth trees should not be a part of the mix. But on the cut near Bayley Reservoir in Modoc County, they were toppled anyway.A contract for the job, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, states that only younger junipers were to be harvested. "Junipers containing … old-growth characteristics will not be cut," it says.When Hall – the government forester and contract officer – toured the area this spring, he discovered that instruction had not been followed. "When cutters finished … the project, there were no old growth left," he wrote in his project diary."There was a break in the communication between the contractor and the cutters," Hall told The Bee. "It's definitely a black mark on his record."No fine was assessed because the contract had no teeth, Hall said. In fact, the government paid the contractor $76,000 to cut the area, a common practice for forest products with low economic value.Today, Hall said, new contracts contain penalty clauses."We really don't want to cut any old growth juniper," he said.Many remain skeptical, including Glenn Fair's 84-year-old father and fishing partner, Jay, who said: "If we're not careful we're going to do everything we can to get energy and just destroy the planet."Stockton RecordS.J. man, his fellow farmers standing on opposite sides of peripheral canal debate...Alex Breitlerhttp://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080921/A_NEWS/809210322LINDEN - Ray Latimer pedals through his walnut orchards on a Schwinn bicycle he bought used in 1950. It keeps him fit, the farmer said.Latimer, 73, is firm in his ways - and his words. And it might cost him in November as he tries to keep his seat on the Stockton East Water District board of directors, which will see its first contested election since 2002. Stockton East both manages the east county's groundwater, a precious resource, and delivers river water to the city of Stockton.Latimer's seat is threatened because of his strict stance on one issue: the peripheral canal.He supports it, which places him in the obvious minority in San Joaquin County, particularly among farmers...Latimer's position is simple: The government agreed to supply farms and cities south of the Delta with water, just as it has agreed to provide Stockton East with water from the Stanislaus River.And it has failed.A peripheral canal would help officials honor their contracts, Latimer says."There's plenty of water in California," he said. "The problem is it's just not in the right places. We've got to learn to use what we have wisely and move the water that is here to where it can be used most effectively."...Critics fear a canal would redirect so much fresh water around the Delta that it would kill the estuary, drawing in salt water and ultimately flooding many of the low-lying agricultural islands.Landowners in the Stockton East district get their water largely from the Calaveras River or from underground, and shouldn't be directly affected by a canal. But most are standing by their friends in the Delta.Latimer stands by his opinions, and he isn't shy to state them. The retired Franklin High School teacher grills government bureaucrats - "They're people out of control. ... They just do damned well what they please, and get out of their way." And while calling himself a conservationist, he argues that the threatened Delta smelt is good for little else except fish food...Who sets city's policies?Spanos Cos. would like to be in charge of Stockton's planning...Editorialhttp://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080921/A_OPINION01/809210305/-1/A_OPINIONIt seems disingenuous for the A.G. Spanos Cos. to cry foul over how the city reached its settlement with the Sierra Club and Attorney General Jerry Brown.The so-called Alliance for Responsible Planning - a Spanos-backed group - is placing newspaper ads and circulating petitions trying to force a referendum on the council vote.That's fine. That's democracy. Any group or citizen has the right to petition for redress.But, come on, the Spanos Cos., one of the most savvy, aggressive and deep-pocketed developers around, was cut out of the process? If so, it likely would be a first.No, the Spanos Cos. liked the developer-driven General Plan approved earlier but does not like what it perceives to be the green-leaning, in-fill-promoting settlement the council worked out after being sued by the Sierra Club and threatened with a suit by Brown.Interestingly, other high-profile developers are not protesting. Nor is the Greater Stockton Chamber of Commerce, whose CEO, Doug Wilhoit, allowed, "In politics, when there's a vote, there's a vote. You move forward."Among those in the Spanos camp on this are former Mayor Gary Podesto, leaders of the San Joaquin County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and, curiously, the Stockton Police Officers Association.The General Plan adopted in December and then quickly challenged in court by the Sierra Club called for Stockton's population to double by 2035 and for homes to cover more farmland with the expansion.The Sierra Club and, later, Brown faulted the city for the environmental harm such expansion would cause. Thus the push for more in-fill building, less expansion and greening up the building standards.Spanos argues that the new General Plan will increase the cost of housing and hurt business.To be honest, the General Plan has a lot of wiggle room. A general plan is only the overarching planning document every jurisdiction must have. What will set the plan in motion are the policies that back it up. And that, at least to Mayor Ed Chavez, is where the real dispute lies."My perception is it really has to do with who's making policy decisions in this city," he told the council last week.If that wasn't aimed directly at Spanos, it was close.San Francisco ChronicleTons of drugs dumped into wastewater...Jeff Donn, Martha Mendoza,Justin Pritchard, Associated Presshttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/21/MNQQ12TUHA.DTL&type=printableU.S. hospitals and long-term care facilities annually flush millions of pounds of unused pharmaceuticals down the drain, pumping contaminants into America's drinking water, according to an ongoing Associated Press investigation.These discarded medications are expired, spoiled, over-prescribed or unneeded. Some are simply unused because patients refuse to take them, can't tolerate them or die with nearly full 90-day supplies of multiple prescriptions on their nightstands.Few of the country's 5,700 hospitals and 45,000 long-term care homes keep data on the pharmaceutical waste they generate. Based on a small