Some of the progressive wins last Tuesday were ordinances crafted under a community rights model by local groups working with CELDF (Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund). Athens, OH banned fracking passing a rights based ordinance as did the California counties of San Benito and Mendocino, (my old stomping grounds). Not every rights based initiative was successful, however, and Josephine County failed to enact what would have been the “first-in-the-nation Community Bills of Rights citizens’ initiative banning heavy pesticide use.” Like the Oregon GMO labeling law, both initiatives were heavily outspent by opponents with much of the spending going towards misleading advertising. Opponents of GMO labeling claimed the measure would raise food costs by $100 annually where the real number is closer to $8, (and money well spent at either price). Proponents of toxic pesticide use warned voters that if the Josephine County measure passed hospitals would not be able to sterilize operating rooms and surgical utensils and veterinarians wouldn’t be able to prescribe flea and tic medicine for pets. None of which was true, of course, but this is an example of the kind of push back we can expect as we work to pass the The Coos County Right to Sustainable Energy Future Ordinance next May.
While every individual is endowed with a right to clean air and water, these rights are all too often superseded by federal and state regulatory agencies and even willingly relinquished by the people themselves in the false belief that environmental sacrifices must be made in the name of economic development. Be prepared for claims that the ordinance is anti-jobs and anti-economic development and voting for it will forgo the lavish prosperity they have so vociferously promised. Get ready for the pro-gas crowd and Veresen, Inc to cry foul and assert this ordinance violates the rights of its Canadian shareholders to make a profit in our community. Don’t be surprised when Veresen’s lawyers threaten to use our own US Constitution against us claiming even Canadian corporate persons have rights over local landowners.
For these reasons the following is included in the ordinance.
Section 6. Enforcement – Corporate Powers
(a) Corporations which violate this ordinance, or which seek to violate this ordinance, shall not be deemed “persons,” nor possess any other legal rights, privileges, powers, or protections which would interfere with the enforcement of rights enumerated by this ordinance. Such powers shall include the ability to assert federal or state preemptive law in an attempt to overturn this ordinance, and the ability to assert that the people of the county lack the authority to adopt this ordinance.
(b) Corporate claims to “regulatory takings” or “future lost profits” shall not be considered property interests under this ordinance, and thus, shall not be recoverable by corporations seeking those damages.
(c) All laws adopted by the legislature of the State of Oregon, rules adopted by any State agency, laws adopted by the United States Congress, and rules adopted by any federal or international agency, shall be the law of Coos County only to the extent that they do not violate the rights or prohibitions of this ordinance.
So what about that economic prosperity? During the recent campaign we heard a lot of talk from Commissioner John Sweet about Coos County’s dire economic indicators. Poverty levels, drop out rates, domestic abuse and drug abuse are all above the state averages, according to Sweet who avidly supports the Jordan Cove LNG project and the privatization of the property taxes derived from the proposed terminal. Based upon Sweet’s voting record as a commissioner along with his campaign statements, Jordan Cove is the county’s last and best hope to reduce the number of children requiring free lunches and the number of beaten wives.
Galveston from across the bay
If this is true, then based upon statistics from other communities with LNG terminals and gas and oil refineries Coos County kids and wives are in for a world of hurt.
Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass LNG is just 15 miles from Port Arthur, Texas and not too far down the coast is Galveston. Both communities are dominated by the fossil-fuel industry yet according to City-Data.com they suffer from higher poverty levels and unemployment, worse crime rates, higher rates of drug abuse than Coos County. To top it off, both communities are just plain ugly.
Just exactly what are our “leaders” aspiring to? Wim de Vriend’s excellent book, The JOB Messiahs, details decades of disastrous results born of repeatedly trying to solve our economic problems using the very same tactics that created them in the first place. Does the local economic development community really believe that Coos County can somehow beat the odds and not end up just like Boston, Galveston or Port Arthur which is surrounded by no less than five refineries and boasts a 25.9% poverty rate? Hell, 18.2% of Coos Bay residents live in poverty, isn’t that already bad enough?
