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Sunday, January 6, 2008
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Andrew Sullivan: "Green Anglicanism: Rowan Williams makes a moral case against waste."
"2008 pres"
6:25:13 PM 
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PoliticalWire: "Here's a quick snapshot of the latest New Hampshire primary polls: CNN/WMUR: Obama +10, McCain +6; USA Today/Gallup: Obama +13, McCain +4; Strategic Vision: Obama +9, McCain +8; Rasmussen: Obama +12, McCain +2; NEWS/Suffolk: Obama +2, Romney +3; McClatchy/MSNBC: Obama +2, McCain +8; Reuters/Zogby: Obama +1, Romney +1; Concord Monitor/Research 2000: Obama +1, McCain +6; American Research Group: Obama +12, McCain +14."
Political Wire: "Political Wire got an advance look at a new Strategic Vision poll in New Hampshire that shows Sen. Barack Obama leading with 38%, followed by Sen. Hillary Clinton at 29% and John Edwards at 19%. On the Republican side, Sen. John McCain leads with 35%, followed by Mitt Romney at 27%, Mike Huckabee at 13%, Rudy Giuliani at 7% and Rep. Ron Paul at 7%."
Political Wire: "The latest Rasmussen Reports survey in New Hampshire shows Sen. Barack Obama leading with 39% of the vote, followed by Sen. Hillary Clinton at 27% and John Edwards at 18%. Among Republicans, the poll shows Sen. John McCain edging Mitt Romney, 32% to 30%, with Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul each earning 11% and Rudy Giuliani behind at 9%."
Political Wire: "The latest 7NEWS/Suffolk tracking poll from New Hampshire shows statistical ties in both the Democratic and Republican presidential races. Among likely Democratic voters, Sen. Hillary Clinton edges Sen. Barack Obama, 35% to 33%, with John Edwards at 14%. Among likely GOP voters, Mitt Romney edges Sen. John McCain, 30% to 27%, followed by Rudy Giuliani at 10%, Rep. Ron Paul at 9% and Mike Huckabee now back in fifth place at 7%."
"2008 pres"
6:13:05 PM
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Juan Cole: "Radio Sawa reports in Arabic that Iraqi members of parliament dismiss the pledge of US presidential candidate Barack Obama to end the Iraq War and withdraw US troops from the country. They say it is just campaign talk and that if Obama were elected he would swiftly become more realistic."
"2008 pres"
8:55:57 AM
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Out in Left Field: "In February 2004, 62 leading scientists - including many Nobel laureates and former presidential science advisors dating back fifty years - issued a statement to bring attention to the Bush administration's manipulation, suppression, and distortion of science. In the years since, more than 12,000 scientists from all fifty states have endorsed the statement. A complimentary citizens' call-to-action, which echoes the scientists' concerns, has earned support from tens of thousands of non-scientists.
"The misuse of science won't end unless the next administration understands the importance of independent science to informed decisions about our health, safety, and environment. That's why Union of Concerned Scientists is kicking off 2008 by shifting the focus from the misdeeds of this administration to the responsibilities of the next one."
"2008 pres"
8:36:58 AM
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Political Wire: "The new McClatchy/MSNBC poll in New Hampshire finds Sen. Barack Obama now leads Sen. Hillary Clinton by two points, 33% to 31%, 'thanks to an apparent surge of support the night after he won the Iowa caucuses. Given the poll's margin of error, the numbers amount to a statistical tie. But that still marks a gain for Obama, who has trailed Clinton in New Hampshire for months.' On the Republican side, Sen. John McCain leads the field with 32%, followed by Mitt Romney at 24% and Mike Huckabee at 12%, who apparently received no bounce from his Iowa win."
Political Wire: "If you missed last night's back-to-back presidential debates in New Hampshire, WMUR-TV provides video highlights."
Political Wire: "The latest Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby tracking poll shows Sen. Hillary Clinton edging Sen. Barack Obama, 31% to 30%, with John Edwards at 20%. With a 3.4% margin of error, the race is a statisitical tie. In the Republican race, Mitt Romney edges Sen. John McCain by one point, 32% to 31%, also well within the margin of error."
Captain's Quarters: "Mitt Romney won his first state race in the 2008 primaries, but even most political junkies didn't notice. Wyoming moved up its caucuses to the day after Iowa in order to gain some national attention, but instead lost half its delegates and remained mostly stuck in obscurity."
TalkLeft: "I can reach only one conclusion - John Edwards is no longer running for President. He is merely a stalking horse for Barack Obama."
