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Sunday, April 30, 2006
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Internet Neutrality
ZDNet: "Yet the fight goes on, and the momentum seems to be on the side of network neutrality. A full House committee vote on network neutrality language was much closer than the sub-committee vote had been. With cable outfits fighting the underlying bill, there is every chance it will fail of passage, either in the House or the Senate. What is most remarkable to me is that most of the energy on this fight has come from the political left. Some conservative bloggers, like Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit, are on board with network neutrality, but the ground troops all seem to be liberals here. Not Democrats, liberals. The Democratic Party has taken no position on this issue, so far as I know. Instead sites like DailyKos, Eschaton, MyDD (one example here) and (most interesting) Moveon.org have been loudest and longest on this, and their readers have responded by peppering relevant Congressional offices."
Wired: "Intel has waded into the debate over the future of the internet, joining major web companies in supporting legislation that would force internet service providers to treat all traffic equally. AT&T and Verizon Communications, the country's largest internet carriers, have said they would like to explore ways of prioritizing some traffic to ensure delivery, and perhaps charge content providers for such a service. Web companies like Google, eBay and Amazon.com as well as consumer groups have opposed the idea, saying equal treatment of traffic is one of the reasons the internet has been such a success. Intel CEO Paul Otellini signed a letter, dated Tuesday, to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation that supported legislation to 'ensure the internet remains open and neutral.' The other co-signers were the CEOs of Google, eBay, Amazon, Microsoft, Yahoo and IAC/InterActiveCorp."
Category: 2008 Presidential Election
6:45:08 PM 
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Checks and balances
NewMexiKen: "All three branches are equal, but some branches are more equal than others. The Boston Globe has a lengthy report on the President's claiming of 'the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution.'"
Category: 2008 Presidential Election
10:25:31 AM
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Romney for president?
Oval Office 2008: "Here's a nice piece in the American Spectator about Massachusetts Republican Governor Mitt Romney. It's decidedly pro-Romney in tone; it's also well written and contains some interesting background detail on the Governor, so I recommend it for those reasons alone."
Category: 2008 Presidential Election
10:06:13 AM
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Evangelical Greens
Here's an article from the Denver Post dealing with Evangelical Greens. They write, "After decades of abortion and gay issues, some evangelical Christian organizations are adopting 'green causes,' citing scriptures that demand caring for God's creation. Their leaders represent a new generation of Christian conservatives who could revolutionize the American political and cultural landscape...
"The issue of global warming brought the split among evangelicals to a head when 86 conservative religious leaders earlier this year signed a bold statement titled 'Climate Change: An Evangelical Call to Action.' The statement calls for federal legislation to reduce carbon dioxide emissions through market-based mechanisms. Such pollution trading was supported by the first Bush administration and is incorporated in the federal Clean Air Act, but the current White House has opposed mandatory curbs on carbon dioxide emissions from gasoline-powered automobiles or fossil fuel-dependent utilities and industries...
"Scientist and conservative theologian Calvin DeWitt, who founded the National Academy of Evangelical Scientists, agrees. He has devoted much of his career to raising scientific standards at the nation's Christian colleges. He predicts most evangelicals will soon champion stronger environmental protections. 'There is a conflict in trying to follow God's command to protect life while neglecting pollution issues,' he says...
"A national poll of 1,000 Americans who identify themselves as evangelical or born again indicates strong support for environmental protections. Three out of four of those surveyed support policies to reduce global warming or prevent destruction of wilderness. The main reasons they give are God's command to care for creation and wanting to make the Earth a better place for their children and grandchildren. The poll, commissioned by the Evangelical Environmental Network, was conducted last September by Ellison Research of Phoenix."
Category: 2008 Presidential Election
9:44:39 AM
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Gunnison and Uncompahgre outlook
Montrose Daily Press: "The phrase is simple. 'First in time, first in right.' Yet the phrase, which is used to describe one of the basic tenets of how water is allocated under Colorado law, belies the difficulty of divvying up one of the region's most precious resources. Water rights in Colorado and the rest of the intermountain West are allocated according to the doctrine of prior appropriation. The doctrine controls who uses how much water, the types of use and when those waters can be used. Simply put, under the prior appropriation doctrine, the first person to appropriate water from a stream, put it to use, and have that right approved or adjudicated by the local water court, has priority over any of the other water rights that follow at a later date. In times of shortage, if a water user is not receiving the allotment called for by his water right, he can file a 'call' with the state water engineer. If approved by the state engineer, the call prohibits junior water users upstream from diverting water, so the senior water right can be filled...
