Alabama Chief Justice Ray Moore flunks history

Judge Moore was the guy who put a granite monument to the Ten Commandments in the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial System building and is more recently famous for defying a federal court order legalizing gay marriage in Alabama.  In an interview Judge Moore stated:

“Our rights, contained in the Bill of Rights, do not come from the Constitution, they come from God.”

Actually the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution to mollify the Anti-Federalists, and was written in large part by James Madison.  The Amendments read a much better than the 10 Commandments, and the 14th Amendment applied them to the states--even Alabama.

Monarch butterflies

The monarch butterfly population has decreased by 90%, the lowest recorded population occurring in the 2013-14 season.

The Federal government has announced a program to restore 200,000 acres of habitat from California to the Corn Belt, and the program will include more than 750 schoolyard habitats and pollinator gardens.

I think that is wonderful, but when one considers that the PennEast pipeline project is a billion-dollar project, the $3.2 million federal expenditure for monarchs seems rather puny.

In the meantime, let your milkweeds bloom.

The info on the federal program was taken from Lancaster Farming, Feb. 14, 2015, p. B9.

Death Penalty

The Obama Administration has introduced a plan to interdict illegal wildlife trafficking.  U.S. Intelligence agencies, including presumably the CIA, will help to track and arrest the people involved in the trade, which is estimated to involve about $20 billion a year.

Today’s Times had a picture of some of the ivory and rhino horns seized by officials.  U.S. citizens are involved in this activity.

Unfortunately, we have about the same number of officers to track illegal animal trafficking as we had in the 70’s, and I doubt if the Republican Congress will be willing to increase funding.

I have thought long and hard about the death penalty.  On principle I’m opposed, but I have decided that people who kill endangered species for money should be executed.  Once a species is extinct, it is gone forever.  People who are killing endangered animals for simple greed do not deserve to live.

Note:

A friend told me today he heard that Linda and I were collecting money to sue PennEast Pipeline company.  That is ridiculous, and I have no idea where that rumor started.  I can assure you than neither Linda nor I plan to sue PennEast Pipeline Company, although we will continue to fight the proposed pipeline.

FERC captured

Gather ‘round,. boys and girls.  It’s time for another political science lecture from Dr. Roy.  Today’s topic is Independent Regulatory Commissions, with a special emphasis on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, known as FERC.

The United States government has created a number of agencies that are independent of Congress and the President.  While the President appoints members of these commissions with the approval of the Senate, once members are appointed they can’t be removed unless they do something really bad and are impeached.  Most members serve staggered terms of five or seven years.  The idea is that the members can make decisions without regard to politics, hence the name independent.  They usually regulate some aspect of the economy, hence the name regulatory.  They usually have five or seven members, hence the name board or commission.

Some of them you may have heard of are the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Consumer Products Safety Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and perhaps most importantly, the Federal Reserve Board.

Here’s a problem.  Let’s say you are the President, and you need to appoint a member to fill vacancy on the Securities and Exchange Commission, which regulates the stock market.  Who knows about the stock market?  Not plumbers.  Not farmers.  Not astronauts.  No, the pool of people who know about the stock market are stock brokers, financial analysts, and Wall Street operators.  

Consider who the SEC will be dealing with on a day-to-day basis.  Not plumbers.  Not farmers.  Not astronauts.  No, the SEC, when it holds hearings, will be hearing from stock brokers, financial analysts, and Wall Street operators.

As a result, the Independent Regulatory Agencies get “captured.”  The appointment process and the day-to-day dealings of the agencies mean that they will adopt the interests and world-view of the very people they are supposed to be regulating.

This, I believe, is what has happened to FERC.  It was obvious to me that the FERC staffers who took testimony on Wednesday night at Penn’s Peak were really not interested in what participants had to say.  I know a great deal about Wild Creek Falls and the Wild Creek Cove on Beltzville Lake, far more than the PennEast Pipeline company, yet I was cut off at three minutes.

FERC has adopted the mindset of the pipeline companies.  The very fact that it has approved 100% of pipeline applications is a telling statistic.  The worst part of this is that it does me no good to write to my U.S. Representative or my U.S. Senators.  The Independent Regulatory Agencies are walled off from political pressure.  They are not, however, walled off from the very interests they are supposed to be regulating.

Pipeline jobs

Tonight Linda and I testified at a “scoping” hearing sponsored by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.  The hearing is part of the requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act.

A number of representatives from the Laborers’ Union and the Steamfitters’ Union spoke about all the construction jobs the pipeline would create, and at least one mentioned how fracking had helped the economies of northern counties.

The best rebuttal to this came late in the evening from a young woman who is a river rafting guide.  She noted the importance of the tourist industry in Carbon County.  For example, four different companies are involved in river rafting on the Lehigh.  If the pipeline cuts through Lehigh Gorge State Park as planned, tourists might stay home.  If tourists stay home, all kinds of jobs--shopkeepers in Jim Thorpe, river guides, park naturalists, ski instructors--could disappear.

The economic study that projected job growth was sponsored by PennEast, which in itself makes the conclusions dubious.  As one sign pointed out, “The PennEast study on economic benefits is like a tobacco company study on cancer.

We need another study on economic costs and job losses sponsored by a truly neutral body.  I’m fairly certain costs would outweigh benefits, especially if costs to the environment are factored in.

Short Answers to FAQ on the PennEast Pipeline

1.  Do natural gas pipelines ever blow up?

Ans.:  Yes.

2.  Do compressor stations make noise 24 hours a day?

Ans.:  Yes.

3.  Do compressor stations leak harmful gasses?

Ans.:  Yes.

4.  Is an interstate pipeline company allowed to use eminent domain proceedings against private property?

Ans.:  Yes.

5.  If a pipeline crosses private property, is the value of that property lowered?

Ans.:  Yes.

6.  Does the proposed PennEast pipeline route cross three Pennsylvania State Parks in Carbon County?

Ans.:  Yes.

7.  Does the proposed PennEast pipeline route cross preserved farms under the Pennsylvania Farm Preservation program?

Ans.:  Yes.

8.  Does the proposed PennEast pipeline route cross habitat that could be home to endangered species?

Ans.:  Yes.

9.  Does the proposed PennEast pipeline create a permanent fifty-foot open corridor across the federally-designated Appalachian Trail?

Ans.:  Yes.

10.  Will PennEast pay property taxes on the proposed pipeline?

Ans.:  No

10.  Is PennEast mandated to hire local workers when the pipeline is constructed?

Ans.:  No.

11.  Will the proposed PennEast pipeline result in hundreds of permanent jobs involved in pipeline maintenance?

Ans.:  No.

12.  Was the Drexel study touting the economic benefits of the PennEast pipeline paid for by the PennEast Company?

Ans.:  Yes.

Ice and snow

When I moved back here to Pennsylvania, I couldn’t understand why so many people spent the winter months in Florida.  Why would you go down to Orlando or Fort Myers and miss the beauty of the snow on the hemlocks, of ice on the lake, of the sculptured drifts in the fields, of icicles hanging from the eaves?  

I’m beginning to understand it better.