Archives for February, 2008
Disappointing ESA Developments
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The new testimony and announcements by DOI/USFWS regarding coming Endangered Species Act (ESA) listings and changes are most interesting.
First, DOI announced a major change in its barely two-year old critical habitat designation for the Canada Lynx. Critical habitat had been restricted to 2,000 square miles. Now it has been vastly increased to 43,000 square miles.
Recreation industry and timber industry had lobbied hard and testified on lack of need for such a vast critical habitat designation — and thought that common sense had won out. These groups feared that the possible occurrence of the lynx might shut down the Northern Rockies Ecosystem. But the DOI critical habitat change underscores how ephemeral any kind of deal with the Feds is. Regardless of what they promise or sign, as soon as there is Green pressure they can — and seemingly will — instantly overturn everything.
A Greenwire story points out that this will not have any effect on private land — unless of course landowners need “permits on their land.” Can you think of any project for building a home, digging an irrigation ditch or drainage ditch, whatever, that doesn’t require local, county, state or Federal permits?
According to another article in Greenwire today, the Bush administration, looking forward to leaving its Green legacy, announced a huge push to decide on 71 listing proposals during the remaining ten months of 2008 and another 21 for 2009.
USFWS Director Dale Hall, responding to criticism from Greens and media for not having listed more species, stated in Greenwire: “It took us a little bit, but we hope this will get us back on track. We slipped out of the mode.”
What mode? What track? Is there some prize for the administration that lists the most species? Must a certain number of species be listed each year? Maybe fewer species need listing. Maybe much more care needs to be taken in deciding which species to list or which to list first?
The criticism is that George W. Bush has only listed 8 species, while Clinton listed 62 species and George H.W. Bush listed 56 species.
So will the Greens now give the Oscar to George W. Bush? Even William Snape and the Center for Biodiversity praised (lightly) Bush.
Why not simply list every species and get it over with once and for all, since that is the logic of the Greens. One noted Green has I believe proposed listing some 7,000 plants. An all-inclusive uniform listing of all species would save billions of dollars and allow more concentration on recovery plans!
Another Reason to Drink Bottled Water
In recent months, environmentalists have been saying that bottled water is wasteful and no healthier than tap. They are helping advance bottled water taxes, bans on bottled water in government offices and at public events, along with a host of other silly anti-bottled water policies. Their advice for those of us who want water on the go: use refillable containers. What they don’t advertise is the fact that those bottles can quickly become breeding grounds for bacteria—which doesn’t sound like a healthier alternative to me! Check this story out. It notes that one toxicologist recommends not only washing bottles regularly (remember washing with soap has environmental impacts too!), but swapping them out “as much as possible” to avoid bacterial build up. Sounds like yet another good reason to simply stick with fresh, convenient, and sanitary bottled water!
Election rhetoric: “My opponents are witches, prostitutes and charlatans”
Candidates running for POTUS shouldn’t whine about being attacked by their opponents. Things look pretty mild in the good ole USA, especially compared with campaign rhetoric in Zimbabwe.
BBC News reports that Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe has launched his reelection campaign by calling his opponents “witches, prostitutes and charlatans,” as well as “traitors and two-headed creatures.” Here’s his full quote:
Let the people’s voice thunder across the whole country on 29 March, rejecting and damning once and for all the bootlicking British stooges, the traitors and sell-outs, the political witches and political prostitutes, political charlatans and the two-headed political creatures.
Mugabe is running on his record for helping the people of Zimbabwe. Under Mugabe’s leadership, the annual inflation rate has exceeded 100,000%. And the World Bank says Zimbabwe had the fastest shrinking economy of any country outside a war zone.
Now that’s a record to run on.
Virginia Courts Strike Down Taxation Without Representation
The Virginia Supreme Court today struck down a state law giving unelected bodies the power to levy taxes in Marshall v. Northern Virginia Regional Transportation Authority. It blocked regional transit authorities from levying taxes to pay for regional transportation projects. (Some of the money is being wasted on pork-barrel projects).
