Paper Companies Add Diesel To Process To Get 8-Billion Dollars in Subsidies

The Nation Reports:

Thanks to an obscure tax provision, the United States government stands to pay out as much as $8 billion this year to the ten largest paper companies. And get this: even though the money comes from a transportation bill whose manifest intent was to reduce dependence on fossil fuel, paper mills are adding diesel fuel to a process that requires none in order to qualify for the tax credit. In other words, we are paying the industry--handsomely--to use more fossil fuel. "Which is," as a Goldman Sachs report archly noted, the "opposite of what lawmakers likely had in mind when the tax credit was established."

If we are subsidising the paper companies, could we also tell them to reduce the cost of paper to newspapers to help keep them going as part of the fourth branch of government?

The bigger question is why in the world are we letting paper companies put diesel in their process when we are finally getting rid of the chlorine process?

Photo from blog.tourismthailand.org

Monday Could Be Last Chance To Comment On Housing Element

From Humboldt Herald:
Monday, April 6 is your last chance to submit written comments on the Housing Element of the General Plan Update.
The Planning Commission’s final decision — including whether to allow the hot button issue of Inclusionary Zoning — may be decided at its April 16 meeting.

Great Weather For A Garden Party

Last Sunday was beautiful but windy. April 5th was outstanding weather for the Trinidad North Coast Garden Event. Heck, it was nice enough to do just about anything if it involved the outdoors.

Why not end it with a bite to eat at the Eatery.

Problems with our food supply or just Pissed Off Stachios?

A nation wide recall of pistachios from California. No one has been sickened as of yet according to ABC News, but the recall is due to Salmonella contamination that turned up in tests by Kraft Foods. See N.Y Times article. They are telling us not to eat pistachios but not to throw them away either. Pistachios have a long shelf life and they hope to be able to identify the contaminated batches.

Our federal government has a plan, H.R. 875, but watch this short video from Free Speech T.V.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epXNJNjYBvw

The FSTV reporter says the bill contains regulations that criminalize all aspects of organic farming by listing them as sources of seed contamination. Penalties are up to 500-thousand dollars.

Also watch this farmer's rant.

I failed to mention Senate bill 425.

Also see this short video about the possible outlawing of local organic gardening.

It doesn't sound like a good plan and we have less than two weeks to stop it. With stories like these grabbing the headlines, people might be willing to forgo their freedoms for safety.

Oops, we got a little Alex Jonoes

Had a problem with Newsweek tonight. Put in some Alex Jones on KGOE at about 6:15pm.

No one probably heard it due to the 10 minutes of Dial Global technical phone number loop. It's enough to drive anyone crazy. Sorry about that. Hope you caught a bit of Alex.

Rescue at Camel Rock

Other than a lot of wind, it was a beautiful day in Trinidad this Sunday. I took drive down Scenic Drive at about 11 am and saw a lot of rescue vehicles near Camel Rock. The Coast Guard had landed one of their helicopters on the beach.

I was unable to speak to the rescuers at the time. I called CDF and dispatch said an injured surfer was airlifted to St. Joseph Hospital. The injuries didn't appear to be life threatening. They said someone had a dislocated or injured hip. The steep cliffs at the beach made carrying the injured surfer up to the road an undesirable option, so they got an exciting helicopter ride.

That's all the info I have now.

Partly Cloudy?

So much for our weekend forecast on kgoe. We were under the impression that by broadcasting information from the National Weather Service web site that we would give a fairly accurate accounting of what you or I might run into over the weekend, as far as weather was concerned.

To be fair, the NWS forecast was for partly cloudy skies for the next 4 days. In fact the skies are partly cloudy. The other part contains measurable rain. As of this posting 11:00pm ish, we have just under a quarter of an inch of rain since about 7:30 near Trinidad.

It was a great day though and after some weed whacking, I spent a couple of hours trying to get the gas powered push mower to work. It had jelly in the float bowl. The tank was empty from winter neglect and I know better, the lawn tractor was fine and the weed wacker worked and the two generators were in perfect working order but I had over looked the push mower. Used about 2 thirds of a can of carb cleaner and still no luck. I took it apart and cleaned it some more, almost got it to run. It sputtered pretty good before dieing over and over again. Oh well there's always tomorrow when it is supposed to be partly cloudy.

No matter. I have a pork shoulder in the bottom of the fridge in a salt and sugar brine ready for smoking in the morning, rain or shine. It was less than a buck a pound at Winco.

A trimmed yard is nice, but I have my priorities.

If I can get the lawnmower to start, I'll be smoking while cutting the grass at the same time. Life in Humboldt County, it's not heaven, but sometimes you can smell it from here.