Op-Ed

Estonia Taxes Farmers for Cow Farts

Please Don't Tell Al Gore

By Peter Robbins

Farmers in Estonia received their first "Cow Fart" tax demand on Monday. Following the issues of global warming, Estonia cited that a single cow produces 350 L of methane gas and 1500 L of carbon dioxide a day from flatulence and burping.

Can't you see it now! The economy in the United States is approaching the tank, the liberals are examining every source of potential revenue they can find to pay for their failing "feel good" programs. How long do you think this will take? It will reach us faster than the killer bees did I'm afraid. Imagine, Al Gore getting in his "Eco Friendly Private Jet" and holding a news conference about cow farts and global warming!

Lets see, were paying the farmers to produce grain for ethanol, supporting the research into the mating habits of exotic flies, taxes up for the smokers to pay for a mandatory health care program that was never funded, schooling and health care for illegal aliens. There is no need to continue. It all has to be paid for, its just a matter of when the fart tax hits.

Carbon Fart Offsets

"No Johnny we can't get a dog, we can't afford the fart tax."Consider this, the tax is not going to save the ozone or stop global warming. You pay the tax, but cows still fart! Kind of like paying extra to offset your carbon footprint. It doesn't make a difference but I guess it feels good. What's next! Do birds fart? How about cats and dogs ? Consider lions, and tigers and bears, oh my! What about you? Explain this to your children, "No Johnny we can't get a dog, we can't afford the fart tax."

With all the absurdity going on, don't be surprised in the future if you have a new IRS form to fill out. The 1040 F.A.R.T. Form, the government is so good with their abbreviated acronyms.

Flatulence Accounting Record Table

The new 1040 F.A.R.T. form, Flatulence Accounting Record Table, will I'm sure be based on a billion dollar study, that will derive a formula from weight and size of all animals and pets, which will result in another liberal tax increase to stop putting holes in the ozone and assist in the global warming fallacy. Will the tax help? No, because everyone and every animal is still going to pass gas!

Hey maybe Cape Codders will get a reduced rate with the wind farm blowing all the methane north!
Peter Robbins is a native Cape Codder of many generations, an avid photographer, licensed captain and family man. Now retired, Peter and his wife have a private investigative and consulting business, confronting and resolving difficult issues throughout the country and abroad. He can be reached by email here. His Robbins Report is a regular feature here.

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No floaters in Nantucket Sound, please

No floaters please…
Nantucket Sound isn't a hole to dump our bowel movements into

By Moses Calouro

It is wonderful to hear that plans are moving apace to declare additional portions of Massachusetts coastal waters as no (boat sewage) discharge areas. Recreational and commercial vessel operators have been allowed to legally dump raw and untreated sewage along the coasts for far too long. It is a disgusting practice that can cause health and environmental issues and is just plain gross.

Unfortunately, Nantucket Sound is missing from the list of planned No-Discharge areas.

According to Robert F. Kennedy , Jr "Nantucket Sound is among the most densely traveled boating corridors in the Atlantic ."  but the sound is still not protected by "No Discharge Area" (NDA} status.

How can this be? And why hasn’t, Mr. Kennedy, the founder of the National Resource Defence Council and the Baykeepers, chimed in?

One would think that Save our Sound (a baykeeper member) would be all over this issue.

Meanwhile, discussions are ongoing between state, and local agencies and  the two ferry companies Hy-Line  and Steamship Authority. What appears to have come out of the discussions is that the ferry lines would have to retrofit their vessels with holding tanks in order to work within a no discharge area.  The costs for retrofitting the fleets could run into the multi-million dollar range.

So in addition to the high fuel costs and SSA fuel overruns, the funds are not readily available to address this issue. Another issue is that local municipalities are concerned about the ability of their shore-side plants to accept and treat this additional sewage.

In short, what this means is that local residents can look forward to at least a few more seasons of raw and minimally treated sewage from millions of boaters and ferry passengers.