(b) Right to Scenic and Recreational Preservation. All residents of Coos County possess a right to the preservation and enhancement of the scenic, historic and aesthetic values of the County, including unspoiled vistas and outdoor recreational opportunities, thereby improving the area’s appeal to tourists and future residents. That right shall include the right of the residents of the County to be free from activities which threaten scenic, historic, and aesthetic values as related to the construction, siting, or operation of non-sustainable energy systems.
(c) Rights of Natural Communities and Ecosystems to Thrive. Natural communities and ecosystems within Coos County, including but not limited to, forests, rivers, streams, wetlands, aquifers, near shore habitats, and intertidal zones possess the right to exist, flourish, and naturally evolve unaffected by the construction, siting, or operation of non-sustainable energy systems.
Between now and the May election we will be discussing the economic impacts in more detail as well as successful alternatives. For regular updates on our ordinance please like us on Facebook.
I love this “debate”. The latest BS Oregon TV ads state that there will be 4,000 LNG jobs. It was only an unbelievable 2,100 a few weeks ago and several hundred a couple years ago. At this rate all Coos County citizens will be employed by LNG and none will vote anything but full support. Time to educate the people, is that BS message fact or fiction?
Rotten to the core.
Despite Outcry of Opposition, Obama Pushes “Horrific” Trade Deal in Asia
Though president once railed against so-called “free trade” agreements, he has now become outspoken champion of secretive deals that critics call attack on democracy, workers, and the planet.
And caucus with whom Numbnuts. What a farce, dimocrats running Warren and Sanders as fronts. It’s not fooling anyone Mark. You just had your hat handed to you, get used to it.
This was cut and pasted for your reading pleasure. If the dems become like this the green party would fade away, but its not likely that they can change this much.
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2014/11/09/democratic-party-going-nowhere-can-progressives-take-it-over-and-change-world
We all know the right-wing media machine would create a cacophony about the horrors of Big Government, but if you list the components of what a leftist progressive platform might look like, it’s clear that many of the policies would have majority support:
Social Security funded for the next century (with the possibility of expanding it) by raising the cap on income levels contributing into the system, while maintaining a cap on payments
A single payer (Medicare for all) health syste
Free public education through college
A sharp increase in the national minimum wage and two weeks of paid vacation for all workers
Rapid citizenship for immigrant workers and their families
Ending the war on drugs and decriminalization
Ending government spying
Sane gun laws
Support for a woman’s right to choose and equal pay legislation
Reform of the justice system so that it applies equally to all people
Invest in green energy and take the lead in combating global warming globally
Shift foreign policy to support people and not every region’s 1 percent
As for funding fiscal policy, there’s no need for making income tax levels more progressive (since the change in Social Security achieves that already)—but, in accordance with “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” author Thomas Piketty, raise the rate on capital gains. Also bring corporate taxes back in to line with pre-Reagan era levels by both closing loopholes and raising the tax rate on profits.
And finally, a program dear to my late father’s (economist Hyman Minsky) heart—an employer of last resort (ELR) program, like Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps. (This is probably too radical a proposal for many members of the current CPC, but not for some.) And if not this ambitious plan, a basic national income. I think ELR would work much better and also make a real contribution to elements of the economy that the market addresses inadequately; and it can be organized so that localities have control over ELR projects. ELR’s possibilities for transforming society are immense, but either ELR or a basic income program would conquer poverty like nothing we’ve seen in our lives and empower workers who would no longer fear leaving wretched jobs.
If the tax increases on the wealthy and corporations aren’t enough to cover the costs, there’s a bloated military budget to shrink.
A program like this would take America off of its neoliberal course. It directly addresses the fears and anxieties of a precarious, under-compensated citizenry, and it’s no more radical than the approach espoused by the greatest Democrat of the 20th century, FDR.
Will it win majority support in the 2016 election cycle? Unlikely, but given the security of progressives already in office, there’s no harm in trying—and if leftist progressives get it in front of Americans for consideration, the next time the economy implodes … let’s just say it’s going to prove mighty compelling.