I earlier criticized the biggest tax imposed by the transit authorities, the regional grantor’s tax, in the Richmond Times-Dispatch and the Examiner, noting that it violates the “user-pays” principle, and economic common sense, by making homeowners, not motorists, pay for transportation (Many motorists using Northern Virginia roads are from out-of-state; the grantor’s tax applies only to Northern Virginia homeowners, including elderly people who seldom drive).
The decision will lead to demands that the legislature itself (or local governments) raise taxes to replace the invalid regional taxes. In an ideal world, the revenue needed for transportation should be generated, not with regional tax increases, but with cuts in public employee compensation (such as their overly generous pension and health benefits), which has outpaced inflation in recent years. (Northern Virginia has some of the region’s worst roads and most ornate municipal buildings. Arlington, Virginia teachers typically have compensation packages that exceed $100,000 per year, reflecting salaries of over $70,000 and generous benefits worth nearly $30,000 — and they’re not even the best paid public employees!).
But given the clout of the public employee unions, that may not be possible. If it isn’t, then the legislature should avoid reimposing the grantor’s tax, and use more transportation-related user-fees. If it does raise any taxes, they should be taxes related to transportation, like a gas tax increase, not taxes on homeowners or businesses that create jobs.
Child-Snatching, Sexual Harassment, and Punitive Damages
I have more posts on child-snatching by government agencies, strange sexual harassment rulings, and punitive damages for oil spills, at Point of Law Forum, where I am guest blogging.
Strassel on the Dems’ “trade tirade”
In the Wall Street Journal today (subscription needed), Kimberley A. Strassel’s column hits the Democrats’ current protectionist stance on trade and points to the party’s rebuilding of the world trade system in the 1930s and understanding of the benefits of free trade.
But, Strassel notes,
That common sense hasn’t matched the temptation to win points with Big Labor or to ride a populist anti-trade wave. Threats to hold trade deals hostage to labor and environmental rules; vows to review existing deals; the bashing of Mexican truck drivers; the mauling of the Chinese currency; complaints about trade enforcement – all of these are today standard Democratic (and increasingly Republican) talking points. The Clinton-Obama threats are a logical conclusion of this, not some surprising beginning.
Today, she says, “the stakes are arguably higher,” and quotes former Democratic congressman Cal Dooley on how trade today is integrally linked to national security, and it’s likely that the Democratic nominee for president will retreat from trade bashing to make the national security argument.
“. . . it’s hard to make nicey-nice with the global community when you are stiffing it on trade,” Strassel wrote. Not only on national security, but on the economy, Democrats need to take a leadership role. She quotes Texas Democrat Henry Cuellar, who is a strong supporter of open trade as well as a Hillary Clinton supporter, that support for trade is “about both the prosperity of the nation, and the prosperity of the Democratic Party.”
Economic prosperity and national security sound like good arguments for more open trade. Maybe some of those Dems can bring some needed sense to the current posturing on trade issues.
Ethanol Subsidies Increase Illegal Immigration? Yes
Public policy is rife with unintended consequences. The newest is that soaring food prices caused by ethanol subsidies in the U.S. are causing food prices to skyrocket in Mexico. While this is old information, what’s news is how this is contributing to civil disorder and other acts of violence in Mexico.
Brigadier General Greg Zanetti believes that ethanol subsidies combined with a slowing American economy and continued drug violence on the border could contribute to a massive flow of refugees, not migrants, across the border. Chalk this up to another unintended consequence of bad public policy. A subsidy which is intended to “get us off of our foreign oil addition” (Their words, not mine) and help our national security could cause a flood of refugees across the American border. Perhaps it’s time that our government focuses more on this hemisphere than some other ones I could name.
Ethanol certainly won’t power our cars, but it could fuel chaos south of the border.
Puff the Magic Dragon
More proof that wind power is no panacea for the nation’s looming electricity crisis. The wind dropped in Texas, and caused blackouts:
ERCOT said the grid’s frequency dropped suddenly when wind production fell from more than 1,700 megawatts, before the event, to 300 MW when the emergency was declared.
