Iowa governor Chet Culver (D) is the Coalition’s chairperson, and Rhode Island’s governor Donald Carcieri (R) is the co-chair. Governor Culver would like to see a “national renewable energy standard of 25 percent by 2025, which he says could create more than 300,000 green jobs.” The governors just released “Great Expectations: U.S. Wind Energy Development, the Governors’ Wind Energy Coalition’s 2010 Recommendations.” According to the same article the recommendations urge Congress to:

Adopt a Renewable Electricity Standard.

Extend the Treasury Department Grant Program in Lieu of the Investment Tax Credit, and adopt a long-term renewable energy production tax credit with provisions to broaden the pool of eligible investors.
The article has a lot of information in it. The governor’s involved have experience from their own state’s success with alternative energy. The best thing if this is enacted is that “actual transmission investment should flow from successful renewable power projects that can offer to purchasers the lowest delivered price of power for their product.” Yessss.

This push by governors is a thumb’s up for energy reform. After reading this it doesn’t appear the commercials on TV about energy reform raising taxes on the middle class hold water. Especially when the governor’s cited, “42 percent of all new power plants installed in the nation in 2008 are powered by wind.” So almost half of U.S. power plants are already independent of fossil fuel.

The governors also addressed the cost of a national renewable energy system for interstate transmission “estimated to [to be] on the order of $75 to $100 billion to support economic power transfers and meet the 20 percent of renewable energy standard.” The governors’ report stated, “This investment can be obtained from the private sector, since current investments in transmission throughout the nation are now in the range of $5 billion to $10 billion a year from private sources.” Hmmm?

Read it:http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2010/2010-03-16-02.html.

http://www.governorswindenergycoalition.org/.

Enjoy this translated 1855 letter to President Pierce by the Indian Chief Seattle again. It’s a premonition of American that’s on target.

We know that the white man does not understand our ways. One portion of the land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs. The earth is not his brother, but his enemy, and when he has conquered it, he moves on. He leaves his fathers’ graves, and his children’s birthright is forgotten. The sight of your cities pains the eyes of the red man. But perhaps it is because the red man is a savage and does not understand.

There is no quiet place in the white man’s cities. No place to hear the leaves of spring or the rustle of insects wings. But perhaps because I am a savage and do not understand, the clatter only seems to insult the ears. The Indian prefers the soft sound of the wind darting over the face of the pond, the smell of the wind itself cleansed by a mid-day rain, or scented with the pinon pine. The air is precious to the red man. For all things share the same breath the beasts, the trees, the man. Like a man dying for many days, he is numb to the stench.

What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, men would die from great loneliness of spirit, for whatever happens to the beasts also happens to man. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth.

It matters little where we pass the rest of our days; they are not many. A few more hours, a few more winters, and none of the children of the great tribes that once lived on this earth, or that roamed in small bands in the woods, will be left to mourn the graves of a people once as powerful and hopeful as yours.

The whites, too, shall pass perhaps sooner than other tribes. Continue to contaminate your bed, and you will one night suffocate in our own waste. When the buffalo are all slaughtered, the wild horses all tamed, the secret corners of the forest heavy with the scent of many men, and the view of the ripe hills blotted by talking wires, where is the thicket? Gone. Where is the eagle? Gone. And what is it to say goodbye to the swift and the hunt, the end of living and the beginning of survival? We might understand if we knew what was that the white man dreams, what he describes to his children on the long winter nights, what visions he burns into their minds, so they will wish for tomorrow. But we are savages. The white man’s dreams are hidden from us.

We need documentaries for the gorillas, tigers, elephants, horses, wolves…if that’s what it takes to protect the wildlife in our world. The makers of “The Cove” literally ran a covert operation complete with camouflage in order to make the documentary because they were under constant threat. Kudos to the filmmakers for their courage!

This morning the NYT ran an article that says Taiji is on the defense and it doesn’t state that the town plans to quit the dolphin hunts bantering about local foods and tradition, which is a non-argument in this case. Feeding the public dolphin tainted with large amounts of mercury should be restricted anyway.

Read it: http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2010/2010-03-08-01.html.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/with-the-cove-victorious-at-oscars-japanese-village-defends-itself/.

Keep the pressure on. Watch the trailer.

The team of “28 luminaries from environmental and earth-systems science” was hosted by Johan Rockstrom, director of the Stockholm Environment Institute in Sweden, and included Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen, NASA climate scientist James Hansen, Gaia researcher and ‘tipping point’ specialist Tim Lenton, and the German chancellor’s chief climate adviser Hans Joachim Schellnhuber.”

