Small signs of good green things happening here in South Dakota:
Farmers Cash in on Carbon Credits: KJAM reports that $1.3 million dollars is on the way to 414 South Dakota farmers and ranchers for their participation in the Farmers Union Carbon Credit Program. Convert cropland to grass, plant trees, get a check... heck of a deal! I should sign up my acre....
Wind Power Powered by Local Investment: Dakota Wind Energy is seeking stockholders for its planned 750+ megawatt wind energy project in Roberts, Marshall, and Day Counties in northeast South Dakota. The company says this project alone could light up 200,000 homes. The company says their business model will keep more of the economic benefits of wind power in the communities hosting the wind turbines than do wind farms owned and operated by foreign investors. Let's hope so!
Tea Wants More Walking, More Parks: Tea's city council gave first reading Monday night to an open space ordinance requiring developers to support more parks in the city. Says Mayor John Lawler, "We want to have decent-sized parks and we want to make sure nobody is more than a half mile from a park" [see John Hult, "Tea's Goal: Parks Within Walking Distance of Every Resident," that Sioux Falls paper, 2008.07.29]. Much of Tea's phenomenal growth has hinged on commuting culture, with Sioux Falls workers looking for small-town residences within reasonable driving distance of their big-city offices. It's good to see the automotive mindset isn't stopping people in Tea* from working to create a walkable town. (Walkability score on West Maple Street: 42 out of 100 -- better than some places, but still lots of room for improvement!)
*Say, just what do you call people from Tea? Teans? Tea-ians? Tea-ites? And do we call census workers there Tea-totallers?
Well, we are getting some of that money for nothing, i.e. carbon credits. We already have the trees, they have already been doing their job of gobbling up carbon or whatever this is paying them to do, but now we get to be paid for the job they have been doing for nothing for years. Come on now; this is the biggest farce in recent history. But hey, if someone wants to pay me for "nothing," I'll sell them all the "nothing" they are willing to buy. Thanks, Al!!!!
ReplyDeleteIt's not just the developer of the Dakota Wind project who says that community ownership of wind-energy facilities brings more financial benefits to local communities.
ReplyDeleteHere's a 2006 study from the University of Minnesota: http://cda.mrs.umn.edu/~kildegac/CV/Papers/IREE.pdf
But I don't think anybody really knows whether those same economic benefits to local communities still apply when the projects are as large as the Dakota Wind project aims to be.
I found this interesting article today.....Don't really know if I want to be taxed on how many miles I drive a year.....The government is again being too 'big brotherish'.....
ReplyDeletejusbskt, did you mean this article by Terry Woster in today's Sioux Falls paper? Note that conservative Republican Shantel Krebs is suggesting that "Big Brother" device you allude to.
ReplyDeleteYea....i always forget to post the link, the one I was going to post was from the Rapid City Journal but the Argus' is more in depth.
ReplyDeleteI, too, heard about the proposal to put mileage-monitoring devices in vehicles.
ReplyDeleteStupid.
When I heard the proposal was made by one of my fellow Republicans, I almost pooped in my pants.
Buying stock in that wind energy company -- there's a good idea.
The GPS Tracking Device is a little 1984ish...anyone????? That is the dumbest idea I have ever heard of and I have had some of my own dumb Ideas in my life....This takes the absolute prize for dumb ideas......and no big suprise who it came from Shantel Krebs and her $105k+ state employed husband aka governors errand boy.....The device would cost at least 250 bucks or more and there is no guarntee that big brother would not be saving all the data and tracking you even when you are out of the state........If the fund is broke for roads raise gas prices or raise registration fees....don't pull something out of 1984 (the book)....common...
ReplyDeleteOkay, I ought to make alternative suggestions when I call anyone's idea "stupid."
ReplyDeleteThe motivation is to get people who inflict the most wear and tear on our roads to pay the most. Fair enough.
Some of these people are out of state. So, here is idea no. 1:
Toll roads.
They had 'em in Florida when I lived there, and in various other Eastern states (not sure which ones, anymore) that I passed through. I thought that was stupid and wasteful on freeways running through cities, where cars would line up, burning gas and creating little islands of toxic air, all to deposit 35 cents into a little basket while full-time drones oversaw the whole thing. But the scheme was not so bad on the freeways out of the cities, where people would pay the toll as they went down the entrance ramps. Exemption certificates or tokens could be given to farmers and ranchers, and certain other businesses that could prove that the tolls would otherwise cause undue hardship.
Now for idea no. 2:
Higher registration fees, with waivers or discounts for vehicles used in business or on the farms and ranches.
The idea here is to get the heaviest vehicles to pay the most, but not to break the farmers and ranchers. Our vehicle registration fees are incredibly low here in South Dakota. Other Western states such as Nevada and Wyoming charge vastly higher fees, comparable to the sales tax on the value of the vehicle every year ...
Idea no. 3:
Give in to all the pressure and just go ahead and impose a bloody state income tax, and make it as high as necessary to satisfy the needs of an ever-expanding government.
Unless it's Cory's plan where all other taxes would go away, I have but one word to describe my feelings about a state income tax: "Nyet."