sample, though, the AP was able to project an annual national estimate of at least 250 million pounds of pharmaceuticals and contaminated packaging, with no way to separate out the drug volume.One thing is clear: The enormous amount of pharmaceuticals being flushed by the health services industry is aggravating an emerging problem documented by a series of AP investigative stories - the commonplace presence of minute concentrations of pharmaceuticals in the nation's drinking water supplies, affecting at least 46 million AmericansResearchers are finding evidence that even extremely diluted concentrations of pharmaceutical residues harm fish, frogs and other aquatic species in the wild. Also, researchers report that human cells fail to grow normally in the laboratory when exposed to trace concentrations of certain drugs.The original AP series in March prompted federal and local legislative hearings, brought about calls for mandatory testing and disclosure, and led officials in more than two dozen additional metropolitan areas to analyze their drinking water.And while most pharmaceutical waste is unmetabolized medicine that is flushed into sewers and waterways through human excretion, the AP examined institutional drug disposal and its dangers because unused drugs add another substantial dimension to the problem...Most down sinks, toiletsSome contaminated packaging and drug waste are incinerated; more is sent to landfills. But it is believed that most unused pharmaceuticals from health care facilities are dumped down sinks or toilets, usually without violating state or federal regulations...National standards coming?The EPA is considering whether to impose the first national standard for how much drug waste may be released into waterways by the medical services industry, but Ben Grumbles, the EPA's top water administrator, says a decision won't be made until next year, at the earliest.So far, regulators have done little more than politely ask the medical care industry to stop pouring drugs into the wastewater system. "Treating the toilet as a trash can isn't a good option," says Grumbles.Some think it's time to do more than ask...Landfills are one alternative. At least they don't empty directly, and immediately, into waterways like some sewage.Marjorie E. Powell, a lawyer for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, says landfills are "more environmentally friendly," while EPA spokeswoman Roxanne Smith contends that landfilling of hazardous pharmaceutical waste "poses little threat to the public."...Already, researchers have detected trace concentrations of drugs - including the pain reliever ibuprofen and seizure medicine carbamazepine - in seepage or groundwater near landfills...The push for incineration hides an irony. Several decades ago, drug waste was routinely chucked into the trash and burned in hospital or city incinerators.Then came a national campaign against air pollution. Most hospitals shut down their burners, and city incinerator managers became pickier about what they'd accept. With options restricted, hospitals began shipping more drug waste to landfills - and dumping more into toilets and sinks.Methods of disposalA few choices are expanding. Some states have passed laws to make it easier to contribute unused drugs to charity pharmacies that supply low-income patients.Also, a small share of unused drugs is shipped back to manufacturers for credit - and incineration, waste consultants say. But the drugs are supposed to be sent back in original packaging - sometimes impractical because the packaging is discarded or damaged.Several long-term care residences want to deploy automatic drug-dispensing machines that suppliers would refill often to reduce waste.While not yet practical, there are several experimental technologies, such as destroying trace drugs with an electrical arc, microwaves or caustic chemicals.Increasingly, some bureaucrats and health professionals are suggesting that drugmakers help pay costs of managing drug waste. But the pharmaceutical industry says there's insufficient evidence of environmental harm to warrant the expense.But impatience is mounting. Even the EPA has begun to take such suggestions seriously. Grumbles says drugmakers "should do more for product stewardship and meds retrieval now." He says it would be unwise to wait for all the proof.For now, many health facilities, especially small ones, are put off by the cost of proper handling. Drugs deemed hazardous by the EPA - about 5 percent of the market - might cost up to $2 a pound to incinerate in a certified hazardous waste incinerator, says Vestara's Davidner. A pound might cost 35 cents to burn in a regular trash incinerator.Tom Clark, an executive at the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists, wonders: "When you can flush it down the toilet for free, why would you want to pay - unless there's some significant penalties?"Endangered warbler needs help to survive...John Flesher, Associated Presshttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/21/MNF312UVBP.DTL&type=printableMio, Mich. - ...The Kirtland's warbler appears destined forever to need human assistance for survival.The half-ounce bird, which sports a yellow breast and bluish-gray head and tail plumage, has such strict habitat requirements that it nests and breeds in only a handful of places - primarily jack pine stands in Michigan's northern Lower Peninsula. Those forests are managed to meet the warbler's needs, while a campaign is waged to limit the population of its mortal enemy, the brown-headed cowbird."We've gotten the bird to more sustained levels, but it's still a battle every year," said Chris Mensing, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in East Lansing. "We're going to have to continue our management programs for the Kirtland's warbler in perpetuity."That may be the case for most of the 1,353 animals and plants on the federal endangered species list.While the Endangered Species Act calls for helping them reach the point of living and reproducing on their own, it's easier said than done. Just 22 have been removed from the list since the law took effect in 1973. Among them: the bald eagle and gray wolves of the western Great Lakes region, which were dropped last year.Before delisting a species, government biologists must conclude their populations have recovered, with sustainable numbers and distribution. Also, threats must have been eliminated or controlled.Mike Scott, a biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Idaho, contends the Kirtland's warbler illustrates why it no longer makes sense to think of endangered