The Moderate Voice: "It was former Senator John Edwards and Democratic Senator Barack Obama tag teaming against Senator Hillary Clinton. Edwards had Obama's back -- while Clinton spent much of the debate shoving verbal daggers into it."
Josh Marshall: "First, a few months ago, I said that I didn't get what Barack Obama thought he was doing in one of the debates, that he was doing a very good job debating as the frontrunner, when in fact he was falling further and further behind Hillary Clinton. It showed tonight. There are a lot of differences between now and then. And I thought he had a good night. But tonight was an example where his style worked much better when he's on top. He parried Clinton pretty well. And I don't think she really laid a glove on him."
"2008 pres"
8:32:06 AM
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Black Mountain has a plan to clean up the groundwater that one of their holding ponds has polluted, according to The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. From the article:
Trees and wells will be at the root of the Black Mountain Disposal cleanup. According to the latest plan submitted by the Black Mountain operators to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, trees will be planted on the north side of Black Mountain's property to absorb contaminated water. Operators also will install two extraction wells that "will begin to draw the plume back into the central portion of the facility for remediation," according to an Oct. 29 letter to the health department.
Black Mountain Disposal, a wastewater facility south of De Beque, uses a series of holding ponds to evaporate water used in the extraction of natural gas. The residue is discarded. In 2001, one of the holding ponds leaked. The Department of Public Health and Environment has since requested that Black Mountain's operators indicate what and how much spilled and how it will be cleaned. Black Mountain has yet to say exactly what spilled -- although elevated levels of benzene, a common ingredient in crude-based products, have been discovered in test wells. Donna Stoner, of the Department of Public Health and Environment office in Grand Junction, responded last week to Black Mountain's proposed groundwater remediation plan. "What they have proposed actually is a very good start," she said. "They chose the right location in my mind to put the extraction wells." Using trees to pull up contaminated water that might be migrating off site is not uncommon, she said. The contamination on the downhill edge of Black Mountain is low, Stoner said. In her five-page reply to Black Mountain's proposed groundwater remediation plan, she writes: "The Division approves this plan."
"2008 pres"
7:58:59 AM
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Richard Blubaugh, vice president of Environmental Health and Safety Resources at Powertech, has penned this opinion piece, defending the permitting process for his company's proposed uranium mine in Weld County, in today's Greeley Tribune "reg". He writes:
For Powertech, the key issue is the permitting process -- one that is fair and objective. Powertech currently is in the phase of permitting where it is required to generate exhaustive scientific data and information for federal, state and local analysis. This is not a pro forma review. It is a very thorough analysis, conducted by highly competent regulators with the appropriate credentials and experience. The burden of proof is on Powertech to satisfy the regulators. In turn, Powertech expects that those who are opposed to the project will participate in the science-based review process, rather than prematurely judge the project and misstate facts, as is the current case.
It is important to note that groundwater issues concerning the Laramie-Fox Hills aquifer will receive particular attention during the reviews. The evaluation of the aquifer will rely on historic and present-day data, collected and interpreted by a team of independent, professional hydrologists. The common misperception is that an aquifer is an underground lake or river that flows freely throughout the entire Denver Basin. In fact, the Greeley Arch is a significant geologic structure that prevents any hydrologic connection from the Laramie-Fox Hills aquifer in Weld County to aquifers in the counties to the south. At the Centennial Project, the uranium ore is confined above and below by layers of impermeable strata (mudstone/siltstone), through which solution cannot travel during in-situ recovery. Further, advanced and highly regulated well-field engineering during mining prevents any "horizontal movement" of solution. These are the facts.
Another oft-stated misunderstanding is the assertion of potential environmental damage caused by ISR. No U.S. ISR operation has ever allowed mining solutions outside the permitted mining area nor contaminated drinking water supplies. In-situ recovery technology has been used safely in various projects in the United States, including Christensen Ranch, Crow Butte and Rosita, for more than 30 years. In-situ recovery was also used in the Weld projects near Keota and Grover without any environmental problems. Both sites were successfully remediated to the state's satisfaction. In keeping with the objective of basing regulatory guidelines on the highest-quality scientific data, the National Mining Association has recently issued an Environmental Report on uranium ISR, a collection of data prepared by a highly respected Colorado-based Tetra Tech Inc. This report will be used by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to prepare a Generic Environmental Impact Statement on uranium ISR, which will aid the environmental review of each permit application. This document is readily available on the NMA Web site or at www.powertechuranium.com/s/AboutISR.asp.
