The Hayseeds blog, No. 112 for the week starting May 1, 2005.
April 17, 2005
Hayseeds No. 111
May 1, 2005
Hayseeds No. 112
May 8, 2005
Hayseeds No. 112
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Yeap, yeap, yeap. It was fun going out to Oswego except when I got stuck in really bad fog near Cherry Valley exit on Route 20 and when I almost rear-ended a car on Route 104 on one of those hills in Oswego. Camping up in Winnona State Forest outside of Mansville (20 miles south of Watertown) was a lot of fun with lots of truck/ATV trails to ride around on and get a bit of mud on the tires. Tonight I will finish my review of my college choices and will offically write out and sign the deposit check for which one I will be going to in the Fall if all goes well.
It looks like in the City of Albany that spring is now offically in full bloom and that out in the country it's getting there. In many ways I wish that my Oswego trip had been a week later. Regardless, I'm going to be going out to my choice college in two or three weeks, where it will be nice. It's too bad that they blue sky right now is hidden by the clouds. The weather and light does a lot to effect our psyche and how we percieve the world at any particular moment. Not to mention that the greenest of the environment is ultimately what sustains life from the cornfields to Apple trees.
After six years embattling the environmentalists and the overbreath of Randy Daniels' statement on declining the plant, the proposed plant is now just history. St. Lawerence Cement plans to fix up it's old plant as dirty as it always was, and keep it pouring out cement using outmoded technology. Had Randy Daniels been maybe a bit more even handed, and suggested a modifications to the proposal maybe they could have done something a little bit better.
Ultimately smart growth is about well connected policies that provide economic opporunity and allow people to do whatever they want to do in their lives. Remember that the St. Lawerence Cement plant employees some people who also are farmers that are protecting open space through their other jobs. Without the money from the plant, these farms might not otherwise exist. We want people in our society to have a lot of choices, and I know of people personally who are deeply effected by the ability to manufacture cement.
Finally, the argument that the plant will be dirter or have a bigger impact on the landscape is interesting. It certainly would not have created any more traffic impacts as it only employees about a 130 people, and moving across the river would create longer drives for some and shorter for others. It would cut down on land used for industrial use, by using an existing industrial site. Air pollution wise (the big thing for some), it would reduce most of the regulated pollutants by a large amount, though others would go up, along with the amount of cement dust produced thanks to more cement being built. There would also be more cement barges, roughly 11 of them a day over the existing couple ones. Not a significant impact when you consider other traffic on the river. I do not buy into the environmental arguments per se.
The rumor mill is hot with rumors of Randy Daniels wanting to join in a sucide pact against Governor Elliot Spitizer. He certainly has been working hard to get a public appearance, from putting his smiling face on every barbershop in NYS and personally delivering checks to little cleanup projects throughout the state.
To make things even more fun, former Governor Bill Weld of Massachussetts is wanting to run against Elliot Spitizer. Some of us had to laugh at this notion. The fact that the NYS Republicans are actively recruiting him, might mean that Daniels is out of the contention, despite his best of hopes. Ultimately, George E. Pataki controls the Republicans in NY so we can expect the final decision to come from his house in Putnam County.
The legislature is on April break right now, so little is happening in Albany though there was some interesting stories in the paper today. Probably the most exciting thing is that OGS is now filling the fountains at the Capitol, a true sign of spring. Before you know it, some of us will be wandering down at lunchtime, buying lunch at the street vendors, then sitting by the beautiful fountains in nice springtime weather.
Some personal notes: I finally decided that my college choice for finishing up my BA degree will be Plattsburgh State up in Plattsburgh, and my deposit has been sent in. I have Thursday off as I'm working my regular job on Saturday and my other one on Sunday. Going camping again from Wenesday night to Friday morning (yehaw).
Now off to the great thing known as real news.