species as simply recovered or not recovered.He proposes a new category of "conservation-reliant" species that could be removed from the endangered list but still get long-term protection. Such a designation could include about 80 percent of presently listed species, he said."With all the habitat loss and invasions from nonnative species, you'll see more and more cases where the threat cannot be eliminated, it can only be manipulated," Scott said.In a recent report to Congress, the Fish and Wildlife Service described only 8 percent of listed species as improving, meaning their numbers are rising or threats have abated.The Kirtland's warbler was among them - a triumph for a bird once on the brink of oblivion... Have degree, can't work...Debra J. Saundershttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/21/INLL12VG8B.DTL&hw=uc&sn=001&sc=670A California appellate court ruling last week supports a lawsuit challenging a state law that grants illegal immigrants heavily subsidized tuition at California public universities and colleges. The court found that the 2001 law conflicts with federal law.As I read the ruling, I asked the question the judges cannot answer - as it is a policy issue best left to elected lawmakers: Why would a state subsidize the college tuition of students who cannot work legally in the United States when they graduate? Does California not have enough educated, angry people? Or does the state have so few angry, educated people that it sees fit to spend more than $17,000 per year on tuition for UC students, more than $13,000 for California State University students and $109 per credit for some 15,000 or more community college students - so that they can be unable to get a job that requires a college degree when they graduate? From what I've seen, employers who hire college graduates aren't anxious to pay professional salaries to workers who can be deported. Thus California's in-state tuition tax break - and those in nine other states - pave the long, expensive road to underemployment.The law in question, Assembly Bill 540, was signed by Gov. Gray Davis, who told me six years ago, "I believe someone who spends three years in high school and on their own merit gains admission to a California college should not be denied the opportunity to complete their education because their parents many years ago many have decided to enter the country illegally." I feel for those kids, whose parents broke the law and got them into this situation. But is the answer to let them pay in-state tuition - still significant at $6,769 for UC or $3,164 for CSU - for a degree that can't help them get a job?John Trasviña, president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, believes that the in-state tuition law works because after graduation, students may be able to work legally - thanks to "changes in the immigration law and changes in their status." If students graduate with a technical degree, Trasviña added, employers can apply for an H-1B visa to hire them.UC attorney Christopher M. Patti told me, "I think the notion is that they're kids who will ultimately be able to regulate their status. Many have been here for many, many years."But UC doesn't really know what happens to these graduates. They may never become citizens, or they may work illegally - no one knows.According to UC stats, last school year, 1,639 students benefited from AB540. Most of the beneficiaries - 1,184 students this year, it turns out, are U.S. citizens, permanent residents or legal immigrants, who did not meet the old residency requirements, perhaps because they went to boarding school or attended an out-of-state college before applying to grad school. As for illegal immigrants, 271 students are dubbed "potentially undocumented," while another 162 show some documentation. UC doesn't know how many undocumented graduates later become citizens or legal residents.CSU doesn't keep statistics on undocumented students. An estimated 15,000 to 20,000 undocumented students are attending California community colleges.Kris Kobach, a University of Missouri law professor who represents plaintiffs suing California, noted that many are outraged that Sacramento chose to subsidize students in the country illegally while charging full freight to law-abiding students from other states. Some of his clients told him, "When we graduate, we are going to stay here. So why is the state not subsidizing our education? In contrast, illegal aliens cannot work anywhere in the state."Kobach also said he was eager to take on the case "because this is an example of a state thumbing its nose at federal law," which stipulates that states cannot provide breaks to illegal immigrants for postsecondary education unless any citizen is eligible for that benefit, regardless of where he lives."It is a compelling government interest to remove the incentive for illegal immigration provided by the availability of public benefits," Congress wrote in earlier immigration law. Now I don't think that many illegal immigrants come to the United States to send their kids to Berkeley. But I also don't know why California taxpayers should fund a Berkeley education for a student who can't work in this country legally.Whatever happens to this lawsuit, Sacramento should not be subsidizing tuition for students who can't work legally, and Washington ought to be working on a compromise that does not encourage further illegal immigration, but finds a way to help young people who didn't choose to come to this country but do choose to better themselves.-------------------------------------------------------------CENTRAL VALLEY SAFE ENVIRONMENT NETWORKMISSION STATEMENTCentral Valley Safe Environment Network is a coalition of organizations and individuals throughout the San Joaquin Valley that is committed to the concept of "Eco-Justice" -- the ecological defense of the natural resources and the people. To that end it is committed to the stewardship, and protection of the resources of the greater San Joaquin Valley, including air and water quality, the preservation of agricultural land, and the protection of wildlife and its habitat. In serving as a community resource and being action-oriented, CVSEN desires to continue to assure there will be a safe food chain, efficient use of natural resources and a healthy environment. CVSEN is also committed to public education regarding these various issues and it is committed to ensuring governmental compliance with federal and state law. CVSEN is composed of farmers, ranchers, city dwellers, environmentalists, ethnic, political,and religious groups, and other stakeholders.