Liberals block renewable energy

Typical Liberals, Democrats, anti-technology Greens, environmentalists and NIMBY's block wind generation and transmission infrastructure.

This article is from the Wall Street Journal August 18, 2008. Link to article : http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121901822110148233.html?mod=opinion_main_review_and_outlooks
All credit goes to WSJ.

Wind Jammers
August 18, 2008

In this year's great energy debate, Democrats describe a future when the U.S. finally embraces the anything-but-carbon avant-garde. It turns out, however, that when wind and solar power do start to come on line, they face a familiar obstacle: environmentalists and many Democrats.

To wit, the greens are blocking the very transmission network needed for renewable electricity to move throughout the economy. The best sites for wind and solar energy happen to be in the sticks -- in the desert Southwest where sunlight is most intense for longest, or the plains where the wind blows most often. To exploit this energy, utilities need to build transmission lines to connect their electricity to the places where consumers actually live. In addition to other technical problems, the transmission gap is a big reason wind only provides two-thirds of 1% of electricity generated in the U.S., and solar one-tenth of 1%.

Only last week, Duke Energy and American Electric Power announced a $1 billion joint venture to build a mere 240 miles of transmission line in Indiana necessary to accommodate new wind farms. Yet the utilities don't expect to be able to complete the lines for six long years -- until 2014, at the earliest, because of the time necessary to obtain regulatory approval and rights-of-way, plus the obligatory lawsuits.

In California, hundreds turned out at the end of July to protest a connection between the solar and geothermal fields of the Imperial Valley to Los Angeles and Orange County. The environmental class is likewise lobbying state commissioners to kill a 150-mile link between San Diego and solar panels because it would entail a 20-mile jaunt through Anza-Borrego state park. "It's kind of schizophrenic behavior," Arnold Schwarzenegger said recently. "They say that we want renewable energy, but we don't want you to put it anywhere."

California has a law mandating that utilities generate 20% of their electricity from "clean-tech" by 2010. Some 24 states have adopted a "renewable portfolio standard," while Barack Obama wants to impose a national renewable mandate. But the states, with the exception of Texas, didn't make transmission lines easier to build, though it won't prevent them from penalizing the power companies that fail to meet an impossible goal.

Texas is now the wind capital of America (though wind still generates only 3% of state electricity) because it streamlined the regulatory and legal snarls that block transmission in other states. By contrast, though Pennsylvania's Democratic Governor Ed Rendell adopted wind power as a main political plank, he and Senator Bob Casey are leading a charge to repeal a 2005 law that makes transmission lines slightly easier to build.

Wind power has also become contentious in oh-so-green Oregon, once people realized that transmission lines would cut through forests. Transmissions lines from a wind project on the Nevada-Idaho border are clogged because of possible effects on the greater sage grouse. Similar melodramas are playing out in Arizona, the Dakotas, the Carolinas, Tennessee, West Virginia, northern Maine, upstate New York, and elsewhere.

In other words, the liberal push for alternatives has the look of a huge bait-and-switch. Washington responds to the climate change panic with multibillion-dollar taxpayer subsidies for supposedly clean tech. But then when those incentives start to have an effect in the real world, the same greens who favor the subsidies say build the turbines or towers somewhere else. The only energy sources they seem to like are the ones we don't have.

Typical anti-technology hypocritical libs. They are for renewable energy but it cannot be seen or heard. How will electricity be transmitted? Last time I looked, transmission lines are the ONLY way to do this. Do greenies know how electricity is generated and transmitted? Do greenies know that we are using the same electrical transmission lines that were built in the 1950's and hardly any new lines have been built to handle current day electrical loads?

You cannot bury high voltage transmission lines like your buried residential 220V lines that go to your house. It is too hard to maintain and the risks to the people and the grid is too high.

Electricity is the backbone of life here in America.

I guess the greenies do not remember the 2003 blackouts that California was struck with. Electricity from the Pacific North West goes down to California via two high transmission lines. If one of those lines go down, LA and probably the rest of southern California is screwed since the other line cannot handle the load. I doubt the power lines from Nevada/Arizona could handle the load.

In closing, improving an old infrastructure is great and once again the people who would rather let us sit in darkness of the 18th century reveal themselves as liberals. What was the name of that guy who uses 200+ kilowatt hours a month on his house...

Seattle's NIMBY Liberals Bash The Homeless

This sort of proves a theory that I developed years ago, that liberals favor big government because it allows them to avert their eyes from those in need. Isn't that what we pay taxes for?

Many residents in Seattle's affluent Magnolia neighborhood are fuming over plans to house homeless people near Discovery Park at soon-to-be-closed Fort Lawton.

At one community meeting, some residents wondered whether homeless housing at the fort would attract wife-beaters, sex offenders and crack addicts. They rolled their eyes when city officials asserted that such housing increases property values. They worried about the impact on schools and scoffed at the idea of homeless people shopping at the closest grocery — which sells pheasant-and-rosemary pâté for $9.99 and ground coffee for up to $18 a pound.

"We're the ones who live here, and we want to have a nice, safe neighborhood to live in," Donald Raz, a King County deputy prosecutor and Magnolia resident, said later.

Dino Rossi Announces Transportation Plan

I lived in the Washington, DC area from 1985-1997. I experienced some of the worst commutes to work you can imagine.

I lived in the Seattle area from 1997-1999 and experienced equally bad, if not worse commutes (second worst congestion in the country in 1999.)

Here's the difference. When I went back to the DC area in 2005, I-95 and I-395 in Virginia had been dramatically expanded. New lanes, bridges, interchanges, overpasses, etc., had been added. I hardly recognized the roads I used to drive every day. Traffic is still horrible (fourth worst in the U.S. in 2005 according to the Texas Transportation Institute), but how bad would it be had they done nothing?

Meanwhile, virtually nothing has been done to improve SR 167 and I-405 in King County in the 12 years I have lived in Washington, despite rapid population growth.

