Where there's a Will, there's a way

Next Wednesday I'm serving on a panel forum to discuss Springfield's energy future and the new energy plan worked out between CWLP and the Sierra Club. It's being sponsored by a group called the Citizens Club that has members from across the political spectrum who are seeking to encourage public dialogue on pressing issues facing Springfield. This morning I went to an informative breakfast session they held about the new Medical District.

The event will be held:

Wednesday, January 31, 2007
5:15 pm to 7:15 pm
Dove Center at the Prairie Heart Institute
Springfield, Illinois

I've been asked to focus on what lies ahead rather than rehashing old arguments about the CWLP/Sierra Club agreement. However, there will be a power point presentation given by Greg Claxton over viewing the agreement. It should be very informative for anyone who would like to learn more about the agreement and other energy issues.

Other panel members include two city council members and an engineer who opposed the Sierra Club agreement. The panel discussion will be a question and answer session, so it would be nice to see a few friendly faces in the audience.

Posted by Will at 12:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Last night the Sierra Club hosted a presentation on the proposed Hunter Lake given by two leaders of a new group that is tentatively named "Save the land, stop the dam." Although, I think they should reconsider naming it Stop The Dam group or "STD" for short.

Their central argument is that Springfield's water needs can be better met through other methods for lower costs financially and fewer costs to the environment. Over the past few decades, water consumption has fallen nationally and has grown slowly in Springfield. It sounds odd to say that water consumption has fallen, but its true due to conservation measures and more efficient use of existing water resources. For example, low-flow toilets and more efficient industrial practices have made significant reductions in water use.

City Water Light and Power recently made a commitment to massively expand its energy conservation and efficiency programs as part of its clean energy agreement with the Sierra Club. A similar program for water use could eliminate the need for a second lake.

Additionally, the presenters argued that we could acquire additional water resources more cheaply by building new wells in the area. Either of those options would ease the pressures on our water supply without the rate increases that will be required for Hunter Lake.

The only potential large increases to local demand for water are the new ethanol plants proposed for the area. Ethanol plants require tremendous amounts of water and the proposed plant at Waverly was approved before questions were answered about where their water supply would come from. That lead to renewed discussions about building Hunter Lake, which was first proposed in the 1950's. Bill Crook made the point that it makes far more sense to place ethanol plants on major rivers where you don't have to move large amounts of water through pipelines.

For me, the highlight of the program was the slide presentation showing the beauty of the area where the new Lake is proposed. Apparently, if you ran a trail along both sides of the two creeks, it would amount to about 90 miles of trail.

Besides the natural wooded areas, the land also includes several historic structures. The first settler in Sangamon County lived on this land. It also includes an old tavern that is still standing where Stephen Douglas spoke to a gathering of Democrats during his 1860 campaign for President.

Cities that have the most successful tourist industries are ones that offer a variety of attractions. Springfield is lucky to have the Lincoln sites and the new Presidential Museum, but what else are we offering visitors that will entice them to spend more than a day here?

If the land CWLP owns at the proposed site is turned into a nature preserve, with hiking trails, potentially camping, and even restored historic sites, it would offer a wonderful attraction for visitors and area residents. Other counties of similar size, such as Champaign County, have their own nature preserves. Why not Sangamon? It would provide more recreational opportunities than the proposed lake, which will be too shallow to be used in the same way as Lake Springfield.

There are other options for what to do with the land if the dam is not built, such as selling it on the market. However, I like the idea of improving the quality of life in the area and the potential to add another attraction for visitors that would accompany the creation of a Hunter Nature Preserve.

This was the first showing of the presentation but I know they would like to speak to other groups. It's definitely worth seeing for anyone who wants to learn more about this issue.

Posted by Will at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

When I was in school, the mission and dream of Martin Luther King was taught as a history lesson. I learned a little about segregation and listened to stories of King's struggle as though it were something completely in the past that has no relationship to the world today.

Conservatism or the desire to avoid controversy probably causes many teachers to refrain from teaching the relevance of King's words today. I saw a TV 20 news report last night that featured children speaking about what King might say today. They aired many references to self-reliance and how the black community can improve itself. I didn't hear any references to continued segregation in housing and schools, the extreme disparities in funding between majority white and black school districts in Illinois, poverty, or the war in Iraq.

As long as America is engaged in a war of aggression, I believe this speech should be read by every citizen on this day.