You know what they say about a boat? It's a hole in the water you throw money into.  I guess some folks still haven’t figured out that  Nantucket Sound isn’t a hole they should pump their sh*t into…

Moses Calouro, Bristol, RI 02809
Read Mr. Calouro's previous Op Eds on the same subject area;

• The ferries should upgrade their navigation equipment

• Buzzards Bay is protected from a major oil-barge spill but Nantucket Sound is not
  
• Cape Cod Boaters need to clean up their act
• Pollution + Dilution = Solution
• SSA General Manager refutes Moses Calouso
• The Sound as Sewer
  

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The ferries should upgrade their navigation equipment

Nantucket Sound ferries should update their bridge equipment.

More and more vessel operators are taking advantage of a new technology to avoid vessel-to-vessel collisions. Required on all large commercial vessels since 2004, Automatic Identification System (AIS) is the most significant development in navigation safety since RADAR.

Just like working towards doing the right thing by planning for pumping ashore rather than dumping raw and minimally treated sewage in Nantucket Sound, the ferry companies ought to do the right thing by installing up-to-date collision avoidance technology.This VHF-frequency-based technology is very similar to the transponders found on commercial and private airplanes. AIS transceivers are pre-programmed and installed aboard vessels. Vessels are able to automatically "talk to each other" and allows the operator to understand what other vessel in the area are doing. Radar has limitations in that it only shows a blip indicating a vessel target. (It is my understanding that ferries operating in Nantucket Sound do not have collision avoidance radars and therefore cannot determine how close another vessel may come to them.) AIS offers the vessel operator with details of all nearby vessels equipped with AIS. Some of the information provided includes the vessel name, CPA (how close the other vessel will come to you), contact details, course, speed, and current position.

Nantucket Sound is known for it's foggy conditions. Dense fog can envelop Nantucket Sound in an instant. AIS "sees" through fog and can keep vessels safe.

What amazes me is that Hy-Line and Steamship Authority have not opted to install this clearly effective and beneficial technology on their ferries. Both companies operate high-speed ferries that reach speeds of up to 37 knots.

In fog, these ferry captains are relying solely on RADAR to determine what vessels are where. RADAR doesn't always pick up small targets. RADAR's collision avoidance capabilities leave a lot to be desired.

AIS is a technology that clearly has a lot to offer. It is the responsibility of these vessel operators to assess and install the most current and up-to-date collision avoidance tools possible. The cost is minimal (less than $5,000 per vessel) and would provide very important information for navigating in shipping lanes and channels.

Just like working towards doing the right thing by planning for pumping ashore rather than dumping raw and minimally treated sewage in Nantucket Sound, the ferry companies ought to do the right thing by installing up-to-date collision avoidance technology. They own it to their passengers and crew as well as the boating community, and the public at large.

Moses Calouro, Bristol, RI 02809

Read Mr. Calouro's previous Op Eds on the same subject area;

• Buzzards Bay is protected from a major oil-barge spill but Nantucket Sound is not
  
• Cape Cod Boaters need to clean up their act
• Pollution + Dilution = Solution
• SSA General Manager refutes Moses Calouso
• The Sound as Sewer
  

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Evangeline meets the Pine Beetle

   Why do we go on thoughtlessly polluting our own nest?

   The affected forest (red-brown area) near 100 Mile House, Cariboo-Chilcotin BC.

The Adelgids are here ! Global warming bring some nasty critters north

By Richard Bartlett 

Remember in school you learned the opening lines of Longfellow's  "Evangeline"? "This is the forest primeval / The murmuring pines and  the hemlocks...". Well, now they really have something to murmur  about! The pine beetle has recently decimated huge sections of  Canada's boreal forests, turning lumbering communities into ghost  towns. Global warming has already begun changing botanical zones.  

Just a few degrees in this earliest part of the climate change  process have changed the habitat areas for many plants, trees, fish,  mammals, and insects. Case in point: the wooly adelgid that is now  destroying hemlocks.

