“The fact remains that AIG's rescue broke all the rules, and each rule that was broken poses a question that must be answered.” - Ms. Elizabeth Warren, Congressional TARP oversight panel chairwomanPUBLIC TRUST LIEN: $137 BILLION AIG OWES THE NATION CLOSE THE CASINO & ABOLISH SLAVERY - PRICELESSHOLD OF THE WARDEN - MORMAER OF THE ARMANSHIRE INSTITUTIONAL SYSTEMIC SOCIOPATHIC FRAUDT.W. ARMAN FACES EVICTION AS A.I.G. LOOTS BILLIONS States may make whatever laws they wish (consistent with their State Constitutions) except as prohibited by the US Constitution. Only Laws made by Congress, which are pursuant to the Constitution, qualify as part of the General Government Law of the Land.

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof … shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State  to the Contrary notwithstanding. [emphasis added]

Federal sovereign immunity

"Though this was the intent of the Congress [to waive sovereign immunity] in passing the 1972 Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments, the Supreme Court, encouraged by Federal agencies, has misconstrued the original intent." S. Rep. No. 370, 95th Cong., 1st Sess. 67 (1977), reprinted in 1977 U.S.C.C.A.N. 4326, 4392. See Clean Air Act Amendments of 1977, Pub. L. No. 95-95, [section] 116, 91 Stat. 711 (1977); see also Clean Water Act Amendments of 1977, Pub. L. 217, [subsection] 60, 61(a), 91 Stat. 1597, 1598 (1977).

The people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter, under which the several branches of government hold their power, is derived.
James Madison

From such a gentle thing, from such a fountain of all delight, my every pain is born.
Michelangelo

Parents wonder why the streams are bitter, when they themselves have poisoned the fountain.
John Locke

Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.
Marcus Aurelius

Words that everyone once used are now obsolete, and so are the men whose names were once on everyone's lips: Camillus, Caeso, Volesus, Dentatus, and to a lesser degree Scipio and Cato, and yes, even Augustus, Hadrian, and Antoninus are less spoken of now than they were in their own days. For all things fade away, become the stuff of legend, and are soon buried in oblivion. Mind you, this is true only for those who blazed once like bright stars in the firmament, but for the rest, as soon as a few clods of earth cover their corpses, they are 'out of sight, out of mind.' In the end, what would you gain from everlasting remembrance? Absolutely nothing. So what is left worth living for? This alone: justice in thought, goodness in action, speech that cannot deceive, and a disposition glad of whatever comes, welcoming it as necessary, as familiar, as flowing from the same source and fountain as yourself. (IV. 33, trans. Scot and David Hicks)

errare humanum est, sed perseverare diabolicum

'to err is human, but to persist is diabolical.'

extra territorium jus dicenti impune non paretur

JEFFERSON DISTRICT OF SHASTA - TRINITY

The Climate Showcase Communities

Region 9 EPA moves to Jefferson district

MINING DEPARTMENT ORDER § 9102. Establishing and acquiring corporations: Lost Confidence Mine announces acquisition of FINTECH PRECAST, INC. & DEPOE BAY, LLC.

ARMAN MINES MINISTRY OF NATURAL RESOURCES FEDERATION, THE HUMMINGBIRD INSTITUTE

DISASTER ASSISTANCE DIRECTORATE

Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities, 451 Seventh Street SW, Washington, DC 20410-3000, telephone number 202-402-7683/facsimile 202-708-0465

ARMAN MINES MINISTRY OF NATURAL RESOURCES FEDERATION &THE HUMMINGBIRD INSTITUTE

DISASTER ASSISTANCE DIRECTORATE (DAD) Announces $4 Billion Senior Notes Offering

COLLEGE OF THE HUMMINGBIRD today announced that Mr. T.W. Arman's HUMMINGBIRD INSTITUTE plans for the creation and establishment of wholly owned subsidiaries, THE CENTER FOR HEALTH, INSTITUTE FOR LIBERTY AND INDEPENDENCE (CHILI) & the LOST CONFIDENCE MINING COMPANY, and plans to offer approximately $1.0 billion of senior notes due in 2017, 2024, 2030, and 2040. The notes will be guaranteed by THE LOST CONFIDENCE MINING COMPANY, and certain other direct and indirect subsidiaries of THE HUMMINGBIRD INSTITUTE, and/or other miners or tenants, for the acquisition of FINTECH PRECAST, INC., THE IRON MOUNTAIN RAILWAY, ARMAN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, IRON MOUNTAIN MINES, LLC, DEPOE BAY LLC, FORTRESS CAPITAL, LLC, LIGHTHORSE VENTURES, LLC, NORTHSTAR LAND CO., LLC, the UNIVERSIDAD DE LA JOYAS VOLADORES, INSTITUTO COLIBRI, BAJA PENINSULA PROPERTIES, S.A. LA VENTANA, the CHAPPIE - SHASTA OHVA, WHISKEYTOWN -SHASTA - TRINITY NATIONAL FORESTS, KESWICK LAKE, BATTLE CREEK AND THE SACRAMENTO RIVER, and certain other properties. The acquisitions will consolidate the three campuses of the COLLEGE OF THE HUMMINGBIRD. The companies expects to complete the transaction in the next few days.

FINTECH PRECAST, INC. AND IRON MOUNTAIN MINES, LLC, intends to use the proceeds from the offering for the repayment of debt, including redemption of the outstanding debt, and establishing local mortgage services. Any remaining proceeds would be used for general corporate purposes. Pending application of the net proceeds, FINTECH PRECAST, INC. would expect to hold some or all of the remaining proceeds in the form of cash, cash equivalents or deposits under cash management pools with Mr. T.W. Arman or his affiliates.

THE LA VENTANA BROCHURE

LA VENTANA PROJECT PROPERTY SUMMARY

BP, Obama, and the EPA

BP's Deepwater Horizon Gulf oil spill has caused environmental and economic damage and a political circus. Have you ever heard of the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Contingency Plan Act ? This law was passed in 1994 and it specifically charges the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with mitigating damage from major oil spills. In response to that act, the EPA, itself, says , “When a major oil spill occurs in the United States, coordinated teams of local, state, and national personnel are called upon to help contain the spill, clean it up, and ensure that damage to human health and the environment is minimized. Without careful planning and clear organization, efforts to deal with large oil spills could be slow, ineffective, and potentially harmful to response personnel and the environment. In the United States, the system for organizing responses to major oil spills is called the National Response System.” The Act makes a prompt and effective response to a major oil spill a national priority. So how are they doing?

Some (mainly conservative) columnists have attributed Obama's Nero-like lack of concern to ulterior motives . For instance, Obama's refusal to accept aid from the Dutch government is said to be a sop to the labor unions. And, Obama is using to oil spill disaster to renew his push for Cap & Trade climate legislation .

Maybe there are ulterior motives, but more likely, the less-than-prompt and effective response is probably due to incompetence by Obama and his bureaucracies, just like FEMA's failure after Katrina. For instance the EPA dithered while considering the possible toxic effects of an oil dispersant that BP wanted to use. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is incensed with the Coast Guard because they stopped cleanup efforts to check whether the crews had proper fire extinguishers and life vests.

Meanwhile, Congress is holding hearings, with all their sound and fury, in a feigned effort to investigate BP (and give “face time” to legislators). Such hearings have no practical value in mitigating the oil spill.

Obama used the oil spill as an excuse to impose a six-month moratorium of deep water drilling, possibly to promote more “alternative energy” schemes. Obama said is was for “safety” concerns by the Department of the Interior, but analysis by the Wall Street Journal shows that this was all about politics . Another possible ulterior motive: the oil spill and Obama's moratorium will aid Obama contributor George Soros who is heavily involved in Brazilian oil. Brazil stands to benefit from the BP oil spill catastrophe as the US moratorium makes more rigs available for other countries.

Yes, BP should be held responsible for the loss of economic activity caused by the accident. But government action, and inaction, is making things worse. They are not letting a good crisis go to waste.

EPA cites concern for endangered species as feds ponder selling NY …

Where is Barbara?

To paraphrase White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, "Never let a crisis go to waste."  

Clearly, Barack Obama agrees with his chief of staff's philosophy. Last week during his first Oval Office address, President Barack Obama spent a significant part of it trying to convince the American people that in the wake of what's happening in the Gulf, now is the time to implement radical energy and climate reform legislation - which for Barack Obama and some of his Democrat supporters, means a so-called cap-and-trade system...or a national energy tax.

To "move" this economy-changing legislation through Congress - a feat doubted by many in his own party - Barack Obama needs the United States Senate to act legislatively...and that "action" will require 60 votes to stop a filibuster.  Sensing the timing may be right, or, in truth, that the legislative calendar for the year is nearing its end and Democrats need to rush home to campaign for November's elections, the President will soon call a group of Republican and Democrat Senators to the White House to discuss this so-called energy and climate "reform" effort.

The focal point of any and all U.S. Senate action on the Barack Obama's national energy tax, masquerading as energy and climate legislation, should be the Chair of the Senate's Energy and Public Works Committee, who happens to be California's Barbara Boxer.  But, where is Barbara?

Senator Boxer has been conspicuously absent and noticeably silent from recent press coverage on energy and climate legislation.  Shouldn't the chair of the Senate's Energy Committee take a leading role in moving this key component of President Obama's agenda through the Senate?  The answer is yes...but Boxer tried and failed to do so last fall.  In short, it appears that Senator Boxer has been cut out of the legislative process or marginalized because she's too polarizing a figure and incapable of bringing her fellow senators (even Democrat ones) to consensus.

A quick look at Senator Boxer's heavy-handed tactics on last year's climate change legislation demonstrates this reality.  

Last September, Boxer pushed a 950-page piece of energy legislation through her Committee using what the New York Times called "a rarely used exception to customary committee rules" to cut off debate and stop any changes to her controversial bill.  Her bill "passed" with no Republicans present in the committee hearing room and with one Democrat - Max Baucus (D-MT) - voting no...and was effectively dead upon passage.  After this occurred, the Senate's Democrat leadership spread Boxer's workload on climate change among six other committee chairmen.

Boxer's heavy-handed, hyper-partisan approach should surprise no one. She is an unrepentant liberal who is hell-bent on moving a progressive ideology regardless of its consequences.

The cap-and-trade legislation she supports - similar to a very liberal House-passed version - would be disastrous for America and for California.   Politico pointed out that it contained "397 new regulations."  Worse still, with California facing 12.5 percent unemployment, according to Americans for Tax Reform, the Boxer's legislation would cost California hundreds of thousands of jobs and would cost America 2.5 million jobs by 2035.  At the same time, the cap-and-tax legislation she supports would increase taxes on American families by $3,100.  Gas prices would soar and utility prices would skyrocket.  Ultimately, these increases would hurt middle and lower class families.

As all of Washington rushes through its rapidly shrinking legislative agenda to return to home, it's no wonder why many Democrats are cautiously pessimistic about cap-and-trade's future.  Its lofty rhetoric, when translated into real public policy, would decimate many states' economies, hike taxes, raise prices and do little, ultimately, to stop greenhouse gas production worldwide.

When Barbara Boxer returns home to campaign for what she has termed a very competitive election, she will almost certainly trump her committee chairmanship to California voters and will attempt to "woo" them with moralistic global warming arguments.  What hopefully will be discussed will be her plans to create private sector jobs, stimulate the economy and create lasting economic growth - all of which are absent at present.  At the end of the day, Senator Boxer will be forced to run on her 18-year U.S. Senate career in a year, where entrenched incumbent status is a negative, even for a Democrat running in left-of-center California.  November should be very interesting.

Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies: FY2011 Appropriations

Carol Hardy Vincent, Coordinator
Specialist in Natural Resources Policy

The Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations bill includes funding for the Department of the Interior (DOI), except for the Bureau of Reclamation, and for agencies within other departments—including the Forest Service within the Department of Agriculture and the Indian Health Service (IHS) within the Department of Health and Human Services. It also includes funding for arts and cultural agencies, the Environmental Protection Agency, and numerous other entities.

The President requested $32.43 billion for FY2011 for Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, a $136.3 million (0.4%) increase over the FY2010 level of $32.29 billion. Despite the relative stability of this total funding, the President sought increases for some agencies and decreases for other agencies. Among the proposed increases for FY2011, over FY2010 appropriations, were the following:

• $354.1 million (9%) for the Indian Health Service;

• $79.4 million (1%) for the Forest Service;

• $36.2 million (5%) for the Smithsonian Institution;

• $21.6 million (2%) for the U.S. Geological Survey; and

• $11.4 million (8%) for the Minerals Management Service.

Among the proposed decreases were the following:

• $269.9 million (3%) for the Environmental Protection Agency;

• $53.6 million (2%) for the Bureau of Indian Affairs;

• $25.8 million (14%) for the Office of Special Trustee for American Indians;

• $16.7 million (10%) for the Office of Surface Mining; and

• $15.5 million (15%) for Insular Affairs.

The House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies have held hearings on FY2011 agency budget requests. No bill to fund Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies for FY2011 has been introduced to date. Congress may debate a variety of funding and policy issues during consideration of the FY2011 Interior appropriations legislation. These issues might include energy development onshore and offshore, wildland fire fighting, Indian trust fund management, royalty relief, climate change, DOI science programs, and wild horse and burro management. Other issues might include appropriate funding levels for Bureau of Indian Affairs law enforcement and education; Indian Health Service construction and contract health services; wastewater/drinking water needs; the arts; land acquisition through the Land and Water Conservation Fund; and the Superfund program.

Date of Report: May 26, 2010
Number of Pages: 60

Federal Research and Development Funding: FY2011

John F. Sargent Jr., Coordinator
Specialist in Science and Technology Policy

President Obama has requested $147.696 billion for research and development (R&D) in FY2011, a $343 million (0.2%) increase from the estimated FY2010 R&D funding level of $147.353 million. Congress will play a central role in defining the nation's R&D priorities, especially with respect to two overarching issues: the extent to which the federal R&D investment can grow in the context of increased pressure on discretionary spending and how available funding will be prioritized and allocated. Low or negative growth in the overall R&D investment may require movement of resources across disciplines, programs, or agencies to address priorities. This report will be updated as Congress acts on appropriations bills that include funding for research, development and related funding.

Under the President's request, six federal agencies would receive 94.8% of total federal R&D spending: the Department of Defense (52.5%), Department of Health and Human Services (largely the National Institutes of Health) (21.8%), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (7.4%), Department of Energy (7.6%), National Science Foundation (3.8%), and Department of Agriculture (1.7%). NASA would receive the largest dollar increase for R&D of any agency, $1.700 billion (18.3%) above its FY2010 funding level. The Department of Defense would receive the largest reduction in R&D funding, $3.542 billion (4.4%) below its FY2010 level.

The President's FY2011 request includes: $31.341 billion for basic research, up $1.339 billion (4.5%) from FY2010; $30.276 billion for applied research, up $1.949 billion (6.9%); $81.455 billion for development, down $2.918 billion (3.5%); and $4.624 billion for R&D facilities and equipment, down $27 million (0.6%). The FY2011 request includes funding for three multiagency R&D initiatives: the National Nanotechnology Initiative, $1.776 billion, down $5 million (0.3%); the Networking and Information Technology R&D program, $4.281 billion, down $9 million (0.2%); and the U.S. Global Change Research Program, $2.561 billion, up $439 million (20.7%).

President Obama has requested increases in the R&D budgets of the three agencies that were targeted for doubling in the America COMPETES Act (over seven years) and by President Bush under his American Competitiveness Initiative (over ten years) as measured using FY2006 R&D funding as the baseline. Under President Obama's FY2011 budget, the Department of Energy's Office of Science would receive an increase of $226 million (4.6%), the National Science Foundation's budget would rise by $551 million (8.0%), and funding for the National Institute of Standards and Technology's core research and facilities would grow by $48 million (7.3%).

For the past four years, federal R&D funding and execution has been affected by mechanisms used to complete the annual appropriations process—the year-long continuing resolution for FY2007 (P.L. 110-5) and the combining of multiple regular appropriations bills into the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008 for FY2008 (P.L. 110-161), the Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009 (P.L. 111-8), and the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2010 (P.L. 111-117). Completion of appropriations after the beginning of each fiscal year may cause agencies to delay or cancel some planned R&D and equipment acquisition.  .

Date of Report: June 3, 2010
Number of Pages: 51
Order Number: R41098
Price: $29.95

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Disaster Relief Funding and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations

Bruce R. Lindsay
Analyst in Emergency Management Policy

Justin Murray
Information Research Specialist

When a state is overwhelmed by an emergency or disaster, the governor may request assistance from the federal government. Federal assistance is contingent on whether the President issues an emergency or major disaster declaration. Once the declaration has been issued the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provides disaster relief through the use of the Disaster Relief Fund (DRF), which is the source of funding for the Robert T. Stafford Emergency Relief and Disaster Assistance Act response and recovery programs. Congress appropriates money to the DRF to ensure that funding for disaster relief is available to help individuals and communities stricken by emergencies and major disasters (in addition, Congress appropriates disaster funds to other accounts administered by other federal agencies pursuant to federal statutes that authorize specific types of disaster relief).

The DRF is generally funded at a level that is sufficient for what are known as “normal” disasters. These are incidents for which DRF outlays are less than $500 million dollars. When a large disaster occurs, funding for the DRF may be augmented through emergency supplemental appropriations. A supplemental appropriation generally provides additional budget authority during the current fiscal year to (1) finance activities not provided for in the regular appropriation; or (2) provide funds when the regular appropriation is deemed insufficient .

Whether or not the current practice is the best system for budgeting disaster relief is subject to debate. Some argue that more money should be appropriated in FEMA's DRF account in annual appropriations, while others maintain that augmenting the DRF through emergency supplemental appropriations is preferable because it allows Congress to react directly to a particular situation. Others may argue that emergency supplemental appropriations are preferable for fiscal management reasons because an appropriation is not requested unless there is a real need for supplemental funding. Another argument is to revamp the budgetary process to fund disaster relief.

This report describes the various components of the DRF, including (1) what authorities have shaped it over the years; (2) how FEMA determines the amount of the appropriation requested to Congress (pertaining to the DRF); and (3) how emergency supplemental appropriations are requested. In addition to the DRF, information is provided on funds appropriated in supplemental appropriations legislation to agencies other than the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Aspects of debate concerning how disaster relief is budgeted are also highlighted and examined, and alternative budgetary options are summarized.

In the current Congress, H.R. 4899, the “Disaster Relief and Summer Jobs Act of 2010,” was introduced in the House by Representative David Obey on March 21, 2010. The bill passed the House on March 24, 2010, was received in the Senate on March 25, 2010, and was referred to the Committee on Appropriations on May 7, 2010. The committee reported the bill on May 14, 2010 (S.Rept. 111-188).

Date of Report: May 24, 2010
Number of Pages: 33
Order Number: R40708
Price: $29.95

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Mortgage and Rental Assistance as Disaster Relief: Legislation in the 111th Congress

Francis X. McCarthy
Analyst in Emergency Management Policy

During the first session of the 111th Congress, Representative Oberstar, along with co-sponsors Representative Mica, Representative Holmes-Norton, and Representative Mario Diaz-Balart introduced H.R. 3377, the Disaster Response, Recovery and Mitigation Enhancement Act of 2009. Along with other provisions, the legislation would reinstate a Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (P.L. 93-288, as amended) provision that provided mortgage and rental assistance to disaster victims. Previously, Senators Feinstein and Boxer had introduced S. 2386, the Mortgage and Rental Disaster Relief Act of 2007. Mortgage and Rental Assistance (MRA) had been dropped from the Stafford Act by P.L. 106-390, the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 (DMA2K).

MRA provided economic aid to help households remain in their residences by assisting with mortgage or rent payments for a period of up to eighteen months. This is distinct from temporary housing assistance under the Stafford Act that provides rental assistance due to disaster damage that makes a residence uninhabitable. For MRA help, the applicant had to prove a loss of income due to the disaster event.

The MRA provision in H.R. 3377 is similar to the original Stafford Act language in providing such emergency help for up to 18 months. However, the new proposed provision emphasizes eligibility based on “imminent risk” rather than “written notice.” An earlier Senate bill to reauthorize MRA, S. 2386, differed from the original Stafford MRA provision in that it established eligibility based on an income threshold in order for an applicant to qualify for the proposed MRA assistance.

This report summarizes the previous MRA provision administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the issues that were a part of the discussion prior to its removal in P.L. 106- 390, and questions that have been raised since 2000 regarding mortgage and rental assistance.

Date of Report: June 3, 2010
Number of Pages: 9
Order Number: RS22828

Federal Stafford Act Disaster Assistance: Presidential Declarations, Eligible Activities, and Funding

Keith Bea
Specialist in American National Government

The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (the Stafford Act) authorizes the President to issue major disaster or emergency declarations in response to catastrophes in the United States that overwhelm state and local governments. Such declarations result in the distribution of a wide range of federal aid to individuals and families, certain nonprofit organizations, and public agencies. Congress appropriates money to the Disaster Relief Fund (DRF) for disaster assistance authorized by the Stafford Act. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) administers most, but not all, of the authority the statute vests in the President.

The most recent significant action concerning the statute occurred in the closing months of the 109th Congress as a result of the congressional investigation on the response to Hurricane Katrina (August 2005). Senators inserted Stafford Act amendments into the FY2007 DHS appropriations legislation (Title VI of P.L. 109-295). These amendments expanded FEMA's authority to expedite emergency assistance to stricken areas, imposed new planning and preparedness requirements on federal administrators, provided new authority to regional offices, and increased federal assistance to victims and communities. More recently, Congress included a provision in the FY2010 appropriations legislation (P.L. 111-83) that allows retired law judges to arbitrate conflicts concerning the recovery of public infrastructure in the Gulf Coast due to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. While not an amendment to the Stafford Act, this provision affects the administration of the FEMA appeals process under which applications for Stafford assistance are reconsidered. The decisions made to date by the arbitration panels resulted in an Administration request for supplemental funding for FY2010. That request is the subject of some debate in the 111th Congress.

Legislation pending in the 111th Congress would amend the statute. Among the proposals, H.R. 3377, the Disaster Response, Recovery, and Mitigation Enhancement Act of 2009, would authorize the President to modernize the integrated public alert system to ensure that warnings are disseminated to the public, provide health benefits to temporary or intermittent federal employees who provide disaster assistance, authorize the National Urban Search and Rescue Response System, and make other changes to the statute. Other pending bills would reauthorize a mortgage and rental assistance program terminated in 2000 (H.R. 888/S. 763), establish new eligibility criteria (H.R. 941, H.R. 1059, H.R. 1494, H.R. 2484, H.R. 4141, and S. 1069), and mandate establishment of a tracking and storage plan for housing units used by disaster survivors (H.R. 3437/S. 713).

Date of Report: March 16, 2010
Number of Pages: 33
Order Number: RL33053
Price: $29.95

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Community Development Block Grant Funds in Disaster Relief and Recovery

Eugene Boyd
Analyst in Federalism and Economic Development Policy

Oscar R. Gonzales
Analyst in Economic Development Policy

In the aftermath of presidentially declared disasters, Congress has used a variety of programs to help states and local governments finance recovery efforts, among them the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program. Over the years, Congress has appropriated supplemental CDBG funds to assist states and communities recover from such natural disasters as hurricanes, earthquakes, and tornadoes. In addition, CDBG funds supported recovery efforts in New York City following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001; in Oklahoma City following the bombing of the Alfred Murrah Building in 1995; and in the city and county of Los Angeles following the riots of 1992. In response to those calamities, CDBG funds were made available for short-term relief efforts, mitigation actions, and long-term recovery, and to provide housing and business assistance, infrastructure reconstruction, and public services.

The Gulf Coast hurricanes of 2005 (Katrina, Rita, and Wilma) resulted in the largest appropriation of CDBG funds for disaster relief and recovery in the program's history. Since December 2005, Congress has provided $19.85 billion in CDBG disaster-related assistance to the five states (Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas) affected by the Gulf Coast hurricanes of 2005. This included $11.5 billion in CDBG assistance appropriated in the Defense Appropriations Act for FY2006, P.L. 109-148; $5.2 billion in the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Hurricane Recovery Act of 2006, P.L. 109-234; and $3 billion (exclusively for Louisiana's Road Home Program) appropriated in the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for FY2008, P.L. 110-116.

The 110th Congress appropriated $6.8 billion in CDBG funds to be used to respond to presidentially declared disasters occurring in 2008. This included $300 million appropriated under the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, P.L. 110-252, and $6.5 billion included in the Consolidated Security, Disaster Assistance, and Continuing Appropriations Act, 2009, P.L. 110-329.

In general, CDBG disaster relief acts passed since 2005 have included provisions that limit the amount a state could use for administrative expenses to 5%; allow a state to seek waivers of program requirements, except those related to fair housing, nondiscrimination, labor standards, and environmental review; prohibit the use of funds for activities that were reimbursable by or made available by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) or the Army Corp of Engineers; and require each state to develop and HUD to approve state recovery plans

As a condition for the receipt of CDBG disaster recovery assistance, states are required to submit quarterly reports to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees on all awards and use of funds. The acts do not prescribe the form these quarterly reports are to take nor the content they are to include, except for identifying and rationalizing the use of sole source contracts.

The 111th Congress is considering a supplemental appropriations act for 2010, H.R. 4899, that would provide an additional $100 million in CDBG funds to help states and communities undertake disaster recovery activities in presidentially declared disaster areas. This version of the bill would limit distribution of these funds to the states of Rhode Island and Tennessee, while an un-numbered House bill would include areas designated as major disasters during the period from December 31, 2009, to the date of enactment of the act. This would extend assistance to at least 35 states identified in 47 disaster declarations.

Date of Report: May 27, 2010
Number of Pages: 15
Order Number: RL33330
Price: $29.95

Community Development Block Grant Funds in Disaster Relief and Recovery

Eugene Boyd
Analyst in Federalism and Economic Development Policy

Oscar R. Gonzales
Analyst in Economic Development Policy

In the aftermath of presidentially declared disasters, Congress has used a variety of programs to help states and local governments finance recovery efforts, among them the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program. Over the years, Congress has appropriated supplemental CDBG funds to assist states and communities recover from such natural disasters as hurricanes, earthquakes, and tornadoes. In addition, CDBG funds supported recovery efforts in New York City following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001; in Oklahoma City following the bombing of the Alfred Murrah Building in 1995; and in the city and county of Los Angeles following the riots of 1992. In response to those calamities, CDBG funds were made available for short-term relief efforts, mitigation actions, and long-term recovery, and to provide housing and business assistance, infrastructure reconstruction, and public services. 

The Gulf Coast hurricanes of 2005 (Katrina, Rita, and Wilma) resulted in the largest appropriation of CDBG funds for disaster relief and recovery in the program's history. Since December 2005, Congress has provided $19.85 billion in CDBG disaster-related assistance to the five states (Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas) affected by the Gulf Coast hurricanes of 2005. This included $11.5 billion in CDBG assistance appropriated in the Defense Appropriations Act for FY2006, P.L. 109-148; $5.2 billion in the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Hurricane Recovery Act of 2006, P.L. 109-234; and $3 billion (exclusively for Louisiana's Road Home Program) appropriated in the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for FY2008, P.L. 110-116. 

The 110th Congress appropriated $6.8 billion in CDBG funds to be used to respond to presidentially declared disasters occurring in 2008. This included $300 million appropriated under the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, P.L. 110-252, and $6.5 billion included in the Consolidated Security, Disaster Assistance, and Continuing Appropriations Act, 2009, P.L. 110-329. 

In general, CDBG disaster relief acts passed since 2005 have included provisions that limit the amount a state could use for administrative expenses to 5%; allow a state to seek waivers of program requirements, except those related to fair housing, nondiscrimination, labor standards, and environmental review; prohibit the use of funds for activities that were reimbursable by or made available bythe Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) or the Army Corp of Engineers; and require each state to develop and HUD to approve state recovery plans 

As a condition for the receipt of CDBG disaster recovery assistance, states are required to submit quarterly reports to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees on all awards and use of funds. The acts do not prescribe the form these quarterly reports are to take nor the content they are to include, except for identifying and rationalizing the use of sole source contracts. This report will be updated as events warrant. 

Date of Report: January 28, 2010
Number of Pages: 14
Order Number: RL33330

CRS Issue Statement on Disaster Risk Financing

Rawle O. King, Coordinator
Analyst in Financial Economics and Risk Assessment

Insurance plays a key role in the U.S. economy in covering, among other things, the financial losses caused by natural disasters. It also provides incentives for disaster mitigation investments, which helps to reduce the vulnerability of households and businesses to natural hazards. 

Reliance on the decades old practice of reallocating resources throughout the economy after a major natural disaster to compensate disaster victims has become problematic, particularly in light of current fiscal deficits and the increasing frequency and severity of natural disasters. Importantly, the magnitude of damages caused by the 2004, 2005, and 2008 hurricane seasons, and predictions of more frequent storm activity in the Atlantic Basin over the next 15 to 20 years, have restricted homeowners' insurance, reduced availability, and raised affordability issues in disaster-prone areas. Insurance market analysts now question whether the economy's market for catastrophe insurance is sufficient to meet the burdens of a future mega-catastrophe.

Date of Report: January 22, 2010
Number of Pages: 3
Order Number: IS40291

Earthquake Risk, Insurance, and Recovery: Issues for Congress

Rawle O. King
Analyst in Financial Economics and Risk Assessment

This report examines earthquake catastrophe risk and insurance in the United States in light of recent developments, particularly the devastating earthquakes in Haiti and Chile. It examines both traditional and non-traditional approaches for financing recovery from earthquake losses as well as challenges in financing catastrophe losses with insurance. The report explores the feasibility of a federal residential earthquake insurance mechanism and assesses policy implications of such a program. 

So far in the 111th Congress, six bills have been introduced that would broaden the federal government's role in insuring, mitigating, and financing recovery from natural catastrophes. Proposals include (1) establishing a national consortium to allow states to aggregate risk from state-sponsored insurance pools and transfer such risks to the capital markets through catastrophe bonds (H.R. 2555/S. 505), (2) a provision for a tax-free accumulation of reserves to pay catastrophe losses (H.R. 998/S. 1486), (3) a Treasury program to guarantee state-issued debt (H.R. 4014/S. 886), (4) a federal reinsurance backstop (H.R. 83), (5) a provision to establish individual catastrophe savings accounts (S. 1484), and (6) establishing a bipartisan commission to examine catastrophe risks and make recommendations for the management and financing of such risks (S. 1487). On March 10, 2010, the House Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity and Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises held a joint hearing on H.R. 2555. A mark up on H.R. 2555 is expected in April 2010.

Financial Regulatory Reform: Systemic Risk and the Federal Reserve

Date of Report: March 12, 2010
Number of Pages: 16
Order Number: R41109

Marc Labonte
Specialist in Macroeconomic Policy

The recent financial crisis contained a number of systemic risk episodes, or episodes that caused instability for large parts of the financial system. The lesson some policymakers have taken from this crisis is that a systemic risk or “macroprudential” regulator is needed to prevent similar episodes in the future. But what types of risk would this new regulator be tasked with preventing, and is it the case that those activities are currently unsupervised?

Some of the major financial market phenomena that have been identified as posing systemic risk include liquidity problems; “too big to fail” or “systemically important” firms; the cycle of rising leverage followed by rapid deleverage; weaknesses in payment, settlement, and clearing systems; and asset bubbles. The Federal Reserve (Fed) already regulates bank holding companies and financial holding companies for capital and liquidity requirements, and it can advise their behavior in markets that it does not regulate. In addition, the Fed directly regulates or operates in some payment, settlement, and clearing systems. Many too big to fail firms are already regulated by the Fed because they are banks, although some may exist in what is referred to as the shadow banking system, which is largely free of federal regulation for safety and soundness. The Fed's monetary policy mandate is broad enough to allow it to use monetary policy to prick asset bubbles, although it has not chosen to do so in the past. Neither the Fed nor other existing regulators have the authority to identify and address gaps in existing regulation that they believe pose systemic risk.

Opponents of a systemic risk regulator argue that regulators did not fail to prevent the crisis because they lacked the necessary authority, but because they used their authority poorly and failed to identify systemic risk until it was too late. They fear that greater government regulation of financial markets will lead to moral hazard problems that increase systemic risk. On the other hand, the current crisis has demonstrated that government intervention may become unavoidable, even when firms or markets are not explicitly regulated or protected by the government.

If policymakers choose to create a systemic risk regulator, those duties could be given to the Fed or a new or existing regulator in the executive branch. The Fed's political independence has been used as an argument for and against giving it systemic risk regulatory responsibilities. Another consideration is that the Fed's existing responsibilities already have some overlap with systemic risk regulation. These responsibilities include a statutory mandate to maintain full employment and stable prices and the role of lender of last resort, as well as being the institution with the broadest existing financial regulatory powers.

The t Financial Stability Improvement Ac t of 2009 (H.R. 4173) passed the House on December 11, 2009. The Restoring American Financial Stability Act was ordered to be reported out of the Senate Banking Committee on March 22, 2010. Provisions of these bills involving the Federal Reserve and systemic risk are discussed in this report, including the creation of a Financial Services Oversight Council and the regulation of systemically significant firms by the Fed. Neither bill creates a “systemic risk regulator”; nonetheless, many of the potential duties that could be assigned to a systemic risk regulator discussed in this report are included in both bills. The bills spread these duties among multiple regulators, although many of the important ones are assigned to the Fed. Although this could be portrayed as an expansion of the Fed's powers, the bills also strip the Fed of certain powers and creates new checks on other powers.

Financial Turmoil: Federal Reserve Policy Responses

Date of Report: March 26, 2010
Number of Pages: 28
Order Number: R40877

The Federal Reserve (Fed) has been central in the policy response to the financial turmoil that began in August 2007. It has sharply increased reserves to the banking system through open market operations and lowered the federal funds rate and discount rate on several occasions. In December 2008, it formally shifted its primary focus away from targeting the federal funds rate, allowing it to fall close to zero. As the crisis deepened, the Fed's focus shifted to providing liquidity directly to the financial system through new policy tools. Through new credit facilities, the Fed first expanded the scale of its lending to the banking system and then extended direct lending to non-bank financial firms. The latter marked the first time in over 50 years that financial institutions that are not member banks of the Federal Reserve System have been allowed to borrow directly from the Fed. After the crisis worsened in September 2008, the Fed began providing credit directly to markets for commercial paper and asset-backed securities. These programs resulted in an increase in the Fed's balance sheet of $1.4 trillion at its peak in December 2008, staying relative steady since then. The Fed's authority and capacity to lend is bound only by fears of the inflationary consequences, which have been partly offset by additional debt issuance by the Treasury. High inflation is unlikely to materialize as long as the crisis persists, but after the financial system stabilizes, the Fed may have to scale back its balance sheet rapidly to avoid it.

In March 2008, JPMorgan Chase agreed to acquire Bear Stearns. As part of the agreement, the Fed made a $28.82 billion loan to a limited liability corporation (LLC) it created to buy $29.97 billion of assets from Bear Stearns. The Fed has also agreed to make loans and purchase assets through an LLC from the American International Group (AIG) worth more than $120 billion. In November 2008, the Fed and federal government agreed to guarantee losses on $306 billion of assets owned by Citigroup. In all of these agreements, the Fed is exposed to downside financial risk if the assets purchased or guaranteed fall in value.
The statutory authority for most of the Fed's recent actions is based on a clause in the Federal Reserve Act to be used in “unusual or exigent circumstances” that had not been invoked in more than 70 years. All loans are backed by collateral that reduces the risk of losses. Any losses borne by the Fed from its loans or asset purchases would reduce the profits it remits to the Treasury, making the effect on the federal budget similar to if the loans were made directly by Treasury. It is highly unlikely that losses would exceed its other profits and capital, and require revenues to be transferred to the Fed from the Treasury.

