Klamath News.net

The Double Crested Cormorant is a voracious fish eater. These strange looking water birds can weigh up to five and a half pounds. They have a long, sharp, hooked beak and are strong swimmers with webbed feet and powerful legs. They are very quick and mobile underwater, and are capable of diving to at least twenty five feet.

It has been estimated that cormorants can consume up to half of their body weight in fish and crustaceans each day. That body-weight to fish-consumption ratio is even higher among immature birds. The preponderance of that diet is composed of small fish.

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For the past several months, the legislative Democrat leadership has been steadfast, in telling anyone who would listen, that they needed at least $275 million in new revenue, in order to balance the state budgets. The Republican Senate has been equally steadfast, in telling anyone that would listen, that meaningful restructuring of the Public Employee Retirement System is essential to balance state, school and local budgets.

At least two Republican votes are needed in the Senate to achieve the sixty percent majority vote constitutionally required to enact a tax. The same sixty percent majority votes are required to reduce or eliminate a tax deduction or a tax credit. For that reason, Republican Senators have refused to vote for any revenue increases until and unless meaningful PERS restructuring is achieved.

Last week, the Oregon state economist predicted that state revenue collection would increase by about $272 million over the next two years. This fortuitous prediction allegedly resolves the Democrat “steadfast need” for an additional $275 million in tax revenue. Political coincidences can and do occur, but one of this magnitude would certainly be rare.

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On Friday, April 5^th at 8:30 A.M, the Senate Judiciary Committee held public hearings on four bills relating to firearms. Many citizens and legislators alike consider all four of these measures to be both anti-gun and a challenge to our Second Amendment rights.

Several anti-gun bills were scheduled for a Friday hearing earlier in the session. At that time, the Senate Democrat leadership proposed that the Senate Rules be changed to prohibit open carry of firearms in the Capitol. The Democrat leaders withdrew that proposal when all fourteen Senate Republicans unanimously opposed that change in Rules. The initial anti-gun hearings were then postponed.

The Judiciary Committee Chair is Senator Floyd Prozanski. He is a Democrat representing much of the Eugene area. In his recent posting of the four bills for hearings and possible work sessions, he stated that “I intend to conduct a civil, orderly and respectful hearing in accordance with the Rules of the Senate”.

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The “tuition equity” bill passed out of the Oregon Senate last Thursday and is expected to be signed into law by Governor Kitzhaber in the near future. All sixteen Democrat and three Republican Senators voted to pass the bill. I joined ten other Republican Senators in voting no.

HB 2787-A exempts students who are not lawful permanent residents of Oregon from paying out of state tuition at Oregon’s seven universities if they meet certain criteria:

• The student must have attended an Oregon elementary or high school for three years immediately prior to receiving a high school diploma, or prior to leaving school without receiving a diploma.

• The student must have attended a school in any state or territory during each of the five years immediately prior to receiving a high school diploma, or leaving school prior to receiving a diploma.

• The student must have received a high school diploma from an Oregon school no more than three years prior to initial enrollment in a state university.

• And, the student must demonstrate intent to become a citizen or lawful permanent resident of the United States. 

The bill does not establish legal residency for students who are undocumented. It does not establish admission preference for students and it does not automatically enroll the student in a university. The undocumented student must meet both the legal criteria established in the new law and must be accepted academically by the university.

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There is little doubt that something needs to be done to improve traffic flow on Interstate 5 across the Columbia River. The current levels of traffic congestion, delays and the number of vehicle crashes are unacceptable. The questions are what should be done and how should we pay for the Columbia River Crossing. 

What’s required to be done should be left up to the traffic and construction engineers. Determining where the bridge should be built, the number of lanes of traffic needed, and its height both above the water and its total elevation should be left up to the professionals to decide. What is clear is that the design is far from being completed. In fact, I have not yet been shown a detailed drawing of the project. 

HB 2800 that authorizes the construction of the Columbia River Crossing project is one of Governor Kitzhaber’s highest priorities and has now passed both the House and the Senate. A number of legislators have worked very hard to make substantial improvements in the original bill. Among those improvements are five “triggers” that discontinue funding for the project if certain performance targets are not timely met. I greatly appreciate their significant efforts. 

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Oregonians should carefully evaluate Governor Kitzhaber’s recently released draft Ten Year Energy Plan. The Plan aggressively mandates energy conservation, further development of green renewable energy and the rapid phasing out of the use of fossil fuels.

The Plan calls for no-net increase in statewide energy use for the next decade. The goal is stated: “Maximum energy efficiency and conservation to meet 100% of new electrical load growth”.  At best, the Plan appears to cap future energy availability at current levels. At worst, it will actually reduce energy availability in the likely event that energy efficiency and conservation methods are inadequate to compensate for increased demand. Neither the methods to be used for efficiency and conservation nor their inherent costs are fully described or quantified. Further, the increased competitive costs that always occur when energy demands exceed energy supplies do not appear to be addressed.

Oregon has the most aggressive Renewable Portfolio Standard in the nation. Oregon law articulates the aspirational goals of reducing fossil fuel usage by 30 percent by 2020 and by at least 80 percent by 2050.  Actions taken in the attempt to achieve the Standard are already forcing the change from reliable low-cost hydropower and coal generation to much higher-cost wind and solar renewables. The draft Plan appears to dismiss low-cost, reliable and relatively clean electrical generation from abundant natural gas primarily because natural gas is a fossil fuel.

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Under current law, American families and businesses are facing nearly half a trillion dollars in increased federal taxes next year. If Congress and the President fail to take action, this unprecedented expansion in federal taxes will equal nearly $1,600 for every man, woman and child in the United States.