"While agriculture uses the lion's share of the area's water, towns and cities in the Uncompahgre Valley have benefitted from a stable host of water rights, most of which are held under the Dallas Creek Reclamation Project, which is managed by the Tri-County Water Conservancy District. The project, which includes the water storage of 84,410 acre feet (af) in Ridgway Dam, has 28,000 af available for municipal and industrial use, which is treated by the Project 7 Water Authority before it's delivered to domestic supply systems. Montrose is under contract for 10,000 af per year from the Dallas Project. Add that to the shares the city owns in the Cimarron Canal and Reservoir Company and the city has legal access to 13,000 af, though Attorney John Kappa, counsel to the city of Montrose, said the city consumed only 3,000 af last year. That cushion means securing more water rights is not a worry for the city...
"In 2001, the federal government filed to quantify its right to instream flows on the Gunnison River as it goes through the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. The government requested a flow rate that varies based upon the hydrologic conditions and the time of year. At times, the peak flows for the park would be increased to represent conditions on the river before dams existed to regulate the flow. According to the Park Service's application for the right, the higher peak flows would control riparian vegetation, keep sediment from settling in the river bed, and improve fish habitat. In 2003, the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees the Park Service, signed an agreement with the state that would have reduced the flows requested in the original application. That settlement was appealed in federal court by a coalition of five environmental groups and the effort to quantify the right in state court has been stayed pending the outcome of the federal appeal. UVWA's Catlin worries that the attempt to replicate spring flood flows through the canyon could harm the diversion structure used to draw water into the Gunnison Tunnel. He also said large peak flows could have a negative impact on Blue Mesa Reservoir."
Category: Colorado Water
9:20:51 AM
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The Emerging Water Wars
Here's a rundown of some of the world's water problems from Sam Vaknin and the OpEdNews.com. He paints a bleak picture. His lack of optimism is driven by the need for much of the world to sit down and cooperate to head off additional crises over the next few decades.
From the article, "Drought often conspires with man-made disasters. Macedonia experienced its second worst dry spell during the civil strife of last year. Benighted Afghanistan is having one now - replete with locusts. Rapid, unsustainable urbanization, desertification, exploding populations, and economic growth, especially of water-intensive industries, such as microprocessor fabs - all contribute to the worst water crisis the world has ever known. Governments reacted late, hesitantly, and haltingly. Water conservation, desalination, water rights exchanges, water pacts, private-public partnerships, and privatization of utilities (e.g., in Argentina and the UK) - may have been implemented too little, too late. Rising incomes lead to the exertion of political pressure on the authorities by civic movements and NGO's to improve water quality and availability. But can the authorities help? According to the World Bank, close to $600 billion will be needed by 2010 just to augment existing reserves and to improve water grade levels.
"The UNDP believes that half the population in Africa will be subject to wrenching water shortages in 25 years. The environmental research institute, Worldwatch, quoted by the BBC, recommends food imports as a way to economize on water. It takes 1000 tons of water to produce 1 ton of grain and agriculture consumes almost 70 percent of the world's water - though only less than 30 percent in OECD countries. It takes more than the entire throughput of the Nile to grow the grain imported annually by Middle Eastern and North African countries alone. Some precipitation-poor countries even grow cotton and rice, both insatiable crops. By 2020, says the World Water Council, we will be short 17 percent of the water that would be needed to feed the population. The USA withdraws one fifth of its total resources annually - proportionately, one half of Belgium's drawdown. But according to the OECD, Americans are the most profligate consumers of fresh water, more than double the OECD's average in the 1990's. Britain and Denmark have actually reduced their utilization by 20 percent between 1980 and 1996 - probably due to sharp and ominous drops in their water tables. Stratfor, a strategic forecasting firm, reported on May 14, 2002 that Mexico and the USA are in the throes of a conflict over Mexico's 'failure to live up to its water supply commitments under a 1944 treaty', which allocates water from the Colorado, Rio Concho, and Rio Grande among the two signatories. Mexico seems to have accumulated a daunting debt of 1.5 million acre-feet between 1994-2002 - the result of a decade long drought. Each acre-foot is c. 1.2 million liters. Mexico's reservoirs are less than 25 percent full. Some of the water, though, has been used to transform its borderland into a major producer of fresh vegetables for the American market - at the expense of Texas farmers. Faced with the worst drought in more than a century in some states, the Bush administration has announced on May 3, 2002 that it is considering sanctions, including, perhaps the suspension of water supplies from the Colorado to Mexico. Texas lawmakers demanded to re-open NAFTA and amend it punitively."
Read the whole article. It'll help you forget about our relatively small problems here in Colorado.
Category: Colorado Water
9:03:35 AM
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© Copyright 2009 John Orr.
Last update: 3/14/09; 8:10:49 PM.
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