In addition, ERCOT said multiple power suppliers fell below the amount of power they were scheduled to produce on Tuesday. That, coupled with the loss of wind generated in West Texas, created problems moving power to the west from North Texas.
ERCOT declares a stage 1 emergency when power reserves fall below 2,300 MW. A stage 2 emergency is called when reserves fall below 1,750 MW.
At the time of the emergency, ERCOT demand increased from 31,200 MW to a peak of 35,612 MW, about half the total generating capacity in the region, according to the agency’s Web site.
Meanwhile, in Denmark, wind turbines are exploding. Dramatic video (provenance uncertain, so may not be genuine) here. This follows the fatal collapse of a wind tower in Oregon last summer. They also come with environmental costs of their own.
Now, of course, all energy production comes with risks, but wind power has such a positive image that people think of it as completely safe, environmentally-friendly and reliable. That’s not the case.
Thank God D-Day Went Better Than E-Day
It’s E-Day in the UK, a national ‘awareness’ day backed by major environmental groups and religious organizations, and the BBC, aimed at getting Brits to reduce their electricity use. The motto is “the small things in life can make a big difference.”
With two hours left to go, electricity use is slightly higher than normal.
Matthew Sinclair of the Taxpayers’ Alliance is live-blogging the event.
Ridiculous Lack of Personal Responsibility
These days it seems that you can slap the word “addiction” after any activity and escape personal responsibility for poor decision making. Moreover, in some places calling yourself an addict not only earns a free pass from consequences but it also gives you the right to sue other people for not protecting you from yourself. Take for example, Graham Calvert, a greyhound trainer in England is suing his bookmaker for failing to prevent him from losing over 2 million pounds in bad bets.
[Calvert’s] counsel, Anneliese Day, said William Hill had been guilty of “negligent encouragement and inducement” by not acting to curb Calvert’s gambling even though he had indicated he wanted them to on at least two occasions.
Far from doing that, William Hill had sought to encourage Calvert to go on huge betting sprees, breaching their own “self-exclusion” policy, she added
I feel bad that Calvert’s life is a mess, but he shouldn’t be allowed to put the blame on anyone but himself. It would be one thing if he was simply suing to clear his debts, but now Calvert has upped the ante by suing for personal damages!
On Wednesday, Mr Justice Michael Briggs granted the 28-year-old permission to widen his claim…. to include compensation for personal injuries.
By allowing these litigious shenanigans the UK has opened up a can of worms. Let us hope that the the condition isn’t contagious.
House okays Andean preferences — but leaders oppose Colombia FTA
Does this make sense? At the same time the House thinks it’s a good idea to provide Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia with duty-free access to the U.S. market for most of their exports, House leadership is opposing the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement.
Yesterday by voice vote the House approved a 10-month extension of the Andean Trade Preferences Act (ATPA), which gives the four Andean countries preferential U.S. market access. For Colombia, according to the U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab, that means the vast majority of its exports to the U.S. – 92 percent – enter the country with no tariffs.
The Colombia FTA, on the other hand, would make the trade preferences for that country permanent but would also eliminate or significantly reduce Colombia’s tariffs on most U.S. exports. In urging a positive Congressional vote on the trade agreement, Schwab said yesterday,
Now, we need Congress to work with us to open the other door – the door that allows American products to flow into Colombia on a reciprocal basis.
Today, 92 percent of U.S. imports from Colombia face absolutely no duty at all as a result of unilateral U.S. preference programs. At the same time, Colombia’s tariffs on most imports from the United States range from 5 to 15 percent with some as high as 35 percent.
So, what the trade agreement would basically do is provide the U.S. with the reciprocal trade benefits that Colombia already enjoys, albeit on a temporary basis.
However, a powerful campaign led by U.S. trade unions and backed by Congressional leaders is calling for rejection of the agreement because they contend Colombian President Alvaro Uribe isn’t doing enough to crack down on paramilitary murders of union leaders in Colombia. The figures, however, are stark in showing that since his first election in 2002 Uribe has made dramatic inroads in fighting violent crime, including homicides and kidnapping, demobilizing the paramilitary, and confronting terrorists.