The nine areas of concern are:

Acid oceans
Ozone Depletion
Fresh water
Biodiversity
Nitrogen and Phosphorus Cycles
Land use
Climate change
Aerosol loading
Chemical pollution

It was an interesting assessment and a lot of info for every concern. The article stated that Rockstrom stresses “the boundaries are ‘rough, first estimates only, surrounded by large uncertainties and knowledge gaps’. They also interact with one another in complex and poorly understood ways. But he says the concept of boundaries is an advance on the usual approach taken by environmentalists, who simply aim to minimise all human impacts on the planet. Instead, he says, boundaries give us some breathing space. They define a “safe space for human development”.

Take time to read how almost 7 billion people are affecting the earth and goals we need to accomplish in order for us to sustain ourselves alongside all other living things.

http://www.newscientist.com/special/ocean-to-ozone-earths-nine-life-support-systems.

And taxpayers are paying for it. Per a HSUS, (Humane Society of the U.S.) article, “We have got to get off the current treadmill of spending millions of tax dollars rounding up wild horses and caring for them in captivity, and instead make wider use of fertility control as a humane population management tool.” Caring for them is a big understatement.

http://www.humanesociety.org/news/press_releases/2009/07/hsus
_applauds_house_vote_to_save_wild_horses_071709.html.

http://www.change.org/actions/view/a_unified_call_for_an_immediate
_moratorium_on_wild_horse_burro_roundups.

http://wildhorsewarriors.blogspot.com/2010/02/public-lands-cows-vs-rats.html.

The Bush/Cheney Administration in the interest of corporate America undid the 1971 Act that calls for humane practices toward our wild horse populations. So the BLM chases them to exhaustion by helicopters, corrals them in overcrowded conditions with little food and water, then loads them in rail cars meant for cattle and sends them to slaughter. The horses are unbalanced in the cattle cars, fall over and are injured.

Read the original 1971 law that protected these horses:

It is the policy of Congress that wild free-roaming horses and burros shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death; and to accomplish this they are to be considered in the area where presently found, as an integral part of the natural system of the public lands

Further on in the Act, the BLM is allowed to determine whether or not there are excess animals threatening the ecology. By excess it’s meant “wild free-roaming horses or burros (1) which have been removed from an area by the Secretary pursuant to application law or, (2) which must be removed from an area in order to preserve and maintain a thriving natural ecological balance and multiple-use relationship in that area.”

It doesn’t take an Einstein to see the travesty here.

When the BLM decides there are excess horses, the BLM is allowed to remove those animals in following order and priority, “The Secretary shall order old, sick, or lame animals to be destroyed in the most humane manner possible.”

This loophole is being overworked. According the Animal Welfare Institute, “92.3 percent of horses arriving at slaughter plants in this country in recent years were deemed to be in “good” condition, according to the US Department of Agriculture’s Guidelines for Handling and Transporting Equines to Slaughter. The horse slaughter industry makes a greater profit off of healthy horses and therefore purposely seeks out such animals.

Another argument, much like that used for the slaughter of the Yellowstone wolves is states rights vs. federal. But, “Horse Slaughter is a Federally Regulated Industry.”

http://www.awionline.org
/ht/d/sp/i/12919/pid/12919.

The HSUS article also stated, “Last summer, in response to self-inflicted financial problems and mismanagement, the BLM announced that it would consider killing 30,000 healthy wild horses and burros in federal holding centers across the United States rather than implementing common sense, cost-saving management methods.”

Fortunately for our horses members of Congress evidently see the skewed logic and injustice by the BLM because HR 1018, ROAM, (Restore Our American Mustangs), has already passed the House. In addition to prioritizing on-the-range management over roundups, H.R. 1018 prevents the commercial sale and slaughter of wild horses, as well as the wholesale killing of healthy wild horses. And the ROAM Senate Bill S1579 is currently making its way through the Senate. It reinforces the protection of America’s wild horses/burros as was intended by the first Act in 1971.

But every 5 minutes a U.S. horse is slaughtered for consumption while S1579 moves to become law, and more healthy, beautiful wild horses are rounded up by an exhausting run with helicopters, corralled and neglected.
http://www.awionline.org/ht/d/sp/i/11222/pid/11222.

Call or email your senators to pass S1579 quickly. We’re fighting for another American icon that represents the spirit of America.

Watch the following video of a horse that looks much like the black stallion “Freedom,” who was captured during one of the Calico roundups and managed to jump a 6 ft. fence in a small area, then bust through a barbed wire fence. That’s the “spirit of freedom.” Freedom reminds be of the black Alpha Female wolf #527, that was shot in Yellowstone. Both animals were leery of humans.