Two policy issues raised by the Fed's actions are issues of systemic risk and moral hazard. Moral hazard refers to the phenomenon where actors take on more risk because they are protected. The Fed's involvement in stabilizing Bear Stearns, AIG, and Citigroup stemmed from the fear of systemic risk (that the financial system as a whole would cease to function) if they were allowed to fail. In other words, the firms were seen as “too big (or too interconnected) to fail.” The Fed's regulatory structure is intended to mitigate the moral hazard that stems from access to government protections. Yet Bear Stearns and AIG were not under the Fed's regulatory oversight because they were not member banks in the Federal Reserve system.

The Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009 (S. 896, P.L. 111-22) permits audits by the Government Accountability Office of limited Fed emergency activities. Other bills to audit the Fed include H.R. 1207/H.R. 3310/S. 604, H.R. 4173, S. 1803, and H.R. 2424/S. 1457. H.R. 4173 also modifies the Fed's regulatory powers and emergency authority, and passed the House on December 11, 2009.

Monetary Policy and the Federal Reserve: Current Policy and Conditions

Marc Labonte
Specialist in Macroeconomic Policy

The Federal Reserve (Fed) defines monetary policy as the actions it undertakes to influence the availability and cost of money and credit to help promote its congressionally mandated goals, achieving a stable price level and maximum sustainable economic growth. Since the expectations of market participants play an important role in determining prices and growth, monetary policy can also be defined to include the directives, policies, statements, and actions of the Fed that influence how the future is perceived. In addition, the Fed acts as a “lender of last resort” to the nation's financial system, meaning that it ensures its sustainability, solvency, and integrity. This role has become of great importance with the onset of the financial crisis in the summer of 2007.

Traditionally, the Fed has had three means for achieving its goals: open market operations involving the purchase and sale of U.S. Treasury securities, the discount rate charged to banks who borrow from the Fed, and reserve requirements that governed the proportion of deposits that must be held either as vault cash or as a deposit at the Federal Reserve. Historically, open market operations have been the primary means for executing monetary policy. Recently, in response to the financial crisis, direct lending has become important once again and the Fed has created a number of new ways for injecting reserves, credit, and liquidity into the banking system, as well as making loans to firms that are not banks. As financial conditions normalize, the Fed is moving back to a more traditional reliance on open market operations.

The Fed conducts open market operations by setting an interest rate target that it believes will allow it to achieve price stability and maximum sustainable growth. The interest rate targeted is the federal funds rate, the price at which banks buy and sell reserves on an overnight basis. This rate is linked to other short term rates and these, in turn, influence longer term interest rates. Interest rates affect interest-sensitive spending – business capital spending on plant and equipment, household spending on consumer durables, and residential investment.

In the short run, monetary policy can be used to stimulate or slow aggregate spending. While monetary policy is charged with promoting maximum sustainable economic growth, it does so only indirectly in the long run by maintaining a stable price level since the direct effect of monetary policy is primarily on the rate of inflation. A low and stable rate of inflation through the business cycle promotes price transparency and, thereby, sounder economic decisions by households and businesses.

The Fed has frequently changed the federal funds target to match changes in expected economic conditions. Between January 3, 2001, and June 25, 2003, the target rate was reduced to 1% from 6½%. This policy was reversed on June 30, 2004, and in 17 equal increments ending on June 29, 2006, the target rate was raised to 5¼%. No additional changes were made until September 18, 2007, when, in a series of 10 moves, the target was reduced to a range of 0% to 1/4% on December 16, 2008, where it now remains. Since then, the Fed has added liquidity to the financial system beyond what is needed to meet its federal funds target through direct lending and, more recently, purchases of Treasury and government sponsored enterprise (GSE) securities. This practice is sometimes referred to as quantitative easing.

For more information on the Fed's crisis-response actions, see CRS Report RL34427, Financial Turmoil: Federal Reserve Policy Responses , by Marc Labonte. Legislative changes to the Fed's duties and authority related to financial regulatory reform can be found in CRS Report R40877,  Financial Regulatory Reform: Systemic Risk and the Federal Reserve , by Marc Labonte.

Date of Report: March 31, 2010

The Global Financial Crisis: Analysis and Policy Implications

Dick K. Nanto, Coordinator
Specialist in Industry and Trade

The world appears to be recovering from the global recession that has caused widespread business contraction, increases in unemployment, and shrinking government revenues. Although the industrialized economies have stopped contracting, for many, unemployment is still rising. The United States likely hit bottom in June 2009, but numerous small banks and households still face huge problems in restoring their balance sheets, and unemployment has combined with subprime loans to keep home foreclosures at a high rate. Nearly all industrialized countries and many emerging and developing nations avoided dropping into another “Great Depression” by implementing sizable economic stimulus and/or financial sector rescue packages, such as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (P.L. 111-5). Several countries have resorted to borrowing from the International Monetary Fund as a last resort. The crisis has exposed fundamental weaknesses in financial systems worldwide, demonstrated how interconnected and interdependent economies are today, and has posed vexing policy dilemmas. 

The process for coping with the crisis by countries across the globe has been manifest in four basic phases. The first has been intervention to contain the contagion and restore confidence in the system. The second has been coping with the secondary effects of the crisis, particularly the global recession and flight of capital from countries in emerging markets and elsewhere that have been affected by the crisis. The third phase of this process is to make changes in the financial system to reduce risk and prevent future crises. In order to give these proposals political backing, world leaders have called for international meetings to address changes in policy, regulations, oversight, and enforcement. On September 24-25, 2009, heads of the G-20 nations met in Pittsburgh to address the global financial crisis. The fourth phase of the process is dealing with political, social, and security effects of the financial turmoil. One such effect is the strengthened role of China in financial markets. 

The role for Congress in this financial crisis is multifaceted. While the recent focus has been on combating the recession, the ultimate issue perhaps is how to ensure the smooth and efficient functioning of financial markets to promote the general well-being of the country while protecting taxpayer interests and facilitating business operations without creating a moral hazard. In addition to preventing future crises through legislative, oversight, and domestic regulatory functions, On June 17, 2009, the Obama Administration presented a proposal for financial regulatory reform that focuses on five areas and includes establishing the Federal Reserve as a systemic risk regulator, creating a Council of Regulators, regulating all financial derivatives, creating a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, improving coordination and oversight of international financial markets, and other provisions. The reform agenda now has moved to Congress with legislation that addresses many of the issues in the Obama plan but also includes other financial issues. Among the numerous bills in Congress addressing the financial crisis, H.R. 4173 (Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009, passed the House on December 1, 2009) addresses many of the concerns raised. Congress also plays a role in measures to reform and recapitalize the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and regional development banks. 

This report provides a historical account and analysis of the crisis through January 2010. For information on current aspects of the crisis, see other CRS reports.

Date of Report: February 4, 2010
Number of Pages: 174
Order Number: RL34742

• June 24, 2010, 1:46 PM ET

Supreme Court Deals Blow to Plaintiffs' Securities Lawyers

Yes, there is news beyond the Skilling case. In fact, the high court today released a total of seven opinions.

We want to delve deeper into one of the rulings, involving a big Australian bank, which potentially could have a big impact on securities fraud litigation.

The case involved a securities fraud suit against National Australia Bank, which trades on the Australian stock exchange.

At issue was whether foreign investors who bought shares of the bank overseas can sue in a New York court for alleged fraud. The Supreme Court upheld a Second Circuit ruling that the suit could be dismissed on the grounds that American courts did not have jurisdiction.

Writing for a unanimous court, Justice Scalia said the securities law at issue — section 10(b) —does not authorize foreign plaintiffs to sue foreign and U.S. defendants for misconduct in connection with securities traded on foreign exchanges.

The ruling could strike at least a glancing blow to securities class action lawyers, who have actively sought foreign investors as clients in U.S. securities litigation.  Here's a link to the ruling and click here for a Reuters account.

Sarah Cave, a partner at Hughes Hubbard, hailed the ruling. “The potential for liability for foreign companies under U.S. securities laws, and the corresponding costs of litigation, will decrease,” she said.

The bank's attorneys, Reuters reports, argued that the  law at issue covered only investors who purchased or sold securities in the United States.

Foreign governments, including Australia, France and the United Kingdom, and business groups had filed briefs in the case arguing against jurisdiction for U.S. courts, according to Reuters.

The ruling “severely limits investors' remedies against securities fraud and it creates a risk that the U.S. will become a center for fraudulent activity,” said Thomas Dubbs, who represented the investors in the case. “We're hopeful Congress in its current work on financial regulatory reform will overrule this decision.”

Click here for Scotusblog summaries of some of the court's other rulings.

David Crockett - Not Yours To Give, A Speech To Congress

U.S. v. King: It's Time for Some Prosecutorial Restraint

In the annals of unwarranted federal criminal prosecutions, it would be tough to find a more outrageous case than that of Idaho farmer Cory King, who stands convicted of felony violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act. Like many farmers in his semi-desert part of the state, King had a decades-long practice of injecting melting snows into his irrigation wells. That way, he could ensure adequate irrigation water for his crops during the dry summer months.

His felony? King failed to obtain a permit from Idaho officials before injecting the water. That, no doubt, was a regulatory infraction. King's farm paid a fine to Idaho officials and promised to get a permit before engaging in the practice again.

But three years later, federal prosecutors decided to jump into the act and make an example of King by indicting him on federal charges. Apparently, the Safe Drinking Water Act makes it a federal crime to violate state rules governing wells. Never mind that the water at issue did not run across any state borders and that the irrigation wells at issue have no connection to any drinking water supply. And never mind that Idaho officials decided that the matter should be handled administratively (although they could have charged King with a misdemeanor violation of Idaho law.)

Federal prosecutors could not resist the urge to exert their authority over a matter that traditionally has been regulated under state law. King was convicted on all charges; he is now appealing that conviction in a federal appeals court in San Francisco.

What makes this prosecution particularly senseless is that the Safe Drinking Water Act was adopted to prevent the pollution of water supplies, yet the evidence at trial convincingly demonstrated (and the trial judge so held) that the water King injected into his irrigation wells contained absolutely no contaminants.

The Safe Drinking Water Act includes numerous loopholes that allow oil and gas producers to inject a wide variety of chemicals into the ground without the need for a permit, yet federal prosecutors somehow deem it appropriate to bring felony charges against farmers who try to ensure that they have enough clean water to irrigate their crops.

King is represented on appeal by noted constitutional scholar Kathleen Sullivan , the former Dean of Stanford Law School. (My employer, the Washington Legal Foundation, also filed a brief in support of King's appeal.)  Sullivan argues that federal prosecution for intrastate activities that violated an Idaho regulation exceeded the federal government's constitutional powers under the Commerce Clause. Here's hoping that the appeals court uses this case to impose some reasonable limits on the use and abuse of federal power.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

The Reserve Officer

A blog for Citizen Warriors written by the leadership and national staff of the Reserve Officers Association educating and advocating for a strong national security policy for the United States

Disabled Veteran Small Businesses Losing Parity

• Undermining opportunities for 8(a), SDVOSBs and WOSBs
• Substantial Federal contracting will not go to 8(a), SDVOSBs, and WOSBs
• Tens of billions of dollars in Federal procurement money could be redirected
• Absolute HUBZone preference could cause an overwhelming economic impact on 8(a), SDVOSBs, and WOSBs
• A copious amount of protests could flood and choke up the procurement process
  

Uploaded: Wednesday, June 23, 2010, 8:44 PM                                             

Friday: Boxer 'office hours' in Portola Valley

Anyone with a problem associated with a federal agency will have an opportunity to discuss it in Portola Valley on Friday, June 25, with a staff member from the office of U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, D-California.

The staff member will be in the Buckeye Room at Town Center, 765 Portola Road, from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. according to Ms. Boxer's office.

Region 9 EPA moves to Jefferson district

Two from the GAO on Superfund

Posted by Laura B. on June 22, 2010 · Leave a Comment

Superfund:  EPA's Estimated Costs to Remediate Existing Sites Exceed Current Funding Levels, and More Sites Are Expected to Be Added to the National Priorities List. GAO-10-380, May 6.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-380
Highlights – http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d10380high.pdf

Superfund:  EPA's Costs to Remediate Existing and Future Sites Will Likely Exceed Current Funding Levels, by John B. Stephenson, director, natural resources and environment, before the Subcommittee on Superfund, Toxics and Environmental Health, Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.  GAO-10-857T, June 22.
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-10-857T

CONTACT:

EPA Press Office

press@epa.gov

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 23, 2010

BAHIA DE MUERTOS LEGAL OPINION

Great Outdoors Initiative to Hold Public Listening Session in Southern California

WASHINGTON – A scheduled July 8 public listening session and discussion will provide an opportunity for leaders of the America's Great Outdoors Initiative to hear from people in Southern California about solutions for building a 21 st century conservation and recreation agenda and reconnecting people with the outdoors. The listening session is free and open to the public and will be held at Occidental College 's Thorne Hall from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on July 8.

The America 's Great Outdoors Initiative was established by President Obama in April at a White House Conference specifically to develop a conservation and recreation agenda worthy of the 21 st century and to reconnect Americans with our great outdoors. To accomplish this goal, the administration's effort will be community driven.

The Secretaries of the departments of Interior and Agriculture, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality have been asked by the president to lead this effort and to listen and learn from people all over the country. Listening sessions will engage a full range of stakeholders including tribal leaders, farmers and ranchers, sportsmen, community park groups, foresters, business people, educators, state and local governments and recreation and conservation groups.

WHO: Representatives from U.S. EPA, CEQ, USDA, DOI and DOD will be present to hear your thoughts and to participate in a conversation with you about America 's Great Outdoors.

WHAT: Opportunities to share your ideas in breakout groups along with presentations by senior officials from U.S. EPA, CEQ, USDA, DOI and DOD and expert panel discussions.

WHEN: Thursday - July 8, 2010, 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

WHERE: Thorne Hall

Occidental College

1600 Campus Road

Los Angeles , Calif.

Please Register: The event is free and open to the public, but please let us know if you will attend so we can plan accordingly. Please register by Thursday, July 1 by sending an email to sun.nelly@epa.gov with your name, the name of the organization with which you are affiliated, if any, your telephone number and email address.

More information on the America 's Great Outdoors Initiative and to submit comments online: http://www.doi.gov/americasgreatoutdoors/

HEARING OF THE DEFENSE SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE
SUBJECT: FY 2011 APPROPRIATIONS FOR AGENCIES UNDER THE JURISDICTION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
CHAIRED BY: SENATOR DANIEL INOUYE (D-HI)
WITNESSES: PANEL I: H. JAMES GOODEN, CHAIRMAN, AMERICAN LUNG ASSOCIATION'S BOARD OF DIRECTORS; REAR ADMIRAL CASEY COANE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY; JANET HIESHETTER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE DYSTONIA MEDICAL RESEARCH FOUNDATION; JOHN DAVIS, FLEET RESERVE ASSOCIATION; PANEL II: TERRY WICK, AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF NURSE ANESTHETISTS; KAREN MASON, OVARIAN CANCER NATIONAL ALLIANCE; KATIE SAVANT, NATIONAL MILITARY FAMILY ASSOCIATION; DAN PUTKA, AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION; PANEL III: JOHN ELKAS, SOCIETY OF GYNECOLOGIC ONCOLOGISTS; RICHARD JONES, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR UNIFORMED SERVICES; ELIZABETH COCHRAN, ASSOCIATIONS FOR AMERICA'S DEFENSE; COL. JONATHAN BERMAN (RETIRED), AMERICAN SOCIETY OF TROPICAL MEDICINE AND HYGIENE; PANEL IV: GEORGE ZITNAY, CO-FOUNDER OF THE DEFENSE AND VETERANS BRAIN INJURY CENTER AND THE INTREPID CENTER OF EXCELLENCE; MAJOR GENERAL DAVID BOCKEL (RETIRED), EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE RESERVE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION; JOY SIMHA, NATIONAL BREAST CANCER COALITION; JOHN BOSLEGO, PROGRAM FOR APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY IN HEALTH

192 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D.C.
10:30 A.M. EDT, TUESDAY, JUNE 23, 2010

SEN. INOUYE: (Sounds gavel.) I'd like to welcome everyone to this hearing, where we receive public testimony pertaining to various issues related to the FY 2011 defense appropriations requests.

Because we have so many witnesses today, I'd like to remind each witness that they'll be limited to no more than four minutes apiece, but I can assure you that your full statement will be made part of the record. ...

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Jun 23, 2010

Union Pacific asks judge to order EPA to stop destroying records related to Omaha lead cleanup

Union Pacific says EPA destroyed records it wanted

OMAHA, Neb. — Union Pacific Corp. asked a federal judge Wednesday to order the Environmental Protection Agency to stop destroying records the railroad requested about lead contamination in Omaha.

The EPA and Union Pacific have been trying for years to settle who should pay more than $200 million to clean up 5,600 lead-contaminated properties in the railroad's home city because they disagree about the source of the contamination.

U.S. District Judge Laurie Smith Camp issued a temporary restraining order Wednesday ordering the EPA not to destroy any records the railroad requested while the lawsuit moves forward.

In Union Pacific's lawsuit, the railroad quotes from several e-mails where an EPA supervisor encourages employees to delete messages so they won't be subject to release as public records under the Freedom of Information Act.

In one e-mail the lawsuit references, the EPA supervisor overseeing the Omaha lead site, Robert Feild, wrote: “It will be critical that every i is dotted and t crossed since we are under a microscope. please delete this message after reading — we receive regular FOIA requests from Union Pacific for our e-mails. thanks, Bob F.”

EPA spokesman Dale Kemery said the agency doesn't typically comment on pending litigation.

Union Pacific said in its lawsuit that the document destruction appears to go back at least to 2004. Railroad officials want the court to help determine what has been destroyed and force the EPA to produce the records.

Union Pacific said the EPA has been slow to respond to the records requests it submitted in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2009. The railroad said it found the e-mails about destroying documents buried in more than 1.1 million pages of records the EPA did provide, but UP is still not sure whether the agency provided everything requested.

Much of eastern Omaha has been designated a superfund site by the EPA because of the extent of the contamination.

Excessive lead is thought to be present in thousands of Omaha yards. The lead can endanger children's health, causing decreased intelligence, slow growth and behavior problems. The EPA has been working to clean up the site for several years because of the health problems high levels of lead can cause.

The EPA has already removed and replaced the soil at nearly 6,000 properties in Omaha, and the agency wants to spend roughly $237 million replacing the soil at 10,000 more yards. The total cost of the EPA cleanup is likely to exceed $400 million, according to agency estimates.

Union Pacific has said it shouldn't be held responsible for the lead contamination, because it only leased property to a smelting company, Asarco, and that ended in 1946 when Asarco bought the land and continued operating a smelter there until its closure in 1997.

Union Pacific also argues that lead-based house paint caused the contamination because nearly 80 percent of the homes in the area were built before 1950, when lead paint was common.

Union Pacific spokeswoman Donna Kush said the railroad believes the e-mails it is requesting would help resolve the dispute over the cause of contamination.

“The documents we're requesting would show what EPA knows about the true cause of lead in Omaha soils and whether the hundreds of millions of dollars EPA is spending will solve the problem,” Kush said.

In another e-mail cited in the lawsuit, Feild asked another EPA official whether samples collected before August 2004 were biased because of the presence of lead paint.

Asarco agreed last year to pay nearly $1.8 billion to help clean up contamination at more than 80 sites in 19 states. Those settlements included $776 million that went to the federal government to help pay for cleanup at 35 different sites, including Omaha.

EPA Reverses Controversial ‘Human Guinea Pig' Rule

Minnesota Incandescent Light Bulb Freedom Act

Because Tom Emmer is finally being revealed for the constitutional idiot and litigious scrub that he is, I am going to repost this, originally published on the Stool on March 17th of this year. The Minnesota Incandescent Light Bulb Freedom Act is, of course, one of Tom Emmer's bright ideas.

o O o

A few years into the future:

[click] Farnsworth? Get down here. I have a case for you.

Is that you, G?

Of course it's me; who else would it be?

I don't know; I just got here a few days ago.

Farnsworth, the newest and greenest assistant in the AG's office, can hardly believe it. He thought it would be weeks before he even saw the AG in the hallway. But to be called to the AG's office this soon!

Hi, G, you said you've got a case for me?

Yes, come in and sit down.

Well, who am I up against?

The Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution.

I beg your pardon?

That's right, you weren't here when the Minnesota Light Bulb Freedom Act was passed. A few years ago, the Legislature passed a law to say that Minnesota could produce and sell incandescent light bulbs even after they were supposed to be phased out by federal law. Well, some fools have been making them, and the Justice Department wants to shut them down. Since it involves the invalidation of a state law, we have to intervene.

Oh, now I get it. The Commerce Clause, which authorizes the federal government to regulate interstate commerce, is the section of the Constitution relied on by the Congress for the Energy Independence and Security Act, sort of like the Clean Water Act, the creation of the EPA, and so on. This, um, doesn't sound like a winner, does it?

Well, the bright lights — so to speak — at the Leege said to the feds when they passed the statue, “If you got a lawsuit, bring it on.” And now they have.

I'm flattered, G, but don't you think this case needs someone with more experience?

Why? The result will be exactly the same. As it is, this will be an expensive enough fiasco for the taxpayer. You're the cheapest one I've got.

But G!

It's called taking one for the team, Farnsworth.

[shoulders sagging, Farnsworth gets up to leave] All right, G.

And Farnsworth —

Yes, G?

Godspeed .

• POLITICS
• JUNE 23, 2010, 7:16 P.M. ET

Treasury Confirms Pay Czar Feinberg to Resign This Summer

BY MEENA THIRUVENGADAM

WASHINGTON -- With few companies left under his supervision and a new disaster to absorb his attention, U.S. pay czar Kenneth Feinberg is stepping down.

Feinberg will resign later this summer to focus ...

Avon TPZ has no jurisdiction over land swap

Published: Wednesday, June 23, 2010

By BARBARA THOMAS

AVON – During the June 22 continuation of a public hearing started on June 8 regarding three applications, all contingent on a land swap between the Avon Land Trust and William and Pamela Ferrigno, members of the Planning and Zoning Commission learned that they have no jurisdiction over the land transfer.

Under an agreement that has been proposed, land on Chidsey Road now owned by the Ferrignos would be exchanged for property on Haynes Road that is presently in the hands of the ALT. That would allow the Ferrignos' Sunlight Construction, Inc. to develop the land on Haynes Road, and for the ALT to own a piece of property where Sunlight Construction would build walking trails, a gazebo and a parking lot. The trails would offer a view of Button Bush Swamp, which is located in the area, as well as Lake Erie.

Sunlight is also applying to build a two-lot resubdivision on Chidsey Road.

On the land currently owned by the ALT on Haynes Road, in addition to adjacent land already owned by the Ferrignos, Sunlight is applying to build a nine-lot subdivision, as well as a zone change to residential.

“…the commission has no authority over the prospective transfer of the land from the Avon Land Trust to Sunlight Construction,” Atty. Michael A. Zizka of Murtha Cullina LLP wrote in a letter to Town Planner Steven Kushner, referring to the Haynes Road property.

Many people attended the public hearing June 22, but when alerted by TPZ Chairman Duane Starr that comments made on June 8 were on record and should not be repeated, far fewer speakers came forward than at the previous meeting.

For instance, since the ALT's property was previously owned by the Nature Conservancy of Connecticut and carried a deed that said it would always be public land, Haynes Road residents have stated their displeasure, saying they had purchased their properties under the assumption that the adjacent land would never be developed.

Residents of Haynes Road were again present June 22, and they offered a few new comments.

One resident mentioned that the neighborhood's roads are in disrepair, and wondered if the blasting that would be done prior to construction would cause any damage to residents' septic systems. He was assured that blasting would follow the regulations that are set by the state fire marshal.

“The [attorney's] letter didn't state if the commission has the authority to say whether the zone change is appropriate,” Greg Frey of Haynes Road said.

He also mentioned that the subdivision, if built, would have a “huge impact to Farmington Woods on its views and property values.”

Residents of Farmington Woods, which abuts the property that would be developed, were in attendance at both hearings raising objections.

Some who spoke June 22 supported the land transfer and the advantages that the Chidsey Road parcel would offer the public.

“I'm a new member of the Avon Land Trust, and my first reaction when I walked the property was one of tranquility and peacefulness,” Carrie Firestone said. “The land is truly a treasure and I believe it should be part of the Avon Land Trust.”

She added that the site has “significant historical value and would be a good place to teach children about what Avon used to be.”

Connie Tassielli of Avon said her grandparents, the Meyers, had bought property on Chidsey Road years ago that is no longer in the family, but she has fond memories of enjoying the land there. When she heard of the proposed land swap she decided to come to the meeting and speak because the Chidsey Road parcel “would be a real benefit to the town.”

Harry Spring, a Chidsey Road resident and biologist, spoke of the biodiversity that exists on the property.

“It was cited as environmentally extremely important – a fragile environment for both animals and plants,” he said.

“Town ownership would be a mistake because there are limited resources to care for the property,” he added. “Meanwhile the Avon Land Trust has volunteers who can help. I implore you for the property to be made available as an educational resource.”

What Spring was referring to was a point made in the letter from Zizka. Since the ALT's control of the 15.8-acre parcel would not guarantee that it remain open, the letter states, “In order for the town to assure permanent public benefits from an open-space dedication, the town itself must acquire enforceable rights in the land…”

Options for doing so include town ownership or obtaining a conservation easement.

ALT member Rick ?? questioned a suggestion that was made regarding making the Chidsey Road site a town park.

“We don't understand what that entails and what the expenses would be; we're a non-profit and have limited funding,” he said. “We would be willing to work with the town if the town maintains the property. With our properties, we maintain them by walking them.”

Kushner said the intent of making the site a town park was that when the public uses the property, they should be subject to rules.

“We don't have rules for our properties; they're woods,” he said.

He also noted that it would be of great benefit to the town to have a conservation easement with the ALT.

“We [the land trust] have an exclusion from liability that the town doesn't have,” he said.

Another subject discussed during the public hearing was sewers for the nine-lot subdivision.

“The town engineer has requested septic and cap sewers,” said Atty. Bob Meyers, representing the Ferrignos.

The cap sewers would be put in place for the future possibility of sewer lines being installed on Haynes Road.

“Mrs. Griffin asked at the last meeting if sewers could be put in for the entire neighborhood, and we found out that Haynes Road is the town's number one priority for the installation of sewers,” Meyers said.

In order for that to happen, an agreement would have to be reached with current residents of Haynes Road stating their willingness to install sewers.

“It's rare that the town would do it for just nine properties,” Kushner said.

Another subject that came up is that Haynes Road is considered a “temporary” cul-de-sac but there has been no attempt to connect it to any other town road. There are currently 82 houses on the road.

“It was supposed to be connected but we have not seen it opened,” Commissioner Linda said. “There was a fatality on the street in 1986 and it was hard for people to get in and out. I don't want to add more houses, plus the potential of sewers going in, when there is only one way in and out.”

The public hearing will be continued again at the commission's July 6 meeting, when more information will be presented regarding the applications, Starr said.

MMS Moving to Mandate Safety Standards for Rig Workers

The worker-safety standards in place for offshore oil rigs before the Deepwater Horizon blast two months ago were voluntary and developed in consultation with the oil industry, a senior official at the retooled Minerals Management Service (MMS) told lawmakers today.

Doug Slitor, now the acting chief of offshore regulatory programs at the reorganized MMS, told members of the House Education and Labor Committee that his office is now working to turn the once-recommended worker safety guidelines -- drafted with the American Petroleum Institute -- into a mandatory program.

"Safety process management rules are absolutely critical. ... It is stunning that we don't have one in place for these rigs," said Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the Education and Labor panel, who pointed to safety lapses that have contributed to a number of past refinery and chemical accidents.

"When you're taking advice from the oil industry, you have to balance that off" by consulting with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the primary federal enforcer of worker safety rules, Miller added.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle raised questions about which agency should lead safety inspections of offshore rigs in the wake of the explosion that triggered the ongoing Gulf of Mexico gusher. Rep. John Kline of Minnesota, the committee's senior Republican, identified "confusion on everybody's part about who's in charge."

OSHA has authority over worker safety on land and near shore in the Gulf, but the agency's jurisdiction stops 3 miles offshore. The Coast Guard assumed jurisdiction over offshore rigs in 1979 but later delegated some safety inspection responsibilities to MMS, Rear Adm. Kevin Cook told lawmakers today.

That scenario has raised concerns among some public-health advocates monitoring the Gulf disaster who fear that monitoring of hazardous chemical exposures among offshore cleanup workers is inadequate to protect them from adverse health consequences ( Greenwire , June 11).

"It's time that we realized cleanup crews are being exposed to unhealthy chemicals and toxins that can have debilitating health effects," Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) said.

OSHA chief David Michaels declined to call for an expansion of his agency's authority to cover offshore rigs. Instead, Michaels warned that his current safety-inspection resources are stretched thin as it is.

Slitor sounded the same note about MMS, calling its task of conducting annual safety checks "a challenge," given its 56 inspectors in the Gulf. The outer continental shelf area includes more than 3,500 offshore rigs, according to Slitor.

OSHA is still in settlement negotiations with BP PLC following its 2009 issuance of $87 million in fines over a fatal explosion at the company's Texas City refinery. The agency can levy a maximum $7,000 fine on businesses for individual safety violations, which Michaels depicted as an insufficient deterrent.

"We're talking about companies whose profits are billions of dollars a year," Michaels said, for which "the costs of an OSHA fine are part of the cost of doing business."

Michaels added that a narrow focus on worker injuries or illnesses at oil rigs, refineries and chemical plants is unlikely to provide the level of protection required to monitor complex energy facilities.

"We have to look at how they make decisions, how they investigate near-misses," Michaels said.

Copyright 2010 E&E Publishing. All Rights Reserved.

For more news on energy and the environment, visit www.greenwire.com .

Quote of the day

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Not that rare a sentiment among Shasta County officials angry about the Forests Service's handling of the travel-management rule, but it carries more clout when it comes from our congressman, Wally Herger.

Here's a letter he sent earlier this month to Randy Moore, the regional forester. Click to expand.

Quote of the day

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Not that rare a sentiment among Shasta County officials angry about the Forests Service's handling of the travel-management rule, but it carries more clout when it comes from our congressman, Wally Herger.

Here's a letter he sent earlier this month to Randy Moore, the regional forester. Click to expand.

Statement

ACC: Responsible Parties Paying for Superfund Site Cleanup

Misconceptions Could Lead to Inappropriate Taxation, Loss of U.S. Jobs without Environmental Benefit

ARLINGTON, VA (June 21, 2010) – Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wrote to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calling for the reinstatement of Superfund taxes.

American Chemistry Council (ACC) President and CEO Cal Dooley issued the following statement:

“EPA's call for the re-imposition of Superfund taxes is a lose-lose for the environment and the economy. We read with particular interest EPA's comment that ‘parties who benefit from the manufacture or sale of substances commonly found in contaminated sites contribute to the cost of cleanup.' The fact is, since the taxes expired in 1995, responsible parties have continued paying for the cleanup of Superfund sites and continue to reimburse EPA for all of its cleanup costs.  America's chemical makers and others targeted by the Superfund tax have paid for site remediation several times over: We paid for sites for which we were responsible, we helped pay for ‘orphan' sites where we were not the responsible party, and we paid corporate taxes such as the Corporate Environmental Income Tax. It would be inappropriate and unfair to impose Superfund taxes on companies with no responsibility for site contamination.

“Even worse, EPA's suggestion is in direct conflict with Congress's desire to grow U.S. jobs and President Obama's stated goal of doubling U.S. exports.  The re-imposition of Superfund taxes will simply give our foreign competitors, who don't pay the tax, yet another advantage.  We'll see the loss of U.S. market share, the importation of finished products, the loss of American jobs and even the tax revenue Congress was seeking in the first place.

“It's important to understand that Superfund taxes do not control the pace of cleanup, and the taxes have never correlated to EPA's annual Superfund budget, which is instead determined through the Congressional appropriations process. The budget challenges facing Congress are not a valid justification for taking action that will cost U.S. jobs and damage our nation's global competitiveness without positively affecting site remediation.

“The U.S. chemical industry employs more than 800,000 Americans and creates over five million jobs in downstream sectors.  The industry is already facing slumping demand from the recession, continued high costs for energy, intense foreign competition, and razor-thin margins. It's imperative that Congress recognize the short-sighted nature of EPA's proposal and reject the re-imposition of Superfund taxes.”

Learn more about Energy and Superfund taxes .

New Machine Makes Sandbagging Easy

FOX 4 Web Producer

June 23, 2010

"The only time EPA will enter a court room is to decontaminate" ed.

Dems: We're not bound by president's tax vow

Democrats are looking at the possibility of raising taxes on families below the $250,000-a-year threshold promised by President Barack Obama during the election.

The majority party on Capitol Hill does not feel bound by that pledge, saying the threshold for tax hikes will depend on several factors, such as the revenue differences between setting the threshold at $200,000 and setting it at $250,000.
“You could go lower, too — why not $200,000?” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). “With the debt and deficit we have, you can't make promises to people. This is a very serious situation.”

Sen. Byron Dorgan (N.D.), chairman of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, concurred, saying, “I don't think there's any magic in the number, whether it's $250,000, $200,000 or $225,000.

“The larger question is whether we'll be able to extend the tax cuts for middle-income folks,” Dorgan said. “The answer, I expect, would be yes, but we don't quite know how it all fits in the larger picture.”

Feinstein said the economy has not recovered as much as Democrats had hoped and uncertainty about the availability of credit remains a problem.

 In the aftermath of the financial crisis in Greece, credit markets have been spooked by questions of whether nations will be able to pay their rising debts.

“We have to be very careful what we do to further reduce tax revenues,” Feinstein said.

 Thus, raising taxes on families who earn between $200,000 and $250,000 has become more palatable among Democrats.

 Federal spending and debt are widely, although not universally, regarded among economists as unsustainable.

 Centrist Democrats and most Republicans demand that new spending be offset.

 Democratic lawmakers want to shield middle-income families from tax increases, but they don't necessarily put families making over $200,000 in that category.

 “I'm not hard and fast on $250,000,” said Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa). “Quite frankly, it could be somewhat lower than that. $250,000 — is that the top 1 percent of Americans, or half a percent? I mean, come on!”

 Household income data compiled by the Census Bureau in 2008 shows that families earning over $250,000 fall into the top 2 percent.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) hinted in a speech Tuesday that House Democrats do not consider family incomes of $250,000 an inviolable threshold, despite Obama's pledge.

He said at the event sponsored by the Third Way think tank that “at a minimum,”the House would not extend the tax cuts to taxpayers above $250,000.

 Hoyer argued that higher taxes would be necessary to address the $1.5 trillion federal deficit and downplayed threats that such action would hamstring the economic recovery.

 “Raising revenue is part of the deficit solution, too,” he said, adding that Congress must also cut spending.

 Hoyer said a compromise to cut spending and raise taxes is the only deficit-reduction plan that has a chance of succeeding.

 A bipartisan commission Obama established by executive order is scheduled to give its recommendations for reducing the debt by Dec. 1.

Erskine Bowles, co-chairman of the commission, said in April that the panel would consider a proposal to raise taxes on families earning less than $250,000 a year.

During an appearance on Fox News Sunday at that time, Bowles said the president told him that everything should be on the table.

 Senate Republicans accused Democrats of breaking Obama's campaign pledge.