Even though the FTA would benefit U.S. exports, the trade agreement faces significant odds in gaining approval in the current anti-trade political climate in the U.S. The Colombia FTA is the current target for inchoate yet widespread opposition to the benefits of free trade.
More Government Child Snatching
Government social workers have an incentive to overreact to erroneous allegations of child abuse, and take children away from loving parents, because they reasonably fear that they will be fired if a child on their caseload dies, even if the death was unforeseeable. (The problem is even worse in England, fueled by adoption bonuses). Children seized and placed into foster care often experience devastating psychological harm.
Washington, D.C.’s Child and Family Services agency (where 6 case workers were recently fired after a child died) seized the twin baby daughters of Greg and Juliana Caplan after one was taken to the hospital for bleeding behind the eye. According to the Examiner, “doctors said the bleeding was not caused by shaking” or other abuse, but the Caplans still had to go to court and wait two weeks to get their daughters back. Their reputations are tainted by their being listed on the city’s child protection register, even though a judge ruled there were no “reasonable grounds” to believe that their daughter was abused.
Even if social workers snatch a child in violation of the Constitution, the child is placed in foster care, and the child is then psychologically destroyed by abuse during foster care, the social workers are typically qualified immunity. A classic example of that is Doe v. Lebbos, 348 F.3d 820 (9th Cir. 2003), a case where a little girl was seized from a loving father and left so traumatized by her time in foster care that she developed severe behavioral disorders. The social workers got no penalty at all. In dissent, Judge Andrew Kleinfeld described the tragedy that befell the child:
Re: Virginia Tax Increase Scam
I find it ironic for Virginia State Delegate Dave Albo to decry businesses being “scammed,” when he has built a reputation for pushing grossly punitive aggressive driving and DUI laws at the same time that his law firm specializes in, among other things, defending DUI cases.
Virginia Tax Increase Scam
The Virginia General Assembly last year voted to let counties increase their commercial property tax in order to pay for new transportation projects. The counties promised they would spend it on new projects. Business groups didn’t fight the tax increase because they were desperate to see transportation improvements that would enable customers to shop and go to work without being stuck in gridlock.
But soon after the tax increase was enacted, Fairfax County decided to instead divert the money from new transportation projects to pre-existing expenses, like inflated employee salaries and existing bus routes. As always, public employee salaries take priority over investing in the future — and the promises made by politicians. As Dave Albo (R-Springfield) notes, businesses are being scammed.
Meanwhile, wealthy Arlington County, which has been on a “decade-long spending spree,” is raising property taxes to fund the unusually generous pensions and health benefits of county employees, who are already paid better than private sector employees. (Private sector employees in the County typically have no employer-financed pension at all.) The county claims to be tightening its belt, but county general fund spending is going up by 5 percent. The average American’s salary didn’t increase by that much over the past year.
No, It’s Not a “Pro-Business” Supreme Court
The Supreme Court decided two discrimination cases this week that confirm that the Supreme Court is not “pro-business “in discrimination cases, as liberal journalists claim. I discuss them at PointofLaw. Examples include one ruling (Federal Express v. Holowecki) that’s anti-business, and another ruling that’s neutral towards business.
Today, I also discussed how courts can be downright hostile to employers in sexual harassment cases, engaging in a game of bait-and-switch to first hold them liable and then maximize the damages that plaintiffs can collect. Earlier, I discussed judicial double standards in harassment cases and judges’ indulgence towards trial lawyers who seek to inflame juries with prejudicial appeals.
The Supreme Court has generally been less sympathetic to employers than the average federal appeals court. Business groups should think twice before seeking Supreme Court review of decisions that trouble them — they might get an even worse opinion from the Supreme Court than they got from the lower court, as happened in Burlington Northern v. White (2006), a case I described here (which defined prohibited “retaliation” so broadly as to raise possible First Amendment issues for employers).
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