These little buggers, making their way northward, are the size  of a pinhead. They wrap themselves in cottony balls on the undersides  of hemlock branches and suck the sap

These little buggers, making their way northward, are the size  of a pinhead. They wrap themselves in cottony balls on the undersides  of hemlock branches and suck the sap --- the tree's very life blood.  After 4 years the green tree is a brown cadaver. I've been fighting a  holding action on the hemlocks in my yard with dormant oil spray, but  I'm losing the battle. Entomologists can't be sleeping too well these  days. It's a sad day in Bugville.

When we think about climate change we usually don't think about  the vast number of differences that will be taking place all around  us. Gradual change is hard to notice until it is too late to respond.  Climatologists warn we have only a decade before we reach the tipping  point of irreversibility. So why are so many people so unconcerned? 

Why do we go on thoughtlessly polluting as individuals and as a  society? Have you joined the green movement or do you prefer the  brown status quo?

Richard C. Bartlett, Cotuit

For readers who want to read the Longfellow poem:
Evangeline
A Tale of Arcadie

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
from the 1893 Cambridge Edition (Originally published in 1847)

      This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
      Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,
      Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,
      Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.
      Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean
      Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.
      This is the forest primeval; but where are the hearts that beneath it
      Leaped like the roe, when he hears in the woodland the voice of the huntsman?
      Where is the thatch-roofed village, the home of Acadian farmers --
      Men whose lives glided on like rivers that water the woodlands,
      Darkened by shadows of earth, but reflecting an image of heaven?
      Waste are those pleasant farms, and the farmers forever departed!
      Scattered like dust and leaves, when the mighty blasts of October
      Seize them, and whirl them aloft, and sprinkle them far o'er the ocean.
      Naught but tradition remains of the beautiful village of Grand-Pré.
      Ye who believe in affection that hopes, and endures, and is patient,
      Ye who believe in the beauty and strength of woman's devotion,
      List to the mournful tradition still sung by the pines of the forest;
      List to a Tale of Love in Acadie, home of the happy. 
Read the rest.

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Wellfleet wrangle

Shaping Wellfleet’s future: There’s a lot of talk lately about trophy homes that may soon appear in highly visible places. The Wellfleet Community Forum will hold a program on planning, land protection and community character at Wellfleet Public Library at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 26.

The Forum panel is stacked
Wellfleetian Ben Zehnder prohibited

 By Lezli Rowell, Wellfleet

 

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Will The Sound get bigger?

 Turn out the lights and think about it by the glow of your wood stove

Most of us Cape and Islanders love where we live, and think our progeny ought to inherit this Edenic habitat as unspoiled as possible. So when environmental scientists tell us we must reduce carbon emissions 80% by 2050 or the seas will rise 20 feet we had better not be deaf to the alarm bell.

     Tufts professor William Moomaw, who is a member of the Nobel prizewinning U. N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has written that when an atmospheric level of 450 parts per million (ppm) is reached that catastrophic sea rise will become an irreversible  fact. We are at 383 ppm now, so we simply have to get to work on it pronto. It sounds like an impossible goal, but Prof. Moomaw figures a 3% reduction per year could do it.

     Electricity generation and transportation are the elephantine  targets to address. If we want to save our coastlines we had better  quit fussing about the wind farm. If we persist in driving gas  guzzlers we have to assume our share of guilt for climate change.

     The professor has a list of things we can do that aren't usually talked  about in terms of ocean rise. They are less drastic than wearing 3  sweaters (with the thermostat turned down) or wearing bikinis or less  in summer (with the air conditioner off). Some save us money, some  will help the foundering economy.

     Buy locally produced foods (cutting down on truckers' mileage), become a compulsive recycler, replace inefficient furnaces and  appliances, cut back on the miles we drive, go vegan or substitute  fish and chicken for beef (which is high in greenhouse gas  emissions), walk or bike on short trips, "tighten" up your house with  duopane windows and draft-free doors, be an electricity miser.  Become greener in every way you can think of.

    Now, please turn out the lights and think about it by the glow of your wood stove.

     Richard C. Bartlett
     Cotuit

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Cape Wind: A critical part of the solution

Cape Wind: A critical part of the solution

This past September, we were privileged to attend a conference at the United Nations called “Climate Change - How it Impacts Us All.”  The conference was attended by over 1,700 representatives from 66 countries and over 490 non-governmental organizations.  The Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, in his welcoming remarks declared, "Few issues match climate change in the threat they pose to all of humanity, or the joint efforts they demand from us."