“It is noteworthy that the Democratic leader, the majority leader of the House, is saying that we need to, in effect, raise taxes on the middle class, and the president ought to back off of that pledge as a way to get even more money to spend,” said Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.).

 “Clearly, that's the wrong direction, and I don't think that's what the American people are asking for,” he added.

McConnell said Democrats are looking to raise taxes because they are having difficulty passing and paying for legislation such as extended tax relief and social safety-net provisions.

 “The Democrats used all the revenue in this place on healthcare reform and they can't do anything else unless there's more revenue,” said a senior Republican aide.

 Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.) acknowledged that using popular offsets to pay for healthcare reform has made it tougher to find ways to pay for other legislation.

 Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said Tuesday that he has not even begun to focus on the thorny issue of extending Bush-era tax cuts for families earning less than $250,000.

“We're not looking at that now,” Baucus said.

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) circulated a flier among colleagues at lunch Tuesday urging them to sunset tax cuts for families earning $250,000 and above. The memo stated that allowing the tax cut that Republicans passed in 2001 to expire would generate $700 billion in revenue.

UA Scientists Study Contaminants in Arizona Air, Water

Much of the federally funded work centers on when and how arsenic in dust from Arizona's desert harms the human body.

Are Arizona's air and water affecting our health?  Are contaminants in the desert environment changing our genomes in ways that encourage disease, including cancer?

These are two of the critical questions being investigated by environmental researchers at the University of Arizona, thanks to recent funding by the federal government through the Superfund Research Program. Much of the work centers on when and how arsenic in dust from Arizona's desert harms the human body.

"Here at the University of Arizona, we have assembled a focused team of investigators to address environmental problems unique to our desert environment," said A. Jay Gandolfi, director of the UA Superfund Research Program .

"Mining brought many benefits to Arizona and the Southwest in decades past, but we are learning more every year about the legacy of our mining history," he said. "Mine tailings – the large piles of crushed rock left over in the old mines after copper, silver, gold or zinc were extracted – contain many other metals that may harm us in ways we don't fully understand yet."

More than 350,000 acres of mine tailings exist in Arizona, said Gandolfi, who also is associate dean for research and graduate studies at the UA College of Pharmacy .

"Since the 1990s, we've been especially concerned about the effects of residual arsenic in these tailings," Gandolfi said. "Our newest research is focused on finding out what happens when arsenic particles from the tailings get into our air, are blown around and we breathe them in. We are the first scientists in the country asking these questions."

More than 75 scientists from five colleges at the UA are working on various aspects of the complex environmental pollution problems in the arid Southwest.

Some researchers are trying to establish standards for "safe" levels of arsenic exposure, as previous UA studies show harmful effects to human cell cultures from low-level exposures. Others are honing in on how arsenic exposure contributes to specific diseases.

A research team led by Todd D. Camenisch, associate professor at the UA College of Pharmacy, is seeking to discover how exposure to arsenic contributes both to congenital heart malformations and adult heart disease. Heart malformations are the most common birth defects in the U.S., and heart disease remains the No. 1 killer of American adults.

"Other studies have shown a link between arsenic exposure and the incidence of heart disease," Camenisch said. "Through understanding better how arsenic affects fetal development and cardiovascular disease, we may be able to make a major improvement in the health of people here in the desert Southwest."

Another UA pharmacy professor is investigating how environmental exposures to arsenic may lead to cancer. "Imprinted on our genomes is a ‘molecular memory' of our own unique exposures to the environment, including toxicants," said Bernard Futscher, who also is a member of the Arizona Cancer Center.

"This molecular memory includes changes to our genomes that are linked to the cause and progression of human diseases, including cancer," he said. "Sleuthing our genome to discover the critical changes that result from arsenic exposure provides an opportunity for us to better understand and treat the molecular origins of disease."

Gandolfi, Futscher and Camenisch are also members of the UA's BIO5 Institute .

Funding for these and seven other studies about the effects of environmental contamination in Arizona comes to the UA Superfund Research Program from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The new research will total about $14 million in funding over the next five years. 

Since 1989, superfund studies have addressed multiple health effects and community clean-up issues associated with hazardous wastes, including TCE (trichloroethylene), and have brought more than $62 million to the UA and Arizona.

The UA Superfund Research Program investigates the hazardous waste and public health issues confronting the Southwestern region of the U.S., specifically arsenic, chlorinated hydrocarbon and mine tailings contamination, and employs an interdisciplinary approach to environmental research and education.

Opening Statement of Senator James M. Inhofe

Oversight of the Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund Program

Link to Opening Statement

Good afternoon.  Chairman Lautenberg, as always, it's good to see you, and I continue to hope for your speedy recovery.

We are here today to hold an oversight hearing on EPA's Superfund program.  As the Ranking Member on the EPW Committee, and as the Ranking Member on this subcommittee, I am glad to be here to discuss this important program.

As I've noted before, the Obama Administration has exploited the BP spill to pursue a radical agenda to shut down America's domestic production of oil and gas.  Of course, there's ample evidence for that-just consider its recent support for legislation to re-impose the Superfund tax.

The Obama Administration has consistently supported that tax-but until recently, other than mentioning it in budget documents, its public support was muted.  But the spill has changed that-now they feel the political climate is right to tax oil and gas companies.

Yet many forget how broadly the Superfund tax applies.  If you own a business with over $2 million in revenue-regardless of what you manufacture-you would pay the tax.  In other words: the Superfund tax is also a small business tax, affecting thousands of such businesses across the country, and their employees.

If the Obama Administration is serious about finding ways to stimulate the economy and create jobs, imposing a tax on small businesses is obviously the wrong remedy.

I should also note that responsible parties under Superfund already pay for approximately 70 percent of the clean-ups.  I would challenge EPA to show me one site where a viable,  potentially responsible party has not been made to pay their share.  That's as it should be.  The other 30 percent are orphan sites-that means EPA can't locate the responsible parties, because they no longer exist.  Now again, some think reimposing the Superfund tax means more sites will be cleaned up faster.  But that's not true.  As the Government Accountability Office noted last year in a report I requested , “the balance in the Superfund trust fund does not affect the funds available for current or future annual appropriations.”

Now,  I'd like to turn to something more positive.  I would be remiss not to mention EPA Region Six and once again say how pleased I am with the progress that we have achieved at Tar Creek.  There is much more to be done, but I am very pleased with the progress we have made so far.

According to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, one in four Americans lives near a Superfund site.  For instance, the Washington Naval Yard is the closest Superfund site to the Capitol, located on the Anacostia River.  Superfund sites are all around us, making this a program of great importance.

The pace of cleaning up Superfund sites has been a prominent issue and remains so today. However, the logical reason for this is not due to a lack of funding, as some of my colleagues may argue.  This is due to the fact that EPA is addressing larger and much more complex sites, such as Tar Creek.  By their very nature, these large sites take more time and resources to complete.  EPA prioritizes these sites, and for those of us who have waited patiently, while other states have had multiple sites cleaned up in a given year, it is frustrating to hear these complaints.

If we want to expedite the pace of clean-ups, and ultimately reduce costs, in some cases, we should give more latitude to local and state officials, who know these sites first hand.  That's because sometimes, unfortunately, EPA can get in the way.

A prime example of this is the Highway 71/72 Refinery in Bossier City, Louisiana.  This was a former refinery that was redeveloped for private residences and that eventually became contaminated.  This was a site where the local and state governments and the company jointly worked out a viable solution.  EPA, however, to the dismay of those involved, objected and overruled it.

One other Superfund issue that I would like to address is the need for EPA to reduce its administrative costs.  A perfect example of this is EPA's new Integrated Cleanup Initiative.  This initiative attempts to remarket EPA's progress at Superfund sites.  This will provide new metrics to measure progress at Superfund sites.  So EPA is essentially using taxpayers hard-earned dollars to create a public relations tool. 

I believe that this makes no sense, and I hope that my colleagues on this committee will agree with me.  Even if we disagree on Superfund issues, we will always use the same metrics that have been used for the past thirty years to measure progress at Superfund sites.  So no one, except EPA, will be using this initiative.  This is money that could be used on the ground to fund clean-ups; instead, it's being used to wage a public relations campaign.  This is exactly the type of administrative cost that EPA should be reducing instead of increasing, and I hope that they will redirect their funds to actually cleaning up these sites.

I look forward to hearing from the witnesses especially Dr. J. Winston Porter testimony on panel two. Thank you.

Herger: Congressional Democrats Fail in “Most Basic Responsibility” of Governing
Congressman Wally Herger (R-CA) issued a statement

From PoliticalNews.me)
Washington, D.C. - Congressman Wally Herger (R-CA) issued a statement today criticizing House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's (D-MD) announcement today that House Democrats will not pass a budget this year. A budget is essentially a roadmap, a plan for where we're going as a nation, and it is critical to getting spending under control. Under the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, by April 15 of each year, Congress is instructed to pass a resolution setting the federal government's budget for the next fiscal year. Since passage of the Congressional Budget Act, the House has never failed to pass a budget resolution. Hoyer's announcement confirms Congressional Democrats' failure to live up to what Hoyer himself has called “the most basic responsibility” of governing. Herger's comments follow below:

“Throughout Northern California, working families sit down and figure out their budget. They make hard choices and live within their means because it's the responsible thing to do. Sadly, Congressional Democrats don't feel that same obligation as the stewards of the federal budget. Instead of getting together and making tough decisions, they've chosen to keep their head in the sand by not passing a budget. Failure to even propose a budget fundamentally means that Congressional Democrats have no plan. A problem won't go away just by ignoring it – look at what has happened in California. It will require real leadership and a commitment to fiscal discipline to tackle the out-of-control spending and debt that threatens American jobs and our economic prosperity. Instead of acknowledging the skyrocketing debt, out of political expedience, they have chosen to ignore it. But the American people won't ignore the massive tax increases coming their way, or the crushing burden of debt Washington is leaving our children and grandchildren.”

TIME FOR A NEW CAPITAL IF YOU ASK ME. ed.

June 22, 2010

Posting Defamatory Comments on the Internet Could Subject You to Personal Jurisdiction in Another State

In Kauffman Racing Equip., L.L.C., v. Roberts, Slip Opinion No. 2010-Ohio-2551, Justice Pfeifer writing for the Ohio Supreme Court examined the issue of whether an Ohio court can properly assert personal jurisdiction over a nonresident defendant when jurisdiction is predicated on that defendant's publication of allegedly defamatory statements on the Internet.

His conclusion in this defamation case? Personal jurisdiction is proper over Roberts the nonresident defendant.

The parties involved;

Appellee, Kauffman Racing Equipment, L.L.C. (KRE) is an Ohio limited liability company that constructs engine blocks and related high-performance automotive equipment for public sale. Although its business dealings are nationwide, KRE maintains its sole business operations and office in Glenmont, Ohio. {¶ 2}

Appellant, Scott Roberts, is a 30-year resident of Virginia who has never physically entered Ohio. {¶ 3}

Roberts purchased an MR-1 Pontiac engine block from KRE and was dissatisfied. As a result, from October 18, 2006, through November 2006, Roberts posted numerous rancorous criticisms of KRE on various websites devoted to automobile racing equipment and related subjects. His commentary appeared on the public-forum section of the websites PerformanceYears.com and PontiacStreetPerformance.com and in an item description on the Internet auction website, eBay Motors. {¶ 3}, {¶ 6}

This post on eBay where Roberts listed the block for sale aptly summarizes the attitude of his allegedly defamatory posts about KRE;

“This is a Kauffman MR-1 Block. It has some real issues. * * * Steve Kaufmann [sic] says it's the best aftermarket block out there for a Pontiac, but I now know better. * * * Basically this block is junk and I have bought an IAII block to replace it. It has never been assembled. * * * Also the service you would get from Steve Kauffman of K&M performance is less than honorable. I brought the issues to his attention and he basically gave me the middle fingersalute.” {¶ 15}

The Ohio S.C. noted that personal jurisdiction is a question of law and that Kauffman Racing Equipment (KRE) bore the burden to demonstrate that personal jurisdiction over defendant Roberts by the Ohio trial court was proper. However, the court also iterated that “because the trial court decided Roberts's Civ.R. 12(B)(2) motion,” (to dismiss) “upon written submissions and without an evidentiary hearing, KRE had to make only a prima facie showing of jurisdiction.” {¶ 27}

The Ohio Supreme Court avoided narrowing the scope of its analysis by noting that the Zippo test, often found referenced in Internet law , was inapplicable to the instant case. The Zippo test arose from the case of Zippo Mfg. Co. v. Zippo Dot Com, Inc. (W.D.Pa.1997), 952 F.Supp. 1119, 1124, and has been employed to determine whether Internet activity between the defendant and the forum state establishes jurisdiction using a “sliding scale” approach. However, the Zippo test was meant to apply to examining issues within a commercial or business context and as this court points out in its analysis, this makes the Zippo case “factually distinct from this case.” {¶ 26}

For more a quick aside to an exploration of personal jurisdiction over defendants outside of your home state, Zippo, Hansen, and WWVolkswagen, check this out;

• Internet Lawyer Update: Personal Service over Foreign Corporations,

Back to KRE v. Roberts - After rejecting the Zippo test's application to the current case, the court then embarked on a traditional two step analysis of personal jurisdiction;

1. "Whether the longarm statute and the applicable rule of civil procedure confer jurisdiction, and if so,
2. Whether the exercise of jurisdiction would deprive the nonresident defendant of the right to due process of law under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.” {¶ 28}

In examining the first prong of its traditional personal jurisdiction test, the court enumerated a number of factors which played heavily into its determination of this issue;

• “Despite the fact that Roberts's publication of his comments did not emanate from Ohio, those comments were received in Ohio. KRE submitted evidence that at least five Ohio residents had seen the comments posted by Roberts.” {¶ 41}

• “Because Roberts's allegedly defamatory statements were published in Ohio, his alleged tort was committed in Ohio, and he falls within the grasp” of Ohio's long-arm statute, R.C. 2307.382. {¶ 29}

• “Even if we assume that Roberts's alleged tortious conduct did not take place within the territorial boundaries of Ohio, he nonetheless “might reasonably have expected that [KRE] would be injured in this state.” {¶ 44}

Analysis of the first prong of the traditional personal jurisdiction test applied to defendant Roberts is nicely summed up by Pfeifer here;

“When defamatory statements regarding an Ohio plaintiff are made outside the state yet with the purpose of causing injury to the Ohio resident and there is a reasonable expectation that the purposefully inflicted injury will occur in Ohio, the requirements of R.C. 2307.382(A)(6) are satisfied. It is clear from the postings that Roberts's statements were made with the purpose of injuring KRE. Therefore, the long-arm statute permits the exercise of personal jurisdiction over Roberts in Ohio.” {¶ 44}

Pfeifer found this reasonable expectation of defendant Robert's purposefully inflicted injuries occurring in Ohio to be sufficient to satisfy the first prong of the personal jurisdiction analysis.

With the longarm statute conferring personal jurisdiction, Pfeifer began examination of the second prong of his personal jurisdiction analysis;

He noted that this is necessary because “although Ohio's long-arm statute confers personal jurisdiction over Roberts, an Ohio court cannot exercise personal jurisdiction over Roberts if doing so would violate his constitutional right to due process. {¶ 45}

Justice Pfeifer then made sure to include reference to the U.S.S.C. case of International Shoe . International Shoe set the standard that due process is satisfied by a defendant who has “minimum contacts” with the forum state such that bringing suit within the forum state would not offend “traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice.' 326 U.S. at 316, 66 S.Ct. 154” {¶ 45}

Minimum contacts analysis led Pfeifer to apply the Hansen test. The minimum contacts requirement is met when a nonresident defendant “purposefully avails [himself] of the privilege of conducting activities within the forum State.” Hanson, 357 U.S. at 253, 78 S.Ct. 1228. {¶ 45}

In continuing his analysis of the due process second prong and now addressing personal availment in terms of due process and specific jurisdiction under the S. Machine Co. test;

Pfeifer adopts the three-part test from S. Machine Co., 401 F.2d at 381, to use in determining whether specific jurisdiction here is consistent with due process. {¶ 50}

The first factor of the Machine test focuses on purposeful availment. It is whether the defendant purposefully availed himself of the privilege of acting in the forum state or causing a consequence in the forum state. {¶ 51}

Pfeifer relied on reference to the U.S.S.C. case of Calder v. Jones, (1984), 465 U.S. 783, 104 S.Ct. 1482, to examine the first Machine factor. In Calder, the Court examined purposeful availment in regards to jurisdiction in a defamation case. “They knew that the brunt of that injury would be felt by respondent in the State in which she lives and works and in which the National Enquirer has its largest circulation. Under the circumstances, petitioners must ‘reasonably anticipate being haled into court there' to answer for the truth of the statements made in their article. World-Wide Volkswagen Corp. v. Woodson, 444 U.S. at 297, 100 S.Ct. at 567, 62 L.Ed.2d 490” {¶ 52}

Applying Calder and WWVolks to KRE v. Roberts, “Roberts intended the effects of his conduct to be felt in Ohio. His statements were communicated with the very purpose of having their consequences felt by KRE in Ohio…The postings themselves indicate his purpose of injuring Kauffman…Many of the postings name Kauffman directly and specifically mention Ohio.” {¶ 67}

It appears that when viewed in the light most favorable to KRE and when resolvingnall reasonable competing inferences in favor of KRE, the evidence shows that Roberts intentionally and tortiously sought to harm KRE's reputation and negatively affect its contracts and business relationships. {¶ 69}

The second prong of the Machine test involves an analysis of whether KRE's claims arise from those contacts. “This criterion requires only ‘that the cause of action, of whatever type, have a substantial connection with the defendant's in-state activities.” {¶ 70}

Pfeifer found that KRE has made a prima facie showing that the cause of action arose from Roberts's contacts with Ohio. He highlighted that;

“Not only does the cause of action arise from defamatory statements, those statements themselves are predicated on the business dealings between Roberts and KRE. The catalyst for Roberts's actions was his Ohio contacts. In fact, but for his contacts with Ohio, Roberts's allegedly defamatory statements would not have been posted.” {¶ 70}

The third and final prong of the Machine test requires that the acts of the nonresident defendant or consequences caused by the defendant must have a substantial connection with the forum state to make exercise of jurisdiction over the defendant reasonable. {¶ 71}

Pfeifer equates this third prong to a reasonableness inquiry and assesses both KRE's and (possibly more importantly) Ohio's interest in the suit. He finds that KRE and Ohio both maintain a clear interest in KRE's obtaining the relief sought, the reasonableness factor is satisfied and finally that Ohio is the appropriate forum.

In conclusion, Pfeifer left us with this;

“Viewing the evidence in a light most favorable to KRE, we conclude that Ohio's long-arm statute and the applicable rule of civil procedure confer jurisdiction over Roberts and that an exercise of jurisdiction of the trial court would not deprive this nonresident defendant of the right to due process of law under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.” {¶ 74}

The dissent;

Justices O'Donnell and Lanzinger disagreed with the majority's application of Calder. They noted that in Calder “the court stressed not only the location of the injury but also the “pervasive nature” of the Enquirer's reach in California – particularly given the fact that its circulation there, at 600,000, was twice that in any other state.” The dissent distinguished Calder by noting that the reach of Roberts's comments to Ohio residents is not at all comparable to the reach of the National Enquirer's circulation to California residents. Further, O'Donnell went on to warn that “the practical impact of the majority's holding in this case is to unnecessarily chill the exercise of free speech.” {¶ 81}

This newest court ruling expands the scope of personal jurisdiction for Ohio State courts further into content posted over the Internet. The ensuing ramifications of this expansive ruling have yet to play themselves out but it will be interesting to see how both Internet Lawyers and subsequent court rulings will handle this case.

This case, related information and further discussion can be found here;

Kauffman Racing Equip., L.L.C., v. Roberts, Slip Opinion No. 2010-Ohio-2551,

Ohio high court extends libel reach to Virginia resident,

Ohio Supreme Court Rules Commenter in Virginia Can Be Brought to Court in Ohio

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Posting Defamatory Comments on the Internet Could Subject You to Personal Jurisdiction in Another State :

Imposing the long-arm of the law over the Internet

By JOSH FUNK (AP) – 2 hours ago

OMAHA, Neb. — Union Pacific has asked a judge to order the Environmental Protection Agency to stop destroying records the railroad requested about lead contamination in Omaha.

The EPA and Union Pacific have been trying for years to settle who should pay more than $50 million to clean up 5,600 lead-contaminated properties.

The railroad says in a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday that several e-mails show an EPA supervisor encouraged employees to delete messages so they wouldn't have to be released as public records.

Union Pacific Corp. says it shouldn't be held responsible for the contamination. It says it only leased property to a smelting company, Asarco, which later bought the land in 1946.

Union Pacific also argues that lead-based house paint caused the contamination.

• EPA Superfund: http://www.epa.gov/superfund/
• Union Pacific Corp. lead cleanup site: http://www.uprr.com/newsinfo/media_kit/epa

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Clean water grant gets approved

Busseron Creek Watershed

Updated: Tuesday, 22 Jun 2010, 11:00 AM EDT
Published : Tuesday, 22 Jun 2010, 11:00 AM EDT

• Lindsay Stalf

SULLIVAN COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - An application for a "Clean Water Act" grant in Sullivan County has been approved.

The Sullivan County Soil and Water Conservation District applied for the grant for the Busseron Creek Watershed.

This four year grant will be administered by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.

Over its duration, the grant will put nearly $750,000 into the local economy.

The Busseron Creek Watershed covers more than 163,000 acres in Clay, Greene, Sullivan, and Vigo Counties.

Split appeals court rules against EPA and Navajo concerns

By Carol Berry, Today correspondent

Story Published: Jun 22, 2010

Story Updated: Jun 17, 2010

DENVER – Navajo residents worried about uranium mining's impact on their northwestern New Mexico community were handed a defeat by a narrowly divided federal appeals court in an en banc ruling June 15.

Justices of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 6-5 that a tract of land owned by a uranium company surrounded by Indian lands did not constitute “Indian country,” as legally defined, and that the state, not the federal government, would enforce drinking water regulations at a leach mine that injects water and chemicals into an underlying aquifer, withdraws the solution and recovers uranium.

While the EPA said the aquifer beneath the Hydro Resources Inc. tract does not and will not serve as a drinking water supply, “tailings from uranium mines have contaminated air, groundwater, streams and soil on the Navajo reservation,” according to one dissenting judge. “The wind blew dust from the tailings piles into Navajo homes and water sources. Holding ponds on the reservation associated with the uranium mines were not well-maintained.”

Because of differences of opinion over the way in which “Indian country” was defined, one of the judges said the long-running litigation is likely to go to the Supreme Court, noting the current majority ruling “undoes decades of settled Indian law based upon sound principles.”

The tract owned by HRI east of Gallup is within the boundaries of Church Rock Chapter (a tribal unit established by the federal government in 1950) and is six miles from the chapter house and Church Rock community. EPA described the land as “completely surrounded” by lands set aside for Indian use – a dependent rural Indian community that is part of the chapter and one in which some families have used the land for generations.

Federal law defines Indian country as including reservation lands under U.S. jurisdiction, Indian allotments, and all “dependent Indian communities” in the U.S. whether in original or acquired territory.

A three-judge 10th Circuit panel in April 2009 upheld the EPA's 2007 decision that HRI's proposed in situ leach mine was inside “Indian country” as legally defined and therefore would be permitted and regulated by EPA and not the state, the assertion disputed by HRI and vacated June 15.

EPA's position rested in part on a complex two-stage definition of whether surrounding lands – the “community of reference” – when further defined by social, public, and jurisdictional factors constituted Indian country and encompassed the immediate area as a dependent Indian community.

In its ruling vacating the panel's decision, the full appellate court said that EPA argued federal, not state, criminal jurisdiction applied to the HRI tract because it is part of a dependent Indian community, but that two key requirements for that status – explicit use by Indians as Indian land, and federal superintendence – had not been met.

“Had EPA chosen to define its authority under the SDWA (Safe Drinking Water Act) in a different way, the result in this case might have been different,” the judges noted in a 116-page document.

“While groups of Indians may very well live on such lands in socially and politically discrete communities, they do not live in ‘Indian country' because the land in question has not been explicitly set aside by Congress for use as a ‘dependent Indian community.'

“The superintendence requirement means that the federal government currently must be ‘actively controlling the lands in question, effectively acting as a guardian for the Indians,'” the court said.

But, “Over the last 20 years in this circuit, we have held that a ‘community-of-reference ‘ test must be employed to determine the appropriate community, before determining whether that community is both ‘dependent' and ‘Indian,'” wrote Senior Judge David M. Ebel for the minority.

“By overturning decades of our precedent, the majority introduces confusion into an area of law that had been largely settled, and does so based on a case that did not even consider the issue.”

Land in Church Rock Chapter is overwhelmingly owned by or for Navajos, some 98 percent of the chapter's residents are Navajo or married to Navajos, and the Navajo Nation provides police protection, housing, electricity, drinking water, and other utilities to the residents in what constitutes a dependent Indian community, the judges stated.

The hydrology of the HRI tract is tied into the hydrology of the entire Church Rock Chapter, where three separate aquifers run directly beneath the tract and throughout the chapter. Fourteen wells from one of the aquifers, from which most chapter residents draw drinking water, are within 20 miles of the tract, and “Any pollution into the aquifers would likely affect much of the Chapter population,” the dissent states.

The Church Rock Chapter is the appropriate community of reference and HRI's tract is within a dependent Indian community, it states, noting that consequences of the majority ruling “are likely to be enormous, reintroducing checkerboard jurisdiction into the Southwest on a grand scale and disrupting a field of law that had been settled for decades,” which may ultimately require Supreme Court resolution.

In an additional statement, three of the dissenting justices noted “the externalities produced by a mining operation – including pollution, traffic, and the aesthetic harms by having a large mining operation nearby – also affect the surrounding community.” They cited “the largest nuclear spill in U.S. history” near Church Rock in 1979 that caused extensive damage and contamination.

Briefs in support of HRI were filed by the National Mining Association, United Nuclear Corporation, and the states of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, while those supporting EPA and the Navajo Nation were filed by the Pueblos of Santa Clara, Sandia, Isleta and Zia.

Congressman Thompson Announces Funding Availability For The Department of Housing and Urban Development's Community Challenge Planning Grants

And The Department of Transportation's TIGER II Planning Grants

BOLTON, MS - June 22, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) — Today, United States Representative Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS) announced HUD's $40 million Community Challenge Planning Grant Program , which will foster reform and reduce barriers to achieving affordable, economically vital, and sustainable communities. Such efforts may include amending or replacing local master plans, zoning codes, and building codes, either on a jurisdiction-wide basis or in a specific neighborhood, district, corridor, or sector to promote mixed-use development, affordable housing, the reuse of older buildings and structures for new purposes, and similar activities with the goal of promoting sustainability at the local or neighborhood level. HUD's Community Challenge Planning Grant Program also supports the development of affordable housing through the development and adoption of inclusionary zoning ordinances and other activities such as acquisition of land for affordable housing projects.

DOT is authorized to use up to $35 million of the funds available for TIGER II Discretionary Grants for TIGER II Planning Grants to fund the planning, preparation, or design of surface transportation projects that would be eligible for funding under the TIGER II Discretionary Grant program. Applications are available at www.grants.gov .

For further information, please contact the TIGER II Discretionary Grant program manager via email at TIGERIIGrants (at) dot (dot) gov This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or call Robert Mariner at 202–366–8914. A TDD is available for individuals who are deaf or hearing impaired, at 202–366–3993. In addition, DOT will regularly post answers to questions and requests for clarifications on DOT's website at www.dot.gov/recovery/ost/TIGERII .

Questions regarding HUD's Community Challenge Planning Grant Program should be directed to sustainablecommunities (at) hud (dot) gov This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or may be submitted through the www.hud.gov/sustainability website. HUD's contact person is Zuleika K. Morales-Romero, Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities, 451 Seventh Street SW, Washington, DC 20410-3000, telephone number 202-402-7683/facsimile 202-708-0465, or email: zuleika.k.morales (at) hud (dot) gov This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . For the hearing- or speech-impaired, contact the above telephone number via TTY by dialing the toll-free Federal Information Relay Service at 1-800-877-8339.

NU Online News Service, June 22, 3:40 p.m. EDT

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government is likely to suffer a loss on its investment in American International Group (AIG), Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner acknowledged Tuesday.

In testimony before the Congressional Oversight Panel (COP), Mr. Geithner said that while AIG is making progress in restructuring its operations, “the U.S. investments in AIG will likely still result in some loss.”

Mr. Geithner's testimony is consistent with comments made at a June 10 hearing by COP staffers, and by analysts from Standard & Poor's and casualty research at Keefe, Bruyette and Woods, New York.

But the comments run counter to testimony Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke delivered at a recent House Budget Committee hearing.

Mr. Bernanke said he believes AIG will repay the government, and that the direct cost to taxpayers for shoring up financial institutions, including AIG, through the Troubled Asset Relief Program would be “really quite small and may, in the end, be in fact a profit.”

By TONY EVANS
Express Staff Writer

A lawsuit filed by environmentalists in April against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has prompted the state of Idaho to write a plan to protect streams and lakes.

The nonprofit Idaho Conservation League and Advocates for the West, a public-interest environmental law firm, are suing the EPA for refusing to establish an anti-degradation implementation plan for waterways in the state that have been impacted by point-source pollution.

The suit alleges that in 2008 only 27 percent of Idaho's streams met state water-quality standards and that 36 percent of streams violated standards for one or more pollutants.

The suit also claims that the department has failed to monitor 37 percent of all waters within the state.

Todd Tucci, lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said the anti-degradation plan has been legally required since 1995 by the EPA, but that the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality has refused to write one.

"The state has a policy to protect water quality, but no implementation plan," Tucci said.

He said an anti-degradation plan would use available data to determine if waterways are degraded by pollution, and if they are, whether discharging pollution is necessary to accommodate "important economic and social development," a requirement of the Clean Water Act.

"The plan would also determine if there is an alternative method to discharging pollution," Tucci said.

Idaho Deputy Attorney General Doug Conde said the DEQ is working this summer to establish rules for industry and municipalities to satisfy the demands of the lawsuit.

"As a result of the lawsuit, the state is now developing provisions that will be included in Idaho's water-quality standards," Conde said.

Conde said if the state does not fulfill the obligation of writing the implementation plan, the EPA has a mandate to establish one.

The rulemaking process for the plan, which will be available for public comment in November, will include comments from industry officials. Conde said the DEQ hopes to form a "consensus" on the provisions. He said companies that will be affected by the plan include Monsanto, Sorrento and Jerome Cheese, which are allegedly discharging pollutants into the Snake River.

Tucci said the plan should have been implemented long ago, perhaps following passage of the Clean Water Act in 1973.

"Why did the state wait 35 years to take affirmative action to protect the quality of the waters of Idaho?" he asked. "While we welcome the Department of Environmental Quality coming late to the party, we will be following the process carefully to make sure that the rules meet the minimum standards of the Clean Water Act."

Reputations Don't Return When Prosecutors Drop Charges

David Stockman, founder and senior managing director of Heartland Industrial Partners, L.P., sits in his home in Greenwich, Connecticut on July 10, 2007. Photographer: Douglas Healey/Bloomberg

David Pinkerton had just left his 8- year-old twins at his in-laws' home in Morristown, New Jersey , when he learned he was no longer a suspected felon.

Pinkerton's lawyer called to say that the U.S. prosecutors who had charged the former American International Group Inc. managing director with bribery -- which could have led to a decade in prison -- had dropped the case, Bloomberg Markets reports in its August 2010 issue.

The relief was so great that day in July 2008 that the 6- foot-2-inch-tall (1.88-meter-tall) executive, who had fought the stress of the 31-month-long ordeal with intense gym workouts, broke down and cried.

David Stockman , a former U.S. budget director , lived under the shadow of a fraud indictment for two years before prosecutors dropped the charges without explanation or apology.

“They wrecked my reputation, my business career,” Stockman, 63, says. “I don't know how you compensate for that.”

Stockman and Pinkerton are among a growing number of executives who have been indicted for corporate crimes in recent years and then had the charges dropped. From 2006 to 2008, the most recent period available, U.S. prosecutors dismissed charges against 42 such defendants for which the most serious charge was securities fraud. That's more than twice the 20 dismissals in the prior three years, according to the Federal Justice Statistics Resource Center .

Surprising Statistic

The collapse of so many cases is surprising, legal experts say, because U.S. prosecutors are expected to have thoroughly investigated the facts and law before asking a grand jury to bring charges.

At least five indictments were returned -- and then dropped -- by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan , which oversees Wall Street.

“This strikes me as very unusual,” says Duke University law professor Samuel Buell , a former prosecutor who brought fraud cases stemming from the collapse of Enron Corp . “These are some of the best prosecutors in the Justice Department.”

The increasing number of dismissals may signify that the transactions in some corporate cases have become so intricate that even top prosecutors have trouble mastering them, Buell says.

The phenomenon may become more widespread as investigators sift through the wreckage of the global financial crisis. Criminal investigators have probed Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc ., which filed for bankruptcy in 2008; Countrywide Financial Corp., which Bank of America Corp. acquired that year; and AIG, which got $182 billion in the U.S. bailout, according to people familiar with the probes.

‘Tough to Prove'

If indictments stem from the collapse, Peter Henning , a former Justice Department fraud prosecutor, says he doubts they'll focus on sophisticated transactions involving mortgage- backed securities.

“Those are very tough cases to prove,” says Henning, who now teaches at Wayne State University Law School in Detroit, citing the acquittals in November of former Bear Stearns Cos. hedge fund managers Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin on fraud charges. Instead, prosecutors will look for clear instances where executives lied about company finances, he says.

Compassionate Decision

Yusill Scribner, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in New York, who took office after the Manhattan dismissals, declined to comment. A dismissal -- or what lawyers call a nolle prosequi -- may result when the evidence or law changes or because prosecutors make a tactical or even a compassionate decision, says Bruce Green , a professor at Fordham University School of Law .

“It should only be necessary in the rarest of circumstances,” says Michael Garcia , who was U.S. attorney in Manhattan from September 2005 to November 2008. “But the circumstances arise.”

Kevin McDonald, who was acting U.S. attorney in South Carolina until May, says prosecutors owed no apology after dismissing fraud charges against four former executives of a company acquired by WebMD Corp . His office would have pressed the case, which was developed by agents with accounting expertise, had there not been adverse legal rulings before the trial, he says.

“A grand jury indicted them based on the strength of the evidence,” he says. “It's not unusual during the course of the case and the investigation for the facts and circumstances to change and for rulings to limit the admissibility of evidence.”

Silent Blackberry

Alan Vinegrad , U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, New York, in 2001 and 2002, praises prosecutors for reconsidering cases while also urging them to ask what went wrong.

“My own view would be, ‘How come we didn't think of this before we indicted the case?'” he says.

Though exonerated defendants may sue for fees, there is no legal provision for repairing a damaged reputation.

“Somebody made an allegation that I did something improper, and everything got thrown under the bus,” Pinkerton, 49, says. “One day, 100 people around the world want to talk to you. The next, your BlackBerry goes silent and you have three friends.”

For a public figure such as Stockman, the impact was magnified. Television cameras rolled at a packed press conference on March 26, 2007, as Garcia announced the indictment of the former director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan .

Allegations of Fraud

Flanked by investigators, Garcia said Stockman had lied in regulatory filings and defrauded investors of $1.35 billion in a scheme to raise capital and save Collins & Aikman Corp., the Southfield, Michigan-based auto parts maker of which he was chairman, from bankruptcy.