I’m leery of humans too anymore, especially those that represent corporate America taking over our public land and causing American icons like the wolf, the mustang, and the bear to disappear. Humans like this remind me of the corporate machine in the movie Avatar that embraces the idea to overcome with little empathy and no remorse. It’s not a pretty picture, and it’s getting worse. Our civilized society is anything but.

Chief Seattle must have been a very wise man because his words from a hundred years ago still pertain to what is happening to America’s wildlife right now, “…What happens to the beasts, happens to the man.” The U.S. has corralled people against their will more than once its history.

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Just thought I’d pass this info along. You can recycle phones, MP3’s, laptops, cameras, etc. They shouldn’t go in a landfill. There is an online appraisal so you know what you’re getting for your recyclables. I just bought my husband a new cell phone and will try this out; I know I have an obsolete camera lying around…

Link for the Crutchfield recycle page:http://crutchfield.cexchange.com/online/home/index.rails

Studies of Ford Marsh for pollution or contamination turned up nothing and nature’s evidence speaks for itself. The place is a haven for birds and heaven for birdwatchers. The marsh will be a draw for people in Monroe and a good display of wildlife for children. Children are the future defenders of wildlife and habitat. It’s good exposure, and the marsh is a great addition to the Int’l refuge that begins at Detroit’s Rouge River and extends to just north of Toledo, Ohio running along Lake Erie’s shoreline. The refuge began in 2001 and by 2006 had doubled in size. It’s grown from 304 acres to 5,047 by 2007. The addition of Ford Marsh put the refuge closer to the half way mark of 12,000 acres, which is the USFWS goal.

Read more about Ford Marsh and the Detroit River Int’l Wildlife Refuge:

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20100214/SUB01/302149971#.

http://www.epa.gov/med/grosseile_site/indicators/refuge.html.

The blog went on to say that Warner Bros. carbon audit results showed that 21,000 plastic bottles were eliminated, and 67 metric tons of CO2 emissions.

Warner Bros. is hoping to lead the way toward a “green filmmaking trend.”

Read it: http://www.care2.com/causes/environment/blog/hollywood-valentine/#comment-451115.

The “back door” tactics should be assigned to Murkowski. She openly stated her concerns for her state being ravaged by climate change in a speech in 2006, but by the end of 2009, Murkowski’s standards changed dramatically. An article titled: “Lisa Murkowski proposes to fiddle while Alaska burns” puts it nicely. http://climateprogress.org/2009/09/21/lisa-murkowski-fiddle-while-alaksa-burns-epa-regulation/.

Ignoring Alaskan fires are just the tip of the iceberg so to speak. Last week ended with 12-20 ft. waves around Ventura, CA, while mudslides wiped out homes in an area still expecting 3″ of rain along with coastal funnels, 14 tornadoes ripped through Texas in the dead of winter, ice storms ran throughout the Midwest snapping power lines, and the south was expecting heavy storms with possible tornadoes. And I blogged that the earthquake that crushed Haiti was a big one, part of a series of activity that went up and down our California coastline. Yeah it’s a real good time to waylay the EPA from acting to regulate emissions that may be exacerbating our climate problems.

Murkowski fails to connect the dots. But why? My guess is that the coal industry can buy more time for permits and be exempt from future regulations once permitted because another Republican senator changed the language in the Senate Climate Change Bill that would allow these exemptions. Covering the coal industry is key here although Murkowski likes to upset the little guy arguing that EPA regulations will hurt small industry, farms, and such in bad economic times. Gaining momentum depends on getting the little guy on her side. The big guys are already there.

More than just there, two lobbyists for the coal industry wrote Murkowski’s amendment. Murkowski admitted to it. http://www.greendaily.com/2010/01/18/murkowski-partnered-with-big-coal-and-oil-lobbyists-to-attack-th/ .

Lovely. The media hardly mentions Murkowski’s attempt to usurp the judicial branch’s directive, and consequently deny the power of the Clean Air Act, let alone let us know that the coal industry wrote this legislation. This comes on the heels of our Supreme Court’s ruling that corporations can openly support or oppose candidates running in our legislature.

Heck between writing legislation and buying the candidate, I’d say the wealthy (corporate America) have indeed taken over.

More:

http://www.themudflats.net/2010/01/20/tell-murkowski-to-give-back-the-money/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheMudflats+%28The+Mudflats%29.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/23/us/23memo.html.

http://www.oliverwillis.com/2010/01/21/blanche-lincoln-mary-landrieu-join-republican-effort-to-make-the-environment-worse/.

The Bush EPA http://www.blogsmonroe.com/world/2008/07/another-epa-administrator-bites-the-dust/.