As I said on the radio yesterday, like Ronald Reagan, I did not leave the Democratic Party, it left me. The Democrats used to be the party of the working man. The Democrats used to be the party of job- and business-creating public works projects, such as dams and bridges, that increased our quality of life and invested in the future. That is no longer the case, particularly in Washington. The Washington Democratic Party may as well be the Green Party. The interests of fish, trees, and snooty latte liberals have come before the interests of the working class.

What could be more important to working people than affordable housing? Yet the Growth Management Act, foisted on us by the Democrats, has made housing unaffordable statewide, particularly in the Puget Sound area. So if you can't afford to live close to work, then you have to commute. Again, the Democratic intransigence to do anything with the road system in the Puget Sound area has forced working people to spend more hours every day in their cars instead of with their families.

Why? Because the attitude is that if we build more roads, then more people will move to Washington. The Greens Democrats want to pull up the drawbridge and seal Washington off from the rest of the world to stop that evil "urban sprawl" (a myth, by the way) and force people into more environmentally-correct public transportation (even though cars stuck in traffic burn more gas and emit more pollution,) which is not practical for most working families. And that's okay with the elitist NIMBYists who want to keep their view of the Olympics uncluttered by tract housing.

The theory didn't pan out, however. Washington has continued to grow rapidly, despite the poor transportation infrastructure, and now the chickens have come home to roost. It's been nearly 20 years since the Nimitz Freeway collapse in Oakland and the Alaskan Way Viaduct still poses a serious risk of killing thousands. The 520 floating bridge likewise could sink in a strong windstorm, possibly killing hundreds. Needed replacement ferries are still on the drawing board. Boeing moved it's headquarters to Chicago. How many more businesses will move out of Washington because of long commmute times and a do-nothing government? We are in gridlock, literally and figuratively. And it affects us in Eastern Washington, because when the Puget Sound catches a cold, we get the flu. Tax dollars that should be going to our transportation needs end up on the west side instead. Remember the 9.5 cent gas tax hike that was supposed to fix all these problems? Yeah....

Rossi's ambitious plan, among other things, calls for the state to spend $15 billion (without raising gas taxes) on a tunnel to replace the Viaduct, widening I-405 from Renton to Bellevue (the road I used to drive every day), and replacing the 520 floating bridge with an eight-lane bridge. This is bold leadership. This is what government is supposed to be about. Come November, Washington voters are going to see the clear differences between Dino Rossi and Chris "Status Quo" Gregoire.

"Some growth is better than none"

One more time, with emphasis. There is no "urban sprawl" on the Palouse. There is no "runaway growth" on the Palouse. The 2006-2007 population data just released from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that the Pullman and Moscow micropolitan areas are growing the slowest of any urban area in Washington and Idaho respectively, two very fast-growing states.

Our problem is just the opposite of "sprawl." We cannot "afford to be choosy" as some advocate. We cannot allow unproven concerns over a poorly understood water source be the nails in the coffins of our two towns. We cannot let the Palouse become a social engineering laboratory for academics and students who will be somewhere else in five or ten years. Instead, we had better do everything we can to encourage growth and roll out the red carpet to any business that wants to locate here. As UI prof Jeff Harkins always says, towns grow or they die. This is the conclusion the Daily News editorial board reached in a column published in last Thursday's edition:

Growth has long been a controversial topic in Moscow and Pullman.

Some want it at any expense, others would like the status quo maintained in perpetuity.

We think the correct approach is somewhere in the middle, and that's why recently released statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau are cause for concern.

The Moscow and Pullman "micropolitan" areas - urban cores of 10,000-50,000 people and the surrounding counties - grew 0.5 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively, from mid-2006 to mid-2007.

That's not far from negative 0.5 percent and 1.2 percent, and that's what is most troubling.

Negative growth would cause a downturn in the local economy, resulting in the loss of jobs and local businesses and forcing some residents to leave the area in search of other opportunities.

Stagnation might produce similar results considering the basic cost of living - gas, groceries, energy - is only going to rise. Money to offset that rise is needed in the form of new jobs and residents.

Further complicating matters is declining enrollment at the University of Idaho. There currently are 9,980 students enrolled at the UI's Moscow campus, down 702 students from fall 2006.

UI economist Steve Peterson said there's a direct correlation between the number of students and the number of jobs in the area.

"If you're down 1,000 students, you can figure a loss between 500 and 1,000 jobs anywhere in the region," he said.

Imagine what would happen if Washington State University saw a similar decrease in enrollment.

A number of area business leaders and elected officials are encouraging growth, and residents need to get on board if they want their children and grandchildren to be able to live and work on the Palouse when they grow up, graduate and enter the work force.

The speed and direction in which the area expands might not agreeable to everyone, but growth at any pace is a far cry better than no growth at all.

"Socio-Cultural Characteristics of the Palouse Basin"

You're really going to enjoy this particular piece of professorial fluffery. It demonstrates considerable academic laziness, liberal bias, greatly oversimplified generalizations, and a general surrender to popular stereotypes. It's from the Palouse Basin Community Water Resource Information System, part of the Water Resources Program at the University of Idaho which provides a "platform for cross-disciplinary analyses of water resources sustainability within the eastern Palouse Basin watershed of western Latah County, Idaho, and eastern Whitman County, Washington."

I have highlighted what I consider the biased parts below:

A large proportion of rural residents in the area, especially those living outside of its population centers, were born in the Basin. Their customs and lifestyles are typical of those found in rural areas of the West, in that they tend to have resource-based and land-production occupations, and are comparatively more conservative in their values and perspectives. One crude indicator of this social characteristic is the number of campaign contributions made by residents of Colfax, WA, in the 2004 election: all but one were made to the Republican Party or its candidates – in a state where a minority (46%) of voters voted for George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election.

However, in the Idaho portion of the basin’s rural areas, an exception is that some proportion of rural landowners either are faculty of the two universities or professionals attracted to the university-town of Moscow, and thus comparatively more liberal and affluent than their neighbors -- or they are even more liberal residents who have been attracted to the area as part of the back-to-the-land movement that began in the 1970's. One indicator of this social characteristic is the proportion of voters in Latah County that voted for George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election – 50% -- in contrast to a state in which a majority voted for Bush (69%).