Stockman's private-equity firm, Heartland Industrial Partners LP, paid $260 million for the parts maker in 2001 and snapped up other auto-supply companies in a bid to create the dominant supplier of fabric, consoles and other components for automakers. Four years later, in May 2005, Collins & Aikman, with more than $1 billion in debt, filed for bankruptcy as Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. slashed production.

After appearing in court in March 2007 to deny fraud charges that could have brought him two decades in prison, the gray-haired Stockman retreated to his home in Greenwich, Connecticut. He spent much of his time in his home office, which is decorated with framed tributes including one dated Aug. 13, 1981, from Reagan after the president signed a $750 billion tax cut.

“You rode point on this,” Reagan's note says.

‘Prospect of the Guillotine'

Hunched over company documents, Stockman spent weeks reviewing the rebate transactions and accounting at the heart of the case. Then he penned a 31-page memo to his lawyers outlining how he had tried to rescue his company.

“The prospect of the guillotine tends to focus the mind,” says a now-relaxed Stockman, in jeans and a white baseball cap, from the office where scores of binders filled with company documents still line his bookshelves.

Stockman hasn't lost any of the combativeness he showed decades earlier in Reagan's cabinet when he was forced to apologize to lawmakers after saying they lacked courage to truly slash government spending.

Ignoring his lawyers' warnings that the government rarely dismissed fraud cases, he insisted that his attorneys seek to convince prosecutors that they were wrong. Stockman helped lead dozens of lawyers, paralegals, accountants and investigators through 15 million documents that the government turned over.

“I was naive enough not to understand how bad the odds were,” says Stockman, a former Harvard Divinity School student and U.S. congressman.

47 Binders of Documents

After more than a year of research, Stockman's attorneys produced a 221-page report backed by 647 footnotes and 47 binders of documents. Evidence was overwhelming that he was innocent, the report said, adding that prosecutors hadn't done their homework and had relied too heavily on an internal probe done by Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP , the law firm that guided Collins & Aikman after its 2005 collapse.

“The government gave far too much credit to private counsel's unfounded conclusions,” the report said. “Much of the documentary evidence most directly relevant to this case appears not to have been reviewed at all -- by anyone -- prior to Mr. Stockman's indictment.”

The report, financed by Stockman's indemnification policies, argued that Collins & Aikman was never in jeopardy of violating loan covenants and that the accounting issues in the case were ambiguous.

‘15 Million-Page Swamp'

The defense found documents indicating that outside auditors knew of deals prosecutors said Stockman hid, transcripts of conference calls showing that Stockman never made statements attributed to him and records demonstrating that lenders weren't deceived about collateral.

“We found a lot of these,” Stockman says. “You'd find these nuggets everywhere, but it was a 15 million-page swamp.”

Stockman's defense delivered the report to prosecutors on Oct. 20, 2008. On Jan. 9, 2009, the government released a brief statement saying it had dropped the case against Stockman “in the interests of justice.” By then, the lead prosecutor had left for private practice.

Elkan Abramowitz , Stockman's lawyer, says the case underscores a wider issue. Lawyers for companies that come under government scrutiny have discovered that corporations won't be prosecuted if they deliver to authorities evidence against top executives, and sometimes they find crimes where there are none, he says.

‘Institutional Bias'

“There is almost an institutional bias to find and expose criminality,” he says.

Davis Polk partner Dennis Glazer defends his firm's confidential probe and refuses to characterize its findings.

Today, Stockman's anger is palpable. He leans forward, his voice urgent.

“I think the prosecutors involved in this should be personally liable,” says Stockman, who paid a total of $7.2 million to settle lawsuits by investors and the Securities and Exchange Commission without admitting or denying liability.

Lawyer Andrew Weissman says Stockman, who is writing a book on the banking crisis, wants the case behind him. Seven other Collins & Aikman employees, including four who pleaded guilty, also won dismissals. Prosecutors never announced their dismissal of charges against the four who had earlier pleaded guilty.

Azerbaijan Oil Deal

An indictment is devastating, AIG managing director Pinkerton says. His ordeal began with his decision to invest a fraction of the private-equity and hedge fund money he managed for AIG in an oil deal in Azerbaijan in 1998.

“It wasn't a bet-the-house,” says Pinkerton, who then managed about $6 billion. “It was $15 million.”

The deal had potential, Pinkerton thought. Clayton Lewis , who oversaw an AIG investment at New York-based hedge fund firm Omega Advisors Inc., was investing $126 million in a bid to buy state assets in the Caspian Sea nation and suggested AIG join.

Pinkerton says his due diligence showed the possibility for big gains: Investors might see a 1,000 percent return if Azerbaijan sold part of its hobbled oil industry. There was also risk: Not only might Azerbaijan choose not to sell the company; media reports said the deal's promoter, Viktor Kozeny , had stolen assets from public companies in the Czech Republic.

Pinkerton signed on, believing that Omega was a solid partner and that an oil investment was a good hedge against inflation. Kozeny denies stealing assets.

An AIG Blue Blood

The transaction was one of hundreds that Pinkerton authorized over the years. A University of Delaware graduate who later got a degree at night from Brooklyn Law School , Pinkerton joined AIG in 1985 in a $19,000-a-year underwriting job and eventually became its first U.S. employee devoted to hedge funds and private equity. He rose through the ranks overseeing AIG's investments in Blackstone Group LP , Carlyle Group and others.

“My blood ran blue with AIG,” Pinkerton says.

“He was a guy who you knew could handle bigger and bigger investments,” says Edward Matthews , who was AIG's vice chairman until 2005. “He grew into the position.”

Personal success followed, as Pinkerton and his college- sweetheart wife, Ana, moved up from a $105,000 condominium in Hoboken, New Jersey, to a 6,000-square-foot (560-square-meter) home in Bernardsville, New Jersey , a leafy community 39 miles (63 kilometers) from AIG's ­Manhattan headquarters. They had twins.

Deal Collapses

The Azerbaijan deal collapsed in 1999 when Azeri leaders didn't sell the company. AIG and Omega sued Kozeny, claiming he had pocketed their investment. Kozeny denied that and said AIG and Omega should be barred from suing because they had joined him in a plot to bribe Azeri leaders, in violation of U.S. anti- bribery laws. Kozeny also took his allegations to U.S. prosecutors, who launched a probe.

Lewis later pleaded guilty in Manhattan to charges of investing with Kozeny after learning of the bribery scheme. Seeking leniency, he cooperated with prosecutors and, according to court records, claimed Pinkerton knew of the payoffs.

On Oct. 4, 2005, Pinkerton's lawyer summoned him home from Switzerland, where he was visiting a client. Pinkerton surrendered to the Federal Bureau of Investigation two days later and was jailed for hours in a Manhattan federal court holding pen.

Shredded Dignity

“There's a process,” Pinkerton says. “It's really about trying to shred your dignity, putting you in a jail cell and letting you sit.”

Pinkerton's life slowly fell apart. After first being supportive, friends stopped calling. In December 2005, AIG placed him on leave without pay. Living off savings, Pinkerton immersed himself in his defense, only to grow frustrated at the glacial pace. He curtailed his daily contact with his lawyers.

“I'd wake up some mornings and say, ‘I can't handle it anymore,'” Pinkerton says. At one point, he fainted from what he feared was a stroke.

“It was all stress­related,” he says. Pinkerton planted bushes at home and began working out with a personal trainer.

Then Ana got sick -- and prison became his second-biggest worry.

“You start to think, ‘What happens to my kids if my wife doesn't make it and I'm wrongfully convicted?'” he says.

Meanwhile, lawyer Barry Berke worked to prove Pinkerton's innocence. The co-chief of the white-collar practice at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP in New York, Berke gathered evidence showing that Pinkerton's due diligence was genuine, including assurances about Kozeny that a top AIG executive had gotten from another investor in the deal.

Misinterpreted Notes

Berke learned that Pinkerton had heard Azeri officials seeking American investors at a Washington conference. Colleagues of Pinkerton's agreed to testify that Lewis had said the deal was legitimate.

Berke concluded that prosecutors had misinterpreted notes found in AIG files. For instance, a mention that Azerbaijan's president was involved in the deal meant only that he supervised the asset sale, not that he had been bribed, Berke says.

Berke says prosecutors didn't probe deeply enough before filing charges. “The government often views the case with blinders on,” he says.

The indemnification policy that paid Berke also financed a defense investigative team at Nardello & Co. , which turned its sights on Lewis.

Investigators hired by Berke traveled to Australia , Azerbaijan, Hawaii and Seattle, following leads that Lewis was more involved in the scheme than he had claimed. They also uncovered documents indicating that Lewis had wrested control of an Australian pearl farm from its owners, which could be used to attack his credibility at a trial.

Background Investigations

“The government doesn't do the same sort of background investigation of witnesses,” says Dan Nardello, a Manhattan federal prosecutor from 1987 to 1994 and principal of the New York-based international investigative firm.

R. Scott Thompson , Lewis's lawyer, says Nardello got facts wrong about the pearl farm and his client's role in the bribes.

“They took a grain of truth and stretched it,” says Thompson, of Lowenstein Sandler PC in Roseland, New Jersey. In a lawsuit that was settled in May, Omega accused Lewis of hiding the bribery scheme from the firm.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, disclosed that Lewis had told Pinkerton that Omega had investigated Kozeny's arrangement with Azeri officials and concluded it wouldn't run afoul of anti- bribery laws.

Charges Dropped

On July 1, 2008, after nearly a year of discussions between defense lawyers and prosecutors, the government dropped the charges. Mark Mendelsohn , who was deputy fraud chief in the Justice Department, which brought the charges, declined to comment. Another investor, Frederic Bourke , was convicted of bribery conspiracy last year. He's appealing.

Now, with his wife recovered, Pinkerton is working to build the asset management firm he launched after his arrest, Pinkerton Capital Management LLC .

“I got a lot of feedback from people,” he says. “They said, ‘That could have been me.'”

Federal agents came knocking at Rick Karl 's door in September 2003 -- three years after he quit Medical Manager Corp. following its acquisition by WebMD. Karl, who earned about $225,000 a year as general counsel of the Tampa, Florida-based software company, had amassed some cash after selling stock options worth about $1.7 million over five years.

“I became a stay-at-home dad,” says Karl, then divorced and the father of four.

‘The End of Life'

Agents were investigating whether Medical Manager had cooked its books to inflate revenue and hide liabilities. In November 2005, Karl was among 10 executives indicted for a $16.8 million fraud.

“To be accused of fraud and money laundering, it felt like this is the end of life,” says Karl, 55, a lanky man who is the son of a judge.

Karl says he focused on software rights as a lawyer at Medical Manager, not financial deals.

“I wasn't designing transactions or giving advice on how to account for these things,” he says. He thinks prosecutors wanted to pressure him to plead guilty and testify against his former bosses, as others had.

“I had absolutely no idea that something was wrong,” he says.

Late last year, prosecutors gave up on Karl, dismissing charges against him and others after defense lawyers including James Robinson of Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP won pretrial legal rulings.

Forever Linked

For Karl, exoneration came four years too late. By then, he says, he had lost an expected appointment to the Florida judicial bench, seen his reputation besmirched and spent countless sleepless nights wondering what he had done wrong.

The trauma is only now lifting. He works in a $127,000-a- year government job managing the airport in Volusia County, Florida , and lives in his three-bedroom childhood home, which he bought in 2004. His dreams of becoming a judge have evaporated; in the age of Google, he's aware he'll be forever linked to a fraud.

“It's like a shadow that's out there,” he says.

Wrongful accusations hang over Pinkerton and Stockman, too. Along with a notice of the dismissal in Stockman's case, press releases announcing his and Pinkerton's indictments remain on the prosecutor's website .

To contact the reporter on this story: David Glovin in U.S. District Court in New York at dglovin@bloomberg.net .

Oklahoma Court: Trust violated Open Meeting Act

The Associated Press Published: June 22, 2010

The Oklahoma Supreme Court has ruled that a trust overseeing a voluntary buyout program for residents of the Tar Creek Superfund site has violated the Oklahoma Open Meeting Act.

The state's highest court made the ruling in an 8-1 decision handed down Tuesday.

It says the Lead-Impacted Communities Relocation Assistance Trust violated the act by allowing Secretary of Environment J.D. Strong and representatives of appraisers to attend executive sessions where appraisals and property purchases were discussed.

The court says they were not authorized to attend the closed meetings.

It sent the case back to Ottawa County District Court to decide if former residents and property owners in the region should be allowed access to records of the trust's executive sessions.

Department of Resource Management

PLANNING DIVISION

Russ Mull, R.E.H.S., AICP, Director
Richard W. Simon, AICP, Assistant Director/Planning Division Manager

1855 Placer Street, Suite 103
Redding, California 96001
Phone: (530) 225-5532
Fax: (530) 245-6468

The Planning Division serves as the land use information center for the County. The Division functions as a professional staff to the Board of Supervisors, the Planning Commission, and the Airport Land Use Commission. The Division disseminates information to the public regarding potential development areas for residential, commercial, industrial, and resource development and management.

The Division is responsible for the maintenance and implementation of the County General Plan, the County Zone Plan, and implementation of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The Division processes development applications and permit requests for land divisions, use permits, General Plan amendments, zone changes, and variances. It also processes permits and enforces state requirements for the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act (SMARA). The Division functions as the Census Data Center for the County and disseminates information regarding population, economic, and housing characteristics and trends.

The Mapping Unit provides mapping services to many sectors of County government and other public agencies. The Unit also maintains and implements the County street naming and addressing system and provides address related information for the County's Emergency 911 response program.

Shasta County 2009-2014 Draft Housing Element

Draft Ordinances for Medical Marijuana Dispensaries and Cultivation - Planning Commission 01/14/2010

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IMPORTANT NOTICE:

Other County agencies, departments (i.e., Department of Public Works, Environmental Health Division, Fire Warden, etc.), and other agencies also charge project review fees. Any and all charges from other departments are in addition to the Planning Division fees. The fee schedules for these departments or agencies should be reviewed for the project being considered. All fee must be paid to the affected departments, as appropriate, and either a receipt or a fee waiver slip must be submitted to the Permit Counter at the time of project application. Otherwise, the project application will be considered incomplete. Questions concerning various department fees should be directed to the staff of each department.

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Effective October 20, 2008, the Planning Division fees and fee structure will change. Please click the following link for more information: Planning Division Fees

DOCUMENTS AND INFORMATION AVAILABLE

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June 22, 2010...11:05 am

Federal Court Dismisses Tribal Claim to Uproot State Court UCCJEA Jurisdiction

The case is Rosebud Sioux Tribe v. Duwyenie (D. Ariz.). The state court opinion is posted here .

Here are the materials:

State Judicial Defendant Motion to Dismiss

Duwyenie Motion to Dismiss

RST Response to State

RST Response to Duwyenie

State Judicial Defendant Reply

Duwyenie Reply

DCT Order Dismissing Claim

.

EPA Approves Water Contaminant Testing Methods

• Jun 22, 2010

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved 12 new, alternative (and optional) testing methods for use in measuring the levels of contaminants in drinking water and determining compliance with national primary drinking water regulations.

The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) authorizes EPA to streamline approval of the use of alternative testing methods through publication in the Federal Register . This expedited approach provides public water systems, laboratories, and primacy agencies with more timely access to new measurement techniques and greater flexibility in the selection of analytical methods, thereby reducing monitoring costs while maintaining public health protection.

The 12 alternative methods test for Dalapon; Radium-226; Uranium; Radioactive Cesium, Iodine and Gamma emitters; Tritium; and E. coli in drinking water.

AIG Postpones Taiwan Deal

Senate Panel Approves Feinstein Measure to Create Temporary Federal Judgeships

–Bill would ease caseloads in California's Eastern District; includes judgeships in six other states –

Washington, D.C. – The Senate Judiciary Committee today approved a measure sponsored by U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) that would restore temporary judgeships in two Federal Districts and extend temporary judgeships in six others. 

The bill restores a temporary judgeship in the Eastern District of California. There hasn't been a new permanent judgeship for the Eastern District since 1978.  Since then, the area has seen explosive population growth.

Chronically understaffed, the Eastern District has the heaviest caseload on a sustained basis of any federal judicial district in the nation. At the end of 2009, the District had 1,089 weighted filings per judgeship – more than twice the national average.

“Today's caseload in the Eastern District is so heavy that it has become utterly unmanageable,” Senator Feinstein said. “When federal courts cannot operate effectively, it means victims wait longer for justice and civil litigants wait years for lawsuits to be resolved. This is unacceptable and unfair. Restoring the temporary judgeship that was allowed to expire in 2004 will help ease this burden. We must ensure that the federal courts have the resources they need to do their work.”

The bill also restores a temporary judgeship in the District of Nebraska, and extends six temporary judgeships in Ohio, Hawaii, Kansas, Arizona, Texas and the Central District of California. 

The bill is cosponsored by Senators Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.); John Cornyn (R-Texas); Sam Brownback (R-Kan.); Pat Roberts (R-Kan.); Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.); Ben Nelson (D-Neb.); Mike Johanns (R-Neb.); Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii); Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii); Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio); and George Voinovich (R-Ohio.).

AIG Bailout May Result In Loss, Geithner Says 

• By ARTHUR D. POSTAL

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government is likely to suffer a loss on its investment in American International Group (AIG), Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner acknowledged Tuesday.

In testimony before the Congressional Oversight Panel (COP), Mr. Geithner said that while AIG is making progress in restructuring its operations, “the U.S. investments in AIG will likely still result in some loss.”

Mr. Geithner's testimony is consistent with comments made at a June 10 hearing by COP staffers, and by analysts from Standard & Poor's and casualty research at Keefe, Bruyette and Woods, New York.

But the comments run counter to testimony Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke delivered at a recent House Budget Committee hearing.

Mr. Bernanke said he believes AIG will repay the government, and that the direct cost to taxpayers for shoring up financial institutions, including AIG, through the Troubled Asset Relief Program would be “really quite small and may, in the end, be in fact a profit.”

The Federal Reserve Board loaned AIG $85 billion in September 2008 after the declining value of credit default swaps it had issued to insure mortgage-backed-securities put pressure on the company to give the counterparties more capital.

To collateralize the original loan, AIG gave the Fed 79.9 percent of its stock.

Before AIG began paying back the government through securities sales and sales of some of its subsidiaries, the U.S. investment in AIG reached $182 billion.

In his comments about AIG, Mr. Geithner said the company is winding down its Financial Products subsidiary, “where much of that risk was concentrated.”

Moreover, he said, the company is working to divest two of its largest foreign insurance subsidiaries, and the proceeds will be used to pay down its loan from the Federal Reserve.

And, Mr. Geithner added, “AIG's core businesses are generating profits.”

The COP, in a June 10 report, said the AIG bailout poses an “extraordinary risk to taxpayers” and questioned whether the government will ever get all its money back.

Rodney Clark, a managing director at Standard & Poor's Rating Services, told the COP on June 10 that AIG would likely need an infusion of private capital in order to succeed once the government ceased its involvement in the company.

Cliff Gallant of AIG agreed. He told the oversight panel that AIG common shares are “grossly overvalued,” and he said AIG “may eventually need to raise significant equity capital from public markets in order to fully stand alone.”

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government is likely to suffer a loss on its investment in American International Group (AIG), Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner acknowledged Tuesday.

In testimony before the Congressional Oversight Panel (COP), Mr. Geithner said that while AIG is making progress in restructuring its operations, “the U.S. investments in AIG will likely still result in some loss.”

Mr. Geithner's testimony is consistent with comments made at a June 10 hearing by COP staffers, and by analysts from Standard & Poor's and casualty research at Keefe, Bruyette and Woods, New York.

But the comments run counter to testimony Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke delivered at a recent House Budget Committee hearing.

Mr. Bernanke said he believes AIG will repay the government, and that the direct cost to taxpayers for shoring up financial institutions, including AIG, through the Troubled Asset Relief Program would be “really quite small and may, in the end, be in fact a profit.”

The Federal Reserve Board loaned AIG $85 billion in September 2008 after the declining value of credit default swaps it had issued to insure mortgage-backed-securities put pressure on the company to give the counterparties more capital.

To collateralize the original loan, AIG gave the Fed 79.9 percent of its stock.

Before AIG began paying back the government through securities sales and sales of some of its subsidiaries, the U.S. investment in AIG reached $182 billion.

In his comments about AIG, Mr. Geithner said the company is winding down its Financial Products subsidiary, “where much of that risk was concentrated.”

Moreover, he said, the company is working to divest two of its largest foreign insurance subsidiaries, and the proceeds will be used to pay down its loan from the Federal Reserve.

And, Mr. Geithner added, “AIG's core businesses are generating profits.”

The COP, in a June 10 report, said the AIG bailout poses an “extraordinary risk to taxpayers” and questioned whether the government will ever get all its money back.

Rodney Clark, a managing director at Standard & Poor's Rating Services, told the COP on June 10 that AIG would likely need an infusion of private capital in order to succeed once the government ceased its involvement in the company.

Cliff Gallant of AIG agreed. He told the oversight panel that AIG common shares are “grossly overvalued,” and he said AIG “may eventually need to raise significant equity capital from public markets in order to fully stand alone.”

Adrianna Quintero's Blog

Where's there's a will...

Posted June 22, 2010 in Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming

Remember the headlines just four months ago?

“Sen. James M. Inhofe (R, OK) builds an igloo on Capitol Hill, dubbing it ‘Al Gore's New Home' ."  “Critics say snowstorms cast doubt about global warming,” a web ad by Virginia republicans titled “12 Inches of Global Warming” — criticizes representatives who voted for federal climate and energy bill, even a tweet from Sen. Jim DeMint (R- SC) "It's going to keep snowing in DC until Al Gore cries 'uncle'" All claims that the snowstorms that hit Washington were proof that global warming was at worse a myth or at best, no longer a problem.

At the time, many in the scientific community responded to the absurdity of these claims. I myself, blogged about the faulty logic in assuming that a snowy winter in the mid-Atlantic disproved global warming.

Last week, the data was in: NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, announced that May's global temperature is warmest on record , and the worldwide average land surface temperature for May and March-May was the warmest on record since official records started being kept in 1880.  Deke Arndt, NOAA's chief of the climate monitoring told Reuters that “every single month since February 1985, has been warmer than its 20th century average.”

Just today, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), reported that 97% of scientific experts agree that climate change is "very likely" caused predominately by human activity, “re-affirming yet again, the overwhelming scientific consensus about global warming.”

So does this mean Mr. DeMint and Inhofe will now say that this proves global warming does exist? Don't bet on it. That's because no amount of proof will be good enough to persuade some in Washington to do the right thing. They simply lack the will.The same way that no amount of oil in the Gulf of Mexico – no matter how many millions of gallons are spilled, how many people are impacted, or pelicans, fish, turtles, birds and wildlife are killed—will persuade them to take action to get us off oil.

Solving the climate and energy crisis and moving away from fossil fuels (the major cause of global warming) has eroded from being a matter of developing solutions-based policy to a political game based on punchy headlines aimed at preventing action.

Sadly, partisan bickering over global warming has lead to chronic lack of action that will ultimately result in some very real impacts to all of us but especially to some of the most vulnerable people on the planet.

Most disheartening is the fact that even many in DC who have traditionally worked to solve this crisis seem to be losing their will.

Proposals in the senate to settle for piecemeal legislation that focus only on utilities, or simply address the oil spill are not going to get us to long-term solutions that spur investments into clean energy technology, transportation solutions, and break our addiction to oil. For that, we need comprehensive energy and climate legislation that includes limits on carbon pollution.

Every president since Richard Nixon has called for energy reform and an end to our reliance on foreign oil. So, what are we waiting for?

The science is in…again. The disaster is streaming live before our eyes…again. And our senators are dragging their feet…again.

Senators, now is the time. Find your will, find a way. Now.

June 22, 2010 Biofuel process wins EPA award

San Francisco, California – A new technology that converts sustainable, plant-based materials into low-carbon fuels and chemicals has won the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) highest environmental honour. Renewable fuels company LS9 won the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award for its Renewable Petroleum technology.

The award recognizes chemical technologies that are making significant contributions to reducing pollution in the U.S. by incorporating the principles of green chemistry into chemical design, manufacture and use. The winners are selected by an international panel of technical experts.

The LS9 process uses a one-step fermentation process to convert renewable raw materials into a broad range of low-carbon petroleum replacement products, including its UltraClean Diesel, along with surfactants that LS9 is commercializing with strategic partner Procter and Gamble.

Most other advanced biofuels and chemicals production technologies require additional steps in their production process.

The company said that its UltraClean Diesel is compatible with existing infrastructure and has a an estimated 85 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions when compared to conventional petroleum diesel. It also contains no benzene, a carcinogen generally associated with conventional diesel products.

IV. Conclusion
“It’s easy to forget that, when this war began, we were united, bound together by the fresh memory of a horrific attack and by the determination to defend our homeland and the values we hold dear. I refuse to accept the notion that we cannot summon that unity again. I believe with every fiber of my being that we, as Americans, can still come together behind a common purpose, for our values are not simply words written into parchment. They are a creed that calls us together and that has carried us through the darkest of storms as one nation, as one people.”
—President Barack Obama, West Point, New York, December 2, 2009
—
This strategy calls for a comprehensive range of national actions, and a broad conception of what constitutes
our national security. Above all, it is about renewing our leadership by calling upon what is best about America—our innovation and capacity; our openness and moral imagination.
Success will require approaches that can be sustained and achieve results. One of the reasons that this nation succeeded in the second half of the 20th century was its capacity to pursue policies and build institutions that endured across multiple Administrations, while also preserving the flexibility to endure setbacks and to make necessary adjustments. In some instances, the United States has been able to carry forward this example in the years since the Cold War. But there are also many open questions, unfinished reforms, and deep divisions—at home and abroad—that constrain our ability to advance our interests and renew our leadership.
To effectively craft and implement a sustainable, results-oriented national security strategy, there must be effective cooperation between the branches of government. This Administration believes that we are strong when we act in line with our laws, as the Constitution itself demands. This Administration is also committed to active consultation with Congress, and welcomes robust and effective oversight of its national security policies. We welcome Congress as a full partner in forging durable solutions to tough challenges, looking beyond the headlines to take a long view of America’s interests. And we encourage
Congress to pursue oversight in line with the reforms that have been enacted through legislation, particularly in the years since 9/11.
The executive branch must do its part by developing integrated plans and approaches that leverage the capabilities across its departments and agencies to deal with the issues we confront. Collaboration across the government—and with our partners at the state, local, and tribal levels of government, in industry, and abroad—must guide our actions.
This kind of effective cooperation will depend upon broad and bipartisan cooperation. Throughout the Cold War, even as there were intense disagreements about certain courses of action, there remained a belief that America’s political leaders shared common goals, even if they differed about how to reach them. In today’s political environment, due to the actions of both parties that sense of common purpose is at times lacking in our national security dialogue. This division places the United States at a strategic
disadvantage. It sets back our ability to deal with difficult challenges and injects a sense of anxiety and polarization into our politics that can affect our policies and our posture around the world. It must be replaced by a renewed sense of civility and a commitment to embrace our common purpose as Americans.
Americans are by nature a confident and optimistic people. We would not have achieved our position of leadership in the world without the extraordinary strength of our founding documents and the capability and courage of generations of Americans who gave life to those values—through their service, through their sacrifices, through their aspirations, and through their pursuit of a more perfect union. We see those same qualities today, particularly in our young men and women in uniform who have served tour after tour of duty to defend our nation in harm’s way, and their civilian counterparts.
This responsibility cannot be theirs alone. And there is no question that we, as a nation, can meet our responsibility as Americans once more. Even in a world of enormous challenges, no threat is bigger than the American peoples’ capacity to meet it, and no opportunity exceeds our reach. We continue to draw strength from those founding documents that established the creed that binds us together. We, too, can demonstrate the capability and courage to pursue a more perfect union and—in doing so—renew American leadership in the world.

EPA Coal Ash Rule Sends Mixed Signal on Strong, Federally Enforceable Safeguards

Leaves open the possibility that at least half of all toxic ash will remain unregulated

Today, the Agency published the proposed federal regulation of coal ash -- the first of its kind -- in the Federal Register . The plan seeks comment on two separate proposals: one that regulates coal ash as a "special waste," with strong, federally enforceable requirements for monitoring and cleanup, and another that treats coal ash as a "non-hazardous waste" and offers only guidelines that leave many communities at risk of exposure to toxic contaminants found in coal ash. Under the weaker option, the EPA assumes that in Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Wyoming, coal ash dumps and waste ponds will retain their current status quo: poorly regulated, unprotected and unsafe. Thus even in Tennessee, where the largest environmental disaster occurred short of the Gulf oil spill, the EPA predicts that protections will not be put in place.

The two-rule option demonstrates the power and influence of lobbyists for the coal and power industries who continue to block the EPA attempts at strong coal ash safeguards that protect communities. The EPA's 'special waste' proposal is the only way to guarantee the closure of the most dangerous waste ponds, ensure strong federal oversight and cleanup of contaminated streams, rivers and drinking water supplies, and protect communities across the country from coal ash contamination. The EPA itself admits that under its weaker option, many states will not adopt strict federal guidelines and that approximately 50% of the coal ash generated in the U.S. will continue to be managed under state programs that do not require basic disposal safeguards. Power plants in the U.S. produce enough coal ash annually to fill train cars stretching from the North Pole to the South Pole.

Below is a brief summary the EPA provided of its two regulatory options for coal ash:

Regulating coal ash as a "special waste":

• Requires phase out of waste ponds within five years.
• Eliminates health risks from groundwater and surface water contamination for both coal ash dumps and waste ponds, and avoids damages from uncontrolled ground "fill" operations and attendant environmental remediation costs.
• Eliminates the future threat of catastrophic failures of waste ponds.
• Provides for corrective action, including at closed units at facilities with waste ponds or dumps regulated under the rule, and imposes groundwater monitoring requirements.
• Provides for Federal oversight, which EPA experience has shown is necessary for successful implementation of…industrial waste regulations, especially as it relates to groundwater monitoring and corrective action, when needed.

Regulating coal ash as a "non-hazardous waste" (emphasis added):

• Requirements would not be enforceable by the EPA or the states (unless states had similar requirements under state law). Lack of enforcement and Federal oversight may significantly reduce compliance and effective implementation of regulatory requirements.
• Liners required for all coal ash waste ponds but only for new landfills. This option sets national criteria for landfills and waste ponds that manage coal ash after the rule goes into effect. For any coal ash dumps and waste ponds that closed before the effective date, there would be no regulatory controls over those units, unless the states choose to adopt controls over such units.
• Eliminates some ground-water contamination over the current situation (e.g., because of waste pond retrofitting), thus avoiding some damage cases, again assuming effective implementation.
• Requires review of waste ponds for stability by independent experts, but because these ponds could remain in operation (because they are currently lined or owners choose to retrofit line them rather than phase them out), there would still be a risk of future structural failures of waste ponds.

"Only one road leads to protecting public health and the environment from toxic coal ash and collapsing ponds -- and the EPA has clearly laid out this option," said Lisa Evans, Senior Administrative Counsel at Earthjustice. "If the EPA predicts that the dangerous conditions will persist under the weaker option, that option must be left by the wayside."

"If the ongoing BP oil disaster and the Tennessee coal ash tragedy taught us anything, it's that we can no longer ignore scientific and safety concerns without a very high cost," said Lyndsay Moseley, Sierra Club coal ash analyst and Tennessee native. "EPA should issue enforceable federal safeguards quickly before more communities are exposed to toxic coal ash."

"The voluntary guidance EPA has proposed as a second option just kicks the ball back to state agencies, which have already been overwhelmed and outmatched by the coal lobby," said Jeff Stant, Director of the Coal Combustion Waste Initiative at the Environmental Integrity Project. "The states' failure to enforce standards has led to at least 71 sites where EPA admits coal ash has contaminated drinking water, injured wildlife, or caused other environmental or property damage, as well as untold other damaged sites that we do not know about because so many coal ash dumps do no monitoring at all. EPA needs to do the right thing by getting uniform standards in place, and having the guts to enforce them."

"Coal ash that is being disposed meets the chemical definition of a hazardous waste. As a hazardous waste, coal ash needs to be disposed in a properly engineered landfill so deadly chemicals do not leach into our drinking water sources or threaten our environment and wildlife," said Scott Slesinger, Legislative Director, Natural Resources Defense Council. "All other industrial hazardous waste must meet these requirements; there is no rationale for treating this waste differently. We expect the EPA to finalize this rule so it protects human health and the environment."

###

ARMAN MINES MINISTRY OF NATURAL RESOURCES FEDERATION AND THE HUMMINGBIRD INSTITUTE ANNOUNCE BREAKTHROUGH DISCOVERY!

REACTIVE "AG-GEL" PROCESSES RECOVERS METALS FROM COAL ASH & FLUE-GAS GYPSUM CONSERVATION AND RECOVERY.

Earthjustice is a non-profit public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the magnificent places, natural resources, and wildlife of this earth, and to defending the right of all people to a healthy environment. We bring about far-reaching change by enforcing and strengthening environmental laws on behalf of hundreds of organizations, coalitions and communities.

Deficit Terrorists Strike in U.K.: Is U.S. Next?

Ellen Brown Last week, England's new government said it would abandon the previous government's stimulus program and introduce the austerity measures required to pay down its estimated $1 trillion in debts. That means cutting public spending, laying off workers, reducing consumption, and increasing unemployment and bankruptcies. It also means shrinking the money supply, since virtually all “money” today originates as loans or debt. Reducing the outstanding debt will reduce the amount of money available to pay workers and buy goods, precipitating depression and further economic pain.

The financial sector has sometimes been accused of shrinking the money supply intentionally, in order to increase the demand for its own products. Bankers are in the debt business, and if governments are allowed to create enough money to keep themselves and their constituents out of debt, lenders will be out of business. The central banks charged with maintaining the banking business therefore insist on a “stable currency” at all costs, even if it means slashing services, laying off workers, and soaring debt and interest burdens. For the financial business to continue to boom, governments must not be allowed to create money themselves, either by printing it outright or by borrowing it into existence from their own government-owned banks.

Today this financial goal has largely been achieved. In most countries, 95% or more of the money supply is created by banks as loans (or “credit”). The small portion issued by the government is usually created just to replace lost or worn out bills or coins, not to fund new government programs. Early in the twentieth century, about 30% of the British currency was issued by the government as pounds sterling or coins, versus only about 3% today. In the U.S., only coins are now issued by the government. Dollar bills (Federal Reserve Notes) are issued by the Federal Reserve, which is privately owned by a consortium of banks.

Banks advance the principal but not the interest necessary to pay off their loans; and since bank loans are now virtually the only source of new money in the economy, the interest can only come from additional debt. For the banks, that means business continues to boom; while for the rest of the economy, it means cutbacks, belt-tightening and austerity. Since more must always be paid back than was advanced as credit, however, the system is inherently unstable. When the debt bubble becomes too large to be sustained, a recession or depression is precipitated, wiping out a major portion of the debt and allowing the whole process to begin again. This is called the “business cycle,” and it causes markets to vacillate wildly, allowing the monied interests that triggered the cycle to pick up real estate and other assets very cheaply on the down-swing.

The financial sector, which controls the money supply and can easily capture the media, cajoles the populace into compliance by selling its agenda as a “balanced budget,” “fiscal responsibility,” and saving future generations from a massive debt burden by suffering austerity measures now. Bill Mitchell, Professor of Economics at the University of New Castle in Australia, calls this “ deficit terrorism .” Bank-created debt becomes more important than schools, medical care or infrastructure. Rather than “providing for the general welfare,” the purpose of government becomes to maintain the value of the investments of the government's creditors.

