New York Times copy editor suffers exclamation-point-induced heart attack.
President Donald J. Trump gave the shortest State of the Union address in the history of the United States last night to a joint session of Congress and nearly a dozen Americans watching on live television.
Pundits have dubbed it “The First #SOTU of the Tweetstorm Age.”
Prior to the address, Trump’s staff released the text to the media:
Brad Magnuson, chair of the N.D. Dem-NPL Renewable Energy Caucus, says so-called “road-use fees” aimed at EVs and hybrids are punitive & unfair. A bill that would impose one is currently in the N.D. Legislature.
Today the North Dakota Senate voted on a second reading of SB 2061, “A BILL for an Act to create and enact a new section to chapter 39-04 of the North Dakota Century Code, relating to a road use fee for electric and hybrid vehicles; and to provide for a legislative management study.”
The bill passed the Senate with a seven-vote margin and now goes to the House.
If it becomes law, SB 2061 will impose a $110 annual “road-use fee” on electric vehicles (EVs) and $50 for hybrids. That’s an improvement from the version of the bill IV Words featured a couple of weeks ago, “Backwards Bill Would Deter People from Purchasing Electric Vehicles.” That bill would have imposed a $248 fee for EVs and $71 for hybrids.”
Brad Magnuson, chair of the N.D. Dem-NPL Renewable Energy Caucus, offers his take on “a bad bill,” even in its current form.
Continue reading “Another Take on EV “Road-Use Fee” Bill, SB 2061″
You gotta love social media. It makes communication with your congresspeople so “right now.”
I probably shouldn’t have done it. The Tweeted response did absolutely nothing to elevate the national debate.
But – Damn! – it felt good.
And for just a few moments it took the edge off of my jagged frustration with Republicans in the U.S. Congress.
Continue reading “Social Media – Tell Your Elected Officials What You Really Think”
Five years after Casselton’s near miss with exploding oil cars, the North Dakota Industrial Commission is loosening rules for testing Bakken crude set to ship by rail. What do YOU think?
Five years after railroad cars carrying Bakken crude oil derailed and exploded near Casselton, N.D., the N.D. Industrial Commission is weakening rules for conditioning oil destined for railroad transport.
The irony is so thick it cuts like Jack the Ripper’s blade through London fog.
But this ain’t London, folks.
It’s our own backyards.
Rory Peterson, who runs the Hardware Hank in Casselton, was spot on when he commented recently to The Forum News Service about the explosions five years ago.
Continue reading “North Dakota Moves to Weaken Bakken Crude Conditioning Rules”
The Trump administration tried to pitch “clean fossil fuels” during a global climate change convention this week. The world is laughing at the USA. Again.
The world is laughing at us. Maybe not all of us, the people, but definitely at Donald Trump’s USA, especially when it comes to climate change.
If you doubt it, listen to the laughter at his surrogate during this final week of COP24, where he told people the Trump administration believes “clean” fossil fuels will play a significant role in the world’s energy future.
COP24 is more formally known as the 24th Session of the of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The convention of nations, convened in Katowice, Poland, comes on the heels of two science-based global warming and climate change reports on the already devastating impacts and dire projections for the future.
Despite that, the Trump administration chose to use the occasion to talk about coal and oil.
Not. Even. Joking.
Continue reading “Trump Assertions on Climate Change are a Global Joke”
New climate change legislation championed by the Citizens’ Climate Lobby and introduced by three Democrats and two Republicans is a reasonable approach. We need to support it, call our representatives about it and talk about it with our neighbors.
You have to admire the audacity of the four volunteers from Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) who recently completed a “Climate Conversation Tour” of North Dakota.
This is a deep red state; 63 percent of voters here cast their ballots for Donald Trump in 2016. And Trump is the world’s most devout fossil fuel apostle, its greatest denier of human-caused global warming.
“I don’t believe it,” he infamously said a couple of weeks ago when the Fourth National Climate Assessment produced by 13 U.S. federal agencies provided a dire assessment for the United States.
“The report found that climate change will cost the US hundreds of billions of dollars annually and damage health,” the BBC reported.
Even so, the CCL volunteers – Paul Thompson and Mindy Ahler from the CCL’s North Wind Region and Brad and Linda Kingery from the Bemidji, Minn. chapter – came to North Dakota for six events in four communities to spur discussion about climate change and let people know about Citizens’ Climate Lobby’s efforts.
Continue reading “Citizens’ Climate Lobby Offers Reasonable Approach to Addressing Climate Change”