In summary, it is clear after Tuesday that leftist progressives need to step forward and assert their place in the hollow shell that is the contemporary, listless Democratic Party or the vast majority of the American population will have no empowered allies inside the political system. If they can succeed in building an ascendant political force, another world is possible.
© 2014 TruthDig
.Hmmm. Progressives should take over the Democratic Party. Where have I heard that before? Oh yeah, from me. Many times. Here’s the plan:
1) Register as Democrats
2) Show up at local and state meetings.
3) Work on Bernie Sanders campaign.
4) Help draft Elizabeth Warren as VP.
5) Work like hell to elect them.
If your party could get behind those two, you would have a winner and people would come back, but it’ll never happen. Your party won’t let it. Those positions from that article have mostly already been adopted by the Greens and that Author is just dreaming out loud about what your party needs to do to get the independent voters back.Unfortunately your party has resumed its love for the Clintons and that means no real change for your party. No, it won’t work, the democrats inner circle, with their super delegates have made your party to corrupt to work for the citizenry at large. We will just have to slowly break it down by voting green and pointing at what you have become to all our friends and family. I know its a very slow process, but it is starting to have its desired effect on our country. The third choice movement is not gonna stop growing.
The only way those two can run for the top office this time and have a chance is if they leave your party and run as real independents. Bernie might just do that, but Warren is too loyal and has decided to wear blinders when she goes to the party, She hasn’t found the courage to leave it yet. However EW might get drafted by HC as the VP, just to get a few voters back. That will depend on how close the republicans get to knocking out H.C.
before your convention.
It’s not hard to see that your likely to lose the next one to the republicans unless your party really changes course. Without the environment vote your party is toast, and we can see that your side just wants voters to put them there and then go away and let them run things the same as they’ve been doing. Your side better draft someone like BS or EW or your gonna be crying the blues when the republicans win with Bush part 3. Then we can watch your side move way to the left to try to bring back the green block, but we know you guys aren’t ready to cut your ties to the polluters so 2020 will be soonest chance we have to get this country on the green path. From FDR to now, we have slowly seen the democrats become the republican-light party. Your a good example of what the democrats have become. A party controlled by corporate interests, a party of corrupt politicians on the take, willing to sell out their own neighbors safety and happiness for a “campaign contribution”. formerly called a “bribe”.
Mark, don’t you know that electing Bernie Sanders would make your LNG exporting dreams less likely to become a reality? By supporting him you would be working against your sponsors goal to export LNG. Bernie doesn’t support fracking and wants to put us on renewable energy. That would require you to give up promoting fossil fool development.
HOT DAMN !!!!!!
Impressive as hell. Thank you reminder.
Or maybe a majority of Coos County voters support the JCEP because it’s a great opportunity for Coos County. Whatever the reason, the number of supporters has been on a steady rise while those against have been dwindling. At least you have 418 votes to start with!
Good Luck. You’ll need it.
I think you should use that good luck wish on your party and yourself. I’m not running for anything and I can’t be blamed for any of the mess that your party is creating along side the republicans. You can just be disturbed by my presence and wait for it, eventually the boot of the people will be kicking your asses to the curb for being traitorous.
OK so 418 people got it right. That means the rest of you are playing catch-up, or can’t give up on your party or are climate change deniers or are just too damn greedy and selfish to give a damn about your neighbors. Take your pick. Having big money on your side doesn’t make you right, but for now it does give you an advantage. Who can say how long your party will get away with talking out both sides of their face? This area has always endured its reality and believed the hype from whatever party they aligned with and it will probably stay that way until your party implodes., oh did that just start happening in Washington DC? Don’t you think your party will have to move left and really turn green to survive down the road with our grandkids or do you think you can keep acting like republicans on the environment and not suffer more losses at the ballot. The rest of the country, the part that decides our national elections are going more green every day, even if Coos County stays stuck in a fossil fool mind, it won’t matter. The change is coming, too slow for mine and too fast for yours. What we say here isn’t going to start or stop JC, but I do have fun getting your goat, oh sorry, I went all country again.