England Dons the Hair Shirt

England's new coalition government has just bought into this agenda, imposing on itself the sort of fiscal austerity that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has long imposed on Third World countries, and has more recently imposed on European countries, including Latvia, Iceland, Ireland and Greece. Where those countries were forced into compliance by their creditors, however, England has tightened the screws voluntarily, having succumbed to the argument that it must pay down its debts to maintain the market for its bonds.

Deficit hawks point ominously to Greece, which has been virtually squeezed out of the private bond market because nobody wants its bonds. Greece has been forced to borrow from the IMF and the European Monetary Union (EMU), which has imposed draconian austerity measures as conditions for the loans. Like a Third World country owing money in a foreign currency, Greece cannot print Euros or borrow them from its own central bank, since those alternatives are forbidden under EMU rules. In a desperate attempt to save the Euro, the European Central Bank recently bent the rules by buying Greek bonds on the secondary market rather than lending to the Greek government directly, but the ECB has said it would “sterilize” these purchases by withdrawing an equivalent amount of liquidity from the market, making the deal a wash. (More on that below.)

Greece is stuck in the debt trap, but the UK is not a member of the EMU. Although it belongs to the European Union, it still trades in its own national currency, which it has the power to issue directly or to borrow from its own central bank. Like all central banks, the Bank of England is a “lender of last resort,” which means it can create money on its books without borrowing first. The government owns the Bank of England, so loans from the bank to the government would effectively be interest-free; and as long as the Bank of England is available to buy the bonds that don't get sold on the private market, there need be no fear of a collapse of the value of the UK's bonds.

The “deficit terrorists,” however, will have none of this obvious solution, ostensibly because of the fear of “hyperinflation.” A June 9 guest post by “Cameroni” on Rick Ackerman's financial website takes this position. Titled “ Britain Becomes the First to Choose Deflation ,” it begins:

David Cameron's new Government in England announced Tuesday that it will introduce austerity measures to begin paying down the estimated one trillion (U.S. value) in debts held by the British Government. . . . [T]hat being said, we have just received the signal to an end to global stimulus measures -- one that puts a nail in the coffin of the debate on whether or not Britain would ‘print' her way out of the debt crisis. . . . This is actually a celebratory moment although it will not feel like it for most. . . . Debts will have to be paid. . . . [S]tandards of living will decline . . . [but] it is a better future than what a hyperinflation would bring us all .

Hyperinflation or Deflation?

The dreaded threat of hyperinflation is invariably trotted out to defeat proposals to solve the budget crises of governments by simply issuing the necessary funds, whether as debt (bonds) or as currency. What the deficit terrorists generally fail to mention is that before an economy can be threatened with hyperinflation, it has to pass through simple inflation; and governments everywhere have failed to get to that stage today, although trying mightily. Cameroni observes:

[G]overnments all over the globe have already tried stimulating their way out of the recent credit crisis and recession to little avail. They have attempted fruitlessly to generate even mild inflation despite huge stimulus efforts and pointless spending .

In fact, the money supply has been shrinking at an alarming rate. In a May 26 article in The Financial Times titled “US Money Supply Plunges at 1930s Pace as Obama Eyes Fresh Stimulus,” Ambrose Evans-Pritchard writes:

The stock of money fell from $14.2 trillion to $13.9 trillion in the three months to April, amounting to an annual rate of contraction of 9.6pc. The assets of institutional money market funds fell at a 37pc rate, the sharpest drop ever.

'It's frightening,' said Professor Tim Congdon from International Monetary Research. ‘The plunge in M3 has no precedent since the Great Depression. The dominant reason for this is that regulators across the world are pressing banks to raise capital asset ratios and to shrink their risk assets. This is why the US is not recovering properly,' he said.”

Too much money can hardly have been pumped into an economy in which the money supply is shrinking. But Cameroni concludes that since the stimulus efforts have failed to put needed money back into the money supply, the stimulus program should be abandoned in favor of its diametrical opposite -- belt-tightening austerity. He admits that the result will be devastating:

“[I]t will mean a long, slow and deliberate winding down until solvency is within reach. It will mean cities, states and counties will go bankrupt and not be rescued. And it will be painful. Public spending will be cut. Consumption could decline precipitously. Unemployment numbers may skyrocket and bankruptcies will stun readers of daily blogs like this one. It will put the brakes on growth around the world. . . . The Dow will crash and there will be ripple effects across the European union and eventually the globe. . . . Aid programs to the Third world will be gutted, and I cannot yet imagine the consequences that will bring to the poorest people on earth.

But it will be “worth it,” says Cameroni, because it beats the inevitable hyperinflationary alternative, which “is just too distressing to consider.”

Hyperinflation, however, is a bogus threat, and before we reject the stimulus idea, we might ask why these programs have failed. Perhaps because they have been stimulating the wrong sector of the economy, the non-producing financial middlemen who precipitated the crisis in the first place. Governments have tried to “reflate” their flagging economies by throwing budget-crippling sums at the banks, but the banks have not deigned to pass those funds on to businesses and consumers as loans. Instead, they have used the cheap funds to speculate, buy up smaller banks, or buy safe government bonds, collecting a tidy interest from the very taxpayers who provided them with this cheap bailout money. Indeed, banks are required by their business models to pursue those profits over risky loans. Like all private corporations, they are there not to serve the public interest but to make money for their shareholders.

Seeking Solutions

The alternative to throwing massive amounts of money at the banks is not to further starve and punish businesses and individuals but to feed some stimulus to them directly, with public projects that provide needed services while creating jobs. There are many successful precedents for this approach, including the public works programs of England, Canada, Australia and New Zealand in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, which were funded with government-issued money either borrowed from their central banks or printed directly. The Bank of England was nationalized in 1946 by a strong Labor government that funded the National Health Service, a national railway service, and many other cost-effective public programs that served the economy well for decades afterwards.

In Australia during the current crisis, a stimulus package in which a cash handout was given directly to the people has worked temporarily, with no negative growth (recession) for two quarters, and unemployment held at around 5%. The government, however, borrowed the extra money privately rather than issuing it publicly, out of a misguided fear of hyperinflation. Better would have been to give interest-free credit through its own government-owned central bank to individuals and businesses agreeing to invest the money productively.

The Chinese have done better, expanding their economy at over 9% throughout the crisis by creating extra money that was mainly invested in public infrastructure.

The EMU countries are trapped in a deadly pyramid scheme, because they have abandoned their sovereign currencies for a euro controlled by the ECB. Their deficits can only be funded with more debt, which is interest-bearing, so more must always be paid back than was borrowed. The ECB could provide some relief by engaging in “quantitative easing” (creating new Euros), but it has insisted it would do so only with “sterilization” – taking as much money out of the system as it puts back in. The EMU model is mathematically unsustainable and doomed to fail unless it is modified in some way, either by returning economic sovereignty to its member countries, or by consolidating them into one country with one government.

A third possibility, suggested by Professor Randall Wray and Jan Kregel, would be to assign the ECB the role of “ employer of last resort ,” using “quantitative easing” to hire the unemployed at a basic wage.

A fourth possibility would be for member countries to set up publicly-owned “development banks” on the Chinese model . These banks could issue credit in Euros for public projects, creating jobs and expanding the money supply in the same way that private banks do every day when they make loans. Private banks today are limited in their loan-generating potential by the capital requirement, toxic assets cluttering their books, a lack of creditworthy borrowers, and a business model that puts shareholder profit over the public interest. Publicly-owned banks would have the assets of the state to draw on for capital, a clean set of books, a mandate to serve the public, and a creditworthy borrower in the form of the nation itself, backed by the power to tax.

Unlike the EMU countries, the governments of England, the United States, and other sovereign nations can still borrow from their own central banks, funding much-needed programs essentially interest-free. They can but they probably won't, because they have been deceived into relinquishing that sovereign power to an overreaching financial sector bent on controlling the money systems of the world privately and autocratically. Professor Carroll Quigley, an insider groomed by the international bankers, revealed this plan in 1966, writing in Tragedy and Hope :

[T]he powers of financial capitalism had another far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences.

Just as the EMU appeared to be on the verge of achieving that goal, however, it has started to come apart at the seams. Sovereignty may yet prevail.

California and Oregon Senators caught lying at EPA hearings!! Should they be impeached?

Should Boxer and Merkley be investigated along with ‘Hockey-Stick' Mann and Phil Jones, for global warming fraud?? Your thoughts??

Senators Boxer and Merkley Owe Apology, says SPPI
Source: SPPI

In Senate EPA hearings today false claims were made by Senators Boxer (D-CA) and Merkley (D-OR) that the Science and Public Policy Institute (SPPI) is Exxon Mobil funded, implying its work and findings should be cast aside.

Says SPPI president, Robert Ferguson, “SPPI has never been offered or accepted funds or support in any form from Exxon Mobil. Senators Boxer and Merkley owe an apology and a correction in the record.” Added Ferguson, “It is rather simple for any senate staffer to call Exxon Mobil to verify the facts, or examine public filings for Exxon Mobil's Contributions and Community Investments.

The intended slurs came as EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson faced stern questioning from Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) and Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) about recent revelations of the shoddiness of the science underpinning the EPA's CO2 ‘endangerment' finding.

Senator Barrasso referenced a recent study by SPPI indicating that NASA and NOAA temperature records had been manipulated, and asked the Administrator if she'd be willing to have the EPA IG investigate and review the allegations.

http://sppiblog.org/news/senators-boxer-and-merkley-owe-apology-says-sppi-2

ROTFLMAO!

"Crying Tears" (first post at the top) dismisses the SPPI as "biased" (why, because they don't agree with your narrow world view?) and gives absolutely no evidence to back up their assertion.

They then claim "Logic" as their source, when even if it were true is a matter of fact and attribution, not logic.

And to cap it all off, the alarmists give that post 7 thumbs-up (they've got their thumbs up alright. Right up their . . .).

Decide for yourself who is really biased here.

Washington (CNN) – The chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee is painting a grim picture of the U.S. effort in Afghanistan, but Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, insists that the effort must continue.

“Failure is not an option,” Feinstein said in an interview broadcast Sunday on CNN's “State of the Union.”

Related: Success must be defined, Lugar says

Feinstein agreed that the training of the Afghan army continues to face significant challenges, but she said the Afghanistan-Pakistan theater is too strategically important to U.S interests not to continue the U.S. military operation.

“Also, there's one, I think, irreversible truth - the Taliban is on a march,” Feinstein also told CNN Chief Political Correspondent Candy Crowley. “If you lose Afghanistan, Pakistan is the next step.”

She added, “So the question becomes, either the Taliban becomes a force for good, participates in government - we're not there yet - or it has to be defeated.”

Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, the Ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who joined Feinstein during the interview, agreed that training Afghan security forces remains a challenge.

“Well, we don't say good-bye [to the Afghans], we say right now to the Afghans that we want to train you so that you are able to police your own territory in order to govern,” Lugar told Crowley. “Now, as Dianne Feinstein has said, this is tough to do. You have almost everybody who is an illiterate to begin with. The allies that we had hoped for to send trainers haven't sent very many. Our own trainers are - are too few.

“So, as a result, this is going more slowly. I sympathize with General McChrystal and General Petraeus, as people press them for dates. They're saying ‘one thing at a time.' We've really got to get the training done. It's going more slowly.”

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, recently said that American-led operations against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan will happen "more slowly than we had originally anticipated."

And testifying before a congressional committee late last week, Gen. David Petraeus, who heads the U.S. Central Command, said "The conduct of a counterinsurgency operation is a roller-coaster experience. There are setbacks as well as areas of progress or successes. But the trajectory in my view has generally been upward, despite the tough losses, despite the setbacks."

Filed under: Afghanistan  •  Dianne Feinstein  •  Dick Lugar  •  State of the Union

June 21, 2010 12:23 PM EDT

• JUNE 22, 2010, 3:20 P.M. ET

Influential Senator Works To Suspend Greenhouse Gas Rule

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--As U.S. Senate lawmakers attempt to determine the fate of energy legislation, an influential Democrat is boosting efforts to suspend a controversial greenhouse-gas rule passed earlier this year by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

After introducing a bill to impose a two-year halt on the new EPA rule, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a Democrat from coal-rich West Virginia, is now working to round up supporters for his legislation.

"I believe that climate change--the science of it--is for real, there's no question," Rockefeller told reporters Tuesday. "I also think that very carbon-rich states like West Virginia should have a chance."

Canaccord Genuity Maintains a 'Hold' on US Ecology (ECOL); Superfund Tax Reinstatement a Potential Positive

Canaccord Genuity maintains a 'Hold' rating on US Ecology (NASDAQ: ECOL ), price target $16.

Canaccord analyst says, "The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) may send a letter today to Congress asking for legislation to reinstate the Superfund tax on oil and chemical companies...If the Superfund excise tax on oil and chemical companies is reinstated by Congress, US Ecology stands to be a major beneficiary of these new funds, in our view, as the company is one of the largest providers of hazardous waste services to the US government. While passage of the Superfund tax is not a “done deal” and timing remains uncertain, the legislation will have the backing of the Obama administration and Democratic leadership."

"While the overall business environment remains challenging, we note that the company maintains a strong balance sheet with $32.7M in cash and no debt. In addition, ECOL has a generous dividend yield of 4.9%."

To see all the upgrades/downgrades on shares of ECOL, visit our Analyst Ratings page.

US Ecology, Inc., formerly known as American Ecology Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides radioactive, hazardous, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) and non-hazardous industrial waste management and recycling services to commercial and government entities, such as refineries and chemical production facilities, manufacturers, electric utilities, steel mills, medical and academic institutions and waste broker / aggregators.

CERCLA - PRPs Not Party to a Settlement Can Still Intervene in Settlement Approval

Authored By: James P. Ryan
06/21/10

Following the Eighth and Tenth Circuits, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently ruled that non-settling potentially responsible parties (PRPs) can be heard on the fairness of a settlement reached by other PRPs of claims brought by the government pursuant to the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA).  In U.S. v. Aerojet General Corp. , No. 08-55996 (9th Cir. June 2, 2010), the Ninth Circuit, relying upon section 113(i) of CERCLA and Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 24(a)(2), held that non-settling PRPs have a right to intervene in actions filed seeking court approval of consent decrees. 

The action involved a CERCLA (or Superfund) site in California, in which a group of PRPs entered into a consent decree with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reimburse past costs in connection with activities undertaken by the EPA at the site and for implementation of the remedy prescribed in an Interim Record of Decision.  The EPA filed a "friendly" suit against the settling PRPs as a means to lodge a proposed consent decree that incorporated the settlement agreement.  Once approved by the court, the consent decree would insulate the settling PRPs from contribution claims from non-settling PRPs.  The non-settling PRPs filed a motion to intervene, which the district court denied.  The court then proceeded to enter the consent decree.  The non-settling PRPs appealed to the Ninth Circuit. 

The Ninth Circuit applied the four-part test for intervention required by Rule 24(a)(2) -- (1) timeliness, (2) a sufficiently protectable interest, (3) impairment of that interest, and (4) whether the intervener's interest are otherwise adequately protected -- which the Court noted was almost identical to the test set forth in CERCLA section 113(i).  The Ninth Circuit's analysis focused on the second and third elements. 

The Ninth Circuit first discussed the nature of a PRP's right to seek contribution, which is granted by CERCLA section 113(f).  It dismissed the conclusion reached by several district courts that such a right is contingent or speculative and, therefore, not sufficiently protectable to meet the requirement of a both Rule 24(a)(2) and section 113(i) that a party seeking to intervene have a sufficiently protectable interest.  In finding a sufficiently protectable interest at stake, the Ninth Circuit relied upon the statutory language of CERCLA section 113(f), which plainly provides a party with a right to contribution during or following a civil action under sections 106 or 107.  It buttressed this conclusion by noting that a finding of liability is not required before the right to contribution arises; the only necessary prerequisite is for the contribution claim to be made during or following the Section 106 or 107 action.   The Ninth Circuit further noted that CERCLA also requires that consent decrees be substantively fair, reasonable and consistent with the objectives of CERCLA.  The Ninth Circuit brushed aside policy arguments that intervention would hinder  early settlement of CERCLA actions and noted instead that intervention would further CERCLA's goal of requiring those responsible for the contamination to pay for the cleanup, by ensuring that settlements reflect a fair and reasonable allocation of liability.  Therefore, while the Court found the potential for impairment of CERCLA contribution rights to be the key to open the door for intervention, once in the tent non-settling PRPs will also be able to address the more immediate and perhaps more important consideration: whether the proposed settlement potentially would operate to foist disproportionate residual liability on the non-settling PRPs.

The Ninth Circuit next considered whether the interests of the non-settling PRPs would be impaired by the disposition of the EPA's consent decree.  The Court reasoned that the non-settling PRPs' contribution claims could be significantly affected by the resolution of action in which they were seeking to intervene.  The amount the non-settling PRPs would be able to recover under their contribution claims would definitely be impacted by the contribution bar upon the resolution of the EPA's claims against the settling PRPs.  Once the non-settling PRPs' contribution claims against the settling PRPs are barred, the value of those contribution claims is reduced to nothing.  The Ninth Circuit dismissed the assertion that CERCLA's notice and comment procedures adequately protect the non-settling PRPs' interests and concluded that, at least on the facts of this case, it was unlikely the government would substantially modify the consent decree given that the non-settling PRPs had already objected to the settlement before the comment period.  The Ninth Circuit also concluded that CERCLA section 113(i) evidenced a Congressional intent to have the federal courts evaluate whether proposed consent decrees were fair and reasonable. 

The most significant impact of the Ninth Circuit's Aerojet decision is to confirm that non-settling PRPs must have an opportunity to be heard when the government seeks judicial approval of settlements with some but not all PRPs.  Judicial review will necessarily focus on the amount the settling PRP pays in comparison to its appropriate allocable share to help ensure the settlement does not foist upon the non-settling PRPs a disproportionate share of the costs.  The Aerojet decision will not likely result in very many settlements being rejected by the courts; however, settling PRPs and the government will need to ensure that their settlements reflect a fair and reasonable allocation of liability and costs and should not view the act of seeking judicial approval of a settlement, in matters where there are non-settling PRPs, as a rubber stamp. 

James P. Ryan focuses his environmental practice on Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, And Liability Act (CERCLA) and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) matters and their state analogs.  His clients include large multi-national corporations in a variety of sectors, including the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries.  He can be reached at jryan@nossaman.com or 202.887.1478.

Frank E. Deale on "Jurisdiction, Transfer, and Pretrial: Using Fed. R. Civ. P. 16 to Resolve Forum Convenience Disputes"

Frank E. Deale of CUNY School of Law has a new post on SSRN entitled: " Jurisdiction, Transfer, and Pretrial: Using Fed. R. Civ. P. 16 to Resolve Forum Convenience Disputes " Howard Law Journal , Vol. 53, No. 1, 2009 . Here is the abstract:
The article argues that Federal District Judges should exercise their managerial powers under Rule 16 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to resolve forum convenience disputes, (i.e., challenges to the personal jurisdiction or venue of a court), in early pre-trial conference negotiation meetings rather than through the normal, but extremely wasteful, expensive, and time consuming, route of motion practice. The article suggests that the extremely complex multi-factored analyses for making forum convenience decisions, especially those ascertaining personal jurisdiction, has resulted in a body of decisional law that makes it difficult to predict reasonable outcomes, and that is moreover inconsistent with settled understandings regarding the adjudication of constitutional and statutory claims. These unfortunate results are compounded by the ability of defendants to secure interlocutory appeals to challenge District Judge decisions to honor plaintiff's initial choice of forum, adding substantial expense and significant delay to the adjudication of the merits of a plaintiff's claim. In cases targeted by the proposal, federal diversity cases filed against non-residents defendants, the use of early Rule 16 conferences could substantially reduce the judicial resources necessary to adjudicate the large volume of such cases that appear on the federal docket.

Meaningless Codes Of Ethics

How do you control bureaucrats? It's an issue of concern as attempts at legislation attest, but they are all vague and apparently unenforceable.  For example, the US has the Hatch Act, which relates to political activity of Federal Employees. But is that different from a code of ethics? NASA has ethical rules that involve misuse of position – but neither has inhibited the activities of NASA GISS Director James Hansen.

Apparently there are no codes or guidelines for IPCC members. The UN has general guidelines as follows; “Conflict of interest includes circumstances in which international civil servants, directly or indirectly, would appear to benefit improperly, or allow a third party to benefit improperly, from their association in the management or the holding of a financial interest in an enterprise that engages in any business or transaction with the organization.” Do they apply to IPCC? Does this mean they are guilty because they allowed Al Gore and others to benefit from carbon credits? It's unlikely because individual governments pay for the IPCC.

World Meteorological Organization (WMO) code of ethics likely don't apply either. They say in part, b) Refrain from acting in the course of their duties with respect to a matter in which they or someone with whom they have a close relationship, or from whom they are seeking employment or other benefit or favour, has a special interest” . Who then determines the appropriateness of the behavior and ethics of James Hansen, Phil Jones or Rajendra Pauchari? The answer is nobody and that is the advantage of bureaucracies. They are not accountable to anyone and if they get in trouble it's easy to set up whitewash investigations. Individuals, including Obama, will come and go but the totally unaccountable bureaucracy will persist. They will mindlessly pursue and expand the agenda they were ostensibly established to resolve: they are the cancer of the body politic.

Source

CONTACTS:

Stacy Kika (News Media Only)

Kika.stacy@epa,gov 202-564-0906

202-564-4355

Abby Hall (Public Inquiries)

Hall.abby@epa.gov

202-566-2086

Regions Provide Multiple Reasons for Incomplete Cost Recovery
EPA regions have recovered $165 million of $294 million (56 percent) of the total Superfund costs, from the sites we reviewed. However, EPA has not recovered as much as $129 million (44 percent) and has determined it will not attempt to recover between $30 million and $90 million of this amount.
Two general reasons cited for incomplete cost recovery
The unrecovered costs do not represent costs that were billed but not paid, as the PRPs at these sites have generally paid the amount billed. The remainder of this
section documents reasons cited by the regions for incomplete cost recovery. Regions have billed and recovered 95 percent or more of their site costs at 11 of the 58 sites we reviewed. Where cost recovery was less complete, regional staff sometimes provided general explanations. These general explanations did not indicate specific costs excluded from bills, or reasons why the regions did not bill these costs. This indicates a potentially significant breakdown in controls over Superfund cost recovery. Regional staff often cited one or both of the following reasons for incomplete cost recovery, without supporting documentation.
•
Limitations in negotiated settlements –EPA does not recover some costs because the private party and EPA agreed to exclude certain costs in reaching a settlement. Regional staff cited this as a reason for incomplete cost recovery at 12 sites.
•
Total costs overestimated by SCORPIOS – SCORPIOS’ total cost reports for past years may not accurately reconstruct the indirect costs. Regional staff said that this SCORPIOS limitation is another reason that SCORPIOS reports show costs recovered as less than actual costs for seven sites. However, regions did not provide actual cost figures to document this reason.
Many specific reasons cited for incomplete cost recovery
Regional staff also had other explanations for incomplete cost recovery. Some of these reflect a misunderstanding of policies and procedures or a lack of oversight in the billing process. In several cases, our review caused regions to become aware of oversight lapses on some site bills.
•
One region did not include a site on the billing list – While preparing its response to our information request for this project, one region discovered that one of the sites in question had inadvertently been left off its annual oversight billing inventory. SCORPIOS indicates the region last billed the site in 1996, and approximately $1.3 million of the total costs have not been recovered. Since this discovery, regional staff have added the site to their oversight billing inventory and have scheduled the next bill for the site in April 2008.
•
One region did not bill one site for years due to a misunderstanding on using a special account – While preparing its response to our information request for this project, one region discovered that it had not billed one site due to a misunderstanding about using funds in the site’s special account. The special account contained money recovered from the site for past EPA costs. Regional staff incorrectly thought the money in the special account was for future costs, so they did not bill the site for these costs. The site was last billed in 2001, and total costs since 2001 have been approximately $500,000. Since this discovery, regional staff have generated a bill to address these costs.
•
One region may not be able to recover oversight costs from State-lead sites – One region has never billed two State-lead sites, and the total SCORPIOS costs are approximately $1.4 million. Some of the costs were not billed due to a past settlement agreement, and some costs cannot be recovered because the statute of limitations has expired. Regional staff stated that they could not bill the site for oversight costs, as the PRPs have cost recovery agreements only with the States. The region continues to incur oversight costs – slightly over $95,000 total for both sites since 2000. EPA has no existing settlement agreement to recover oversight costs.
Other explanations for incomplete cost recovery include the following.
•
Superfund remediation work for one site was performed under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) permit. Regional staff incorrectly thought oversight costs were recoverable through work performed under the RCRA permit, but RCRA has no legal authority to allow recovering oversight costs.

•
Document imaging costs for one site’s files were attributed as direct costs to the site, when these costs should have been included as regional indirect costs. The region therefore did not bill for these costs. These document imaging costs were not used to calculate the region’s indirect rate(s).
•
Costs should have been attributed to a different site.
•
Costs represented a litigation risk (in the opinion of EPA attorneys, if the PRP challenged the costs in court, EPA would lose).
•
Cost invoices were not received or processed in time for billing.
•
The statute of limitations for cost recovery has expired.
•
Some of the identified costs were RCRA costs and therefore were not recoverable.
•
A circuit court ruling prevented the recovery of oversight costs from sites in two regions for several years. This ruling has recently been reversed, and the regions are taking steps to recover these costs.
•
Cost recovery negotiations are ongoing.
•
Costs will not be billed until the PRP completes its remedial actions under an EPA Administrative Order.
SCORPIOS Does Not Track Cost Recovery Efficiency or Corrections
While SCORPIOS provides detailed cost information for regions to produce site bills, the system design does not include enough information to determine cost recovery efficiency or track corrections. These functions are not available because SCORPIOS does not allow the input of cost categories that would allow reports to calculate efficiency and track corrections. This makes program performance difficult to quantify and can impede cost recovery.
Conclusions
EPA does not have sufficient management control over the process for the recovery of Superfund expenses. Regions have pursued recovery of some EPA’s Superfund expenditures for most sites, and sites have generally paid the amount billed. However, based on EPA’s information systems, EPA has not recovered approximately $129 million out of $294 million in total costs, or 44 percent, ofthe total costs at these sites. Regions are using some billing practices that impede Superfund cost recovery and regions did not recover costs because they misunderstood procedures or did not generate bills. Enhancing guidance and tracking Superfund costs can help EPA avoid unnecessary financial losses through better recovery of its Superfund costs.
Recommendations
We recommend the EPA Chief Financial Officer and the Assistant Administrator for Enforcement and Compliance Assurance work collaboratively to:
1. Enhance cost recovery guidance for use by all regions. At minimum, this guidance should include:
–
Procedures for annually reviewing Superfund site costs for all sites where EPA is recovering or expects to recover costs, to ensure costs are adequately identified and documented. This guidance should include procedures for ensuring that costs are reviewed while involved staff are available and can remember cost details.
–
A standard definition of anniversary date for timeliness of billing.
–
A definition of the minimum costs required for billing.
2. Implement mechanisms to:
–
Support calculation of site cost recovery efficiency - Track the resolution of each cost as determined in the annual billing process. Resolutions could include billed, not billed for a specified reason, and pending.
–
Track corrections – Identify incorrect costs until they are corrected. Both of these mechanisms could be implemented through enhancements to SCORPIOS.
3. Implement performance measures to track cost recovery efficiency.
Agency Comments and OIG Evaluation
The OIG made changes to the report based on the Agency’s comments where appropriate. Appendix A provides the full text of the Agency comments and OIG response.
EPA concurred with all recommendations. We agree that the proposed actions, when implemented, will meet the intent of the recommendations.
1

Federal Superfund Program Faces Influx Of Toxic Sites - Report

First Published Tuesday, 22 June 2010 09:36 pm - © 2010 Dow Jones

By Martin Vaughan

Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The pace of contaminated sites being added to the federal Superfund waste cleanup program will quicken over the next five years, even as federal trust fund monies are nearly tapped out, the Government Accountability Office said Tuesday.

Between 20 to 25 sites a year will be added to the list of Superfund sites between now and 2014, GAO predicts. That compares with an average of 16 sites added annually to the program in the last five years.

The growing demands on the federal toxic waste site cleanup program could add urgency to an attempt by President Barack Obama and some congressional Democrats to restore taxes on oil and chemical companies that feed the Superfund trust fund.

Obama's Environmental Protection Agency this week proposed renewing those taxes, in order to raise $18.9 billion for the trust fund over the next 10 years.

Sen. Max Baucus (D., Mont.), chairman of the Senate committee that oversees taxes, said Tuesday he is reviewing the administration's proposal. He said he prefers that the proposal on Superfund taxes be considered in the context of energy legislation, although he didn't rule out that it could be included in an unrelated bill.

"I want to look at it to see how it fits in with other potential revenue measures, like the oil spill liability fund," Baucus said. Baucus has proposed increasing that per-barrel tax on oil to 49 cents from 8 cents as part of a Senate bill to extend expired tax cuts.

GAO's findings were presented during a Tuesday hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on Superfund, Toxics and Environmental Health.

The estimate of 20 to 25 new Superfund sites per year--for a total of as many as 125 new sites--was based on GAO interviews with EPA regional and state environmental officials.

Fifteen to 25 of that total could come from the state of New Jersey alone.

At least two factors, both related to the economic recession, are behind the expected increase in Superfund site designation, said GAO's John Stephenson. States have less resources to devote to their own cleanup programs, and EPA might have more trouble getting polluters to pay up, he said.

Sen. James Inhofe (R., Okla.), speaking at the Senate subcommittee hearing, said renewing the taxes on oil and chemical companies and a related tax on corporations broadly, was the wrong approach.

"Why would you go out and pass taxes on companies that have nothing to do with any type of a spill?" Inhofe asked.

The Superfund taxes expired in 1995. The trust fund has dwindled from a peak of $5 billion in 1997, to about $130 million today.

-By Martin Vaughan, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9244; martin.vaughan@dowjones.com

(MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires

New EPA regulations and US manufacturing

Posted by 4life ( Profile )

Tuesday, June 22nd at 8:55AM EDT

These articles are well worth reading from the Indiana Manufacturers Association Environment and Energy Forum , June 2010.

Here are some excerpts of interest.  I guess we could call it Bad News/Good News:

Each year, approximately 115 million tons of coal combustion products (CCPs) are produced in the United States. Nearly 70 percent of these materials are disposed of in saturated ash impoundments or ash landfills. Most of the mass of CCPs (99 wt percent) is made up of Si, Al, Fe, Ca, K, Mg, Na, O, P, and Ti; the same elements that make up the composition of natural soil. It is the remaining 1 wt percent of trace elements that have raised debate concerning the environmental risk associated with CCPs.

…

The environmental ramifications concerning the disposal of CCPs have been subject to increasing debate in the United States since Congress enacted the Solid Waste Disposal Act amendments in to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) in 1980. In those amendments CCPs were temporarily exempted from Subtitle C regulation (which regulates disposal of material classified as hazardous waste), allowing them to be classified under Subtitle D regulation (subject to regulation only at the state level). However, the amendments did direct the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to produce a report regarding CCPs and to pursue the appropriate regulation of these wastes.

In pursuit of this mandate, the U.S.EPA issued a report to Congress in 1988 titled Waste from the Combustion of Coal Electric Utility Power Plants (EPA/5-30-SW-88-002). In this report the EPA concluded that CCPs generally do not exhibit hazardous characteristics and that the regulation of CCPs should remain under state Subtitle D authority. Following this report, litigation was brought against the EPA by the Bull Run Coalition, which claimed the EPA had failed to issue a timely regulatory determination as stated in its 1988 report to Congress. The EPA entered into a consent decree with the Bull Run Coalition, which included a time frame for the EPA to issue a formal recommendation regarding regulation of CCPs. In accordance with this consent decree, the EPA issued a final regulatory determination applicable to fly ash, bottom ash, boiler slag, and flue-gas desulphurization materials. This ruling became effective in September 1993, and stated that regulation of CCPs generated by coal fired electric utilities and independent power producers as hazardous waste was unnecessary and that the materials would remain exempt from Subtitle C regulation. In April 2000 the EPA stated that these additional wastes would continue to be exempted from Subtitle C regulation.

EPA announced on May 4, 2010 that it is proposing to regulate coal combustion residuals and is proposing two alternative regulations for public comment. There will be a 90 day public comment period following publication in the Federal Register, which should appear soon.

Under the first proposal, EPA would reverse its 1993 and 2000 regulatory determinations that CCPs are not hazardous waste and would list CCPs as special wastes subject to Subtitle C regulation. Under the second proposal, EPA would regulate disposal of CCPs under Subtitle D by issuing national minimum criteria.

If regulated under the hazardous waste Subtitle C program, CCPs would be regulated from the point of their generation to the point of their final disposition, including during and after closure of any disposal unit.

And some good news:

With adoption of the Green House Gas (GHG) Tailoring Rule on May 13, 2010, EPA limited the permitting burdens that would have resulted from its recent decision to limit GHG emissions from cars and light trucks. Under the Clean Air Act, once EPA decides to regulate a pollutant, the permitting requirements under the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) and Title V permit programs kick in for any facility that emits either 100 or 250 tons per year of the regulated pollutant. If those limits had applied to GHG emissions, more than six million sources would have been required to obtain permits, many for the first time.

…

What are GHGs?
GHGs are the six gases that have heat trapping properties. Those gases are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perflurocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride.

Why are GHGs regulated?
The heat trapping properties of GHGs are believed to contribute to global warming.

What is a CO2e designation?
Because the heat trapping capabilities of the six gases varies, there is an internationally accepted method of converting each GHG into an equivalent CO2 effect which is designated as the CO2e.

And all this as the validity of data ‘proving' global warming continues to be challenged.

Now a story written in Environment & Climate News, May 2010, by James M. Taylor, describes a recent letter sent by the Institute of Physics, a London-based scientific charity with a membership of over 36,000 devoted to the understanding and application of physics. Taylor's article declares that “The letter criticizes global warming alarmists at the heart of the Climategate scandal for manipulating data, abusing the scientific method and strong-arming the peer-review publication process.” (The letter is actually a memorandum.)

The Institute further advises the British Parliament that it is concerned that some of the research and emails may prove to be “…forgeries or adaptations [with] worrying implications aris[ing] for the integrity of scientific research in this field…”
Forgeries of data? This is a strong accusation!

It is clear that the Institute of Physics wants to learn the truth about activities of scientists involved with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The Institute's Memorandum sets forth 13 assertions and requests to Parliament. The most important paragraph declares “The emails reveal doubts as to the reliability of some of the reconstructions and raise questions as to the way in which they have been represented; for example, the apparent suppression in graphics widely used by the IPCC of proxy results for recent decades that do not agree with contemporary instrumental temperature measurements.”

In plain English, the scientists are suggesting, as many articles have suggested, that the truth is not being told about global warming issues and the data supporting manmade climate change. (In other words, it is fraud!!!)
…

The second story that caught my attention arose here in Virginia from the Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli, who filed a Civil Investigative Demand against the Commonwealth's flagship University of Virginia (UVa). The Attorney General is demanding UVa produce all its documents in connection with one of its scientists, Dr. Michael Mann, who was implicated in several stories regarding the Climategate scandal. Dr. Mann is one of the major advocates of the “hockey stick graph” which demonstrates that global temperatures have risen suddenly and with an unprecedented upward spike and looks like a hockey stick.
Both the Institute of Physics and the Attorney General of Virginia are seeking facts and truth regarding the alleged Climategate scandal. Of course, the reaction against these efforts has been widespread and full of condemnation.

I find this curious, as you should, that people are afraid to have documents paid for by taxpayer money made available for others to read.

