The rainy season has started and, as though on cue, the Albany City Council is taking up consideration of a tax on rain. But before such an added tax is enacted, second thoughts are in order.
Well, speaking of climate change, one of the federal government’s policy experts on the subject turns out to have been a crook. He is John C. Beale, 65, who is scheduled to be sentenced in Washington Wednesday after pleading guilty to defrauding the government by drawing almost $1 million in pay and benefits while doing no […]
Now they tell us – about the drawbacks and unforeseen consequences of all that ethanol in our fuel. For years federal and state policy makers and legislators promoted ethanol as the way to cleaner fuel and a greener future. Even though ethanol in this country is made from corn, and the increased demand drives up the […]
A federal law, the Clean Water Act, gives regulators the authority to say what conditions they would like to see in our rivers. But nature does not necessarily cooperate, and then there’s the potential for conflict and a lot of public expense. We’re at that stage in Oregon. Since 2003 the state DEQ, under the […]
Summer’s almost over, but that’s all right. When the rains come back this fall and winter, you can find a comfortable chair under a good reading light and lose yourself in the wilds of Wyoming and the life-threatening adventures of Joe Pickett. That’s the name of the Wyoming game warden who is the protagonist in […]
Rain tax ? Uncertainty prevails
The rules under which small Oregon towns will have to operate their storm water systems are still in flux, and how costly they will be and what effect they will have on Albany’s eventual rain tax nobody knows.
Tags: "rain tax", Albany City Council, DEQ, EPA, storm water utility