OK, I was wrong.
There has been an anti-LNG candidate in the last three election cycles. Mike Beilstein of the Pacific Green Party, candidate for Congress in the Fourth District. Here’s what Mike (whom I GREATLY respect) said at the 2010 League of Women Voters Forum in Coos Bay.
To Beilstein: Should there be LNG on the south coast?
Beilstein: No, it’s too dangerous. It’s like a hydrogen bomb in your community.
After boldly appealing to the anti-LNG community, candidate Beilstein garnered 524 votes in Coos County, 2.06% of the vote. In the 2014 election that total dwindled to 418, only 1.75% of the vote.
While the other candidates in the 2010 race were equivocal about the JCEP, the project was proposed as an import facility then and the community was much more sharply divided about it. Theoretically, Beilstein could have lost anti-LNG votes to both Art Robinson and Peter DeFazio. However, in 2014 both Robinson and DeFazio supported the JCEP. Only Beilstein opposed it. You would expect his vote total to increase. But it did not. How can that possibly be?
The simplest explanation is that most Coos County voters support the JCEP.
So even though I was wrong about the candidate choices Coos County voters have had, the evidence for my case is stronger than I thought it was.
Damn your memory is short . It was at the Wyden town hall meeting at SOCC last spring, where wyden finally exposed his support for JC and your boy Merkley was still tap dancing around the issue along with DeFazio right up till election day. Arnie, Caddy and JoAnn were outed by you right at this very web site long before they openly supported it. Caddy got through this time, JoAnn quit and Arnie is will be facing his first test at the ballot box since he was outed, and your leader of the pack, Kitzhaber, the one who’s setting this pack of dogs loose on us, is still pretending he’s green in Portland and fooling the majority of them successfully.
Somehow you can see this as all out open support for JC for the last ten years. That would be a lie and you should know it.
Well the ten years is obviously wrong. I retract that. But your characterization of events is totally off.
That’s all you got? What events are totally wrong. I may slip-slide a word or two in my haste to type my thoughts, but I stand by my version of reality and a lot of people have been seeing the same thing. A corrupt democratic party working against the climate change movement because of their ties to corporate interests, which outweighs the needs and safety of their constituents. Plain and simple. Now where’s your list of events that I’m wrong about. I bet your just hung up on a mis-placed word or maybe the timeline is just a little out of sequence. Which is it? Don’t just accuse without explanations, that’s a form of cheating and teachers aren’t suppose to do that. Then again if you do give me a list of events that you see wrong, I could just ignore them like you do when you don’t like a question from someone.
Awwww……..If I’d been there I’d have lit your cigaret reminder. Thanks again for an enjoyable read.
There you go again, distorting words, you think I’m implying that 75% are against it. I’m saying your 25% of registered voters that likely knew their vote for John Sweet was a vote for JC, should not be considered a true majority of our county citizens.
This ballot measure does just what your upset about, it takes a vote, and settles the issue and it sure has you rattled. About that apology, its you, your party and your paid for politicians that you represent, who owe all us the apology for trying to ruin our area with this nightmare. Shame on you and worse.
So what’s your guess? How many people in Coos County are opposed to the JCEP?
My guess is 25%.
You need to look up what “gerrymandering” means.
But if you’re claiming 75% of the electorate opposes the JCEP, why didn’t an anit-LNG candidate run for commissioner and easily win a seat?
Oh I know what it means, it means you are losing the argument because you can’t interpret the sarcasm that reflects crooked politics. I guess I have to be very plain (no sarcasm) and only use words that you can’t misinterpret their meaning. I tend to use words that imply corruption whenever I can when talking and describing politics. I know, its a little too country for your brain to process. It must be your background as a teacher that causes your brain to hang up on a word when you’ve never heard it used in a different context., oh well, you’ll get used to it. It goes way back in my scotch-irish roots and its a hard habit for many old timers to quit. Oh well you’ll get used to it.