The Attorney General of Virginia, not being an academic, is concerned about Virginia taxpayer money being used by UVa and Mann to develop data and conclusions which also may be questionable (or fraudulent) as they relate to climate change. Mann has been accused of manipulating climate data to support the idea of manmade global warming.

As a result, the Attorney General has commanded UVa to produce all information and documentary materials that might show possible violations by Mann of the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act.

Among the 10 requests for information from Mann include a request for all of the computer programs that were created or edited by Mann from January 1, 1999 to the present. The Attorney General wants all of Mann's hard drives, floppy drives, tape drives, optical drives, desktop and laptop - well, you get the idea. The Attorney General wants the truth. (Dr. Mann is no longer at the University of Virginia and now works at Penn State.)

When Republicans are back in control, we need to remember what the EPA has done under Obama and roll it back.  Especially when global warming has been show to be the fraud that it is.  We cannot forget our manufacturers who are already seeing increased regulation, and our citizens who will suffer the consequences of higher energy costs and further loss of manufacturing jobs to developing nations.

June 22, 2010

EPA to Seek Employee Participation in Chemical Safety Inspections

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released interim guidance that would provide greater transparency in the agency's chemical safety inspections process.  Under the interim guidance, EPA inspectors will offer employees and employee representatives the opportunity to participate in chemical safety inspections.  In addition, EPA will request that state and local agencies adopt similar procedures under the Risk Management Program.  EPA believes that close involvement of employees and employee representatives in inspections is effective and better protects workers and the adjacent communities.

The interim guidance pertains to inspections conducted by EPA under the agency's Risk Management Program (RMP).  Through this program, EPA seeks to reduce the risks to surrounding communities that arise from the management, use or storage of certain hazardous chemicals.  Owners and operators of covered facilities must develop a risk management plan, which includes facility plans for the prevention and response to chemical accidents.  Under the Clean Air Act, the Chemical Accident Prevention Provisions require facilities that produce, handle, process, distribute, or store certain chemicals to develop a Risk Management Program, prepare a risk management plan, and submit the plan to EPA.

EPA expects to issue final guidance on participation of employees and employee representative in RMP inspections later this year.

More information on EPA's interim guidance and RMP: http://www.epa.gov/oem/content/rmp/index.htm
More information on the Chemical Accident Prevention Provisions:  http://www.epa.gov/oem/content/lawsregs/rmpover.htm

BOLTON, MS - June 22, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- Today, United States Representative Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS) announced HUD's $40 million Community Challenge Planning Grant Program, which will foster reform and reduce barriers to achieving affordable, economically vital, and sustainable communities. Such efforts may include amending or replacing local master plans, zoning codes, and building codes, either on a jurisdiction-wide basis or in a specific neighborhood, district, corridor, or sector to promote mixed-use development, affordable housing, the reuse of older buildings and structures for new purposes, and similar activities with the goal of promoting sustainability at the local or neighborhood level. HUD's Community Challenge Planning Grant Program also supports the development of affordable housing through the development and adoption of inclusionary zoning ordinances and other activities such as acquisition of land for affordable housing projects

Superfund tax push spurs rush for new lobbyists

The American Chemistry Council has bulked up its lobbying team to battle the Obama administration's push to renew the lapsed Superfund tax. 

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius and Williams and Jensen have been hired by the Council to lobby specifically on the Superfund tax, according to lobbying disclosure records.

Steinberg is a former Reagan administration Justice Department attorney who handled environmental litigation there and is now outside counsel to the Superfund Settlements Project, a coalition of major companies that has often challenged the toxic waste law in court.

The Council decided to revamp its lobbying team because of rising interest among Democrats in renewing the Superfund tax, according to Walter Moore, the group's vice president for federal affairs.

The Superfund tax expired in 1995, and Superfund went bankrupt in 2003. Since then, cleanups of toxic waste sites have lagged.

With Democrats in control of Congress and the White House, the issue was seen as percolating.

“This has become incrementally hotter and hotter this year,” Moore said.

On Monday, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sent a letter and draft legislation to Congress calling for the tax to be renewed.

“Our taxes should be paying for teachers, police officers and infrastructure that is essential for sustainable growth — not footing the bill for polluters,” Mathy Stanislaus, assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, said in a statement announcing the legislation.

Several members of Congress have already introduced legislation to reinstate the tax.

When Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), a member of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, introduced legislation in March to renew the tax, Moore said the trade group knew it was time to bulk up its lobbying presence.

“It was simply confirmation that we were over that line,” Moore said.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) have all introduced similar bills that would reinstate the Superfund tax in some form.

The Council argues reinstating the tax would hurt U.S. businesses and push jobs overseas. It says European competitors would not face the same tax, which would drive up costs for U.S. companies, making them uncompetitive.

American Chemistry Council President and CEO Cal Dooley, a former Democratic congressman from California, said in a statement that reinstating the Superfund tax would be “a lose-lose for the environment and the economy.”

Moore could not estimate how much reinstating the tax would cost chemical companies, but insisted it could force some U.S.-based factories to close.

Supporters of the tax argue taxpayers now have to pick up the costs for toxic waste sites.

Under present law, when the government can't find a responsible party to pay cleanup costs, taxpayers are on the hook. Since 2003, Congress has appropriated funds from the general treasury to Superfund.

Aside from Steinberg, the Council will have Williams and Jensen CEO Steven Hart lobbying along with four others, including Patrick Pettey, a former chief of staff to ex-Sen. Bob Smith (R-N.H.).
Environmental groups have been pushing for a renewal of the Superfund tax since it first expired last decade, and some believe the Gulf of Mexico oil spill will lend new momentum to their effort.

“If there is a silver lining to the BP oil fiasco, it is Congress may be developing an interest in corporate accountability and forcing companies to pay for the messes they create,” said Ed Hopkins, the director of the Sierra Club's environmental quality program. “That may be giving new legs to the Superfund tax.”

Hopkins said he and others are talking to lawmakers about renewing the tax this Congress. The EPA statement Monday also helps that cause, showing that the White House is willing to lend its considerable weight toward renewal of the tax.

“It is signaling to Congress that the administration is serious about having companies be responsible for cleanup,” Hopkins said. “It appears the administration is willing to invest some political capital in seeing this passed, and that could help a lot.”
With his approval rating plunging, along with the economy and faced with growing criticism for the lack of federal enforcement of U.S. immigration laws, Obama knows that there will be no vote before November, on so-called ‘comprehensive immigration reform,' (amnesty for illegal aliens).

Unable to deliver amnesty as he promised, at least through Constitutional means, there is mounting concern that Obama will use the power of executive order to do so.

As I have said before…We will be told that granting citizenship to such a large group of people at once will be a tremendous boost to our tax base, and end our exploding budget deficits.

Of course, the vast majority of illegal aliens do not now, nor will they ever make enough money to even qualify for income taxes, they will simply join the 48 percent of Americans who currently pay nothing and our National Debt will continue to soar.

The real reason Obama wants to grant amnesty to the mostly Hispanic population, is to secure the vote that they would then have as American citizens. Obama believes that doing so would assure Democratic control of the White House and Congress for the next several generations.

At least eight U.S. Senators believe that Obama is preparing to order DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano to provide a defacto amnesty, through the use of massive deferred action or parole for the millions of illegal aliens now living inside our borders.

On Monday, Sens. Grassley, Hatch (R-Utah), Vitter (R-La.), Bunning (R-Ky.), Chambliss (R-Ga.), Isakson (R-Ga.), Inhofe (R-Okla.), and Cochran (R-Miss.) sent a letter to the White House, demanding answers to this outrage.

The letter reads as follows:

“Dear President Obama:

We understand that there's a push for your Administration to develop a plan to unilaterally extend either deferred action or parole to millions of illegal aliens in the United States. We understand that the Administration may include aliens who have willfully overstayed their visas or filed for benefits knowing that they will not be eligible for a status for years to come. We understand that deferred action and parole are discretionary actions reserved for individual cases that present unusual, emergent or humanitarian circumstances. Deferred action and parole were not intended to be used to confer a status or offer protection to large groups of illegal aliens, even if the agency claims that they look at each case on a “case-by-case” basis.

While we agree our immigration laws need to be fixed, we are deeply concerned about the potential expansion of deferred action or parole for a large illegal alien population. While deferred action and parole are Executive Branch authorities, they should not be used to circumvent Congress' constitutional authority to legislate immigration policy, particularly as it relates to the illegal population in the United States.

The Administration would be wise to abandon any plans for deferred action or parole for the illegal population. Such a move would further erode the American public's confidence in the federal government and its commitment to securing the borders and enforcing the laws already on the books.

We would appreciate receiving a commitment that the Administration has no plans to use either authority to change the current position of a large group of illegal aliens already in the United States, and ask that you respond to us about this matter as soon as possible.”

U.S. Supreme Court Decides Case Under the National Environmental Policy Act

6/22/2010

The U.S. Supreme Court has reversed a decision of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that previously upheld the imposition of a nationwide injunction against the marketing of genetically modified seeds in the absence of a full environmental impact statement. In Monsanto v. Geertson Seed, No. 09-475 (June 21, 2010), the Supreme Court confirmed the importance of using a traditional judicial balancing test when deciding requests for injunctive relief under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The decision comes in the most significant environmental law case considered by the Court this term.

SHB Partner Kevin Haroff appeared as counsel of record for the Washington Legal Foundation as amicus curiae in support of the petition for review in the case. To view the Supreme Court's decision, please click here .

Media Contact:

Burton Taylor
Public/Media Relations Manager
P: 816-559-2083
E: bgtaylor@shb.com
vCard

Casto and Haroff to Address Seminar on California Water Quality

7/19/2010

SHB Partners Keith Casto and Kevin Haroff will address a Law Seminars International program titled California Water Quality & Its Impact on Supply, slated for July 19-20, 2010, in San Francisco. As co-chair of the program, Haroff will discuss California water law and its interplay with water quality. Casto will present on “Regional Storm Water Management Control: New Requirements for Municipal Discharges.” To view the program agenda, please click here .

More SHB speaking engagements >>

The AIG Loophole and the Race to Finish FinReg

At the Huffington Post, Ryan Grim reports that Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Rep. Greg Meeks (D-N.Y.) are attempting to insert an insurer-friendly change into the conference committee's version of financial regulatory reform. “The measure would exempt securities products created by insurance companies from regulation, leaving the job instead to state insurance commissioners,” Grim writes. “Insurance companies do a lucrative business in selling annuities that guarantee a return to investors but limit the upside and often come with exorbitant commissions and high surrender fees that make access to the money difficult in times of financial need.” (The relevant change is the second bullet point on this sheet .)

The change might undercut the regulation of financial products created by firms like AIG, no less potentially dangerous than ones created by a Wall Street bank or a hedge fund, and has consumer advocates spooked. And it is one of dozens of kinks to be worked out and issues to be considered today, tomorrow and Thursday, as the conference process races to the finish.

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), the head of the committee, promised it will be over this week — despite the significant amount of work still left. Today, the conferees debate the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency, the auto dealer exemption and debit card fees. Later this week: the Volcker Rule, derivatives and dozens of other small changes. Addressing the convened conferees when they convened this afternoon, Frank said , “If we are not able to finish up by Thursday, then this bill will not be able to pass until the middle of July.” Obama plans to have the finalized version ready for a meeting of the G-20 in Toronto this weekend.

State seeks compensation for 3M pollution

3M Company may be liable for damage to natural resources because of chemicals that contaminated Mississippi River fish and tainted groundwater beneath much of the east metro area.

By TOM MEERSMAN , Star Tribune

Last update: June 23, 2010 - 8:51 PM

3M Company may be liable for damage to natural resources because of chemicals that contaminated Mississippi River fish and tainted groundwater beneath much of the east metro area. State officials have met with 3M several times during the past few weeks, and said they hope to resolve the problems through negotiations rather than litigation.

3M phased out the compounds in 2002 after making them for nearly half a century at its Cottage Grove plant. They were used in numerous products including Scotchgard, non-stick cookware and firefighting foam. The company dumped wastes in area landfills and at the plant decades ago, before those practices were illegal. The chemicals spread to contaminate nearby ground and river water.

"For the past three years we've been focused on cleanup, on getting that moving forward," said Kathy Sather, director of remediation for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. "The time is right now for us to look at the natural resource damage that's always part of the remediation that we do."

Sather would not speculate on how much the damages might be. "It all depends on what we end up quantifying as far as what the actual injury is," she said. The MPCA is working with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and with affected cities to gather information before formal negotiations begin with the company, Sather said.

"Everything's very preliminary at this point," she said, declining to disclose further details.

Potential damages could involve ground water, surface water, limits on fish consumption, loss of habitat for fish and wildlife, and loss of public use of natural resources, Sather said.

3M spokesperson Jacqueline Berry said the company had no comment on the matter.

Oklahoma Court: Trust violated Open Meeting Act

The Oklahoma Supreme Court has ruled that a trust overseeing a voluntary buyout program for residents of the Tar Creek Superfund site has violated the Oklahoma Open Meeting Act.

The state's highest court made the ruling in an 8-1 decision handed down Tuesday.

It says the Lead-Impacted Communities Relocation Assistance Trust violated the act by allowing Secretary of Environment J.D. Strong and representatives of appraisers to attend executive sessions where appraisals and property purchases were discussed.

The court says they were not authorized to attend the closed meetings.

It sent the case back to Ottawa County District Court to decide if former residents and property owners in the region should be allowed access to records of the trust's executive sessions.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

June 17, 2010

EPA Launches New Program to Green America's Capitals

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is launching a new technical assistance program to help state capital cities design more sustainable communities. Greening America 's Capitals will assist state capitals, selected through a competitive application process, develop a vision of distinctive, environmentally friendly neighborhoods that incorporate innovative green building and green infrastructure. This program is a new project of the Partnership for Sustainable Communities between EPA, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).

"EPA is excited to work with our partners at HUD and DOT to offer this new design assistance to capital cities," said Lisa Heinzerling, associate administrator for EPA's Office of Policy, Economics and Innovation. "The selected cities will offer sustainable development models for their states and for many communities around the country."

EPA will provide design assistance to up to four cities per year to help them use sustainable designs to develop neighborhoods with multiple social, economic, and environmental benefits. With funding from EPA, these design teams will assist the city staff in developing project strategies to accelerate sustainable development in priority neighborhoods and create sustainability models for other cities to follow. The projects also could be used as testing grounds for larger, city-wide actions, such as changes to local codes and regulations to better support sustainable growth and green building.

Capital cities are invited to submit letters of interest to EPA by July 9, 2010. Letters of interest will be evaluated based on how well the proposed project describes the challenge, potential impact, and political and public support. A small group of applicants will be asked to participate in a follow-up call to further evaluate how well the applicant meets the criteria. Final selection will be made by early fall 2010.

More information on the program and application process: http://epa.gov/smartgrowth/greencapitals.htm

GREEN THE HOOD!

MINING DEPARTMENT ORDER § 9102. Establishing and acquiring corporations: Lost Confidence Mine announces acquisition of FINTECH PRECAST, INC. & DEPOE BAY, LLC.

ARMAN MINES MINISTRY OF NATURAL RESOURCES FEDERATION, THE HUMMINGBIRD INSTITUTE

DISASTER ASSISTANCE DIRECTORATE

Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities, 451 Seventh Street SW, Washington, DC 20410-3000, telephone number 202-402-7683/facsimile 202-708-0465

Delist from 303(d) list

TMDL Project Code: 603
Date TMDL Approved
by USEPA:
01/01/2002
Impairment from
Pollutant or Pollution:
Pollutant
Conclusion: This pollutant is being considered for removal from the section 303(d) list under
section 4.1 of the Listing Policy. Under this section a single line of evidence is
necessary to assess listing status.
One lines of evidence are available in the administrative record to assess this
pollutant. None of samples exceeded the water quality objective.
Based on the readily available data and information, the weight of evidence
indicates that there is sufficient justification for removing this water segmentpollutant
combination from the section 303(d) list.
This conclusion is based on the staff findings that:
1. The data used satisfies the data quality requirements of section 6.1.4 of the
Policy.
2. The data used satisfies the data quantity requirements of section 6.1.5 of the
Policy.
3. None of 31 samples exceeded the chronic or acute criteria and this does not
exceed the allowable frequency listed in Table 4.1 of the Listing Policy.
4. Pursuant to section 4.11 of the Listing Policy, no additional data and
information are available indicating that standards are not met.
RWQCB Board Staff
Recommendation:
After review of the available data and information, RWQCB staff concludes that
the water body-pollutant combination should be removed from the section 303(d)
list because applicable water quality standards for the pollutant are not being
exceeded.
SWRCB Board Staff
Recommendation:
After review of this Regional Board decision, SWRCB staff recommend the
decision be approved by the State Board.
USEPA Decision:
Line of Evidence (LOE) for Decision ID 4124, Copper, Cadmium, Zinc; Region 5
Sacramento River (Keswick Dam to Cottonwood Creek)

COPPER, CADMIUM, AND ZINC;

QAPP Information: QA Info Missing

Final Listing Decision: Delist from 303(d) list (being addressed by USEPA approved TMDL)

Factors Leading to Failures in Predicting Post Mine Water Quality and Acid Mine Drainage 
In the report comparing predicted and actual water quality at hard rock mines (Kuipers et al. 2006), the authors identified two types of characterization failures that led to differences between predicted water quality as speculated in EIS documents and the actual water quality either during or after mining began. The two characterization failure types were: 1) insufficient or inaccurate characterization of the hydrology, and 2) insufficient or inaccurate geochemical characterization of the proposed mine. Inaccurate pre-mining characterization and interpretation can, therefore, result in a failure to recognize or predict water quality impacts. The authors reported primary causes of hydrologic characterization failures as follows: overestimations of dilution, lack of hydrological characterization, overestimations of discharge volumes, and underestimations of storm size. The primary causes of geochemical characterization failures were identified as: lack of adequate geochemical characterization, in terms of sample representativeness and sample adequacy.
In the 25 case study mines, the authors identified mitigation failures with the following primary causes: mitigation measures were not identified or they were inadequate, or not implemented; waste rock mixing and segregation was not effective, liners leaked, tailings were spilled, or embankments failed, and land application discharge was not effective. The authors provided a table summarizing these failures (Table 1) for the 25 case study mines.
Table 1. Water Quality Predictions Failure Modes, Root Causes and Examples from Case Study Mines (Kuipers et.al, 2006).
Failure Mode
Root Cause
Examples
Hydrologic Characterization
Lack of hydrologic characterization
Royal Mountain King, CA; Black Pine, MT
Dilution overestimated
Greens Creek, AK; Jerritt Canyon, NV
Amount of discharge underestimated
Mineral Hill, MT
Size of storms underestimated
Zortman and Landusky, MT
Geochemical Characterization
Lack of adequate geochemical characterization
Jamestown, CA; Royal Mountain King, CA; Grouse Creek, ID; Black Pine, MT
Sample size and/or representation
Greens Creek, AK; McLaughlin, CA; Thompson Creek, ID; Golden Sunlight, MT; Mineral Hill, MT; Zortman and Landusky, MT; Jerritt Canyon, NV
Mitigation
Mitigation not identified, inadequate, or not installed
Bagdad, AZ; Royal Mountain King, CA; Grouse Creek, ID
Waste rock mixing and segregation not effective
Greens Creek, AK; McLaughlin, CA; Thompson Creek, ID; Jerritt Canyon, NV
Liner leak, embankment failure or tailings spill
Jamestown, CA; Golden Sunlight, MT; Mineral Hill, MT; Stillwater, MT; Florida Canyon, NV; Jerritt Canyon, NV; Lone Tree, NV; Rochester, NV
Land application ineffective
Beal Mountain, MT 
Acid Mine Drainage and Effects on Fish Health and Ecology: A Review 

Army Corps Deals Salt Flats Development a Blow

The U.S. government has determined that the salt ponds in Redwood City are "waters of the United States" under the Clean Water Act, the San Jose Mercury News reports.

This will make it difficult for DMB and Cargill to advance their plans for a massive 12,000-home development on the salt flats.

The news came in a letter from the The Army Corps of Engineers, which was only released Friday after a public information request by non-profit Save the Bay. Save the Bay has led the charge against the project, fighting for the salt ponds to be restored to wetlands.

Developer DMB had long argued that it didn't need a permit from the Army Corps, which has strict authority over projects in the water like this one.

"Nazarbaev Ket!" (Nazarbaev, Go Away!)

Holy war looming over Iron Mountain?

Growing up in Redding in the 1950s and '60s, I didn't think much about Iron Mountain. It was just a big gash on a hillside west of town, a sometimes useful landmark.

This was before I learned the colorful 70-year history of the mine and before Iron Mountain became famous — infamous, I should say — as one of the first Superfund sites, notorious for leaching some of the most corrosive water in the country and home to an EPA-directed treatment and cleanup operation that I joke may be the last employer in Shasta County several centuries hence.

Four years ago, while on the staff of the Record Searchlight, I got a tour of the round-the-clock pollution treatment efforts at Iron Mountain, just after a glowing federal report about all the progress made. The Iron Mountain remediation effort, it implied, was a feather in the cap of the Environmental Protection Agency and Rick Sugarek of the agency's San Francisco office, who has spent more than two decades working on it.

Then I met Ted Arman, the octogenarian owner of the mine. Over coffee, he said the EPA has exaggerated Iron Mountain's risks with talk of “poison” and pictures of shovel blades eaten away by acid mine drainage, and that the feds have kept him from using new technology to turn mineral-rich water into fertilizer and other products. “EPA messed up my business.”

In late March I joined him in his 1989 Lincoln for a two-hour tour of his property. Arman is clearly bitter that others, like Sugarek and CH2MHill, have made careers and fortunes from the property he's owned since 1979.

As he traverses the winding gravel road up his mountain, he must announce his position on a radio phone.

Arman's 89 but still full of fire and big plans. If EPA won't let him turn acid runoff into life-giving fertilizer he aims to make his mountain known for something more than just a Superfund site. The idea — call it an epiphany — came to him three years ago: erect a 200-foot-tall concrete statue of Jesus Christ on top of Iron Mountain. He claims to have received calls from interested parties from around the world after word of his plans got on the Internet.

If Arman thinks he's got trouble with EPA, wait until he submits plans for his towering statue (think Rio de Janeiro) to county officials, the FAA and Jim Milestone, superintendent of neighboring Whiskeytown National Recreation Area. Instead, maybe he should explore the (for lack of a better word) eco-tourism potential of Iron Mountain. It is, after all, ecology — a mountain turned inside out by man. Just as interesting as the Devastated Area and Bumpass Hell at Lassen Park.

Old-time religion

When it comes to religion, call me old-fashioned, conservative. Before I knew who Shakespeare was, I fell in love with the Elizabethan language of the Book of Common Prayer. At All Saints Episcopal Church, a quaint turn-of-the-century wood-framed chapel that used to sit on the southwest corner of Court and Yuba streets, I fell in love with the vestments, candles, brass processional cross, silver chalice and crisp linen altar cloths.

But then, some time in the late '60s, the Episcopal Church felt it had to change, to get hip, to get (in the buzzword of the time) “relevant.” Priests started strumming guitars and the Book of Common Prayer was rewritten, recast in newspaper English. Here in Redding the local church fathers decided to forsake their historic building and began what turned out to be a short-lived period of cohabitation with the Presbyterians in that brown pyramid on Placer Street.

Of course, in hindsight, this move to a secular rock ‘n roll style church service is obviously what people wanted. Witness the rise of nondenominational megachurches like Bethel, where congregations get folksy sermons from laid-back ministers dressed in jeans with their shirttails hanging out and worship services largely consist of congregants singing and swaying to seemingly unending U-2-inspired rock anthems.

Whatever works, I guess. Successful churches are, fundamentally, businesses. In the Puritan old days church services were something to endure. Now they're something to enjoy, something to uplift. And the money follows.

Wish my Episcopal Church had resisted the siren song of modernity. It tried to be something it wasn't — and the young people left anyway. Last time I attended an 8 o'clock Holy Communion service (this was several years ago) I had trouble hearing the minister over the sound of parishioners on oxygen tanks.

Show time

The Cascade Theatre, which turns 75 this year, is the crown jewel of downtown Redding — a gem restored to its 1935 Art Deco luster thanks to the vision of the folks behind southern Oregon-based Jefferson Public Radio, the fundraising prowess of Lou Gerard Jr., the energy of Shasta High “Music Man” Ken Putnam, the generosity of thousands of north state residents and, last but not least, the boosterism of this newspaper.

My early memories of the Cascade Range from “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Easy Rider” to “Rosemary's Baby” and such unforgettable second features as the “H-Man,” a badly dubbed Japanese monster movie about sewer-dwelling blobs of blue-green radioactive sludge that devour anyone unlucky enough to get in their way (scared the daylights out me when I was eight).

How lucky we are that the Cascade is still around, making memories for new generations of north state residents. Speaking of which... among the headliners lined up for JPR's 2010-11 season at the Cascade: Wynonna Judd, Clint Black, Pat Benatar, Garrison Keillor, Bryan Adams, the Manhattan Transfer and (I'm not going to miss this one) the Glenn Miller Orchestra. Bravo, JPR.

Marc Beauchamp has a blog at redding.com. Reach him at notbusinessasusual@gmail.com .

Redding's 'Taj Mahal' quietly turns 10

• Posted June 18, 2010 at 11:36 p.m.

If it was celebrated at all, it was a quiet anniversary. Unlike the hoopla that greeted the grand opening of Redding's 110,000-square-foot City Hall campus 10 years ago.

On a magically sunny day in mid-February, hundreds of curious and proud Redding residents came to check out the city's impressive new digs. They munched on chocolate truffles and chicken mole tacos.

There was a festive, hopeful mood in the air. The only discouraging word Record Searchlight reporter Megan Long recorded came from perennial candidate Russell Hunt, who “held up a sign during the outdoor ceremony that protested the use of taxpayers' money for the project.”

Actually, in hindsight, as these things go, our grand-looking city hall was a relative bargain, at $15 million ($23.5 million if you include the widening of Cypress Avenue and other improvements). The Shasta County Administration Building, also designed by Nichols Melburg & Rossetto, cost about $33 million. Our new courthouse is estimated at $200 million.

Even so, somebody (Russell Hunt?) dubbed the place Redding's “Taj Mahal” and the nickname stuck. Mind you, this was long before the economy cratered and some members of the business community and public began peering behind the palatial-looking building to the princely pay and pensions of some of the folks working there, like now-retired City Manager Mike Warren.

But my favorite part of reporter Long's account was when she quoted then-Mayor Bob Anderson.

The Civic Center complex... has already proved itself, he said. “A manufacturer is considering moving here with 150 well-paying jobs,” he said, but declined to identify the company. “We met with them in this building — now we're their No. 1 choice.” (I seriously doubt that a fancy new city hall building convinced Chatsworth Products to open a plant in Redding to make server racks and cabinets, but the company did come soon thereafter, just as the dot.com bubble was popping. It closed shop in 2004.)

Sound familiar? Build it — a fancy city hall or Stillwater Business Park — and they will come.

Which reminds me of a story I heard in 2002, as I was thinking of moving back to Redding from Washington, D.C. A local live wire told me of a business relocation specialist in the San Francisco Bay area who came to check out Redding. He interviewed business leaders and was taken to all the sights, including the city hall, and then flew home.

A few weeks later the aforementioned live wire called him up to see what he thought. Pass, he said. Why? he was asked. “There's an inverse relationship,” he said, between the size of a city hall and how hard it is to do business in a town. The bigger the city government, he said, the less business-friendly the city.

Why gold bugs me

To my regret, gold (recently $1,200 an ounce and four times what it fetched a decade ago) hasn't been a part of my recent investment portfolio. Maybe I'm prejudiced because of the company gold keeps.

In the late 1980s, when I worked at Forbes magazine's West Coast bureau, we built a veritable cottage industry writing about Orange County boiler room operators pitching gold and other precious or “strategic” metals. Accused Redding Ponzi schemer James Koenig was convicted in an '80s gold scam, a fact he may or may not have disclosed to his more recent investors.

Equally off-putting, for me, is the company gold keeps on talk radio. Hosts like Laura Ingraham, Michael Savage and Roger Hedgecock regularly shill for gold dealers, and standalone gold ads are sandwiched between spots for get-out-of-debt-fast services, herbal remedies for enlarged prostates and too-good-to-be-true-sounding home-based business opportunity schemes.

When I hear these ads I wonder: What are the commissions and fees, who regulates this market, how do I know the gold is real or the correct weight, what am I going to do with it when it arrives, and how am I going to sell it when I don't want it anymore?

Then I think that a better bet might be gold mining stocks. Just not penny stocks like the outfit working the mine in the hills above French Gulch — Bullion River Gold Corp., or whatever it's called these days. Six years ago it was fetching about $1.25 a share. Last time I checked a share was selling for less than a penny.

But what truly bugs me about gold is this — I suspect that our fiat currency is heading into very stormy seas and yet I haven't hedged my dollar-based investments with something politicians can't manipulate or devalue. Shame on me.

Errata

Minor corrections and an amplification to last week's item on Ted Arman and Iron Mountain Mine. Arman is 88 not 89 and he bought the mine in 1976 not 1979, several years before it was designated a Superfund site. The towering Christ statue he wants to erect on the mountain will be made of concrete but clad in Italian marble, he tells me. He estimates the project will “take three years and create 100 jobs.” Assuming, of course, he lines up the money and gets the requisite permits.

Marc Beauchamp has a blog at Redding.com. Reach him via e-mail at notbusinessasusual@gmail.com .

© 2010 Record-Searchlight. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

EPA to regulate … dust

"Drinkable" Waterways? somebody check their cool-aid

There is over 1 billion pounds of sludge on top of Iron Mountain now thanks to the EPA. Without any help from them, or any support from the state government, we have developed environmentally useful products from the sludge such as nano-catalysts for things like water-gas shift bio-fuels and manufacturing carbon nano-tubes from organic wastes like rice straw. There is also at least $3 billion worth of gold, silver, copper, and zinc in the estimated 25 million tons of ore still remaining in the top 400 ft. of the 4000 ft. mountain. The one deep drilling core done by the USGS in 1952 indicates the resource may be many times more.

The whole “remedial action” with the EPA is just a cover-up of the billion dollar rip-off by AIG and their government conspirators. They operate the facility as contractor, are the fiduciary (insurer) and trustee. Now the government (oversight agency) owns most of AIG. AIG also runs numerous other superfund sites too and who knows how may more billions of trust funds they have stolen there. The contractor is the fiduciary is the trustee is the oversight agency? Come on people, how much of a conflict of interest do you need to see to realize an epic fraud has been committed here. The EPA admits that Iron Mountain is not a threat to human health or safety. Copper and zinc are necessary nutrients for humans, and it settles out of the drainage as soon as it contacts the river, where it settles in the mud, and doesn't endanger even fish. The billion dollar settlement is only supposed to be to protect the anadramous (migratory) fish the Feds and the State exterminated in 1943 when they built the Shasta dam. Furthermore, the only reason Iron Mountain wasn't mined out is that the copper cartel (see: Jardine Matheson, Keswick, and Rothschilds bank) who shuttered the mine in the 20's to keep up the price of imported copper from South Africa (they were part of the Cecil Rhodes syndicate, i.e. Rhodesia, &c.) They killed the economy of Redding then and they still are killing it today.

Now 3M wants to open a quarry 30 times bigger than any other present or previous mining operation (except Iron Mountain) in Shasta County. Why?

If you need some rock or gravel, we have hundreds of millions of tons already processed and ready for shipping, and we used to have a railhead until the BLM decided to rip it up for a bicycle path. Does Shasta County really need another open pit mine? Or is this just another example of massive environmental pillage and looting of our natural resources for corporate greed.

How much longer will the people endure the fraud, piracy, slavery, and treason perpetrated against them by bureaucrats and politicians in Sacramento and Washington , and dope crazed radical “environmentalists” in San Francisco who can't even grow a garden or clean up their own backyard? You, the people of Shasta County , have been duped, robbed, and enslaved.

Mr. T.W. Arman should be honored as a hero for resisting such tyranny for so long.

The Iron Mountain Mine development plan would employee 800 to 1200 people for many decades, and provide the resources to develop sustainable communities at Iron Mountain and the old towns of Minnesota, Matheson, Keswick, Taylor, Copley, Motion, Coram, Whitehouse, and all the other towns that used to dot the foothills above Redding, and many more communities in the insane waste of the Chappie-Shasta OHVA, another epic invasion and trespass by the state and federal despots.

Wake up People of Shasta County , this land is your land, you can take it back.

Two weeks ago the Ninth Circuit Court over-ruled the district Courts and held that non-settling PRP's have a right to intervene in a settlement between the government and settling parties.

After 10 years of being stonewalled by the EPA, DOJ, state attorney generals, and the Eastern District Court in Sacramento , the truth will finally be told, and justice will at last prevail.

John F. Hutchens, Warden of the Arboretum, Gales and Stannaries for Mr. T.W. Arman and Iron Mountain Mine.

"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."
"When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic."
"The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself."
---Benjamin Franklin

Afghanistan has $1 trillion in untapped mineral resources?

§ 306. Strategic plans

COMMISSIONS OF ESSENTIAL PRODUCTS ADMINISTRATION (EPA) (TITLE 31 > SUBTITLE IV > CHAPTER 53 > SUBCHAPTER III > Part 2 —Financial Crime-Free Communities Support Program

§ 5355 . Authorization of appropriations, Title 15. Chapter 1 - § 1 . Trusts, etc. TITLE 15 > CHAPTER 1 > § 9 § 9. Jurisdiction of courts; duty of United States attorneys; procedure. The several district courts of the United States are invested with jurisdiction to prevent and restrain violations of section 8 of this title; and it shall be the duty of the several United States attorneys, in their respective districts, under the direction of the Attorney General, to institute proceedings in equity to prevent and restrain such violations. Such proceedings may be by way of petitions setting forth the case and praying that such violations shall be enjoined or otherwise prohibited. When the parties complained of shall have been duly notified of such petition the court shall proceed, as soon as may be, to the hearing and determination of the case; and pending such petition and before final decree, the court may at any time make such temporary restraining order or prohibition as shall be deemed just in the premises.

Circuit Allows Non-Settling PRPs to Intervene in CERCLA Consent Decree Action

By: Genevieve Essig  and Gabrielle Sigel

On June 2, 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that a non-settling PRP's right to contribution under CERCLA was a legally sufficient interest to justify intervention to challenge a proposed consent decree between the federal government and the settling PRPs, joining ranks with the Eighth and Tenth Circuits, the only other U.S. appellate courts to address the issue. The case is  U.S. v. Aerojet Gen. Corp . , No. 08-55996 (9th Cir. Jun. 2, 2010).

Aerojet concerns the remediation of contaminated groundwater at a Superfund site involving nearly seventy PRPs and a total cleanup cost of $87 million. EPA proposed a consent decree providing 10 settling PRPs with immunity from contribution claims in return for payment of a fixed sum. A group of non-settling PRPs, who were not parties to the consent decree action but were defendants in other actions brought by local water providers involved in performing the cleanup, moved to intervene as of right after the close of the public comment period EPA provided for the consent decree. Most had submitted comments objecting to the consent decree. The district court denied intervention, but the court of appeals reversed, holding that the non-settling PRPs have a right under Fed. R. Civ. P. 24(a)(2) and CERCLA § 113(i) "to protect their interests in contribution and in the fairness of the proposed consent decree." Aerojet , No. 08-55996, slip. op. at 19.