It might also be noted that a major segment of the Moscow and rural Latah County population, given a more liberal political orientation and the fact that they have come from other more populated, congested and poorly planned areas of the country, are more concerned than other residents with growth management and the use of government and public policy to advance economic and community development in a way that they see as being progressive and well-planned. Some are opposed to certain kinds of economic activity (e.g., "big-box" retail stores) and have been labeled by others as "anti-growth."

In contrast, some residents of the Basin, especially in rural Whitman County, are more conservative in their beliefs and preferences, and some (including many farmers in the region) are among the region’s most conservative, especially in comparison to their fellow citizens on the "west-side" of the state of Washington and in Latah County. These individuals tend to believe that the less government involvement in citizens’ lives, the better, and they espouse principles of free-market economics, despite the subsidies that some receive from the federal government. Of particular relevance for water resource management, they are generally in favor of community development through increased economic activity (i.e., "pro-growth"), and would like to see their communities grow in terms of the basic industries and retail outlets available for local services, consumer choices and purchasing options, and general local prosperity, through the jobs, income and economic expansion generated.

So, I guess we can interpret from that we conservatives are in favor of "poor planning" and "wasting water?"

And while there is some truth to this assessment, categorizing people as "anti-growth" and "pro-growth" by who voted for Bush and who voted for Kerry is embarassingly simplistic, insulting, and just plain wrong.

I know MANY Democrats who are in favor of Wal-Mart in Pullman. Pullman is around 55% Democrat, and yet Judy Krueger of PARD lost overwhelmingly in the 2005 city council race. I'm sure many of those folks who voted against Krueger voted for Kerry the year before.

Moscow is also strongly Democratic, yet the city council members who opposed big boxes were thrown out en masse last November. The same council that approved the Hawkins water deal went on a few weeks later to uphold a controversial measure granting health benefits to "domestic partners" of city workers, including those of the same sex, in violation of Idaho law. "Conservative?" You tell me.

On the flip side, I know of many conservatives who strongly oppose big-box stores in both Pullman and Moscow. And Whitman County is not underdeveloped because the Democrats have been in control all these years. Whitman County government has largely been a Democrat-free zone for a long time. No, it is in large part due to those farmers mentioned above who fear suburban development intruding into rural areas. In Pullman, it was business owners that chased away the Palouse Mall.

Until recently, Democratic Latah County had been the center of retail and housing development on the Palouse. Republican Whitman County had developed the anti-growth reputation. The opposition to big boxes is a coalition that spans political parties, the unholy alliance of liberal fascists and NIMBYists. The common thread with each group is that they want the government to decide what other people can do with their land. The NIMBYists just tend to be a little more quiet about it.

As an information system for those making decision about water, this seems to be a very poor resource. You would think they could do their homework and conduct some meaningful surveys on political attitudes about growth on the Palouse. They probably wouldn't like what they found.

"High-tech hits its stride"

Like Gerard Connelly, B.J. Swanson cannot be that ignorant of economics and be the vice president of a bank. I'd like to think that all the nonsense she expresses in this Lewiston Tribune article from yesterday is just claptrap for the masses to cover her left-wing snobbery. But nevertheless, let's hang her with her own words, shall we?

"The economy on the Palouse is stagnant?" The article states that between 1997 and 2007, the number of high-tech jobs increased from 322 to 460 in Latah County. That represents about 43% growth in 10 years. Not spectacular, but not exactly stagnant either.

Whitman County now has 1,363 high-tech, including 1,100 at SEL, which had 230 employees in 1997. That means the growth of jobs at SEL has been 380% over 10 years. That is spectacular sustained employment growth probably unequaled anywhere in the U.S., much less a rural county.

Has other growth in Whitman County kept pace? Swanson says that "each high-tech employee supports as many as four other jobs." So the growth at SEL alone should have created 3,480 new retail/service jobs on the Palouse, including about 1,392 in Whitman County (some 40% of new SEL employees live in Pullman/Whitman County.) There has not been anything like that amount of retail/service jobs created here in the last 10 years. The only thing "stagnant" in Whitman County is the retail sector.

According to the Washington Employment Security Department, there were 1,227 retail trade jobs in Whitman County in January 2008. That's DOWN from January 2000 when it was 1,250. You can see why retailers are so interested in the Palouse, particularly our side of the border. Can't Swanson and the Tribune reporter runs these numbers themselves and see the need for Wal-Mart and other retail? Exactly why is B.J. Swanson being allowed to speak for Pullman and Whitman County anyway? It's very biased reporting.

In what way does the effort, in Whitman County anyway, to capture these dollars by building a Wal-Mart believes keep us from "realizing more of our potential" in the high-tech sector? It's just the opposite. I mean if people make $50,000 a year, they're going to want to spend it somewhere, right? Trust me, if we had more retail amenities, SEL and other companies would have an easier time attracting potential employees. Swanson obviously forgets Ed Schweitzer is a big supporter of a Pullman Wal-Mart.

Yet liberal fascist Swanson claims that Wal-Mart is a threat because every time a new store or restaurant opens, another closes. Really? Is that why we have two Safeways, two Rite-Aids, two Les Schwabs, two Radio Shacks, two Subways, two Pita Pits, two Pizza Huts, four McDonald's, two Arby's and untold Starbucks in Pullman and Moscow? What closed in Moscow when Old Navy and Bed Bath and Beyond opened? Did Staples close when Office Depot opened? Did Snap Fitness and Absolute Fitness close when the Pullman Athletic Club opened? I would sure hate to ask Swanson for a business loan with a ridiculous zero-sum attitude like that.

High-tech hits its stride

MOSCOW - A building under construction at the east edge of Alturas Technology Park is one of the most tangible signs of the slow but steady growth of the high-tech sector on the Palouse.