Somehow I missed some of the coverage of Environment Day at the Capitol, namely the circling of the Capitol with 25 hundred non-soda bottles that are suppostly tossed every 30 seconds every day in NYS. Most of us have no idea how they figure such a stat except maybe by sales minus the estimated PET recycling numbers.
At any rate, expanding the bottle bill makes sense and would get more litter off the street, along with a fairly well segregated source of material for recycling or further processing. Plastic recycling is somewhat dubious in value compared to glass and metal recycling, which are far more valuable then the 1/3 gallon of oil used in the plastic we toss everyday. Similiarly, as plastic burns it doesn't create the litter problems from beer parties (see my previous comments).
In his usual commenting style he notes how some people who have disabilities are already using them, and that in some locations they might be appropiate. Those points are well taken, but he ignores that most state land has extensive networks of truck trails that we can drive 4x4 trucks or on most cars, but not ATVs.
With truck trails having a speed limit of only 25 MPH, the potential conflict between car and ATV is limited though it's a possibility. The legal and moral guidance given to us through the V&T Law and EnCon law is even more confusing as it's contradictions appear to prohibit both truck trails in the V&T (though roads are legal) and as such ATVs (which the master plan / EnCon law prohibits).
If you missed the public hearing in Albany, you have an opporunity to send your comments in writing to the DEC until May 15 (I believe) or go to the public hearing in Queensberry or Plattsburgh. Those hearings might be far more fun then the one in Albany too.
Some of us who take the Thruway will now be paying more to use it—roughly 25% more or maybe less if you want your travel habits to be monitored by the Thruway Authority using EZ-Pass. If you want to blame anyone for the toll increase, then the blame goes flatly on the person who wants to make every road in NYS a toll road: George E. Pataki.
I am all about taking Route 20 from Albany to Syracuse, but don't tell anybody about how truly fast that road really is despite the myth of being a slow road. It took only 15 more minutes to drive from my house to Oswego on Route 20 then the Thruway. Some truckers are promising to make Route 20 their route, though the traffic won't be welcome on a right-now nice empty road to drive.
He says he will take it if Pataki will give him permission in 2006 and he doesn't lose to Spitizer. I know there is a chance in the first thing happening, but unless Spitzer falls on his face badly, he's going to win.
Gun controllers aren't exactly pleased with the Supreme Court ruling that foriegn felonies are not grounds for automatically banning firearms from American citizens, as foreign law is not applicable inside our own borders. If anything, this case shows that we need real gun control with county or federal courts actively imposing restrictions on people specifically deemed a risk, and not automatically applying labels.
When you think about it, Senator Vellela can't legally buy a firearm nowadays, eventhough his ultimate crime was he bought and sold bribes from the Capitol and spent a year in prison for his deeds. Not exactly a violent person by any standard. Yet, there are terrorists who can legally buy guns, and we have no way to prevent them unless they have been deemed insane under outmoded state mental hygenie law (varying from state to state) or have committed a felony.
The good news is the rain is going to clear out before I go camping tonight. Up on the 14th floor of it's pretty icky looking out and the mountains have disappeared. I don't mind if it's a bit sticky tonight camping, as it will be dry in my truck AND it's gonna be nice tommorow. Making my list now.
Yesterday I bought a portable jump starter, so that at night camping I don't have to worry about using up all of my battery with the many lights/radio/laptop I used off my inverter. I like to light up the woods near where my truck is parked off of the truck trail. :)
It is yet another very slow newsday, so I'll have to drag things out a little bit. Let's see what I can come up with.
It's good stuff and it makes crops and trees grow. It cools and ultimately brings life to everywhere. It prevents forest fires and keeps us safe. Certainly rain on the weekends is far less desirable then on weekdays.
Rain in some ways inposes a kind of depression on us. Light and blue skys makes us happier. The grey sky seems to have a prefoundly different feeling then that of the black night sky. Maybe it's due to the wetness or the moisture we associate with it versus that of darkness which reminds us of evening parties at bars or other sorts of lounges and resturants.