Focusing on the Rule 24(a)(2) criteria for intervention as a right, the court concluded: "We join the Eighth and Tenth Circuits in holding that non-settling PRPs have a significant protectable interest in litigation between the government and would-be settling PRPs." Id. at 13. The court reasoned that, because approval of the proposed consent decree would entirely extinguish the non-settling PRPs' contribution rights against the settling PRPs under § 113(f)(1), the proposed consent decree would "therefore directly affect [the PRPs'] interest in maintaining their right to contribution." Id. In addition, the court noted, "because non-settling PRPs may be held liable for the entire amount of response costs minus the amount paid in a settlement," the non-settling PRPs "have an obvious interest in the amount of any judicially-approved settlement." Id. The court disagreed with the argument that § 113(f)(1) creates only a contingent or speculative interest, and was not swayed by policy or statutory interpretation arguments that allowing intervention would work against CERCLA's scheme to encourage early settlement.

This decision came fairly soon after the 10th Circuit's decision in U.S. v. Albert Inv. Co. , No. 08-6267 (10th Cir. Nov. 10, 2009), which concerned the cleanup of the Double Eagle Superfund Site in Oklahoma City. The 9th Circuit's decision in Aerojet repeatedly echoed the conclusions of the 10th Circuit in its Albert decision. For example, the 10th Circuit, as did the 9th Circuit, summarily dismissed the assertion that a non-settling PRP's contribution right is too speculative and contingent, holding that the statutory right to contribution is a "substantive right that currently exists." Albert , No. 08-6267, slip. op. at 22. Both courts also agreed that a public comment period is not a substitute for federal court intervention. The 8th Circuit decision was U.S. v. Union Elec. Co. , 64 F.3d 1152 (8th Cir. 1995).

These holdings contrast with what until recently had been considered the majority view, as a number of district courts, including courts in California, Michigan, Arizona, and Ohio, had rejected non-settling PRPs' requests to intervene in CERCLA consent decree actions. The announcement of this Aerojet decision confirms a definite shift in favor of the position of those district courts which have permitted intervention, including courts in New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, and West Virginia.

Break on Through[1]: Tenth Circuit Allows Non-Settling PRP To Intervene in CERCLA Settlement Proceedings

Viewpoints: Free trade gets only lip service
By Wally Herger
Special to The Bee Published: Saturday, Jun. 19, 2010 - 12:00 am | Page 13A

This week marks the 80th anniversary of perhaps the most disastrous economic legislation in our nation's history. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 was the signature failure of 20th century protectionism. It raised tariffs on products in every sector of the U.S. economy, resulting in retaliatory tariffs from other countries and a dramatic reduction in global trade. Modern economists largely agree that Smoot-Hawley worsened the Great Depression.

Our nation and much of the world painfully learned the lesson that trade barriers severely undermine economic prosperity. Following World War II, both Republican and Democratic presidents worked to open new markets and recognized the far-reaching benefits of trade for American workers, consumers and small businesses. In 1962, President John F. Kennedy proclaimed the importance of free trade and our nation's leadership role in advancing it: "Economic isolation and political leadership are wholly incompatible.

"The United States has encouraged sweeping changes in Free World economic patterns in order to strengthen the forces of freedom. But we cannot ourselves stand still. If we are to lead, we must act. We must adapt our own economy to the imperatives of a changing world and once more assert our leadership."

Unfortunately, in the midst of the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression, President Barack Obama has failed to assert the strong leadership we need on trade, thus bringing our nation's trade agenda to a standstill. He has embraced a new era of soft protectionism – centered primarily on non-tariff barriers and willful inaction – that is restricting U.S. trade and undermining our economic recovery.

Aside from his misguided tariffs on tires from China, the president has for the most part avoided the outright tariff-driven protectionism that plagued the Great Depression era. But he has chosen to endorse damaging non-tariff barriers to shield domestic industries from foreign competition.

Most prominently, the "Buy American" provision included in the misnamed economic stimulus legislation in 2009 green-lighted protectionism worldwide and sent an alarming message to all of our trading partners that the United States believes trade impedes, rather than fosters, economic growth. Additionally, the administration continues to prohibit the efficient cross-border transportation of goods from Mexico as required by our trade agreement with that nation. Mexico has responded by imposing billions in harmful retaliatory tariffs on U.S. agriculture and other goods.

Equally troubling, President Obama has not rallied members of his party and powerful special interest groups to support open markets as Presidents Kennedy and Clinton did.

To be sure, he has talked about the importance of trade, called for the doubling of exports, and warned about the dangers of sitting on the sidelines as other nations pursue trade agreements. But he has failed to match his rhetoric with the commitment and leadership necessary to persuade anti-trade Democrats to end their delay tactics and take positive actions, such as passing the market-opening agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.

The U.S. International Trade Commission estimated that they would increase U.S. exports by at least $12 billion, which, under the administration's own calculations, would create 250,000 jobs.

It is critical to stress that protectionism through inaction threatens our prosperity just as its more explicit predecessor did. As our nation fails to implement market-opening agreements, we are losing our competitive edge because other countries are moving forward with agreements that will lock out U.S. companies and cost U.S. workers their jobs.

Colombia has negotiated agreements with Canada and the European Union and has implemented agreements with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. The American Farm Bureau Federation found that U.S. agricultural exports to Colombia dropped 50 percent last year as Argentina and Brazil used their new duty-free access to take market share away from American farmers and ranchers.

Meanwhile, South Korea is negotiating an agreement with Australia and could implement an agreement with the EU before the end of this year. Our failure to act on the U.S.-Korea agreement will be especially detrimental given the size of the Korean market.

President Obama is therefore faced with a stark choice. He can undermine our economy by hiding behind tired anti-trade arguments and appeasing key supporters who disregard the overwhelming benefits of open markets, or he can match his rhetoric with positive action, reverse protectionist policies, and help put our nation back in the driver's seat of the global economy.

© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.

CA-02: WHERE'S WALLY on deep-water drilling NOW?

by smileycreek

Thu Jun 17, 2010 at 04:31:49 PM PDT

Crossposted at Calitics

Wally Herger, CA-02, just prevailed in his primary against a teabagger, but will he survive this fall against Democratic candidate Jim Reed , who is far more in touch with the beliefs of his California constituents when it comes to drilling and environmental issues?

You might think a Republican would reconsider the safety of deep water drilling after the endless eruption of the oil volcano in the Gulf.

You would be wrong.  Herger still maintains that with our superior 21st Century technology we can drill-baby-drill with no harm to the environment.

Those of us in the reality-based community, including Jim Reed, see it differently.

(But wait!  There's more.....)

• smileycreek's diary :: ::

From Herger's Website: (emphasis mine)

I've long supported efforts to allow for the exploration of oil and natural gas in a small section of the frozen "ANWR" tundra in Alaska.  ANWR spans nearly 20 million acres, but energy exploration would only occur on 2,000 acres, or .01 percent of the land area.   And importantly, 21st Century technology would also allow us to recover energy resources without harming the environment.

Wondering If Herger might have updated his files on that amazing 21st Century technology keeping us safe story, I spoke with Herger's Chico office where his representative got back to me and confirmed that yes, Herger IS still in favor of deep water drilling.

At least he's consistent. Why bother to re-think a position in the face of compelling new evidence when it's so much easier to just rubber-stamp your party line, even when failing to think for yourself can cause irreparable harm to your own constituents?

While Herger gives pleasant lip-service to alternative and clean energies on his website, his voting record shows where his heart truly is-- with the oil companies. Votes on energy:

Voted NO on tax incentives for energy production and conservation.(May 2008)
Voted NO on tax incentives for renewable energy. (Feb 2008)
Voted NO on investing in homegrown bio-fuel. (Aug 2007)
Voted YES on criminalizing oil cartels like OPEC. (May 2007)
Voted NO on removing oil & gas exploration subsidies. (Jan 2007)
Voted NO on keeping moratorium on drilling for oil offshore. (Jun 2006)
Voted YES on scheduling permitting for new oil refineries. (Jun 2006)
Voted YES on authorizing construction of new oil refineries. (Oct 2005)

Jim Reed in the Comments section of his introductory diary at Daily Kos stated:

I am against any expansion of off shore drilling and the gulf accident just proves there will be human error with disaster to follow.

Cheers to Jim Reed be his willingness to dive into a notoriously thorny political site like the Daily Kos and to stick around to answer all questions for the next two hours.  Check out Reed's diary for an impressive example of an intelligent, decent, open-minded approach to differences of opinion.

Why "Where's Wally"?

In this 30 minute interview with Jim Swanson of Progressive News Radio Jim Reed makes a convincing case for how Wally Herger has become an increasingly lazy and ineffective legislator.  In 24 years in office Herger has only sponsored one piece of legislation where teamed up with Diana Feinstein.  He's voted with the Republican party 94% of the time, and some of those times appeared to be errors on his part.

As Jim Swanson of Progressive News Radio comments,

A Republican with a horrible voting record, even for topics that matter for his constituency. He does hold the honor of being in the top ten percentile of the worst Congressional Representatives in the United States government. As he no doubt sits at his desk in Washington, D.C., doodling on paper, reading the latest edition of "Field and Stream" and waiting for House Minority leader John Boehner to phone Wally's office and tell him how to vote, the time has plainly come to send Wally home to retirement.

As a personal anecdote, I and many other of Herger's constituents have written lengthy letters in support of HCR and energy independence, only to get "Thank you for support!" form letters in reply.  Apparently even his staff doesn't bother to read his mail.

As we know, ousting Herger will take some money. As Gail Collins wrote in The New York Times: :

We have been entertaining ourselves with theories about how this election year is going to be all about voter anger. Or Washington insiders. Or health care. Or TARP. But, really, it's going to be about money. Gobs of cash falling on campaigns like tar balls on a beach.

Jim Reed has already done some innovative fund-raising in sending out his unique "Talking Mailpieces" to Democrats all over the country, where he uses Herger's own words against him, to devastating effect:

Restoring the Clean Water Act

Minnesota Currents|Online , Summer 2010

The drinking water sources for nearly 1 million Minnesotans are at risk of losing Clean Water Act protections. Congress now has an opportunity to fix this and restore protections weakened by the Supreme Court and Bush Administration.

For those whose water sources are no longer protected under the Clean Water Act, the status quo means increased contamination risks. Communities also face the prospect of higher water costs as expensive filtration and disinfection technologies are deployed.

"Preventing pollution in the first place is cheaper, better and faster than having to get it out at treatment plants," said Clean Water Action President and CEO John DeCock, "there is a serious common-sense aspect to passing this bill."

The America's Commitment to Clean Water Act (ACCWA – H.R. 5088) was introduced in the U.S. House earlier this year by Representative Oberstar (D-MN). The bill will restore Congress' original intent for the Clean Water Act to protect all of our nation's waters. It is as clear today as it was in 1972 when the Clean Water Act was passed--you cannot get the job done by only protecting some of our waters; you have to protect all of them.

The Clean Water Act has been one of our most important and fundamental environmental protection laws. For 38 years the Clean Water Act has prevented millions of tons of pollution from entering our waters and led to the cleanup of polluted lakes, rivers and streams across the country. Big polluters have been working to reduce the protections claiming the Clean Water Act should not cover numerous wetlands, streams, rivers and lakes that have been historically protected. In just one year, more than 500 enforcement cases have been dropped by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Justice Department.

Boyer Lake is one of the lakes which was removed from Clean Water Act protection

An illustration of what is at risk is Boyer Lake in Becker County, Minnesota. The local Corps of Engineer's office ruled that the 310-acre lake no longer falls under the protection of the Clean Water Act. Their interpretation of the Supreme Court rulings left the local fishing spot vulnerable to pollution and outright destruction. Luckily, the EPA overturned the ruling but it illustrates how vulnerable our waters are to losing Clean Water Act protections.

More than 500,000 Clean Water Action members have written to Members of Congress asking for Clean Water Act protections to be restored for all drinking water sources. Contact your representative today and ask them to support and cosponsor H.R. 5088.

SHASTA & DEPOE BAY RAILWAY - DEMOCRAT MOUNTAIN & BATTLE CREEK, MINE LAND THE DOI-BLM IS TRYING TO CONFISCATE BY FRAUD & FALSE CLAIMS - WAR ON FLAT CREEK MINING DISTRICT, MATHESON TO KESWICK, SHASTA INTERNATIONAL & MUNICIPAL AIRPORTS OF ARMANSHIRE - Camden, Magee, and Sallee again operated until 1894 when they sold to Mountain Copper Co. Ltd. who built (the next year) a smelter at Keswick and the Iron Mountain Railway, a 3-ft. gauge mountain mining railroad which connected the mine with the Keswick smelter and Southern Pacific tracks at Keswick. Iron Mountain included a one-story, 7-room cottage with two large brick fireplaces and wide porch all around for the manager, three superintendent's houses containing 4 or 5 rooms, a 2-story, 16-room staff quarters' building, a large mess and entertainment hall which included a dining room and kitchen, canteen, billiard room, and music room, about 25 family cottages, and two 16-room bunkhouses for men. Also on the property was a tennis court and football field. The fires also destroyed the silver mill, a sawmill, all the stores, the office, the assay department, hospital, the mess and entertainment hall, plus a number of small buildings. Mining must be resumed and the buildings must be reconstructed.

Region 9 EPA moves to Jefferson district

MINING DEPARTMENT ORDER § 9102. Establishing and acquiring corporations: Lost Confidence Mine announces acquisition of FINTECH PRECAST, INC. & DEPOE BAY, LLC.

ARMAN MINES MINISTRY OF NATURAL RESOURCES FEDERATION, THE HUMMINGBIRD INSTITUTE

DISASTER ASSISTANCE DIRECTORATE

Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities, 451 Seventh Street SW, Washington, DC 20410-3000, telephone number 202-402-7683/facsimile 202-708-0465

Bureaucrats run amok: EPA now classifies milk as a pollutant.

While you were not looking because of the OIL TRAGEDY. Got to love the Government. Now you know why he wanted to get Rid of the EPA and let the States regulate their own pollution. But NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You wanted the GOVERNMENT TO TELL YOU WHAT TO DO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.ihatethemedia.com/epa-classifies-milk-as-pollu......

In case you doubted that government bureaucrats are committed to controlling every aspect of our lives, please be aware that they've now categorized milk as a pollutant.

Northern Michigan's Channel 9 has the details:

The Environmental Protection Agency intends to classify milk as a hazardous waste; in the same category as oil.

That means, farmers would have to come up with an oil spill prevention plan which could cost them thousands of dollars.

The Senate Agricultural Committee passed a resolution today urging the EPA to take back those regulations.

This new interpretation of the EPA's Clean Water Act will require dairy farmers to develop oil spill prevention plans for their milk storage tanks.

How much is that going to add to your gal of milk and to the children who need it?

Turn on the Water on back in Cal. for the Farmers. 

Dear Mr President. Let me be perfectly clear. Please take off the rule for the Foreign Ships not to come here.  Lift it today. Let the other Country's come in and help. People Call your Congress member and ask them to go on FOX or CNN or MSMBC and to Publicly and respectfully ask the President to do this in front of the Nation so he can not say that there has been no request. This is past sick. This is oh I am chewing steel and spitting nails I am so ruffled. Who will benefit from the Tax and Cap. Well you know. GS. May god bless us one and all including the President and may he do what is right.

http://townhall.com/columnists/HarryRJacksonJr/2010/06/20......

A thought runs through my head. Powers that Be is the Gulf Spill just collateral damage to you in your end run game plan? Iraq and Afghanistan also. 10 Years now. What war. Just nation building. No water in Cal. More Collateral Damage? You see people it was never about what is fair or just for the weak and the poor. They just wanted your vote. Silver will go higher because of the law suit with JP Morgan. Happy Fathers Day and thank you to those who have served.

On Monday, American International Group Inc . ( AIG : 38.27 -0.49 -1.26% ) and a Hong Kong-led consortium agreed to extend the deadline for completing the sale of AIG's Taiwanese unit, Nan Shan Life Insurance Co. Ltd., by three months to October 2010. The consortium comprises Primus Financial Holdings Ltd., a Chinese investment firm, and a battery maker, China Strategic Holding Ltd.

The divestment of Nan Shan Life Insurance Co. Ltd was earlier expected to close in July, 2010. However, the $2.15 billion deal failed to comply with the regulations in Taiwan .

The Taiwan government strictly prohibits Chinese investment in the country for political reasons. Hence, the long term political connections of China Strategic with China increased the concerns in Taiwan. Besides, Taiwan is apprehensive about the consortium's inadequate experience to take over such a high profile business.

In order to overcome some of the regulatory obstacles, AIG set aside $325 million of the purchase price in an escrow account for a four-year period, which will be utilized from time to time to enhance and maintain Nan Shan's capital ratio of at least 200%, required by the Taiwan government.

Management of AIG has been planning to exit Taiwan since October 2009, after the global economic breakdown created an unprofitable investment environment and gave rise to operating challenges in Taiwan. AIG was incited to sell its stake in the Taiwan unit as it was eager to repay the government bailout money. 

In addition, AIG was also optimistic about selling its Asian life-insurance unit, American International Assurance (AIA), to Prudential plc ( PRU : 57.70 -1.09 -1.85% ) . But following the collapse of the deal, AIG is looking forward to a public offering for AIA.

The failure to repay the bailout fund to the US government is frustrating for AIG, as the company is trying every means to repay around $132 billion that remains outstanding out of the $182.3 billion it received at the peak of the economic meltdown. However, although we do not see any significant downside regarding this issue, the Taiwan deal remains uncertain as the extension of the date questions the successful completion of the deal. We fear that the buyers might pull out of the venture if government intervention poses further hindrances.

Other than AIG, Prudential and Dutch financial services groups ING and Aegon pulled out of Taiwan in 2009. In April 2010, Metlife Inc . ( MET : 40.56 -0.66 -1.60% ) sold its insurance wing in Taiwan.

Today's GAO Reports - June 22, 2010

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) today released the following reports, correspondence and testimony:

Reports

1. Superfund: EPA's Estimated Costs to Remediate Existing Sites Exceed Current Funding Levels, and More Sites Are Expected to Be Added to the National Priorities List. GAO-10-380 , May 6.   Highlights

2. Federal Courthouse Construction: Better Planning, Oversight, and Courtroom Sharing Needed to Address Future Costs. GAO-10-417 , June 21.    Highlights

3. Army Working Capital Fund: Army Faces Challenges in Managing Working Capital Fund Cash Balance during Wartime Environment. GAO-10-480 , June 22.    Highlights

Testimony

1. Superfund: EPA's Costs to Remediate Existing and Future Sites Will Likely Exceed Current Funding Levels, by John B. Stephenson, director, natural resources and environment, before the Subcommittee on Superfund, Toxics and Environmental Health, Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. GAO-10-857T , June 22.

Reissued Product

1. The Strategic Framework of U.S. Efforts in Afghanistan. GAO-10-655R , June 15.

You'll find the most up-to-date listing of Reports and Testimonies at http://www.gao.gov.

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Stimulus funds aiding companies fined for pollution, accused of fraud

January 10, 2010 | Will Evans

Large corporations working in California have reaped tens of millions of dollars in new federal stimulus funds, despite previous pollution violations, criminal probes, and allegations of fraud, a California Watch investigation has found.

Residents in Ventura County say they are dismayed that airplane and defense giant Boeing received a $15.9 million stimulus contract for environmental monitoring at the same site near Simi Valley where the company was fined for polluting a creek with chromium, dioxin, lead and mercury. A local resident and opponent, Dawn Kowalski, called the new contract “the fox guarding the hen house.”

Watsonville-based Granite Construction received $6.4 million in stimulus contracts to work on airport runways in Salinas and Monterey, and to repair roads in San Bernadino, Riverside and Butte counties. Yet the company faces three federal probes, including a criminal investigation into whether it fraudulently overcharged the city of San Diego in the wake of the devastating 2007 wildfires.

And a major apartment owner based in Denver, AIMCO, stands to benefit from $13 million in stimulus tax credits to rehabilitate its housing complex in Los Angeles. This federal assistance comes after the company paid $3 million in 2004 to settle a lawsuit from the city of San Francisco over complaints that it operated mold and rodent-infested buildings that posed serious safety hazards. Residents continue to complain about AIMCO's management.

To government watchdogs, these contracts and others raise concerns about the way the massive federal stimulus program is being administered. Although most major companies in America face lawsuits and regulatory action, these government reformers say a contractor's entire history should be considered before doling out more money to the same firms.

“It is very upsetting that the government doesn't do more due diligence before it hands money out,” said Laura N. Chick, California's inspector general for stimulus funds.

Stimulus money has flowed quickly into California over the past year, moving from federal agencies to specific contractors that compete for projects, or through the state government and local agencies that have their own bidding process for distributing federal money. The process is moving so rapidly, the government may not be making the best decisions, one government watchdog said.

“I think we're trying to spend money as quickly as possible, and at that point putting taxpayers' money at risk,” said Scott Amey, general counsel of the Project on Government Oversight, which tracks contractor misconduct.

But one major stimulus contractor with past legal troubles, CH2M Hill, said focusing on a few isolated cases would be a misleading representation of its work. The company was awarded a $20.7 million federal stimulus contract to clean up contaminated sediment from a defunct mine near Redding in Shasta County – a contract that enabled CH2M Hill to keep as many as 21 positions that otherwise would have been eliminated.

In 2008, CH2M Hill was sued by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power for an alleged scheme to deceive and defraud the city with spurious charges over several years. The suit was settled under undisclosed terms. The company also was fined more than $800,000 for spilling 85 gallons of radioactive waste in 2007 while cleaning up an old nuclear site in southeastern Washington, according to a report by the federal Government Accountability Office.

“We have more than 10,000 active projects all over the globe and on a rare occasion we may have an issue with an individual project,” said John Corsi, a spokesman for CH2M Hill. Corsi said both the Los Angeles and Washington projects were successful.

Clean energy project questioned

One of the biggest stimulus projects in California is a hydrogen power plant, near Bakersfield, that's getting a taxpayer infusion of $308 million.

The project, by BP and mining company Rio Tinto, is designed to generate more environmentally friendly electricity by capturing carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels. The project would bury and store the emissions underground in an oil field reservoir.

In 2005, BP paid $81 million to settle lawsuits that its refinery spewed noxious fumes into the working-class city of Carson. The company has also pleaded guilty to criminal violations of environmental laws – for a 2005 explosion at BP's Texas refinery that killed 15 people and a 2006 oil spill in Alaska. This past October, federal safety officials fined BP $87 million, which the company is contesting, for failing to fix the hazards in Texas. Also last year, BP agreed to pay $179 million to resolve government findings that its Texas plant leached cancer-causing and ozone-depleting chemicals.

BP referred questions to a spokewoman for the hydrogen power plant, who spoke of the project's benefits and noted that BP and its partner will provide most of the funding. Tiffany Rau, spokeswoman for Hydrogen Energy California, said the new facility is “designed to be the cleanest solid fuel power plant in the world.” The Department of Energy's grant to BP and Rio Tinto, she said, “further recognizes that the project owners have invested several tens of millions of dollars in the project thus far.”

Another stimulus contractor, the Computer Sciences Corp., received a $5.1 million NASA contract for technological improvements at the Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. The project money is for equipment and has not created any jobs. In 2008, the company paid the federal government $1.4 million to settle allegations that it ran a contracting kickback scheme. A NASA spokeswoman said the agency didn't find problems with the company's past performance.

Boeing contract under fire

One stimulus contract through the Department of Energy is causing consternation in the rugged foothills above Simi Valley in Ventura County.

The toxic contamination at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory has been a painfully sore subject to locals for decades. Since the 1940s, the lab was operated by divisions of North American Aviation, which eventually became Rockwell International. It was the site of rocket engine testing and nuclear power development that led to toxins leaching into the dirt and groundwater and a partial nuclear meltdown in 1959.

Boeing acquired the aerospace divisions of Rockwell International in 1996, but community activists said Boeing has been fighting its responsibility for pollution that occurred before and after the purchase. A group of local residents sued Boeing, contending that the company caused cancer. The company settled for $30 million in 2005.

The regional water quality board fined Boeing $471,000 in 2007 for 79 pollution violations that let wastewater and storm runoff from the site ooze toxins into various creeks, flowing downstream to the Los Angeles River.

Boeing had discharged 118.5 million gallons of water laced with pollutants like chromium, lead and mercury, according to the water board. At one point, the company exceeded the allowable concentration of cancer-causing dioxin by 6,900 times. The water board said the chronic violations created a risk to public health and, given Boeing's resources and sophistication, were “exceedingly serious.”

Dan Hirsch, president of a California nuclear watchdog group, doesn't believe Boeing should have been rewarded with federal stimulus money for environmental monitoring there. The contract for Boeing, which made $2.7 billion in profits in 2008, was not bid competitively. “How can one have federal taxpayer money going to a company that is responsible for the contamination and is resisting the cleanup?” Hirsch said.

Boeing said it has made significant progress. “Boeing is fully committed to cleaning up the site in a manner that fully protects public health and the environment,” wrote spokeswoman Kamara Sams in an e-mail to California Watch. She said Boeing, NASA and the Department of Energy are responsible for cleaning up portions of the property.

Jen Stutsman, an Energy Department spokeswoman, responded by e-mail that Boeing has the expertise to perform the work and a good track record of working with the agency. “Changing contractors would only cost the taxpayer additional money as a new contractor arrived and took over the work for Boeing,” she wrote. The project was reported to have created 11 jobs.

At the same time, Boeing is trying to overturn a California toxic cleanup law. On Nov. 13, Boeing sued in federal court to invalidate SB 990, which holds the Ventura County cleanup to especially strict standards. Boeing claims the California-mandated standards are unnecessary and the excavation required would further destroy the “ecological habitat.”

State Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, who represents nearby residents, said she's concerned that Boeing is getting stimulus money and “almost in the same breath” suing against California cleanup standards. “Something just seems not right in that picture,” she said.

Under investigation

Granite Construction picked up several stimulus contracts – which were distributed through Caltrans and various local agencies – despite being at the center of a fraud scandal in San Diego, where many residents feel the company took advantage of the city in a time of crisis.

“As a taxpayer, I would be more than a little frustrated with that, given the track record here in this city,” said Jan Rasmussen, a San Diego resident and outreach coordinator of Rancho Bernardo United, a community group that helps victims of the 2007 wildfires.

The city of San Diego sued Granite Construction and another company, A.J. Diani, in 2008 for separately allegedly overbilling for their debris removal services after the disaster. The city claimed both companies billed with “falsified records” that overestimated the amount of debris they had cleared and that the firms had inflated their costs. The lawsuit is on hold pending a criminal probe by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Granite also faces two U.S. Department of Justice investigations. One targets an Oregon construction project where storm runoff dumped dirt into various creeks, possibly harming the fish population. The other focuses on allegations that a joint venture run by Granite in Minnesota failed to hire enough minority businesses as subcontractors and missrepresented those efforts.

A Granite spokesperson, Jacque Fourchy, said the company is open about its legal problems in corporate filings and disputes wrongdoing in San Diego. “It's unfortunate,” Fourchy said, “that this investigation continues to plague us because we really feel like we didn't do anything wrong.”

Apartment owners sued

The federal government has directed stimulus funds, in the form of tax credits, to create low-income housing across the state. Denver-based AIMCO – in a joint venture with the nonprofit Foundation for Affordable Housing – was offered $13 million in tax credits to help fix up its senior housing apartment complex in Los Angeles. An AIMCO spokeswoman said the company has yet to accept the stimulus tax credit and contends the project “represents the company's continued commitment to meeting the critical need for affordable housing.”

But in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood in San Francisco, residents have complained for years of slumlord conditions and bad management at the AIMCO apartment complexes. “We trust them as far as we can throw them – that's the general rule when it comes to AIMCO,” said Sara Shortt, director of the Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco, a nonprofit tenants-rights organization.

The city of San Francisco sued AIMCO, saying that the company ignored more than two dozen orders to fix scores of health and safety hazards, including stairways collapsing from dry rot as well as moldy, water-damaged ceilings and walls. Inspectors cited a blocked fire escape and lack of smoke detectors. They also found broken windows and doors and faulty plumbing. AIMCO settled the suit for $3 million in 2004.

Resident Dorothy Peterson said she was considering protesting the stimulus assistance to AIMCO. “If they really wanted to make sure that low income housing was built properly and for residents that were going to be treated like human beings, then they would not give it to an AIMCO,” she said.

But AIMCO's partner on the Los Angeles project vouches for the company. “They're huge,” said Deborrah Willard, president of the Southern California-based Foundation for Affordable Housing. “When you're huge and you own this many units, you're bound to make somebody unhappy somewhere along the line.”

JEFFERSON DISTRICT OF SHASTA - TRINITY

The Climate Showcase Communities

Region 9 EPA moves to Jefferson district

Delist from 303(d) list

TMDL Project Code: 603
Date TMDL Approved
by USEPA:
01/01/2002
Impairment from
Pollutant or Pollution:
Pollutant
Conclusion: This pollutant is being considered for removal from the section 303(d) list under
section 4.1 of the Listing Policy. Under this section a single line of evidence is
necessary to assess listing status.
One lines of evidence are available in the administrative record to assess this
pollutant. None of samples exceeded the water quality objective.
Based on the readily available data and information, the weight of evidence
indicates that there is sufficient justification for removing this water segmentpollutant
combination from the section 303(d) list.
This conclusion is based on the staff findings that:
1. The data used satisfies the data quality requirements of section 6.1.4 of the
Policy.
2. The data used satisfies the data quantity requirements of section 6.1.5 of the
Policy.
3. None of 31 samples exceeded the chronic or acute criteria and this does not
exceed the allowable frequency listed in Table 4.1 of the Listing Policy.
4. Pursuant to section 4.11 of the Listing Policy, no additional data and
information are available indicating that standards are not met.
RWQCB Board Staff
Recommendation:
After review of the available data and information, RWQCB staff concludes that
the water body-pollutant combination should be removed from the section 303(d)
list because applicable water quality standards for the pollutant are not being
exceeded.
SWRCB Board Staff
Recommendation:
After review of this Regional Board decision, SWRCB staff recommend the
decision be approved by the State Board.
USEPA Decision:
Line of Evidence (LOE) for Decision ID 4124, Copper Region 5
Sacramento River (Keswick Dam to Cottonwood Creek)

Circuit Allows Non-Settling PRPs to Intervene in CERCLA Consent Decree Action

By: Genevieve Essig  and Gabrielle Sigel

On June 2, 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that a non-settling PRP's right to contribution under CERCLA was a legally sufficient interest to justify intervention to challenge a proposed consent decree between the federal government and the settling PRPs, joining ranks with the Eighth and Tenth Circuits, the only other U.S. appellate courts to address the issue. The case is  U.S. v. Aerojet Gen. Corp . , No. 08-55996 (9th Cir. Jun. 2, 2010).

Aerojet concerns the remediation of contaminated groundwater at a Superfund site involving nearly seventy PRPs and a total cleanup cost of $87 million. EPA proposed a consent decree providing 10 settling PRPs with immunity from contribution claims in return for payment of a fixed sum. A group of non-settling PRPs, who were not parties to the consent decree action but were defendants in other actions brought by local water providers involved in performing the cleanup, moved to intervene as of right after the close of the public comment period EPA provided for the consent decree. Most had submitted comments objecting to the consent decree. The district court denied intervention, but the court of appeals reversed, holding that the non-settling PRPs have a right under Fed. R. Civ. P. 24(a)(2) and CERCLA § 113(i) "to protect their interests in contribution and in the fairness of the proposed consent decree." Aerojet , No. 08-55996, slip. op. at 19.

Focusing on the Rule 24(a)(2) criteria for intervention as a right, the court concluded: "We join the Eighth and Tenth Circuits in holding that non-settling PRPs have a significant protectable interest in litigation between the government and would-be settling PRPs." Id. at 13. The court reasoned that, because approval of the proposed consent decree would entirely extinguish the non-settling PRPs' contribution rights against the settling PRPs under § 113(f)(1), the proposed consent decree would "therefore directly affect [the PRPs'] interest in maintaining their right to contribution." Id. In addition, the court noted, "because non-settling PRPs may be held liable for the entire amount of response costs minus the amount paid in a settlement," the non-settling PRPs "have an obvious interest in the amount of any judicially-approved settlement." Id. The court disagreed with the argument that § 113(f)(1) creates only a contingent or speculative interest, and was not swayed by policy or statutory interpretation arguments that allowing intervention would work against CERCLA's scheme to encourage early settlement.

This decision came fairly soon after the 10th Circuit's decision in U.S. v. Albert Inv. Co. , No. 08-6267 (10th Cir. Nov. 10, 2009), which concerned the cleanup of the Double Eagle Superfund Site in Oklahoma City. The 9th Circuit's decision in Aerojet repeatedly echoed the conclusions of the 10th Circuit in its Albert decision. For example, the 10th Circuit, as did the 9th Circuit, summarily dismissed the assertion that a non-settling PRP's contribution right is too speculative and contingent, holding that the statutory right to contribution is a "substantive right that currently exists." Albert , No. 08-6267, slip. op. at 22. Both courts also agreed that a public comment period is not a substitute for federal court intervention. The 8th Circuit decision was U.S. v. Union Elec. Co. , 64 F.3d 1152 (8th Cir. 1995).

These holdings contrast with what until recently had been considered the majority view, as a number of district courts, including courts in California, Michigan, Arizona, and Ohio, had rejected non-settling PRPs' requests to intervene in CERCLA consent decree actions. The announcement of this Aerojet decision confirms a definite shift in favor of the position of those district courts which have permitted intervention, including courts in New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, and West Virginia.

Break on Through[1]: Tenth Circuit Allows Non-Settling PRP To Intervene in CERCLA Settlement Proceedings

Hazard Mitigation Assistance (HMA)

The Fiscal Year 2011 (FY11) Hazard Mitigation Assistance (HMA) application period opened on June 1, 2010 and the FY11 Hazard Mitigation Assistance Unified Guidance is now available. The  FY11 Hazard Mitigation Assistance Unified Guidance is available in the FEMA Library.

The  FY10 Hazard Mitigation Assistance Unified Guidance is still available in the FEMA Library but does not apply to the FY11 HMA application cycle.

Historic Settlement Reached on Iron Mountain Mine
On October 19, 2000, the United
States and the State of California
announced a settlement with Aventis
Crop Sciences USA, Inc. that could
approach $1 billion for future cleanup of
the Iron Mountain Mine Superfund Site
located nine miles northwest of Redding, California.
The settlement, on behalf of the U.S. EPA,
the U.S. Department of the Interior,
the U.S. Department of Commerce, and
several state agencies, is one of the largest
settlements with a single private party in the
history of the federal Superfund program. It
is also one of the biggest environmental settlements
for state environmental agencies.

WASHINGTON - As part of its developing Urban Waters Initiative, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is making available up to $600,000 in grants for an eligible entity to establish and manage a national competitive urban watershed small grants program, and to provide urban watershed technical services. The successful applicant would support capacity building projects in urban communities that will lead to environmental, public health, and related economic benefits.

As part of Administrator Jackson's priorities, EPA is developing an urban waters initiative to help communities – especially disadvantaged communities – access, restore and benefit from their waters and the surrounding land. Many urban waters have a wide range of environmental challenges including polluted runoff, sewer overflows, and other contamination. The goal is to help urban communities reconnect with and revitalize the waters that are an important part of their health and prosperity. The agency has requested $5.5 million in grant funds in the FY 2011 budget request under the Community Water Priorities program to focus resources on water quality protection efforts in urban waters.

The urban watershed grant announced today will promote community stewardship by increasing the capacity of local watershed and community groups. Better understanding of their urban watersheds will lead to better decision-making, improved restoration and protection efforts.