The 10,000-square-foot building will house Alturas Analytics and Anatech Labs, which have outgrown their 7,200-square-foot space at the park in Moscow.

Anatech Labs began in 1992, doing water tests and other environmental work. About eight years ago its founders brought in a new partner and diversified into doing pharmaceutical testing under the name of Alturas Analytics.

Others are thriving too.

Economic Modeling Specialists is on the verge of outgrowing its leased space in Alturas. And EcoAnalysts is preparing to more than triple its office space with a move from downtown Moscow to Eastside Marketplace (see related stories), where it will be near another home-grown, high-tech Palouse venture, First Step Internet.

It's the kind of economic development that represents the brightest hope for Moscow and Pullman, says B.J. Swanson, commercial loan officer and vice president of AmericanWest Bank. "That's our quickest and easiest way to provide good-paying jobs."

Between 1997 and 2007, the number of high-tech jobs increased from 322 to 460 in Latah County, while Whitman County now has 1,363. The growth there reflects that of Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, which in 1997 had 230 employees and now has 1,100 in Pullman, making it the second-largest manufacturer in the region.

Swanson believes more of the potential in the sector could be realized if members of the community focused on high-tech job growth more and worried less about real estate development and where Wal-Mart might locate.

The kinds of jobs the high-tech sector provides would strengthen weak spots in the economy at a time when it's unlikely significant expansion will occur at the universities, Swanson says.

Part of the reason Wal-Mart is such a threat is the economy on the Palouse is stagnant, Swanson says. Every time a new store opens, another closes. The same pattern happens with restaurants.

Each high-tech employee supports as many as four other jobs because the wages are so high and much of the revenue the companies generate comes from out of state, Swanson says.

The average pay of the 150 jobs at Alturas, where many of Moscow's high-tech businesses are located, is $50,000 a year, Swanson says.

The proximity to universities has made the success possible. Almost every high-tech company has some link to the universities, Swanson says.

The founder of SEL earned his doctorate from Washington State University. Basic research at the universities formed the foundation of other companies.

Once companies are up and running, the universities and Lewis-Clark State College provide a steady source of qualified applicants for the internships and jobs they have, Swanson says.

The availability of internships on the Palouse helps the schools because their students get on-the-job training and take classes in the same semester since they're not having to leave the area, Swanson says.

"It's our future if you look at our base and the assets the universities bring."

Song of My Selfishness

Janet Richards' Town Crier tripe in today's Moscow-Pullman Daily News amply illustrates well why the "progressives" are now in the political wilderness in Moscow. Who can take people this disdainful seriously? It is this same upper class, highly educated drawbridge selfishness that adds $200,000 to the price of Seattle homes.

WARNING: Do not click "Read More" if you are subject to nausea caused by overly florid prose, preening intellectual pretentiousness, tortured logic, asinine allegories, naturalist hyberbole, gratuitous use of adjectives, or haughty classical music references:

Importance of community-shared values

Cows graze behind the supermarket and wheat fields roll for miles in the alley behind our shopping center in Moscow. It's a lonely stretch of road - a soothing respite from the traffic and frenetic animation of the parking lot on the front side of the mall.

Drivers are discouraged from taking this route by a series of lofty speed bumps, installed to assure that only a limited number of cars will clog the delivery lane. The bumpy pavement forces a slower pace and provides a kind of rhythm to the journey, so the occasional jostle is never too much of a surprise. I like knowing what to expect.

The conspicuous evidence of consumption litters this corridor. Stacks of wooden pallets, torn shrink wrap and plastic strapping bands lie discarded - the common refuse of retail operations. Battered Dumpsters, with Smurf-colored paint, bulge with cardboard and packing peanuts resting against drab cinder block walls which form the "backside" of a marketplace filled with glitter and glitz.

The peaceful pasture that lays on the other side of this alley seems out of place. It's a bucolic scene, in stark contrast to the commercial setting that is its backdrop; a metaphor for the clash between the push for development and its opposition.

One day as I began the slow traverse of this undulating path I turned the radio to classical. The music was lilting, and beautiful, but I felt unsettled, my mind troubled by thoughts of the natural landscape on one side of the alley that seems headed for obliteration - threatened by the encroaching ooze of molten asphalt hardening into a permanent tomb and the relentless proliferation of retail outlets that have already scourged the nation.

Countless other towns have been swept up in the now familiar pattern that comes on the winds of progress. A trend favoring a homogeneous market saturated with global franchises housed in immense buildings with the offer of generic predictability. Spewing shrink wrap and clam shell cartons, they operate out of step with the rhythms of the natural world and encourage us to do likewise, causing one to wonder if health of any kind is ever a priority.

Countless towns have seen the destruction of the sense of community that comes in the wake of the big-box phenomena. The marketplace, no longer a meeting place, marches to a global drummer, oblivious to the heartbeat of the community. The anonymous nature of these cart and carry stores only adds to social isolation.

When it comes to the issues of water and Wal-Mart, the residents of Moscow, myself included, are polarized. It's hard to see common ground - the shared soil that is the essence of this community - so near and dear to everyone. But common ground is what we must find to prevent the health of our beautiful natural setting and the relationships that make life so rich and give meaning from falling victim to ideological positions set in stone.

Something rescued me from these somber thoughts that day in the alley. Without warning hundreds of small black birds descended on my car. Swirling, whipping and whirling, they snaked towards me and then away in long symmetrical streams forming layer upon layer of concentric black rings. As if hearing the music, they swept inward and outward, like ribbons in the wind, upward and back around the car in syncopated rhythm. As quickly as they came they vanished, as if sucked by a celestial vacuum.

As I negotiated the last speed bump and turned onto the street to head for home, the radio announcer spoke clearly: "You have been listening to a composition by the French composer Ravel written in 1928. It is titled "Oiseauz Tristes," "The Unhappy Birds."

It was a moment sublime - "coincidental oppositorum." Things that seem separate, even opposed, coincided to reveal an unexpected unity - an unbelievably beautiful experience driving in a littered alley behind a mall illustrating the coming together of two worlds in conflict.

