Thursday, December 27, 2012

Misc.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson will resign her position.  She has been a strong Cabinet Secretary for Obama.  His challenge is now one of finding a replacement that will challenge him right back into moving on climate change issues.  Obama has a million things to do but if he doesn't get serious about this one planet killing problem then the other issues are meaningless.

I would love to see a westerner in the position.  Someone who understands our unique problems around watersheds, landscapes and natural resource extraction.  Some one like Ron Curry, who was recently appointed as EPA's Region Six administrator.  Ron was one of the best Environment Secretaries that New Mexico ever had.

I got a note from a long lost journalist colleague who recently returned to New Mexico.  I can't identify him but he seemed to agree on my characterization of our news media in the state.

He wrote, "I couldn't agree with you more. Since moving back to NM (Albuquerque) last year, I've been stunned at the steep decline in media quality. We may not have been great in my days as a reporter here - in the '70s and early '80s - but I don't believe we were this shallow, tendentious and lazy. There's doesn't seem to be any question that the low level of journalism is eroding the quality of political debate and governing."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, that explains the governor's high approval rating.

I'm pretty sure that half the population when asked if they approve of Susana Martinez are pretty sure she's that lady on KANW.

Anonymous said...

Solar cheaper than oil and gas by 2018? I saw that tonight at the bottom of an article about Norman Schwartzkoph's role in US-Middle East history. It's from Juan Cole, a University of Michigan professor who specializes in the Middle East and writes a lot of articles about it.

"By 2018 or so, by which time solar panels will likely be cheaper than petroleum and gas, the importance of the oil in the Gulf will decline rapidly. Perhaps a Green America can finally come home and leave the Middle East alone."

The article is here:

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/289-134/15291-schwarzkopf-rip

Juan Cole is no slouch. He's well respected. The implications of solar power becoming cheaper than oil and gas, that soon, are to me mind boggling.

One is that New Mexico needs to get on the ball and be out front on this.

The Chinese make the cheapest solar panels now and I think have overtaken the US in that market. The governor should be trying to kick start a solar panel industry here, or if not should be over in China getting them to build some plants here, close to where the sun shines more than almost anyplace else in the US.

Oh wait. I forgot who the governor is. Damn.


But our politicians should be getting ready for this.

Awhile back you were talking about how the Chamber of Commerce does nothing to create jobs. Capitalists aren't the innovators and risk takers the Republicans make them out to be. They are followers and scardey cats. They will only buy into something once they are sure it will be profitable. If they're not sure they just sit on their capital.

This is where government has its role, or can. It can get the Chinese government to invest in the plants. It can make it profitable for the US industry to compete. It can fund research, etc., etc., etc.

Of course, it's always done these things, but Democratic politicians like to sit in their offices and hide while the Republicans are on TV telling everyone over and over again that the private sector accomplishes everything and that job creators actually create jobs.

Heinrich, Grisham, Udall, Lujan, King, should be on top of this and pushing for things to take advantage it. They should be forcing the governor and the Republican Party to defend oil and gas while portraying oil and gas as a dying industry with no future.