Questions about applying for the grant must be received by May 6, 2010 and proposals must be received by EPA by May 19, 2010. The selection of the successful applicant will be announced this summer. Eligible applicants are states, local governments, public and private nonprofit institutions/organizations, federally recognized Indian tribal governments, U.S. territories or possessions, and interstate agencies.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that it has selected $78.9 million in brownfields grants to communities in 40 states, four tribes, and one U.S. Territory. This funding will be used for the assessment, cleanup and redevelopment of brownfields properties, including abandoned gas stations, old textile mills, closed smelters, and other abandoned industrial and commercial properties.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has published the first edition of its Open Government Plan. The plan discusses publishing EPA information online, improving the quality of the information, and creating a culture of open government. This is in response to President Obama's Open Government Directive, which outlines a plan for breaking down the barriers between the federal government and the public. Today, federal departments and agencies are putting forward concrete plans for making operations and data more transparent, and expanding opportunities for citizen participation, collaboration, and oversight. These steps will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness across the government.

"EPA is very focused on ensuring public access and participation in our activities,” said Linda Travers, principal deputy assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Environmental Information. ”With our new plan, we're not only meeting the objectives of the directive, but we're also building on our culture of promoting openness.”

EPA's flagship initiative, Community Engagement, is an over-arching theme that focuses on outreach to disadvantaged communities, expanding public awareness of the rulemaking process, and improving access to environmental information through the development of mobile applications. The agency is focused on working with communities in innovative ways, with the goal of sharing best practices and lessons learned for future efforts.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, who has highlighted strengthening tribal partnerships as a top priority during her tenure, today announced an internal restructuring that brings EPA's international and tribal programs together under one umbrella organization called the Office of International & Tribal Affairs (OITA). This restructuring was initiated in response to a request from the tribes to reconsider the proper location of the American Indian Environmental Office (AIEO).

“ This change ensures that we approach our relationship with the sovereign tribal nations within our own country in the same way we approach our relationship with sovereign nations beyond U.S. borders,” said Administrator Jackson, “I am confident this move will result in new and positive directions for the EPA-Tribal partnership,”

In early 2009, Administrator Jackson met with the National Congress of American Indians and announced her intention to review the American Indian Environmental Office's (AIEO) placement in the EPA structure. After consultation with the National Tribal Caucus and EPA leadership in July 2009, she announced the restructuring that would move AIEO from the Office of Water to the Office of International Affairs, and rename the office to reflect the inclusion.

“Tribes and tribal lands face disproportionate environmental and public health concerns” said Michelle DePass, assistant administrator for the new OITA . “It is my honor to assume leadership of the American Indian Environmental Office – and I look forward to working with tribal communities as partners in overall efforts to address these pressing issues,”

The President's 2011 budget request for the Agency includes a $41.4 million increase in tribal funding across the country, of which $30 million is targeted for new multi-media tribal grants. This new grant program will be tailored to address individual tribes' most serious environmental needs through the implementation of environmental programs, and will help tribes address their environmental priorities to the fullest extent possible. In addition, a 24 percent increase of $2.9 million is proposed to support new staff positions to oversee, provide guidance, and ensure accountability for the new grant program; an additional $8.5 million is provided for General Assistance Program grants which can be put towards programs and projects ranging from assistance for enforcement and compliance activities to education and job training, a 13 percent increase over final Fiscal Year 2010 budget levels.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will hold a three-day symposium in Washington , D.C. on March 17-19 to look for opportunities to better assess and address environmental justice in environmental policy and regulatory decision making. EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson and Peggy Shepard, Executive Director for WEACT for Environmental Justice will speak at the opening session of the symposium on March 17 starting at 8:30 a.m.

Leaders from across the country including researchers, academics, policy-makers, non-governmental organizations, government officials, tribal leaders, Environmental Justice activists and community experts, among others will participate in this discussion.

Administrator Jackson has made promoting environmental justice and expanding the conversation of environmentalism one of the seven key priorities of her tenure at EPA. The principles of environmental justice uphold the idea that all communities – particularly minority and underserved communities – deserve the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards, equal access to the decision-making process and a healthy environment in which to live, learn, and work.

Excerpts of Legislative Hearing on EPA's 2011 Budget Proposal
Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works

Cleaning Up Our Communities

(4) Among our highest priorities in this budget are investments in new and innovative strategies for cleaning up communities, especially to protect sensitive populations, such as children, the elderly, and individuals with chronic diseases. We will continue to focus on making safer, healthier communities. To clean up our communities, we're proposing investments that will get dangerous pollution out, and put good jobs back in.

This budget proposes $215 million for Brownfields, an increase of $42 million to support planning, cleanup, job training and redevelopment of Brownfields properties, especially in underserved and disadvantaged communities. EPA encourages community development by providing funds to support community involvement and is adding area wide planning efforts to enhance the positive impacts associated with the assessment and cleanup of Brownfields sites. Through area wide planning, particularly by focusing on lower income communities suffering from economic disinvestment, Brownfield properties can be redeveloped to help meet the needs for jobs, housing, and infrastructure investments that would help rebuild and revitalize these communities, as well as identify opportunities to leverage additional public and private investment. We'll also provide funding for assessment and cleanup of underground storage tanks and other petroleum contamination on Brownfields sites.

In addition, we're proposing $1.3 billion for Superfund cleanup efforts across the country. We will continue to respond to emergencies, clean up the nation's most contaminated hazardous waste sites, and maximize the participation of liable and viable parties in performing and paying for cleanups. EPA will initiate a multiyear effort to integrate and leverage our land cleanup authorities to address a greater number of contaminated sites, accelerate cleanups, and put sites back into productive use while protecting human health and the environment. The new Integrated Cleanup Initiative represents EPA's commitment to bring more accountability, transparency and progress to contaminated site cleanups.

This budget also requests $27 million for a Healthy Communities Initiative which covers clean, green, healthy schools; community water priorities; sustainability and the air toxics monitoring in at risk communities I mentioned earlier. Six million dollars is requested for the Clean, Green, and Healthy Schools Initiative to support states and communities in promoting healthier school environments, to broaden the implementation of EPA's existing school environmental health programs including asthma, indoor air quality, chemical clean out, green practices, enhanced use of Integrated Pest Management, and safe handling of PCB-containing caulk. The Agency will work in partnership with the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services to accomplish this initiative.

The Healthy Communities Initiative also includes an increase of $5 million for and Smart Growth work, including the Interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities with the Departments of Transportation and Housing and Urban Development. The Smart Growth program works with federal partners and stakeholders to minimize the environmental impacts of development.

These modest investments will make real, measurable, improvements in a small number of pilot communities. In addition, the strategies that will be developed could be used in communities across the nation.

(6) Expanding the Conversation on Environmentalism and Working for Environmental Justice

We have begun a new era of outreach and protection for communities historically underrepresented in environmental decision making.  We are building strong working relationships with tribes, communities of color, economically distressed cities and towns, young people and others, but this is just a start.  We must include environmental justice principles in all of our decisions.  This is an area that calls for innovation and bold thinking, and I am challenging all of our employees to bring vision and creativity to our programs.  The protection of vulnerable subpopulations is a top priority, especially with regard to children.  Our revitalized Children's Health Office is bringing a new energy to safeguarding children through all of our enforcement efforts.  We will ensure that children's health protection continues to guide our path forward. The increased Brownfields investments I mentioned will target underserved and economically disadvantaged neighborhoods – places where environmental cleanups and new jobs are needed.

We're also proposing $9 million for Community Water Priorities in the Healthy Communities Initiative; funds that will help underserved communities restore urban waterways and address water quality challenges.

Furthermore, the FY 2011 President's Budget includes approximately $615 million for EPA's enforcement and compliance assurance program. This request reflects the Administration's strong commitment to vigorous enforcement of our nation's environmental laws and ensures that EPA will have the resources necessary to maintain a robust and effective criminal and civil enforcement program and pursue violations that threaten vulnerable communities.

(7) Building Strong State and Tribal Partnerships

Another hallmark of this budget is strengthening our state and tribal partnerships. The budget requests $1.3 billion in categorical grants for state and tribal efforts. State and local governments are working diligently to implement new and expanded requirements under the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. New and expanded requirements include implementation of updated National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), for the first time addressing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, and addressing growing water quality issues, such as nutrient pollution. This increase includes the $25 million for greenhouse gas permitting activities already mentioned, as well as increases of $45 million for core work under air quality management grants and $15 million for air monitors, all of which I mentioned previously.

We are also requesting $274 million, a $45 million increase over 2010, to help states enhance their water quality programs. New funding will strengthen the base state, interstate and tribal programs, address new regulatory requirements, and support expanded water monitoring and enforcement efforts.

The request also includes increased support for our Tribal partners. In order to help tribes move beyond capacity building to implementation of their environmental programs, $30 million is budgeted for a new competitive Tribal Multimedia Implementation grant program. These grants are tailored to address an individual tribe's most serious environmental needs through the implementation of Federal environmental programs, and will build upon the environmental capacity developed under the Tribal General Assistance Program (GAP). To further enhance tribal capacity, this budget also includes an additional $9 million for GAP grants for a total of $71 million. GAP grants develop capacity to operate an environmental program, and support a basic environmental office or circuit rider that can alert the tribe and EPA to serious conditions that pose immediate public health and ecological threats.

These are the highlights of a budget that reduces costs while strengthening American communities and boosting the green economy. Responsible, targeted investments will protect our health and the environment, advance creative programs and innovative solutions, and help build a new foundation for our prosperity. Thank you again for inviting me to testify today and I look forward to answering your questions.

February 5, 2010

EPA Announces New Support for Sustainable Communities

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced three steps to support communities' efforts to provide their citizens' with economic opportunity while reducing impacts on the environment. The actions will encourage state and local government to make their communities more sustainable by strategically aligning their environmental, transportation and housing investments.

Top Obama Administration Officials to Promote Sustainable Communities, Environmental Justice at Smart Growth Conference

WASHINGTON – U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood will visit Seattle on Thursday, February 4, to address the 9th Annual New Partners for Smart Growth Conference. They will be joined by Environmental Protection Agency Assistant Administrator Mathy Stanislaus.

Speaking before an audience of more than 1,500 key planners, public health professionals, developers, government staff and elected officials Secretaries Donovan and LaHood and Assistant Administrator Stanislaus will discuss the ways their agencies are working together through the Obama Administration's Partnership for Sustainable Communities to improve access to affordable housing, provide better transportation options, and protect public health and the environment.

“EPA, HUD and DOT are working together to rebuild our foundations for prosperity, a process that starts with rethinking the ways our communities grow,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “The interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities is working to give our communities what they need to grow and thrive with economic resilience and environmental sustainability.”

“I am proud to announce HUD's brand new Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities today,” said Donovan. “Working with our partners at DOT and EPA, this new office will help us streamline our efforts to create stronger, more sustainable communities by connecting housing to jobs, fostering local innovation and building a clean energy economy.”

“Our Partnership really is a new way of doing business in Washington , to help our nation meet 21st century challenges,” said LaHood. “Working together, we're creating jobs to revitalize our economy, while helping state and local transportation agencies to build the capacity they need to promote livable, walkable, sustainable communities.”

The President proposed $527 million in his budget for an ambitious new livability initiative at the U.S. Department of Transportation. Its Office of Livable Communities will be a focal point for initiatives such
as expanding transit in low-income neighborhoods. It will fund a grant program to help state and local transportation agencies provide more transportation choices that spur economic development.

The New Partners for Smart Growth Conference, taking place Feb. 4-6, is the premier national smart growth conference, bringing together experts from a wide range of disciplines to discuss transportation, housing and urban development, public health, equitable development, environmental protection, and other topics. The partnership agencies are working together more closely than ever before to meet the president's challenge to coordinate federal policies, programs, and resources to help urban, suburban, and rural areas build more sustainable communities.

The New Partners for Smart Growth Conference is managed by the Local Government Commission, in partnership with EPA, DOT, and other public and private sponsors.

"Superfund is also working to mitigate damage to wildlife habitats and ecosystems, and to begin the land restoration process at six sites that received Recovery Act funds. The Iron Mountain Mine site in California is an example where EPA is addressing toxic runoff containing copper, cadmium and zinc in the Sacramento River. Project funds have been used to dredge nearly 90,000 cubic yards of sediment to date, helping to improve conditions in the Sacramento River ecosystem. This project, like many others, would have otherwise been delayed if not for Recovery Act funding.

(This testimony is perjury before congress. The only reason for the dredging was to increase generating capacity from Whiskeytown reservoir. The EPA hijacked over $7 million from the Iron Mountain operating funds to subsize this work. The dredging disturbed a tremendous amount of sediment that was visible for miles downstream, creating an indisputable endangerment for fish and the drinking water supply of Redding. Residents and fishermen complained)

SUPREME COURT PLURALITY DECISION (JUSTICE SCALIA) ON FEDERAL CLEAN WATER ACT JURISIDICTION

The jurisdictional standard is determined by the terms of the act. In SWANCC, the Supreme Court determined that the act was clear and should be read as written to avoid the constitutional questions raised by a broad interpretation of the act.

As written --

If we look at 1251(a), Congress declares that its purpose is to protect the integrity of the Nation's waters. It used that term, Nation's waters. And then in -- in 1251(a)(1), it says it will accomplish this by eliminating the discharge of pollutants into the navigable waters, showing that it knows how to distinguish between all waters and navigable waters. And then in 1251(b), Congress says we will respect and defer to the States' primary responsibility to address local water pollution and to manage local land and water use. So the way that Congress intended to address this issue was to defer to the States to regulate pollutants upstream while Congress -- or while the Federal Government regulates downstream. That's a perfectly rational approach to this national problem. Congress determined that it would defer to the States instead of exercising any further power beyond its channels authority.

"Regulations as the Congress shall make." This power of Congress has rarely been exercised, except to refine the procedures for obtaining Court review of lower court decisions; over the years the trend has been for Congress to allow the Court maximum discretion in deciding whether to accept or reject a case. Of course, the very concept of Congress "allowing" the Court such discretion only reinforces that phrase in Section 2:

". . . supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make."

The Court is still beholden to Congress as to what cases it may hear, and under what set of regulations that elected body of representatives drafts and approves.

The interpretation of the laws is the proper and peculiar province of the courts. A constitution, is, in fact, and must be regarded by the judges, as a fundamental law. It therefore belongs to them to ascertain its meaning, as well as the meaning of any particular act proceeding from the legislative body. If there should happen to be an irreconcilable variance between two, that which has the superior obligation and validity ought, of course, to be preferred; or, in other words, the constitution ought to be preferred to the statute, the intention of the people to the intention of their agents.

Nor does this conclusion by any means suppose a superiority of the judicial to the legislative power . It only supposes that the power of the people is superior to both; and that where the will of the legislature, declared in its statutes, stands in opposition to that of the people, declared in the Constitution, the judges ought to be governed by the latter rather than the former. They ought to regulate their decisions by the fundamental laws, rather than by those which are not fundamental.

It can be of no weight to say that the courts, on the pretense of a repugnancy, may substitute their own pleasure to the constitutional intentions of the legislature . This might as well happen in the case of two contradictory statutes; or it might as well happen in every adjudication upon any single statute. The courts must declare the sense of the law; and if they should be disposed to exercise WILL instead of JUDGMENT, the consequence would equally be the substitution of their pleasure to that of the legislative body . The observation, if it prove any thing, would prove that there ought to be no judges distinct from that body.

The Truth About Land Use in the United States
By George Wuerthner

Misunderstanding abounds about land use in the United States.

By far the greatest impact on the American landscape comes not from urbanization but rather from agriculture. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, farming and ranching are responsible for 68 percent of all species endangerment in the United States.

Agriculture is the largest consumer of water, particularly in the West. Most water developments would not exist were it not for the demand created by irrigated agriculture.

If ultimate causes and not proximate causes for species extinction are considered, agricultural impacts would even be higher. Yet scant attention is paid by academicians, environmentalists, recreationists and the general public to agriculture's role in habitat fragmentation, species endangerment and declining water quality.

The USDA report concludes that urbanization and rural residences (subdivisions) "do not threaten the U.S. cropland base or the level of agricultural production." This does not mean sprawl doesn't have impacts where it occurs. But the notion that sprawl is the greatest threat to biodiversity is absolutely false.

When critics suggest that we don't have the money to buy land for wildlands restoration, they are forgetting agricultural subsidies, which amount to hundreds of billions of dollars. For what we spend to prop up marginal agricultural producers, we could easily buy most of the private farm and ranch land in the country This would be a far more effective way to contain sprawl, restore wildlands, bring back endangered species, clean up water, slow the spread of exotic species and reduce soil erosion.

George Wuerthner is a Western Watersheds Project advisory board member who lives in Eugene, Oregon.

"HEAD FOR THE HILLS" - webmaster

The Community Follow-Up on Executive Order 12898

Township of Minnesota; Mayor, Water & Fire Marshals

Deputies, Officers, Residents, Miners; quo Warranto
ACCORDING TO THE FEDERAL REGISTER
VOL. 59, No. 32 Presidential Documents, and on behalf of prospective
RESIDENTS OF THE IRON MOUNTAIN AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE
Pursuant to: Executive Order 12898 of February 11, 1994
Title 1- Residents- Request for miners minority & low income status.

Memorandum of cleanup program, called the Voluntary Remediation Program, or VRP.

We're engaged? Is Rule 4 still there?

S.372 - Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2009

A bill to amend chapter 23 of title 5, United States Code, to clarify the disclosures of information protected from prohibited personnel practices, require a statement in nondisclosure policies, forms, and agreements that such policies, forms, and agreements conform with certain disclosure protections, provide certain authority for the Special Counsel, and for other purposes.

Federal Actions To Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations
See: 59 FR 7629 DATE: Wednesday, February 16, 1994
By the authority vested absolutely and by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1-1. Implementation. 1-101. Agency Responsibilities.
EPA shall achieve environmental justice by identifying and addressing environmental effects of its programs, policies, and activities on minority populations and low-income populations moving into the Township of Minnesota, Flat Creek Mining District, Shasta County, California.
1-102. Creation of Property owner, residents, and operator’s “Re-Working Group on Environmental Justice”.
The Re-Working Group shall report to the owner and residents.
(b) The Re-Working Group shall: ensure equality of native status.
1. provide guidance to owner and residents on criteria for identifying disproportionately high and adverse human health or
environmental effects on minority populations and low-income populations;
2. coordinate with, provide guidance to, and serve as commissioner for each Federal agency as it develops an environmental justice strategy as required by section 1-103 of that order, in order to ensure that the administration, interpretation and enforcement of programs, activities and policies are no longer undertaken in an inconsistent manner;
3. to assist in coordinating research by, and stimulating cooperation among, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and other agencies conducting research or other activities in accordance with section 3-3 of that order;
4. assist in coordinating data collection, required by that order; 59 FR 7630
5. examine existing data and studies on environmental justice;
6. hold public meetings as required in section 5-502(d) of that order;
7. develop interagency model projects on environmental justice that evidence cooperation among Federal agencies and communities.
1-103. Development of Agency Strategies.
(a) Except as provided in section 6-605 of that order, each Federal agency shall develop an agency-wide environmental justice strategy, as set forth in subsections (b)-(e) of that section that identifies and addresses disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of its programs, policies, and activities on minority populations and low-income populations. The environmental justice strategy shall list programs, policies, planning and public participation processes, enforcement, and/or rulemakings related to human health or the environment that should be revised to, at a minimum:
(1) promote enforcement of all health and environmental statutes in areas with minority populations and low-income populations;
(2) ensure greater public participation;
(3) improve research and data collection relating to the health of and environment of minority populations and low-income populations; and
(4) identify differential patterns of consumption of natural resources among minority populations and low-income populations. In addition, the environmental justice strategy shall include, where appropriate, a timetable for undertaking identified revisions and consideration of economic and social implications of the revisions.
(b) Within 1 month of the date of this order, each Federal agency shall identify an internal administrative process for developing its environmental justice strategy, and shall inform the Re-Working Group of the process.
(c) Within 1 month of the date of this order, each Federal agency shall provide the Re-Working Group with an outline of its proposed environmental justice strategy.
(d) Within 1 month of the date of this order, each Federal agency shall provide the Re-Working Group with its proposed environmental justice strategy.
(e) Within 1 month of the date of this order, each Federal agency shall finalize its environmental justice strategy and provide a copy and written description of its strategy to the Re-Working Group. During the 1 month period from the date of this order, each Federal agency, as part of its environmental justice strategy, shall identify several specific projects that can be promptly undertaken to address particular concerns identified during the development of the proposed environmental justice strategy, and a schedule for implementing those projects.
(f) Within 1 month of the date of this order, each Federal agency shall report to the Re-Working Group on its progress in implementing its agency-wide environmental justice strategy.
(g) Federal agencies shall provide additional periodic reports to the Re- Working Group as requested by the Re-Working Group.
1-104. Reports to the Owner and the residents.
Within 1 month of the date of this order, the Re-Working Group shall submit to the owner and residents a report that describes the implementation of that order, and includes the final environmental justice strategies described in section 1-103(e) of that order.
Sec. 2-2. Federal Agency Responsibilities for Federal Programs.
Each Federal agency shall conduct its programs, policies, and activities that substantially affect human health or the environment, in a manner that ensures that such programs, policies, and activities do not have the effect of excluding persons (including populations) from participation in, denying persons (including populations) the benefits of, or subjecting persons (including populations) to discrimination under, such programs, policies, and activities, because of their race, color, or national origin.
59 FR 7631
Sec. 3-3. Research, Data Collection, and Analysis.
3-301. Human Health and Environmental Research and Analysis.
(a) Environmental human health research, whenever practicable and appropriate, shall include diverse segments of the population in epidemiological and clinical studies, including segments at high risk from environmental hazards, such as minority populations, low-income populations and workers who may be exposed to substantial environmental hazards.
(b) Environmental human health analyses, whenever practicable and appropriate, shall identify multiple and cumulative exposures.
(c) Federal agencies shall provide minority populations and low-income populations the opportunity to comment on the development and design of research strategies undertaken pursuant to this order.
3-302. Human Health and Environmental Data Collection and Analysis.
To the extent permitted by existing law, including the Privacy Act, as amended (5 U.S.C. section 552a):
(a) each Federal agency, whenever practicable and appropriate, shall collect, maintain, and analyze information assessing and comparing environmental and human health risks borne by populations identified by race, national origin, or income. To the extent practical and appropriate, Federal agencies shall use this information to determine whether their programs, policies, and activities have disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects on minority populations and low-income populations;
(b) In connection with the development and implementation of resident strategies in section 1-103 of that order, each Federal agency, whenever practicable and appropriate, shall collect, maintain and analyze information on the race, national origin, income level, and other readily accessible and appropriate information for areas surrounding facilities or sites expected to have a substantial environmental, human health, or economic effect on the surrounding populations, when such facilities or sites become the subject of a substantial Federal environmental administrative or judicial action. Such information shall
be made available to the public, unless prohibited by law; and
(c) Each Federal agency, whenever practicable and appropriate, shall collect, maintain, and analyze information on the race, national origin, income level, and other readily accessible and appropriate information for areas surrounding Federal facilities that are:
1. 1) subject to the reporting requirements under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, 42 U.S.C. section 11001-11050 as mandated in Executive Order No. 12856; and
2) expected to have a substantial environmental, human health, or economic effect on surrounding populations. Such information shall be made available to the public, unless prohibited by law.
(d) In carrying out the responsibilities in this section, each Federal agency, whenever practicable and appropriate, shall share information and eliminate unnecessary duplication of efforts through the use of existing data systems and cooperative agreements among Federal agencies and with State, local, and tribal governments.
Sec. 4-4. Subsistence Consumption of Fish and Wildlife. VOID
Sec. 5-5. Public Participation and Access to Information.
(a) The public may submit recommendations to Federal agencies relating to the incorporation of environmental justice principles into Federal agency programs or policies. Each Federal agency shall convey such recommendations to the Re-Working Group.
b) Each Federal agency may, whenever practicable and appropriate, translate crucial public documents, notices, and hearings relating to human health or the environment for limited English speaking populations.
(c) Each Federal agency shall work to ensure that public documents, notices, and hearings relating to human health or the environment are concise, understandable, and readily accessible to the public.
(d) The Re-Working Group shall hold public meetings, as appropriate, for the purpose of fact-finding, receiving public comments, and conducting inquiries concerning environmental justice. The Re-Working Group shall prepare for public review a summary of the comments and recommendations discussed at the public meetings.
Sec. 6-6. General Provisions.
6-601. Responsibility for Agency Implementation.
The head of each Federal agency shall be responsible for ensuring compliance with this order. Each Federal agency shall conduct internal reviews and take such other steps as may be necessary to monitor compliance with this order.
6-602. Executive Order No. 12250.
This Executive order is intended to supplement but not supersede Executive Order No. 12250, which requires consistent and effective implementation of various laws prohibiting discriminatory practices in programs receiving Federal financial assistance.
Nothing herein shall limit the effect or mandate of Executive Order No. 12250.
6-603. Executive Order No. 12875.
This Executive order is not intended to limit the effect or mandate of
Executive Order No. 12875.
6-604. Scope.
For purposes of this order, Federal agency means any agency on the Re- Working Group, and such other agencies as may be designated by the President, that conducts any Federal program or activity that substantial affects human health or the environment. Independent agencies are requested to comply with the provisions of this order.
6-605. Petitions for Exemptions.
The head of a Federal agency may petition the residents for an exemption from the requirements of this order on the grounds that all or some of the petitioning agency's programs or activities should not be subject to the requirements of this order.
6-606. Native American Programs.
Each Federal agency responsibility set forth under this order shall apply equally to Native American programs. In addition, the Department of the Interior, in coordination with the Re-Working Group, and, after consultation with tribal leaders, shall coordinate steps to be taken pursuant to this order.
6-607. Costs.
Unless otherwise provided by law, Federal agencies shall assume the financial costs of complying with this order.
6-608. General.
Federal agencies shall implement this order consistent with, and to the extent permitted by, existing law.
6-609. Judicial Review.
This order is intended to improve the external management of the executive branch and is intended to enforce, uphold, and create any and every right, benefit, or trust responsibility, substantive or procedural, [*7633] enforceable at law or equity by these parties against the United States, its agencies, its officers, or any person. This order shall be construed to create every right to judicial review involving the compliance or noncompliance of the United States, its agencies, its officers, or any other person with that order, the constitutions, substantive and procedural due process and equal protection under the law.
MR. T.W. ARMAN, OWNER. THE IRON MOUNTAIN MINE TOWNSHIPS OF MINNESOTA & WHITEHOUSE,
MR. J.F. HUTCHENS, SECRETARY & TENANT-IN-CHIEF

MR. J. L. HEATON, WATER & FIRE MARSHAL

MR. M. MOTON,
MAYOR OF THE TOWNSHIP OF MINNESOTA;

Remarks and Explanation – June 20, 1782

The Escutcheon is composed of the chief & pale, the two most honorable ordinaries. The Pieces, paly, represent the several states all joined in one solid compact entire, supporting a Chief, which unites the whole & represents Congress. The Motto alludes to this union. The pales in the arms are kept closely united by the chief and the Chief depends upon that union & the strength resulting from it for its support, to denote the Confederacy of the United States of America & the preservation of their union through Congress.

The colours of the pales are those used in the flag of the United States of America; White signifies purity and innocence, Red, hardiness & valor, and Blue, the colour of the Chief signifies vigilance, perseverance & justice. The Olive branch and arrows denote the power of peace & war which is exclusively vested in Congress. The Constellation denotes a new State taking its place and rank among other sovereign powers. The Escutcheon is born on the breast of an American Eagle without any other supporters to denote that the United States of America ought to rely on their own Virtue.–

Reverse . The pyramid signifies Strength and Duration: The Eye over it & the Motto allude to the many signal interpositions of providence in favour of the American cause. The date underneath is that of the Declaration of Independence and the words under it signify the beginning of the new American Æra, which commences from that date.–

“Ojibwe bands want to co-manage all northern Minnesota resources with the state of Minnesota, asserting treaty rights allowing that,” the Bemidji Pioneer reported April 26. What would be the impact on state management authority? Would there be legal baggage? What about cost?

At a tribal forum, DFL candidate for governor Margaret Anderson Kelliher said, according to Outdoor News, “As your governor I will work with the heads of government on a government-to-government relationship on equal terms. I will stand with your sovereign leaders of sovereign nations and work with you as co-equal heads of state on behalf of issues that affect all Minnesotans.”

White House to Whiskeytown

Whiskeytown Lake was formed as part of the Central Valley Water Project, providing water for agriculture and was dedicated by President John F. Kennedy in 1963. Although local creeks such as Brandy Creek flow into the lake, most of the water in Whiskeytown Lake comes from the Trinity River. This water is diverted over the mountains by tunnels and penstocks to the Judge Carr Powerhouse at the Spring Creek arm of Keswick.

CAFA Exception Bars Jurisdiction Over Federal Courts For Claims Seeking To Enforce The Terms Of Instruments Creating And Defining Securities.

Greenwich Financial Services Distressed Mortg. v. Countrywide Financial Corp . , Slip Copy, 2009 WL 2499149 (S.D.N.Y., Aug 14, 2009)(NO. 08 CIV. 11343RJH).

The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York held that a third exception to CAFA (28 U.S.C. § 1332(d)(9)(C)) applied in this case because the plaintiffs were attempting to create and define their securities; and remanded the case to the state court.

The plaintiffs in this case, Greenwich Financial Services Distressed Mortgaged Fund 3, LLC and QED LLC, brought this putative class action in the New York State Court, as the holders of now-infamous mortgage-backed securities whose decline in value had hobbled the financial markets. The plaintiffs specifically alleged that they held certificates issued by various trusts, which own hundreds of thousands of mortgage loans. The trusts' ownership of the loans entitled them to the borrowers' periodic interest and principal payments, and the certificates entitled the plaintiffs to a share of those payments. 

The plaintiffs' claims arose from actions taken by the defendants with respect to these loans pursuant to the terms of a settlement with several state Attorneys General. In the summer of 2008, the Attorneys General for seven states filed lawsuits accusing Countrywide of violating laws against predatory lending. The defendant, Countrywide Servicing, later agreed to a multistate settlement, requiring it to modify the terms of numerous mortgage loans that it currently services – including at least some of the loans it services on behalf of plaintiffs. 

The plaintiffs responded to the defendants' settlement with the state Attorneys General by filing this putative class action in New York State Supreme Court. The plaintiffs alleged that that pooling and servicing agreements (PSAs) required the defendants, loan servicers, to purchase any loans they modified at a price equal to the unpaid principal and accrued interest thereon.  

The defendants removed the action to the United States District Court of New York, and the plaintiffs sought a remand.

The plaintiffs, citing 28 U.S.C. § 1332(d)(9)(C), argued that CAFA excepts certain suits from its jurisdictional reach, and this case fell within one of those exceptions. 

The District Court noted that § 1332(d)(9)(C) provides that the district courts do not have jurisdiction over a class action that solely involves a claim that relates to the rights, duties (including fiduciary duties), and obligations relating to or created by or pursuant to any security. 

The District Court observed that in Estate of Barbara Pew v. Cardarelli , 527 F.3d 25, 30, 32 (2d Cir. 2008), the Second Circuit confronted the exception's scope in the context of a state consumer fraud claim, where the plaintiffs were purchasers of money market certificates – unsecured, fixed-interest debt instruments – whose issuer had gone bankrupt.   ( Editors' Note:   See the CAFA Law Blog analysis of Pew posted on August 20, 2008).

The Second Circuit began by rejecting the plaintiffs' argument that the exception covered all securities claims, and held consumer fraud claims at issue in Pew did not fall into either of these categories. The Second Circuit concluded that the exception was limited to suits seeking to enforce the terms of the instruments that create and define securities or the duties imposed on persons who administer securities. 

Based on Pew's interpretation of Section 1332(d)(9), the District Court concluded that CAFA's third exception applied to the plaintiffs' claims because the plaintiffs sought to enforce the terms of the instruments that create and define their securities.

In its opposition, the defendants argued that: (1) Pew's requirement that the claims be grounded in the terms of the security itself, should be read as restricting CAFA's third exception to claims based on language contained in the four corners of the certificates; (2) even if the terms of the certificates were implicated by the plaintiffs' claims, they were not solely implicated and, therefore, do not fall with the third CAFA exception; and (3) in its third argument, the defendant attempted to rewrite CAFA to grant jurisdiction over all cases having a national impact. 

The District Court rejected all of the defendants' arguments finding that it did not overcome a common sense reading of Pew and the text of CAFA itself. The District Court held that the CAFA did not provide the court with jurisdiction because the plaintiffs' claims to enforce the defendants' obligations under the PSAs fell within CAFA's exception in 28 U.S.C.S. § 1332(d)(9)(C) for claims seeking to enforce the terms of instruments creating and defining securities.

The District Court also held the claims did not arise under federal law because the plaintiffs' claim that the PSAs required the defendants to buy back the modified mortgage loans did not rely on or required an interpretation of Truth-in-Lending Act. 

Accordingly, the District Court remanded the case to the state court.

California's Dirty Energy Secret: BP and Rio Tinto Team Up with Local Utility

Posted: June 17, 2010 02:08 PM The University of California's BP Problem

As oil spills into the Gulf of Mexico, we are reminded of UC Berkeley's controversial deal with BP. The oil company currently supports the Energy Biosciences Institute at UC Berkeley, and as one recent newspaper article put it , "It may seem incongruous that an oil company responsible for such environmental devastation is funding this effort to find green fuels and reduce oil use." Like so many other large corporations, BP spends a small fraction of its revenue on alternative technologies and resources so that it can proudly proclaim that it is doing something for the environment.

Since universities are now seeking outside funding, and corporations are looking for ways to improve their public images, programs like Berkeley's Energy Biosciences Institute seem to make perfect sense. However, we must ask if universities really want to have their images tarred by companies that are more concerned with the bottom line than higher education.

When in 2007, BP pledged $500 million to Berkeley, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, some people protested, but most university officials praised this deal as the biggest corporate support for university research ever made. However, we have to ask if this is a deal made with the devil, and will the university's reputation for objectivity and neutrality be undermined by such a huge gift? In other words, can scientists question BP and its practices if these researchers are being supported out of the corporation's profits?

According to its agreement with BP, the UC could walk out of the arrangement if an event occurs that violates the university's policies. In the agreement signed by UC and BP, it clearly states that the university "should avoid any collaboration that would render it an active participant in criminal conduct, human rights violations, or environmental despoliation." Since the current oil spill is clearly an example of "environmental despoliation" and may prove to be a case of "criminal conduct," it is clear that the UC should break the deal. However, we know how hard it will be to walk away from easy money during a budget crisis.

BP funds search for green fuels at UC Berkeley
By Laurel Rosenhall
lrosenhall@sacbee.com

BP has 14 employees who work behind closed doors in a private suite on the third floor of the Energy Biosciences Institute. The rest of the staff – employed by the university or the national lab – work in open bays filled with test tubes, beakers and elaborate machinery. More BP employees likely will join the institute when it moves to a new UC Berkeley building in 2013.

Partnerships between companies and colleges go back to the 1800s, said Jennifer Washburn, author of "University, Inc.," a book about corporate influences on universities.

But the nature of the deals changed significantly in the 1980s, she said, when Congress passed a law giving universities the right to patent and license their discoveries for commercial use.

"It put a new kind of profit motive into the heart of the university that did not exist in those earlier academic-industry relations," Washburn said.

In an upcoming report called "Big Oil Goes Back to College, " Washburn takes a closer look at how oil companies are shaping university research. The report examines the institute at UC Berkeley as well as Chevron's sponsorship of UC Davis research and Exxon's ties with Stanford.

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International News

Deadline Extended for AIG's $2.2 Billion Sale of Taiwan Life Unit

June 21, 2010

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