Will our town slide into dissension and mediocrity as so many other towns, unwilling or unable to see the importance of the shared values that will determine its destiny? Is there a way to soar above the staunch opinions and fly together?

Can We Afford "Smart Growth?"

A new UW study of Seattle housing prices says "No":

Between 1989 and 2006, the median inflation-adjusted price of a Seattle house rose from $221,000 to $447,800. Fully $200,000 of that increase was the result of land-use regulations, says Theo Eicher — twice the financial impact that regulation has had on other major U.S. cities.

What land-use regulations you say?

A key regulation is the state's Growth Management Act, enacted in 1990 in response to widespread public concern that sprawl could destroy the area's unique character. To preserve it, the act promoted restrictions on where housing can be built. The result is artificial density that has driven up home prices by limiting supply, Eicher says.

And who is it that pushes for these onerous regulations?

According to the Wharton study, cities such as Seattle that have high median incomes, high home prices and a large percentage of college-educated workers tend to have the most land-use regulations.

Sjoblom says that makes sense: "People with higher incomes want the kind of amenities that regulation provides," he says. "If you're a homeowner and growth controls are imposed and housing prices shoot up, you're grandfathered because you own the place. In theory people will say it's [rising prices] a bad thing, but in practice it's not hurting them."

[...]

In the final analysis, Eicher believes Seattle's regulatory climate exists because its residents want it. "My sense is land-use restrictions are imposed to generate socially desirable outcomes," he says. "We all love parks and green spaces. But we must also be informed about the costs. It's very easy to vote for a park if you think the cost is free."

Ah, now I see. The same old unholy alliance of left-wing no-growthers and selfish NIMBYists.

Pullman suffers from the same sort of problem as Seattle does to a lesser extent: artificially high home prices created by regulations created by snobby eltitists. For example, the PARDners say they want affordable housing while at the same time pressing for even more restrictive land use regulations. And let's not forget Cheryl Morgan and the League of Women Voters who also work to do everything they can to make development more difficult in Pullman.

"SEL announces plan to add 300 new jobs; Most of the new positions will be located in Pullman"

If it were not for Schweitzer Engineering both the City of Pullman and Whitman County would likely be facing negative population, jobs, and income losses. Because of the underdeveloped retail trade, service, and housing sector in Pullman, Moscow may be benefiting as much from the growth of Schweitzer Engineering as Pullman.

- Steve Peterson, "Moscow at a Tipping Point: An Economic Analysis of the Retail Trade Sector, the Local Economy, and the Effects of Locating a Super Wal-Mart in the Moscow, Idaho Regional Economy"

Thanks to the courageous efforts of the Whitman County Commissioners and the Hawkins Companies, the development logjam created by the unholy alliance of local NIMBYists and left-wing nutjobs has been broken up. Whitman County will now start to benefit from the expansion of SEL. Now, all we need is for the Appeals Court to dismiss PARD's pointless appeal of Wal-Mart, and Pullman can start to benefit as well and we will have total victory!! What a great day for Whitman County!

From today's Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories plans to expand operations and add hundreds of new jobs in Pullman.

The Pullman-based company announced Monday that more than 300 new employees will be needed to help the growing company.

Susan Fagan, SEL director of public affairs, said "most" of the open positions will be needed in Pullman. She said about 100 positions already are listed online, while nearly 200 more will be added during the next two quarters.

In 2007, SEL added 248 new positions and now employs about 1,000 people at its Pullman headquarters.

With roots in manufacturing parts used in generating electric power, SEL introduced the world's first digital relay in 1984. Since then, the company has created products used in oil refineries, wind farms and high-voltage substations. Its products include clocks that are accurate to the microsecond, encryption equipment used to protect secure equipment and systems for the U.S. Navy that allow ships to run on electrical power rather than steam power.

The company's products are sold in 120 countries.

Fagan said the new batch of open positions are a reflection of growth caused by "new products, new locations and new companies."

"Hiring these new people will help us grow and continue to meet the demand of our customers," she said. "We're creating new markets by inventing, designing and manufacturing new products."

Fagan said the company seeks employees to work in the flight department, production, engineering, manufacturing, administration and more. Open job listings can be viewed at www.selinc.com.

In 2006, SEL's manufacturing facilities doubled to more than 200,000 square feet, which allowed for new equipment, expanded lines and room for additional employees. More than half of the company's Pullman employees work in manufacturing operations.

Fagan said the increase of employees will equate to more products for vendors and more business for shipping companies. She said the impact will resonate in the local economy.

"It's an exciting time for our company ... and it's exciting for our economy in our area," Fagan said. "There will be more families, and they'll need homes. They'll have kids that go to schools. They'll need services."

Pullman Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Fritz Hughes agreed. He said the SEL employee expansion will be a benefit to the entire region.

"It's a good quality of life that SEL provides for the community and that's a big benefit," he said. "It's a tremendous asset to our community.

"This brings in people and gives good stable employment for people so they don't have to leave" the area.

SEL was founded in Pullman in 1982 and employs more than 1,500 people in 64 locations around the world.

"The usual collection of local anti-everything folks"

Keith Bloom, WSU Director of Construction Services and Capital Planning and Development, is quoted in today's Daily Evergreen as saying, “Some people believe that if there is contention and debate it’s a bad thing, but it is necessary for public debate and for all sides to be heard.”

I like Keith a lot, but I respectfully disagree.

Keith, in fact, actually inadvertently stated the reason I disagree in further comments to the Evergreen

“Some of it may have been overstated,” Bloom said. “We have a culture of the media fostering fear within our modern society and in the media. Some of this was evident, and some people were more fearful than they need to be.”