The specter of these enormous additional tax burdens is already causing a significant negative impact on our economy. Investors, businesses and families alike are delaying investments and foregoing purchases until they know what to expect in the federal tax arena. The economic stagnation caused by government-created uncertainty is slowing private sector job creation and preventing millions of unemployed Americans from going back to work.

The combined expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts, the ending of employer payroll tax reductions and enormous new taxes imbedded in President Obama’s Affordable Care Act will cost American taxpayers at least $494 billion next year. The preponderance of these tax increases will be levied on America’s middle class, working families and the owners of the small businesses that create nearly three out of every four new jobs.

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Current Oregon law requires that all public building construction and reconstruction projects include solar energy technologies when their total contract price exceeds one million dollars. The law requires that one and one half percent of the entire construction cost for new building must include solar electric, solar thermal or passive solar technologies. It also applies to building renovations that exceed one million dollars and fifty percent of the total building value. The solar requirement can be transferred and added to another building in the event that the contractor determines that solar technologies are not feasible for a specific building.

I voted against the enactment of the law in 2007 for two reasons. First, I believe that construction contract decisions should be based on free market cost-to-benefit analysis rather than political mandates. Second, the most cost effective form of renewable energy should be used if our state government is going to force the inclusion of renewable energy technology.

A salient example of the second point is the application of the solar technology requirement to a reconstruction project for the hospital in Lakeview. Geothermal energy was piped into the building from an existing resource to supply virtually all the HVAC system. Yet Oregon law absurdly required the contractors to spend more than a quarter of a million dollars on solar technologies for the building. This is not an isolated occurrence in our area. Five of the seven known major geothermal resource areas in Oregon are located in Klamath, Lake and southern Deschutes counties.

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The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ) will soon decide whether or not to adopt a Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) for Oregon. The Department was directed to study the issue by the Oregon Legislature by HB 2186 in 2009. That bill was adopted by a very close vote even though the Legislature was controlled by a Democrat supermajority at the time. Many of us that opposed the concept in 2009 believed it was unnecessary, probably illegal and likely to trigger an economic chain reaction that would drive up costs, drive out businesses and destroy jobs.

The alleged purpose of the LCFS is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by reducing the full fuel-cycle carbon intensity of transportation fuel used in the state. Carbon intensity is an estimate of the total greenhouse gas emissions related to the extraction, refinement, shipping and consumption of a finished transportation fuel. The LCFS would neither require the use of a specific fuel nor establish any motor-vehicle specifications.

The concept is to reduce Oregon’s dependence on petroleum products and to stimulate the production of alternative low-carbon fuels such the production of ethanol from both corn and cellulose and the production of biodiesel. It is similar in concept to the Renewable Portfolio Standard that requires the use of an ever increasing percentage of renewable energy regardless of the cost to the consumer. The LCFS too would serve to require the use of an ever increasing percentage of regionally produced biofuels regardless of the cost to the consumer.

In my opinion, the adoption of a state LCFS is unnecessary because greenhouse gas emission has little if anything to do with global warming or climate change. A growing number of climatologists and other learned earth scientists are publicly stating their rejection of the greenhouse gas theory of global warming. They are systematically identifying scientifically reproducible data that demonstrates the theory to be fatally flawed. They are also advancing alternative explanations for the modest global warming that has occurred in the past half century. Those explanations more closely correlate with empirical data and the stable to cooling temperature trends currently being experienced. Moreover, even if the greenhouse gas theory of global warming was valid, the changes in greenhouse gas emissions contemplated by implementing an Oregon LCFS would result in no significant difference in global greenhouse gas emissions.

The proposed Oregon LCFS is nearly identical to the LCFS adopted by the state of California. That LCFS has just been ruled unconstitutional by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California (Case No. CV-F-09-2234 LJO DLB). In a summary judgment the Court ruled that the LCFS violates the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution for a variety of reasons. It only stands to reason that another U.S. District Court would find the nearly identical proposed Oregon LCFS equally unconstitutional.

The costs of complying with any LCFS can only result in higher fuel costs for everyone. Compliance with a state or regional LCFS would certainly result in an uncompetitive business environment that would result in out-migration of businesses and jobs. The last thing that Oregon needs is another reason for businesses to leave Oregon or for capital investors to further shun the state.

Oregon is currently a national leader in biofuel requirements even without a LCFS. The state already mandates ten percent ethanol in each gallon of gasoline and five percent biodiesel in every gallon of diesel sold in Oregon. To unilaterally increase those already strict standards would be useless and economically dangerous. The ODEQ should make those obvious findings and report them to the Legislature as directed.

Oregon must NOT adopt a Low Carbon Fuel Standard. Any hope of a meaningful economic recovery depends on avoiding the LCFS like the economic plague that it will certainly bring to Oregon.

Please remember, if we do not stand up for rural Oregon no one will.

Best Regards,

Doug

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From Senator Whitsett’s Friday, January 6, 2012 Newsletter

Oregon statistics paint a grim picture of local family violence and neglect. Klamath County ranks in the top tenth percentile in domestic violence, child abuse and the use of illegal drugs. Our local rate of child abuse and neglect stands at an astounding twenty five cases per one thousand children. That rate of abuse is twice as high as the Oregon and national averages. In fact among the 36 Oregon counties, Klamath ranks a dismal third in child abuse and neglect.

What kind of a craven coward would beat his wife or child senseless for any reason? Personally, I cannot fathom what would cause a man to physically or sexually abuse a woman or child even once. Yet it happens on a daily basis in our community. The abuse is usually serial and prolonged.

A very small percentage of the domestic and sexual violent acts that are committed are ever reported to law enforcement authorities. Of those victims that do report, we know that, on average, they have previously experienced violent intimate partner abuse at least seven times. Domestic and sexual violence affects not only those abused, but witnesses, family members, co-workers, friends and the community at large.

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