Presidential Energy Policy; Wednesday, March 9, 2005, Columbus, OH

2005-03-09T13:49:00.000-08:00

Oil prices fluctuating near $55 per barrel, soon to be $2.70 a gallon, are the result of the Bush Administration's laissez faire energy policy, not the United States Senate's inability to pass energy legislation.

President Bush is responsible for the politics of energy on his watch and towards these ends he has many tools of influence and leverage. Among them the President has the power to moderate oil price increases through strategic use of both the United States Strategic Petroleum Reserve and through diplomacy, even when doing so may contradict the financial interests of the Bush family's business ties to the Carlyle Group, a world wide private investment bank flush with Saudi money heavily leveraged in the defense industry.

It seems to be a novel concept, that a President would be responsible for what happens in the Country during his stewardship.

And it also needs to be said by way of introduction to the President's energy policy address today that the President: was responsible for the security of the nation on September 11, 2001, is responsible for the lead role in balancing the federal budget, and is responsible for promoting the health interest of Americans exposed to asbestos above the financial interest of the Halliburton shareholders. This is in the context of the President's energy policy address today as all of these topics were referenced by President Bush in his address in Columbus, Ohio. Nuclear power was promoted as a key component in a strategy to enhance national security through energy independence, as was drilling in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Conservation was headlined, headlined, as vital but then represented in the rubric of the President's "Clear Skies Initiative" (a proposed piece of legislation watered down to the point of being an oxymoron).

Again it is not lost on many that the President's Energy Task Force (whose secret proceedings headed by Dick Cheney are the subject of an ongoing public right to know suit to force disclosure) excluded the Conservation community, a community which has its roots with the Republican administration of Theodore Roosevelt. Teddy Roosevelt who from 1901-1909 set aside 230 million acres (yes 230 million acres) of land into national parks and preserves. The President who incidentally handed over the reigns of the Republican party, March 4, 1909 to William Howard Taft, Governor of Ohio Bob Taft's great grandfather, then President Roosevelt's Secretary of War.

Lynne Cheney's comments were telling. In response to comments by her husband, earlier in the year that it was fortunate that they met where and when they did, Mrs. Cheney candidly stated, yes [it was fortunate for him] otherwise someone else would be Vice President today. Vice President Dick Cheney, formerly a utility service man, was certainly clay in her hands. For the administration's sake, one might hope that he is still a work in progress.

If there is anywhere in the country where the fallout from national energy policy is more significant than Ohio one would be hard pressed to find it. Besides gas at $2.00 a gallon, a Taft in the governorship, an emasculated Ohio EPA, and energy blackouts, Cincinnati and Cleveland have the unfortunate distinction of being among the 11 worst metropolitan regions as rated by fine particulate pollution, according to the American Lung Association.

Southwest of Cincinnati exist a series of coal fired public utility plants along the Ohio River which account for half of the fine particulate pollution in the region. These particulates travel northwest across the most populated areas of Cincinnati before the prevailing weather pattern blows them towards Columbus and Cleveland.

These fine particulate (pm2.5) pollutants contributes to heart and respiratory disease in our city and are a significant health and quality of life issue for our population, especially the 177,000 plus children under 14 (30% of which live in poverty), the 112,00 plus seniors over 65, and finally the numerous individuals who actively participate in recreational outdoor sports.

The American Lung Association in its "State of the Air, 2004" report delves further, quantifying the number of individuals with serious medical problems in Cincinnati whose health is impacted by this fine particulate pollution as those afflicted with: Pediatric Asthma, 17,820; Adult Asthma, 45,615; Chronic Bronchitis, 27,590; Emphysema, 9,951; and finally those with Cardiovascular Disease at 183,126.

It may come as a surprise to the leadership at Cinergy, who lobby the Cheney's of Washington, that it is not a foregone conclusion that people should suffer from such health afflictions. Cinergy and its representatives in the Bush Administration have both a role in causing and responsibility for remediating this public health epidemic.

Cinergy has determined, with the tacit support of the Administration, that the health interest of the one million plus people in Greater Cincinnati does not outweigh the public utility's bottom line. The Administration's contribution to this public health challenge was to help delay required pollution control equipment installation for these plants (required under the Clean Air Act) indefinitely, and to have prominent Republican supporters chair an economic policy summit which lead to the repeal of the statute enabling Cincinnati's Office of Environmental Management.

Again the words of Lincoln, spoken November 19, 1863 at Gettysburg come to mind. "The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here." The President can talk as he will about sound energy policy, but his embellishments in contrast to his actions suggest continued obfuscation at the highest levels.

Presidential Inauguration; Friday, January 21, 2005

2005-02-09T20:43:00.000-08:00

The Presidential inauguration will, tomorrow, have been three weeks past. And yet the disturbing indelible image of Trent Lott as Master of Ceremonies remains. In a ceremony designed as a celebration of democracy the symbolism of having it directed by a seemingly unrepentant segregationist was not lost.

The words of Lincoln, spoken November 19, 1863 at Gettysburg come to mind. "The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here." The President can talk as he will, but the sound in contrast to these images rings hollow.

The world through my eyes

2004-10-18T09:28:00.000-07:00

He was 5 and with a brick.
She was 8 and transporting her baby brother on a bicycle.

Morocco.
Indiginous Bri Bri.

Human spirit, child labor, labor of love, rivers of rain.

The word from Howard [Konicov]

Presidential Energy Policy; Wednesday, March 9, 2005, Columbus, OH

Presidential Inauguration; Friday, January 21, 2005

The world through my eyes