By holding events like this, WSU has allowed the anti-growth fearmongers to be heard again by that media and foster even more fear. We have now seen stories in the Tribune, the Moscow-Pullman Daily News, the Daily Evergreen, and on KLEW TV all give distinctly negative impressions about the Palouse Ridge Golf Club and citizen feelings about it. Unsubstantiated allegations are made by the opposition in the media with no chance for rebuttal. But after all, it is controversy and contention that sells newspapers and airtime, not boring old cooperation and agreement.

And what was the point? As WSU Executive Director of Real Estate Operations and External Affairs Mel Taylor was quoted as saying in yesterday's Daily News, "I don't think not opening the golf course is an option."

So now where there was nothing heard about the golf course a few months ago, the hornet's nest is now abuzz. This won't affect WSU. The golf course is almost built and the state always gets what it wants. No, we'll see fallout from this down the road. Like Keith told KLEW TV, "We have a history in Pullman of chasing away business or chasing away economic growth.”

Exactly. And it is those same anti-everything people that chase away business and economic growth that showed up at Wednesday's forum. Getting all this media coverage just energizes their batteries.

An example of what I'm talking about was reported in yesterday's Daily News:

Pullman resident Cheryl Morgan said the university is being "unethical" by drawing so much water in an area she said has been proven to have a depleting aquifer. Citing data from the Palouse Basin Aquifer Committee and other studies, Morgan expressed her disgust with the university's "unconscionable disregard" for area residents by claiming so much shared water.

A search of the Daily News archives shows that Ms. Morgan has been against everything proposed to be built in and around Pullman for the last 9 years:

January 6, 1998

A housing development on Pullman's Military Hill is back on track after neighboring property owners withdrew their appeal of the city's environmental review.

On Monday, Larry and Cheryl Morgan said after meeting with the engineers for Copper Basin Construction and local developer Steve Mader their concerns about runoff from the affordable housing project had been addressed.

The Morgans had filed their appeal in December, saying not enough had been done to control increased runoff from the project which would have traveled over their property and an old city dump.

May 20, 1998

The Pullman City Council on Tuesday approved preliminary plans for the Emerald Pointe development on Sunnyside Hill -- despite protests from landowners concerned about the increased runoff from the site adjacent to Golden Hills.

Carolyn Wyatt, who has lived on Haywood Road for 18 years, said since the Golden Hills development went in she's seen more runoff in the canyon below Davis Way than ever before.

Wyatt said she's not against well-planned development but she doesn't see any guarantees the problem won't get worse.

That sentiment was echoed by a number of residents of Hatley Canyon, including Cheryl Morgan who said the city was ignoring state water quality laws regarding runoff.

"We can't take any more water down there," she said. "We shouldn't be taking the water we already are."

July 29, 1998

In Pullman, the low point appears to be Hatley Canyon where residents complain they've watched as the runoff from developments on Sunnyside and Military hills flow down through their properties to the South Fork of the Palouse River.

The subject came up again Tuesday, as the City Council approved the final plat for Sunnyside Heights subdivision No. 2 near Crestview Street and Alcora Drive.

After members of the council raised questions about possible runoff problems in the area around the subdivision, canyon resident Cheryl Morgan brought up the issue of responsibility for controlling storm water runoff and sediment from the development.

The state Department of Ecology issues permits requiring developers to deal with this problem, she said. But she questioned whether developers were actually doing this.

She also noted that DOE has the ability to levy hefty fines against developers who don't control the runoff from their property.

October 1, 1998

The council on Tuesday approved the final plat for the first phase of the Emerald Pointe development, as well as the proposed planned residential development plan.

The first phase of the development encompasses 18 acres and includes 30 single-family residences.

The total development is planned for 86 acres and would include 132 single-family homes, 240 apartments and 96 townhouses.

The biggest concern about the project was again voiced by people who live below Emerald Pointe along the South Fork of the Palouse River.

Area resident Cheryl Morgan said she's still not convinced the problem is solved.

During the 1996 flood, Morgan said the retention pond did little to slow down the waters which eventually washed over two county roads and their property.

November 18, 1998

He said plans were to meet today with engineers for Emerald Pointe and require the developer build a berm which would protect the homes below the fill should it slide.

Schaumloffel, in a letter to the council submitted Monday, said the city should have moved more quickly. That sentiment was echoed by Cheryl Morgan, who lives below the development and Golden Hills in Hatley Canyon.

Morgan has consistently raised questions about runoff and soil erosion caused by the development. On Tuesday, she said the city needs to do a better job of responding to concerns.

"I know everyone says they're overworked, but that's not acceptable where lives and safety are concerned," she said. "You've got to take these concerns with more respect for those of us impacted."

August 18, 1999

It's like a giant puddle the city constantly has to jump over without getting wet.

Discussions over preliminary plans for development in Pullman were prolonged on Tuesday as members of the City Council again were reminded of concerns over runoff.

"I don't think the standards placed on developers are near adequate enough," said Hayward Road resident Cheryl Morgan.

Her comments came as the council approved the preliminary plats for the third and fourth subdivision of Paradise Ridge on the city's Military Hill.

The two preliminary plats outline the division of 15.7 acres into 42 lots and public streets near Pullman High School.

But after that development is complete, Morgan said, it's the people downstream who have the problems.

"We're not trying to stop development," she said.

"We're trying to work with them and trying to protect our property."

July 12, 2000

It's a pond built to capture flood waters from a rain storm that occurs approximately every 100 years.

Yet some Whitman County residents are concerned the kidney-shaped pool on Pullman's Sunnyside Hill will not properly regulate storm waters through their downstream neighborhood in Hatley Canyon.

The 20-foot deep pond was installed to collect storm water runoff from the new Emerald Pointe subdivision being built near the Golden Hills neighborhood.

Contractors of the development are ready to embark on phase two of the development, which includes eight homes to be built on separate quarter-acre parcels.

In order to move forward with the second phase of the development, the Pullman Planning Commission must first recommend approval to the City Council.

The commission's vote will follow a public hearing tonight, where Hatley Canyon residents, such as Cheryl Morgan, are planning to speak.

[...]

Bob Olsen, vice president of Emerald Estates, said, "it's nothing short of a miracle that this project is going on. There are just so many obstacles."