Meanwhile here's a look at the opposition to Powertech's mine from The Greeley Tribune. From the article:
The problem is that deep under [Robin] Davis' property lay many millions of pounds of uranium, and its price is going through the roof. But the fight isn't just about money, it's a fight about public safety and groundwater contamination...
Davis isn't so sure her water will be safe. She pulls water from a well for her horse-boarding business and for domestic use in her home. She can't sell her 80 acres, she says, because no one wants to live near a uranium mine, and she has all her savings tied up in her home. If the mine goes in, she won't board other people's horses, and she says she's already lost business because of the mine. "We have absolutely everything to lose," Davis says. "Our entire investment is in our home, and nobody's buying." Davis is part of a movement against the mine, Coloradoans Against Resource Destruction, and started a Web site nunnglow.com, to let people know about the mine's potentially hazardous operation...
A similar mine was opened near Keota and Grover in Colorado in the early 1980s, but it was closed because the price of uranium dropped, making mining no longer economically viable. But now that the price of uranium is up to about $90 per pound again from a low of about $7 per pound in 2000, companies are looking to start mining the radioactive material again for use in nuclear power reactors around the United States...
At its current price, about $873 million worth of uranium sits at the proposed mine site in northwestern Weld. Pete Webb, a spokesman for Powertech, said the company is going to apply for the permit to mine at the site from Weld County in December 2008. The intricate regulatory and permitting process ensures that the mine will be safe for water and the public, he said. It is Powertech's first foray into uranium mining, but the opposition is fueling public fear about the project, Webb said. "Because of demand, companies are looking for it," said Webb, adding that 30 new nuclear power plants in the United States fuel the demand. "But because it's uranium, people are basically afraid of it."
"It's not gonna happen, I've seen it stopped before," said Lilias Jones Jarding, an anti-mining activist and Coloradoans Against Resource Destruction member. She worked against a mine in South Dakota that was successfully stopped by opponents, and is running for the state legislature in House District 49, partly because of her frustrations about the uranium mine issue. Jarding said so many people were against that mine that 12,000 people came to a rally against the mine, which would have been located near the Black Hills. Further, Jarding said, mines cannot guarantee that they can clean the groundwater to pre-mining levels after the mine is closed. There are 32 sites in Texas where officials found the water was not returned to pre-mining levels, she said...
Rick Lowerre is an attorney representing Kleberg County, Texas, in a lawsuit against uranium miner Uranium Resources Inc. The mine, like all others in Texas, Lowerre said, can't clean the water it pumped into the ground to extract the uranium 20 years ago. "No uranium mining company in Texas has ever restored groundwater in Texas to levels they promised," he said. "Mining companies knew all along (they couldn't clean the water). Everybody just lied to the public." Water that is pumped out of the ground contains lead and mercury in addition to uranium, which are then pumped back into the ground to be cleaned later, Lowerre said. Residents near proposed mines shouldn't let mining companies get away with saying they're going to restore the water, he added. In addition, many large corporations such as Exxon Mobil have abandoned uranium mining and smaller companies are taking their place, said Lowerre. He added that many smaller companies don't have the capital to absorb price fluctuations in the uranium market and could go bankrupt, leaving state or federal authorities the task of cleaning up. Powertech will be required to have bonds ensuring that such a cleanup will be funded if it abandons the mine, but Texas doesn't have a bond requirement, Lowerre said. "If the price goes down, they'll go belly up," he said. "And then you're left with it." Meanwhile, communities should take steps to ensure that powerful lobbying by uranium mining companies doesn't overshadow safety concerns of the public, Lowerre said...
Though Powertech is in the beginning of its process to get the mine started, Weld planning officials have already begun studying the site, and will probably make a determination about the mine in 2009. The Board of Weld County Commissioners will approve or deny the site sometime after the planning commission makes its determination, and then there's always the chance of appeal to Weld District Court and higher. "I don't know if there's a way to stop it from coming through the permit process," said Tom Honn, Weld director of planning. The planning department will examine if the use of the site as a mine is compatible with neighboring properties around it, and will make its determination that way, Honn said...
Representatives from Powertech Uranium Corp. and Coloradoans Against Resource Destruction will attend a public hearing about the proposed uranium mine near Nunn at 6 p.m. Jan. 14 at the Harmony Library, at the corner of Shields Street and Harmony Road in Fort Collins.
More Coyote Gulch coverage here and here.
"2008 pres"
7:21:55 AM
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© Copyright 2009 John Orr.
Last update: 3/15/09; 1:57:48 PM.
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