” … building renewable energy infrastructure need not – and must not – be at the expense of birds and wildlife. Migratory birds face many threats and poorly sited renewable energy facilities and their associated infrastructure, notably power lines and towers, are killing hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of birds annually, including species of conservation concern.”-
– Open Letter to the US Department of Interior (below)
The American Bird Conservancy (ABC) has actively complained to state and federal authorities about a double standard applied to politically correct, environmentally incorrect wind farms and central-station solar farms cited in bird-sensitive areas. The letter below is the latest attempt of ABC to apply existing statutes to energy infrastructure.
Dear Secretary Jewell and Acting Manager Goldfuss,
2016 marks the 100th anniversary of the Migratory Bird Treaty, a landmark and unparalleled international agreement that has protected, recovered, and maintained abundant bird populations for many groups of birds, especially shorebirds, waterfowl, and herons, and has helped maintain the spectacle of bird migration throughout the hemisphere.…
Continue ReadingThe headline above is a public policy idea for the Trump Administration and for the Republican majorities in the House and the Senate.
Private foundations have an obligation to make lives better, not worse.
Plan ahead: The coming cutback/elimination of the Affordable Care Act will create transition challenges for the poorest and most vulnerable individuals and families. The line item Climate Change should be replaced by Health Care in foundation budgets.
People come first!
Comments welcome!…
Continue Reading“… the very principle of constitutional government requires it to be assumed, that political power will be abused to promote the particular purposes of the holder; not because it always is so, but because such is the natural tendency of things….”
– J. S. Mill (1861) [1]
Two very wise men provide warning to us today.
Voltaire (in 1764): “In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.”
Bastiat (in 1848): “The State is the great fiction through which everyone endeavors to live at the expense of everyone else.”
And now a 21st century observation:
… Continue Reading“When government undertakes tasks for which it is ill equipped it squanders the authority necessary for carrying out its core responsibilities.