July 14, 2000

Prior to the Emerald Pointe development, Cheryl Morgan, a resident of Hatley Canyon, said in 1996 her front yard turned into a mini-river from rainwater flowing down from the Sunnyside Hill area.

At the public hearing Wednesday, Morgan raised concern about storm water runoff.

She mentioned the past winter and spring were not bad rain seasons. With housing development overtaking the land upstream, Morgan wonders what condition her property would be in if a major storm hit.

July 26, 2000

The Emerald Pointe subdivision project on Sunnyside Hill is inching toward completion.

Pullman City Council members Tuesday approved another phase of the development, which calls for eight single-family homes to be built on 2.1 acres.

The phase is the second of a six-phase project to build 125 homes, 66 condominiums and 60 town homes on the hill. Completion of the project is scheduled for 2007.

Although construction is moving forward, community concern continues about storm water runoff.

Hatley Canyon residents like Cheryl Morgan are concerned a 20-foot deep pond -- built to capture storm water from street catch basins on the hill -- will not work properly.

Morgan's property in the past has flooded following heavy rainstorms. Her front yard is in the path of the natural runoff channel that descends from Sunnyside Hill.

Developers of Emerald Pointe built the kidney-shaped pond to handle a major storm that occurs approximately every 100 years.

The city requires developments like Emerald Pointe to build 20-year storm water retention systems.

Morgan is not convinced the pond will work.

Before council members unanimously approved the phase, Morgan approached the podium and unfolded a letter sent to the city last year from engineer Randell Hahn.

August 17, 2001

Some Whitman County residents say storm water coming down from housing developments on Pullman's hills is more than the Hatley Creek basin can handle.

Cheryl Morgan, representing 10 families that live on Hayward Road, addressed the Whitman County commissioners earlier this week for the fifth time since March 1999.

The developments are in the city of Pullman, but Hayward Road is in the county. Morgan said there should be more cooperation and planning between Pullman and Whitman County to deal with the problem, which she contends has become worse over the past five years.

April 2, 2002

More than three dozen sites in Whitman County became eligible as highway-waterway commercial zones Monday, but officials said they doubt more than four or five will be found suitable.

The zoning ordinance amendment approved by Whitman County commissioners after a public hearing Monday pertains to property near intersections of two state highways or a state highway and a paved county road.

[...]

Cheryl Morgan, who lives on Hayward Road near Pullman, said she also was concerned about safety issues. She said her main concern was whether there would be sufficient enforcement of screening requirements.

"Conditional permits are great, but if there's no enforcement, you might as well have a blank piece of paper," she said.

April 8, 2002

A proposed zoning amendment on its way to Whitman County commissioners would allow concrete manufacturing plants as a conditional use in some parts of the Pullman-Moscow corridor.

[...]

Cheryl Morgan, a Pullman resident opposed to the zoning amendment, said the rule would be contrary to at least two of the county's stated goals related to development of the corridor.

The zoning amendment to the county's comprehensive plan that set rules for development in the Pullman-Moscow corridor was approved in August 1999.

One of the goals of the zone is to enhance the scenic and environmental quality of the corridor. Another calls for encouraging public use of the Chipman Trail.

The zoning amendment runs counter to those goals, Morgan said.

"Concrete asphalt processing plants were exempt from the 1999 (Pullman Moscow Corridor) comprehensive plan for very good reasons -- to protect the quality of air, water and scenic resources," Morgan stated in a letter to Bordsen in February. "That same protection is of significance today and in the future."

Morgan and other opponents of the amendment say the cumulative impact on the environment, including the Chipman Trail and Paradise Creek, is not being considered under the zoning amendment, which would allow concrete pre-mix plants on either side of State Route 270.

"For some unknown reason, there is no mention within the environmental review sections of the (State Environmental Policy Act) and in these findings of fact that Paradise Creek even exists in the Pullman-Moscow Corridor District," Morgan said in written comments in response to the planning commission's findings of fact.

April 23, 2002

Whitman County commissioners will vote next week on a zoning amendment that would allow concrete manufacturing plants in parts of the Pullman-Moscow corridor.

[...]

Cheryl Morgan of Pullman, another opponent of the amendment, read a letter on behalf of herself and corridor residents Dan and Tina Welter.

"We're not opposed to development, but there are certain types of development that are incompatible for some areas," Morgan said.

Morgan said she agreed development requires good planning, but added, "we're kind of hesitant the commissioners are going to do that."

January 27, 2005

In other business, the Planning Commission recommended division of the proposed 14-acre Wawawai Subdivision into 50 lots.

Dana Meshishneck, a co-owner of the property, said he intends to sell the lots as affordable housing for middle income families.

"Our dismay is a lack of buildable lots in the city of Pullman in an affordable price range," Meshishneck said.

Meshishneck's property is uphill from the home owned by Larry and Cheryl Morgan, and Cheryl Morgan voiced her opposition to the development at the meeting. Morgan said she is concerned that stormwater from the development will drain into Hatley Creek, which runs through her front yard.

"We're opposed to having our private property turned into a public stormwater sewer," Morgan said.

February 9, 2005

Pullman has taken steps to restrict the use of fireworks within city limits, but some say those restrictions don't go far enough.

[...]

Resident Cheryl Morgan asked Pullman Police Chief Ted Weatherly how many arrests were made as a result of fireworks complaints last year.

Weatherly said there were six warnings and one infraction issued. He did not say how many complaints had been made, but said the police are limited in how they can respond to fireworks complaints.

"As with any misdemeanor, we are restricted," Weatherly said. "We can take witness statements, we can refer to the prosecutor, but we cannot make the arrest."

Morgan said she thinks the new ordinance will be ineffective if police can't arrest the people who set off illegal fireworks.

"We have no confidence because they've told us they cannot protect us," Morgan said. "I think a ban is about the only thing that would protect the safety and welfare of the citizens."