If only 60% vote and a little over half elected your guy, that puts your legitimate tally of JC supporters at around 35%. That’s the number your claiming wants JC. How many of that 35% vote by name recognition from signs and by party line. That will cut your overwhelming majority even further. So maybe 25% are knowing what they’re voting for. That’s a gerrymandered majority at best, so maybe your sponsors won’t like this new proposal with a majority that’s only about 25% of the registered voters. If this new deal didn’t concern your handlers you wouldn’t be here.
Ohh Mark! I think your about to open up a can of whup-ass, but its likely to spray back in your own direction. You’ve heard the term “pissing in the wind”, well its literally not a good idea. The first thing you do is pick at the order of the wording, when you should be discussing why locals want to ban new fossil fuel infrastructure. However it is you and that is one of your tactics to frustrate your target. I hope your handlers are watching, they need to see how you earn your seat at the table and so do the locals.
Coos County is by no means the first to approach unwanted development from a constitutional rather than regulatory perspective but it is still a novel approach. Mark is anything by novel, hence is inability to wrap his head around something that doesn’t play by rules he is familiar with.
Actually, this seems very UN-Constitutional to me, but OK. Care to share any examples of a community passing a local ordinance not subject to state or federal law?
Where’s your example of a community where a short term boom from this industry has worked and left the community in a better condition then they found it?. That’s one of the questions you should be answering on behalf of your sponsors.
Waiting, waiting, oh that’s right you can’t.
Well, when you’re crafting law, words tend to matter.
Furthermore, I HAVE been discussing why locals want to ban new fossil fuel infrastructure. I’m the only one who is! I’ve clearly said that the elections of the last several years show that Coos County voters FAVOR the Jordan Cove Energy Project. That just the cold, hard fact, like it or not. What evidence do YOU have that Coos County voters want to ban it?
I also don’t believe the voters of Coos County possess the authority to supersede through ballot initiative (or any other means for that matter) the will of the State of Oregon, The Congress of the United States, or the President of the United States (although they probably could hold off the United Nations.)
I think what Mary really means to write are Articles of Secession. (Probably have a better chance of passing! Ha!)
Of course words matter. Take for instance, you have been saying that all the elections in the last ten years were all won by pro LNG candidates. You want to take the last few local elections, where the candidates who won are all interlinked with SCDC,COC,POCB,NBCC,CBCC and of course promoted by theworld, the only newspaper in the area of concern for Jordan Cove then we have incumbents at the state level, all who are democrats and most of the people who won, you not being one of them, all proclaimed to be lifelong locals who went to Marshfield High and have worked for every big corporation that ever existed in the area. That’s what won the local elections, that and a lot of money from those that stand to profit from the existence of Jordan Cove. The developers that come to town know where to put their money down. Its always been the same bunch that already have their hand in the kitty and plan to extract more. Then there are occasionally some new ones to the area that try to run, like you, and they will always lose to a financially backed local insider, but your getting in through the servants door of the blue dog Democrats and Al Pettit is trying to break in to that same group as a boot-licker to the republican side of your Jordan Cove political network. Your both new transplants on the same team wearing different jerseys. When you ran you claimed you were not opposed to JC and that it needed to be fully explored as a potential source of revenue, but you never told the public that you were already 100%+1 behind building the bomb and neither did the others until Sweet had to because he was pushing the CEP and his handlers with the money for his signs and radio adds demanded it. In my book that makes you a distorter of the truth or a simpler word would be a liar or the people you represent were lying to us by not admitting their support for JC. I think its both.
Mark is obviously a troll. The only question remaining, not that anyone cares, is whether he is paid or just a volunteer?
Just a guy asking questions that no one seems to want to answer.
Before you call me a liar you should get your facts straight. I was very clear about my support for the JCEP during the CC Commissioners race in 2012. Just ask Mary. She told me she couldn’t support me because of it. But her candidate of choice, Randy Sanne, supported it too. Just check the tapes from the League of Women Voters Forum. Every candidate on that stage expressed support for the JCEP. John Sweet never tried to hide his support for the project either. His support for the JCEP preceded his campaign for commissioner.