Rain keeps our streams full for swimming in them and keeps the hay from going brown, and makes the wild flowers bloom. It's all about putting a flower in your hair (a daisy in upstate NY ;) in May. In conclusion, everybody loves rain, except how it can dampen down spirits and ruin weekends.
While he isn't jumping out and endorsing Bill Weld, he is saying that he's not 100% sure on his forth bid for the governor. Will he win if he runs? Of course not, if you believe the polls. Interestingly, Bill Weld is doing fairly well against Spitizer, so we have to hope that Pataki stays in the race.
Assemblyman Brodsky of Corporations and Authorities got a boost on his bid for Attorney General when CWA told him that they'd be backing him. SIEU has already backed Andrew Cuomo, though most of us have no idea why except maybe he's promised something for him in a smoke filled room. It will be particularly interesting when we see PEF and CSEA endorsements.
He's happy to tell you that none of those things would help the fairly high prices at the pump right now, but maybe might make a difference in the future.
The nuclear option (no pun intended ;) sounds particularly frightening, with no way to deal with nuclear waste anytime in the near future. We can't recycle nuclear junk, we can't burn it, and dumping it in the ground seems rather troublesome especially over the long run. It's one thing to have problems with methane and letche at the city dump, it's another to have grondwater that glows and gives cancer to every human that touches it.
Not to mention those "Emergency Bus Stop" signs outside of the Oswego Nuclear Power Plant (for example) are really scary. Compared to the controlled risk of bathing in mercury from the town's old coal burning power plant or the very small amount of dioxin from the trash burning power plant, nuclear is scary.
The idea of drilling on old military bases seems promising in, as it's pragmatic but all new drilling proposals should also include a destination for the land when done with drilling and other safe guards. Most military land is already somewhat screwed up from the heavy metals from bullets and other armements, so drilling would have a lower impact.
The clean coal initative has seemingly been forgetten about lately. Mercury from burning coal is always a problem, but with various filters and technologies it can be reduced. One of the simplest is pressure washing coal before burning it to reduce mercury deposits, but that costs money, wastes potential energy, and creates a messy mercury slurry that also has be treated and disposed. All things considered though, we will have coal for energy long after we run out of oil some 20 years after the current year (the constantly projected year for running out of oil).
Fuel efficency wise, it's going to be difficult to make cars much more efficent when drivers are constantly driving more miles, particularly as cars continue to become more reliable. A 20 MPG car is no more efficent then a 30 MPG car, driven half as many miles. The President's plan to give more tax breaks to hybrid drivers is promising, but don't expect much in the way of fuel savings on the highway (hybrids do nothing at 55 MPH except on long downhills), or even in the city (as drivers continue to drive further and further).
If you consider hazardous ozone days in the summer upstate versus NYC city, then the answer is yes. It seems the problem is particularly bad in the most western counties of NYS, downwind of the big power plants out west built before the requirements of the orginal clean air act but still poking along today.
It seems obvious that NYC should have worst pollution then upstate, and that still is true when you look at other pollutants then ozone. Major ozone producing sources have been greatly reduced, such as modern cars with catalytic convertors and timing that leads to cleaner burns. The big ones left are outmoded power plants that are from before the era of clean air requirements.
The worst counties for ozone problems where those on the Western border of the state (such as Chautauqua and Erie Counties), downwind of Ohio and Michigan, demostrating the signficance of out of state sources creating the majority of pollutants. That also means that it's nearly impossible to regulate.
Some said the lung association painted an overly negative picture. "Generally, things are improving incredibly," said Frank Maisano, who lobbies for the Coalition of Power Plants.
I agree that the good news is that things are better then years ago. Yet, they need to be better. Ozone days whether or not we choose to pay attention to them affect many of the most frail NYers out there and it's not right to deny them the ability to go outside when they want. Moreover, not only do these old power plants create lots of ozone they are damaging our streams with mercury. Something must be done.