April 13, 2005

Rural Pullman residents Larry and Cheryl Morgan said continued development on Sunnyside Hill could result in their property being wiped out the next time Hatley Creek floods.

Over the Morgans' objections, the Pullman City Council approved plans for two new subdivisions on Sunnyside Hill at its meeting Tuesday.

Cheryl Morgan was present to argue, as she often has in the past, that storm water runoff into Hatley Creek from housing developments on Sunnyside Hill amount to a public utility encroaching on her private property. She said the city of Colfax charges a fee for stormwater runoff.

"It's no different than a telephone line," Morgan said.

Morgan pleaded with the council not to approve Copper Basin's Whispering Hills and Rafik and Marysue Itani's Sunnyside Heights Addition No. 5 subdivisions until the developers obtained stormwater easements from property owners in the Hatley Creek basin.

City Attorney Laura McAloon said, in this specific instance, she did not believe an easement was required.

"There is no trespass," McAloon said. "Under the facts of this development, the discharge is appropriate."

Larry Morgan told the council he and his wife are not trying to stop development on Sunnyside Hill.

July 28, 2005

Cheryl Morgan feels she has gone through the gauntlet in eight years of confronting City Hall over water run-off issues.

Shes weary. She often suspects her voice as a citizen is ignored. But being a part of the process is too important for her to give up the fight.

A discussion of the process brought Morgan to the Pullman Planning Commission on Wednesday night. It wasnt her first appearance there. Most of the members call Morgan by her first name.

[...]

What Im hearing here tonight is very disturbing, Morgan said. We citizens feel the staff are the salesmen and you are there to just enforce what they say.

We dont want to say the Planning Commission is the rubber stamp for the city staff, but thats how we feel. ... If you dont want to get all the information and have your own mind, why do we have a planning commission? I dont know.

January 2, 2006

Cheryl Morgan doesnt let her animals drink from Hatley Creek.

The once clear, meandering creek has become a cloudy channel for storm water run-off from development on Sunnyside Hill in Pullman. Morgan fears storm water has brought pollutants that could poison her animals and the environment.

[...]

Morgan submitted comments in favor of the Phase II permits because she said the new regulations will make the city take a harder look at the effects of development. She has been battling City Hall for about eight years over storm water drainage into Hatley Creek.

The Hatley Creek Basin covers more than 760 acres, including the area of Sunnyside Hill and Wawawai Road that has been a focal point of housing development in Pullman over the last few years. In 2005, 195 residential lots were approved for development along Wawawai Road.

Morgans concern is that all of that development bottlenecks runoff into an outlet that runs through her front yard on Hayward Road. The change in the stream is visible. Photos Morgan took of Hatley Creek in 1997 show a flat stream flowing over grasses with little or no bank. The creek today is deeply channeled from the storm water flowing through its bed. The water also is much cloudier than it was a decade ago, Morgan said.

There was more clay after the Golden Hills development went in, Morgan said. I have a neighbor who had a pond. It was all filled in with clay.

Morgan fenced off the land where she once allowed her horses to graze free. She wanted to keep them out of the water.

Water quality is very much a concern of ours for livestock, Morgan said. Nobody knows what pollutants are going into our streams.

Nobody knows because nobody has ever tested the water quality in Hatley Creek. Duncan could only say the Department of Ecology is investigating the issue.

February 1, 2006

The Whispering Hills housing development became a topic of some heated conversation Tuesday night even though the Wawawai Road project wasnt on the City Councils agenda.

The debate centered around the citys requirements for stormwater detention in housing developments within the Hatley Creek basin. Cheryl Morgan, who lives at the bottom of the basin, complained to the council that the collective stormwater run-off from development is devastating the portion of Hatley Creek that runs through her land.

The basin covers more than 760 acres, including the area of Sunnyside Hill and Wawawai Road that has been a focal point of housing the development in Pullman over the last few years. Morgans concern is that all of that development bottlenecks runoff into an outlet that runs through her front yard on Hayward Road.

Were telling you people youre not looking at the cumulative effect for people downstream, Morgan said.

Her comments were part of a public meeting on the approval of the preliminary plat for the Sunnyside Heights No. 6 subdivision. The subdivision is the sixth phase of a housing development on Sunnyside Hill off of Wawawai Road planned by Pullman developers Rafik and MarySue Itani.

The discussion quickly turned to another subdivision Copper Basins Whispering Hills development. Morgan told the council the detention ponds in the development are failing and releasing more water into the creek than city standards allow.

Detention ponds are designed to hold back stormwater that drains from paved surfaces and then slowly release limited amounts into natural drainages. Water rolls off of paved surfaces rather than being absorbed into the ground, as it would have before the land was developed.

The problem with the detention ponds in Whispering Hills is that a contractor failed to properly stabilize the site, which meant too much silt was getting into the water, Copper Basin President Steve White said in a telephone interview today. The contractor is treating the silted water and pumping it out into a drainage ditch on Wawawai Road under the supervision of the Washington Department of Ecology, he said.

Morgan cited the problems with the Whispering Hills detention ponds as an example of the failure of existing city standards to protect Hatley Creek from stormwater drainage. She has appeared before the City Council numerous times over the past eight years to plead for stricter standards, including requiring retention of stormwater instead of detention.

The city responded to some of Morgans concerns in 1999 by commissioning a study of stormwater drainage in the Hatley Creek Basin, Public Works Director Mark Workman said in a telephone interview today. After the study was completed in 2000, the city created a new, stricter set of standards for the basin. But by that time, some development had already occurred. All housing developments on Wawawai Road since 2000 have had to meet the stricter requirements. That should mean less stormwater is being discharged from building sites after construction than before construction.

Morgan told the council Tuesday night the stricter Hatley Creek standards dont go far enough.

I encourage you to look at it. Weve got to do something different, she said.

Funny how Morgan she is "not against development", and then she opposes every new development, whether it affects her directly or no. Thank God no ever listens to Morgan. If the Paradise Ridge subdivision had not been built, my wife and I would not have been able to afford our first home a few years ago.