One paragraph from this speech on Vietnam:

My third reason moves to an even deeper level of awareness, for it grows out of my experience in the ghettoes of the North over the last three years -- especially the last three summers. As I have walked among the desperate, rejected, and angry young men, I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. But they ask -- and rightly so -- what about Vietnam? They ask if our own nation wasn't using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.

Posted by Will at 7:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Martin Luther King arrested in Montgomery Alabama in 1958.

John Lewis beaten by Alabama State Troopers in Selma. Then he was chairman of SNCC. Today he's a Congressman from Georgia.

Happy Martin Luther King Day.

Posted by Will at 4:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

For some reason I forgot to read Schoenburg's column yesterday so I missed the article about the homeless people who were given tickets to Alderman Joe Bartolomucci's fundraiser. Normally I don't approve of dirty tricks like that but considering his comments in city council meetings about the homeless, I think it's absolutely hilarious.

He should have let them in. Local Republicans have found all sorts of ways to funnel anonymous contributions into their campaign accounts so that's no excuse.

I know what some of my friends must be thinking, but I can't be a suspect since the article says the person was several inches shorter than me. I only wish I had thought of it myself!

On a side note, an advertisement in the SJ-R for one of Bartolomucci's fundraisers listed the highest donation level as "corporate sponsors." I don't think I've seen that wording used before. None of the biggest donors in my own campaign were corporations. I always say politics is less about ideology and more about who you represent, so maybe Joe is letting us know who he represents first on the council. At least he's telling us.

Posted by Will at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm sure Dick Durbin will receive the usual mountain of insults and virulent attacks from the conservative hate-radio crowd for delivering the Democratic response to Bush's proposal to escalate the war in Iraq. Once again, I'm proud to have Dick Durbin representing me in the US Senate.

I'm proud that Durbin was one of only two US Senators up for re-election that year who voted against the Iraq war resolution. The other was Paul Wellstone. I'm proud that he called Bush to task for manipulating national feelings about the 911 tragedy to advance an unrelated agenda. I'm proud to have a Senator who thinks acts of torture are beneath our national standards as the world's leading democracy.

I'm proud that he had the sense to point out that the people spoke clearly in the last election and they did not ask for Bush's new plan. Springfield wasn't the only city that voted overwhelmingly for a resolution to bring the troops home. It happened all over the nation. I'm glad I'll get to vote for him again this year.

I watched coverage of the speech on WCFN TV News. I noticed something dramatically different from the Iraq war coverage I've seen from the media in the past. Not only did they cover Durbin's response, but they also had a quote from a local opponent of the Iraq War, Bob Wesley.

During the lead up to and early days of the Iraq war, dissenting voices where absent from corporate-owned media outlets. Bush's claims were repeated without challenge or contradiction.

Imagine if the initial coverage before the war in Iraq had included the kind of balanced coverage I saw today. What would have happened if Bush's statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq had been immediately followed by statements from an expert like Scott Ritter, who was very effective at pointing out how some of Bush's claims about specific biological and chemical weapons agents were false and misleading?

How would national attitudes have been different had dissenting voices like Howard Zinn or Dennis Kucinich not been censored from most new outlets? Would the war have happened at all?

The media shares part of the blame for allowing the nation to be mislead into Iraq because it did not play its traditional role as watch-dog. It only took a few reporters getting fired after 911 for being "unpatriotic" for everyone else in the industry to get the message. It was a case of self-censorship. But, at least they're starting to do their job again. Better late than never I guess.

Posted by Will at 11:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

On Tuesday the city council approved a form on instant runoff voting for those voting overseas. I think its a great idea. Here's the SJ-R article. If anyone deserves an extra effort to have their vote counted it's those serving our nation overseas in the military.

I think its something we should consider for everyone else as well. It would save the city money by having only one election day instead of separate primary and general elections. That could free up funds to have more than one early-voting location. I also think people should be able to cast a vote for someone they believe in without feeling like they're throwing their vote away.

Posted by Will at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

As you may have heard or read in the news, the zoning change I last wrote about passed the monolithic County Board by a large margin. Although, I was surprised to see three Republicans join the three Democrats who voted against it.

TV 20 News had a short one-sided report on the vote last night that aired the Republican talking points without mentioning why the proposal was controversial. The SJ-R article provides more depth.

This quote from the article caught my attention:

Springfield attorney Gordon Gates, arguing on behalf of residents in the Waverly area, said the new zoning measure does not protect agricultural land. "There seems to be this implication that if this ethanol refinery under a conditional permitted use is no longer needed, that the property will then somehow revert back to row crops," Gates said. "That's insane. We all know that's not going to happen."

Posted by Will at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Does this look like a farm to you?