We heard stories about how the actions of industrialized nations are affecting the most vulnerable citizens of the world – indigenous people fighting for their very survival.  Mikhail Todishev, a representative from the Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North, shared heartbreaking descriptions of what is happening in an eastern Siberian village.

Mikhail spoke about the steadily declining food supply for polar bears, a result of decreasing ice territory.  The consequences are alarming.  The infiltration of polar bears into local villages has increased tenfold since the artic ice on which they live and feed disappears.  As a result, parents in these villages bring their children to school carrying them on their shoulders with guns in their hands for protection against the hungry animals. 

When we emit pollution into the air on a massive scale, we lose the right to make decisions based solely on the impacts to our immediate environment.  Our actions affect people who not only live half way around the world, but who also do nothing to contribute to these harmful consequences. 

Air pollution does not respect geographic boundaries.  Our pollution on the Cape and islands comes from fossil fueled power plants as far as the Midwest and as near as Sandwich contaminating our land, waterways and estuaries. Carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels circulate worldwide, a major cause of global warming.

Time is short and the impacts of our energy use must be mitigated.  People of the Commonwealth know the dangers and the need for a solution. Polls show 84 percent of Massachusetts citizens and 61 percent of those residents on the Cape and islands support the Cape Wind project. 

As Ki-moon said, "We must ensure that we fulfill our promise of a better world for tomorrow's generations."  The Cape Wind Project is an essential part of the solution. 

Barbara J. Hill, Executive Director
Laura Wasserman, Director
Clean Power Now

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The fourth Federal or State agency comprehensive review of Cape Wind

The Big Lie still being peddled by the fossil fuel folks

The long-awaited Minerals Management Service (MMS) Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) on Cape Wind has been released. Unfortunately, project opponents have shamefully misrepresented its conclusions.

This is the fourth time that a Federal or State agency has compiled a comprehensive review of Cape Wind.  And like the previous three, the MMS DEIS verifies important public benefits of Cape Wind while finding negligible impacts from the array of arguments that the opposition group has thrown against this project for seven years.

Having abandoned many of their previous arguments, the opposition group has now focused their advertising and public relations campaign on the faulty claim that Cape Wind would greatly increase electricity prices.

Oil prices have quadrupled and natural gas prices have doubled since Cape Wind was proposed in 2001.  Where will these prices be over the next thirty years? The key point is that Cape Wind will be able to bring value by offering long-term stable electricity pricing, in contrast to fossil fueled generation sources, whose long-term prices must reflect the growing volatility of fossil fuels and the increasing environmental compliance costs.

The difference is that new wind farms will operate on a free, clean fuel, while new fossil plants will operate on costly fuels that will continue to get more expensive in the future as global demand, including that from China and India continues to grow.The construction cost for all types of new power plants have also risen due to increasing commodity prices of steel, copper and other building costs. The difference is that new wind farms will operate on a free, clean fuel, while new fossil plants will operate on costly fuels that will continue to get more expensive in the future as global demand, including that from China and India continues to grow.

Opponents resort to deliberate misrepresentation

When it comes to the DEIS,  the opponents have yet again resorted to deliberate misrepresentation, as the statements cited about the economics of Cape Wind are not, as they claim, “in the Federal Report”.  Instead, the referenced statements were confined to a “draft” MMS economic model used to compare the relative economics of alternative sites.   Indeed, the MMS author acknowledged, after peer review, that “rigorous analysis of the revenue streams was not conducted” and that the resulting statements were therefore excluded from the DEIS because they could be “misleading.”  

To no one’s surprise, however, the opponents have ignored all requests to stop relying upon draft statements that have been disavowed by their authorTo no one’s surprise, however, the opponents have ignored all requests to stop relying upon draft statements that have been disavowed by their author. In the interest of fairness, the opponents should be called to retract their misleading statements.

