Ruminations - 7apr2008

George Rebane

Collateral Carbon Credit Damage.  This morning I awoke to a NPR report of gushing young lawyers in WashDC all atwitter about getting into the carbon credit business and making a ton of money; oh yes, they’re in it to also save the environment.  This is one of many unknown collateral catastrophes that occur when government starts messing with the markets – and the bigger the messing the bigger the mess.  Now we are having another huge cohort of America’s bright young people with MBAs and law degrees chasing a buck that is destined to help no one and hurt everyone around the world.  Oh, did I mention that another such group is taking perfectly good food off the prairies, adding a ton of hydrocarbon energy, and then making government subsidized ethanol that achieves no energy objectives but does make tortillas more expensive for the poor Mexicans, the Africans, the Asians, the … and Ms. SixPack in Poughkeepsie.

Can't Change Climate Change.  Team Gore is turning on the heat under media outlets who dare to even contemplate making public the recent findings about climate change that trips up the True Believers.  As Russ reports on NC Media Watch, the politics about this is getting ugly.  And we do have to keep in mind that climate change now is a political issue of a desperate ideology that is pulling all the stops to achieve its global agenda – and, sadly, winning against the skeptics who constitute the small but growing voices of reason.

GV City Council and the Growth Snatchers.  At 645pm tomorrow night in the GV council chambers we will witness the first collision of the no-growthers Friends of Grass Valley and those who see the return of boarded up store-fronts on Mill and Broad Streets.  (With friends like these, who needs … )  Our county electeds see this as a horrible portend for the future of our community, literally guaranteeing the failure of any initiative promoting prosperity and the quality of life that makes our foothills unique.  If you have a spare piece of backbone lying around the house, please bring it tomorrow night and contribute it to our politicos who will be most grateful – and so will you.  Here’s the press release about this on NC Media Watch.

Mud Match on The Union.  Speaking of the effort to promote non-existent growth for a community with non-existent growth, did you catch the mud match on the online Union in response to an article 'Growth measure raises questions' – questions my foot! it raised a lot of hell, read the comments.  What many of us found entertaining was the quality of the Union’s correspondents that was equaled by none other than publisher Jeff (‘The Gravitas’) Ackerman down there in the pit slinging away.  I guess that’s how you defend a newspaper; what a dialogue ;-)

TechTest2008 ignored by The Union.  TechTest2008, the second annual SESF TechTest merit scholarship exam was given this Saturday to the county’s best and brightest science/math students.  This scholarship recognizes students who plan to go into technology careers.  (read here the importance of Nevada County grads returning home to staff our community’s high tech companies).  This four-hour exam is administered by an academic committee headed by John McDaniel, award-winning physics teacher at NUHS.  He sent the appropriate and timely letter to the newspaper to gain some deserved publicity for the effort which will award $15,000 of scholarship prizes this year.  Nothing.  Apparently the paper was too full of local pumpkin contests and teddy bear exhibits to recognize these young people who will be the next generation of wealth creators.  Kudos to KNCO which picked up the ball and made the event known in our town.

Economic Development Done Quietly.  The two-day joint meeting of our elected leaders from the four major jurisdictions – Truckee, Nevada City, Grass Valley, and the County – to set a course for future economic development concluded on Saturday.  I attended both sessions and posted my recap here .  The meeting was well attended by local NGOs, non-profits, and the public.  Economic development in our county is on a crutch and needs all the support it can get from us and our institutions.  Apparently such gatherings do not meet the high standards for content that our local paper sets for itself and you.

Comments

[russ]

Here is where all that carbon resides. If you look close there is some hotspots in Nevada County.