How about this?

According to some members of the Sangamon County Board, ethanol plants like the ones above are keeping in the character of farm land. A proposal passed the Zoning Board of Appeals that would allow Ethanol and Biodiesal plants to be built in Agriculturally zoned land. It was introduced by a Board Member whose district doesn't include an inch of farm land and won't be up for re-election until 2010.

Currently, land must be zoned for industrial use before an ethanol plant is built, which means owners of the land must go through the public re-zoning process before they have permission to build in the middle of farm land. Changing an agricultural zone to an industrial zone also allows other types of industrial development if the ethanol plant should ever fail.

The Orwellian rationale given in a December 22 SJ-R article about the proposed change is that it will prevent future industrial development from destroying the agricultural "character" of an area. I find it bizarre that anyone would talk of preserving the rural character of an area after they allow the construction of a high-traffic, high-pollution ethanol plant.

Once an ethanol plant is built, the character of an agricultural area is already dramatically altered. That ship has sailed.

Click "continue reading" for details...

Whenever a zoning change is proposed a LESA (Land and Evaluation Site Assessment) score is calculated by professionals. This is a measure of whether the proposed change fits in with the surrounding development. The score will tell us, for example, that a mega-hog farm doesn't belong next door to a housing subdivision.

Predictably, the LESA score tells us that ethanol plants are industrial sites that don't belong in the middle of a rural agricultural area. This presents a problem for those County Board members who like to follow the professional recommendation of those who calculate the score.

It's my understanding of the process that allowing ethanol plants to be built in agriculturally zoned land will save the County Board from the embarrassment of having to defy the LESA rating. At least one Waverly resident involved believes it will also have an impact on the lawsuit brought against the county to stop the plant.

I like ethanol. Whether it does much at all to help the environment is a matter of debate. The current Illinois Times has a short article covering that issue. My belief is that if you factor in the resources being expended by our military in the Middle East that ethanol looks like the better alternative. However, no one knows whether corn-based ethanol will be a long-term solution to our energy needs, or a transition fuel used until we find something better.

The fact that we want ethanol plants doesn't mean we can't use common sense about where to build them. Sure, ethanol uses corn, but does that mean every industrial site that uses an agricultural product should be built next to a farm? How about textile mills or ADM plants? Should those be zoned for agricultural land too?

Besides generating large amounts of train and/or semi-truck traffic, ethanol plants can cause large amounts of pollution. The toxins emitted into the air can vary widely depending on the pollution control methods use in a particular plant.

When the Waverly ethanol plant came before the County Board, the company did not yet have their plans approved by the Illinois EPA. There was no publicly available information telling us how much pollution would be released into the air around the plant. The County Board chose to pass the responsibility for that issue off onto the IEPA.

If the Board continues that passive stance, it will mean that any ethanol plant will only have to abide by the minimum standards required by law, resulting in more pollution for everyone in the area.

The Board also approved the Waverly plant despite concerns that the company building the plant sometimes uses cheap, non-union labor brought in from out of state. The proposed zoning change will allow the County Board to approve future ethanol plants with even less oversight and less public involvement.

This will go before the full County Board for a vote on Tuesday, January 9th. If you think this is bad policy, like I do, you can find your County Board member's contact information here.

Posted by Will at 1:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

The Chicago Tribune has a story today about the clean energy plan CWLP worked out with the Sierra Club. The article highlights the fact that the plan limits emissions of pollutants that cause global warming, despite the lack of federal limits. From the article:

"Right now we don't think we've got the authority to require these companies to do anything about carbon dioxide," said Doug Scott, director of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. "But at least we can lead by example."

If anyone is interested in learning more details about what's contained in the clean energy plan and what implications it has for the future of Springfield, you can attend a public meeting being hosted by Greg Claxton of a group called Clean Energy Springfield. It will be held Wednesday, January 10 at 6:30pm in the Lincoln Library Carnegie Room.

Posted by Will at 5:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Yesterday, the State Journal-Register had a picture from the Stone Soup Hike held at Carpenter Park. They even put it on their website.

I surprised myself by getting up early enough on New Years Day to join the hike. One of the nice things about hiking with a group of nature lovers, besides the fact that they're great people, is that you get all kinds of information about which plants are native, what they're named, what's being done to preserve the park and so on. I never knew so much about Carpenter Park. I think this was my first time there since my boy scout days.

It was also interesting to see the soup come together as everyone brought an ingredient to throw in. This was my first year going and I'll definitely be back next year.

Posted by Will at 2:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)