MMS found "south of Tuckernuck” inferior

And remember the “south of Tuckernuck” deeper water site the opposition group has been touting as superior to Cape Wind?  The MMS comparison found that site and the other alternative sites to be economically and environmentally inferior to Cape Wind.

As for the resulting impact to the public, The Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Board, in their 2005 decision to approve Cape Wind made the following conclusion on the cost of electricity to consumers, after 33 months of deliberation:  “The record shows that the wind farm will tend to reduce market clearing prices for electricity because it will … displace power plants with higher marginal costs. The savings resulting from this displacement would accrue to electric customers, and are estimated to be $25 million per year for New England customers”.  The Siting Board also noted the savings estimate was conservative because it had been calculated when oil and natural gas prices were lower.

We pay the healthcare costs of polluted air, we pay tax dollars for keeping energy supplies flowing from the Persian Gulf, and we are just beginning to pay for global warming in the forms of increasing coastal erosion and higher property insurance premiums.  While none of these costs are reflected in our electric bills, they are real costs and they will grow the longer we hold off from using sustainable energy sources, like wind, to provide for our energy needs.

Mark Rodgers,Communications Director, Cape Wind

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Are Texans smarter than Cape Codders?

One Texan invests $10 billion to build world's largest wind farm
Cape Codders twiddle their thumbs and argue about merits of Cape Wind

"I  have the same feelings about wind as I had about the best oil field I ever found"
   - T. Boone PickensApparently Texans are smarter than Cape Codders. Their state is  now the number one wind farm state in America. In just the month of January new wind farms ($700 million invested) began supplying  an  additional 100,000 homes with electricity.

T. Boone Pickens says, "I  have the same feelings about wind as I had about the best oil field I ever found", so putting words into action, he's investing $10  billion to build the world's largest wind farm! Talk about GREEN energy!

Nationally, U.S. wind capacity increased by 45% in 2007. America nudged Spain to become number two in wind, second only to Germany. 

Surely wind must be a sound investment, not prone to economic disaster as the Alliance to Protect the View would have us believe.

Energy giants from Spain, Portugal, and Germany own 2/3rds of the Texas wind projects currently being built. 

I'm grateful that a Boston/Yarmouth company, Cape Wind Associates, is to be the developer of our local participation in the renewable energy movement, rather than a  foreign developer."Thank you, Jim Gordon, for your persistence in following your dream" - Cotuit resident Richard C. BartlettThank you, Jim Gordon, for your persistence in following your dream . You have inspired 4 out of 5 Massachusetts citizens to endorse your vision. As Clean Power Now has been saying 
all along, "It's the vision, not the view."

Richard C. Bartlett, Cotuit

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1,701 pages of fresh air for Cape Cod

The report is impressively thorough.

By Richard C. Bartlett 

I wish to thank the Minerals Management Service for their Draft  Environmental Impact Statement. Although 6 years of delay in getting to this point has been exasperating to those of us who want all the benefits of clean renewable energy, reading the summary version and parts of the full text demonstrates the time was well spent. The report is impressively thorough.

The study researched offshore wind farms in Europe where over a  decade of use serves as an accurate predictor of results that can be expected on Horseshoe Shoals. Those real-life experiences put the lie to the parade of scary assertions made by opponents of Cape Wind. 

Millions of dollars have been spent and many unwholesome back-room  maneuvers went into an effort to stall or prevent a project that  would be good for the Cape and for the planet. Thank you, MMS, for  dealing in facts, and not being gulled by obstructionist mythology.

The DEIS is a breath of fresh air in a lengthy debate. Now we  can look forward to breathing fresher air in 2010.

Richard C. Bartlett, Cotuit
__________

Read Mr. Bartlett's other Op Eds below:

• Ice Water on the Cape
• Very clever, these Chinese
• Windmills for Salt, Corn, and Lightbulbs
• Three stories to melt your heart -- and the ice cap
• Advice to an aging Liberal Lion
• 10 degrees of difference - in the ocean
• An incredible confluence of news stories
• SOS or SOP
• The sky is falling, the sky is falling, windmills in the briny !
• Invisible Structures
• Bill Delahunt; modern mugwump

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