You owe me an apology, but I’ll settle for the fact that you have finally proved that you have no earthly idea what you are talking about.
I know what your position is, I knew it then. I’m saying that distorting the truth is lying and what you’ve been saying has implied that all our choices have been openly supporting JC to the voters. Get your facts straight because that’s a lie. There are plenty of letters from all our elected officials where they profess to not have made up their mind. So if your telling us the truth, they are all liars. I think its both.
Look, I only speak for myself.
In the past when candidates or elected officials have said they were undecided on the JCEP, I believe they were. They were wise to carefully consider the project in all its aspects. But it’s been years since any politician has taken that stance. If I’m wrong on that point, please point it out. Just because someone is wrong doesn’t mean they are lying. You’re wrong about gerrymandering, but I don’t think it’s because you’re lying about it.
On the other hand, not to my memory has any candidate ever run for anything in this county with an anti-LNG stance. Am I wrong about that? In fact, over the last several years candidates in every race have been very clear that they do in fact support the project. That is certainly an odd development if there is as you contend a 75% voting bloc out there ready to support the contrary view.
Reading today the Dimocrats in the Senate want to push a vote as early as today, to pass Keystone to protect that Dim at the mouth of the Dead Mississippi, love that one, this is for Mark and Arnie and the rest of these local posers, great comment:
Walter Jesse Smith • 12 hours ago
This is where the failed John Kerry led Democratic Senate’s Energy-Climate legislation has fallen: into the dead mouth of the Mississippi River, presided over by Big Oil and Climate Change Denial politics.
Way to go Democrats. Now, tell us, again, how will Elizabeth Warren in a “leadership” position cleanse your party leadership’s self-regenerating curse from the party?
Because the only answer is that you have no answer. All you have is Barack Obama’s insulting environmental tokenism and your own party majority hiding behind the repugnant GOP’s “Just Say ‘No!'” BS.
(c) All laws adopted by the legislature of the State of Oregon, rules adopted by any State agency, laws adopted by the United States Congress, and rules adopted by any federal or international agency, shall be the law of Coos County only to the extent that they do not violate the rights or prohibitions of this ordinance.
You have GOT to be kidding . . . . (head slap)
Did you have a real lawyer look over this “law”?
” a lot of talk from Commissioner John Sweet about Coos County’s dire economic indicators. Poverty levels, drop out rates, domestic abuse and drug abuse are all above the state averages”,
They have been using that line from the first go-around with the import plans. Martin Callery used that line in his justification rhetoric a decade ago, and I bet he stole it from some industry hack.
If any of that weren’t true before they build it, it will be afterwards. Your example from Texas is just one of many that could be discussed. Concerning facts, where is their example of prosperity for one of these “boom” towns they leave behind after the shovels are put down? Where is it?
We know Al will sell some Harleys and Benitti’s will sell more spaghetti and the cab company will haul more drunks home and Jim Vick will sell more used cars. There will be lots of customers for many more entrepreneurs during the work camp phase and then this county will have an official dead zone where no one will want to live. It will start in Charleston and go up the bay to the North Bend Airport and inland at least a half mile. That will be their poverty zone where their dire economic indicators will become fact and it will just happen to coincide with the Coast Guard jeopardy zone of the LNG ships. The homeowners in Barview and Empire will see all those negative conditions rise and they will suffer property value loss as a result of those passing ships and those 200′ tall tanks at the bend in the bay. Do you think Barton and Benitti will want to stay on the airport board after it’s built? They could step down after its built, they won’t have to continue trying to hide the fact that its too close to those tanks for public safety. They have made sure that issue was never a consideration to stop this project. Looking on the bright side, they could apply for some grants from their buddy John Sweet and start another side business in the new dead zone.
I believe they refer to these areas as “sacrifice zones”.