corrente

First, THE WORST (not merely the worst presidency ever, worst congress, too), courtesy of an anonymous commentator at MaxSpeak, (even when a Max commentator speaks, we listen.)

The general subject matter falls under an issue that's mostly been absent from discussion lately, the Environment:

From The Alternate Energy Resource Network:October 7 2004 - Andrew Stern- NOW IS THE TIME TO STAND UP FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY. TODAY! (link)

Yesterday Senator John Warner (R-VA) submitted a last-minute amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill currently in Conference Committee that will have the effect of stopping not only the Nantucket Sound Wind Farm but, in effect, ALL OFFSHORE WIND-BASED RENEWABLE ENERGY INITIATIVES IN THE UNITED STATES. If you care about the future of energy in this country, and are as outraged as we are about Sen. Warner's methods, please take some time to make your feelings heard.

Warner, the Republican Senate Chair of the Committee, is proposing language that would prevent the Army Corps of Engineers (the approved permitting authority for offshore development) from acting on any offshore wind farm application, INCLUDING ANY CURRENTLY PENDING, until Congress specifically authorizes the use of outer Continental Shelf land for such purposes. Although this sounds benign, anyone who knows how our government works knows that this will, in reality, stop all offshore wind projects in the US.

In other words, Warner, WHO OWNS A SUMMER HOME IN OSTERVILLE, is effectively sacrificing the future of renewable energy in the U.S. so that the Nantucket Sound Wind Farm will not go ahead. Worse, he is inserting this amendment into the bill at such a late stage that there will be virtually no time to debate it. In other words, he is sneaking a provision that will be harmful to the country into an inappropriate bill at the last moment to ensure its passage.

Whatever ! your position on renewable energy, you may well be disgusted at these tactics, which masquerade as government of the people by the people for the people.

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Warner's amendment would directly contradict and impede President Bush's Executive Order to expedite the production of domestic energy resources.

Offshore wind energy projects can significantly reduce operations at fossil fuel power plants, thereby improving air quality and the health of all Americans. Cape Wind would also offset over a million tons of greenhouse gases each year, equal to taking over 150,000 cars off the road from this one offshore wind farm alone.

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Warner's amendment is predicated upon the need for offshore wind projects to have a competitive bidding process, despite the fact that it is the policy of the United States government not to require this of commercial wind energy projects on federal lands because the Bureau of Land Management is actively trying to encourage greater commercial wind energy development on federal lands. Issues regarding leasing or rent can be addressed concurrently with the ongoing and crucial NEPA permitting review on these projects designed to reduce America's reliance on foreign oil and to improve the air quality for all Americans.

Introducing this amendment late into the Conference Committee process is a blatant attempt to prevent public scrutiny and input into this crucial public policy decision. When the House held hearings on the issue last year, the overwhelming testimony (including labor and environmental witnesses, as well as the Massachusetts legislative leadership) was that any changes should not interfere or disrupt the ongoing review of existing project applications. Warner's amendment would single out clean offshore wind power from any other type of proposed commercial activity on the outer continental shelf.

The press release has more details about what projects this amendment would curtail, and makes a convincing argument that this little undemocratically finessed amendment could put the offshore wind energy industry back for decades.

The committee could take up the amendment as early as today, so it's important to register a complaint ASAP.

You can find all the necessary information for getting in touch with the Senate committee and its individual memebers by clicking on the link above.

Now THE BEST!

The Nobel Peace Prize has just been awarded to Wangari Maathai, whom the Wa Po characterizes as "the Kenyan firebrand who mobilized the women of Africa in a powerful crusade against deforestation called the 'Green Belt Movement'."

This is wonderful news, and we on the left who care about the downside of Globalization, and worry that fundamentalists of various stripes are sometimes the only forces taking a stand against it, Wangari Maathai, a feminist, an economist, an environmentalist, a human rights activist, a college professor (US educated), both a determined believer in democracy and non-violent warrior against the cronyism and corruption so typical of government in developing countries, should also be an inspiration, and far better known than she's been, up to now.

Ninety percent of Kenya has been de-forested over the last fifty years and Wangari's Green Belt Movement, a response to the special burden borne by rural women who spend increasing portions of their lives searching out firewood for cooking, was about getting those same women to plant trees. Since the late seventies, it's estimated that 30 million trees have been planted all across Africa. And because the act of planting a tree was part of a movement, it became both an ecological and a political awakening, as to their great credit, the Nobel Committee seems to have understood.

Explaining the choice, Ole Danbolt Mjoes, head of the prize committee, said, "We have added a new dimension to the concept of peace. We have emphasized the environment, democracy building and human rights and especially women's rights."

Indeed! Wangari Maathai is one amazing woman.

From time to time she has been intimidated and even beaten by police in the course of her protests. She was hospitalized in Kenya in 1999 after being clubbed by guards hired by developers while she and her followers tried to plant trees in Karura forest.

In 1992, she was among a group of women who stripped naked in downtown Nairobi to protest police torture. The police had beaten them to disperse their demonstration and, as she later said, the women "resorted to something they knew traditionally would act on the men. . . . They stripped to show their nakedness to their sons. It is a curse to see your mother naked."

"She was threatened physically and was called a busybody in the press, yet she didn't flinch," said Mwalimu Mati, deputy director of Transparency International, a watchdog group in Nairobi.

"She's converted a lot of us to understand why the environment is so important," said Mati. "She worked alone for a very long time and she deserves this recognition. Now she has the real morale authority to challenge people who are selfishly allocating themselves land."

Read the whole article, and anything and everything else you can find about Wangari and about her movement. One person can make a difference, especially when she sees herself and her efforts in a larger, political context.

And all you have to do to make a difference on at least one issue is to make a few phone calls or send a few faxes. Here's that link again.