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The biomass PGE wants to burn at Bordman does not come from thinning forests. It would come from growing a highly invasive weed species.

posted 2 years, 3 months ago
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The proposal as put forth by PGE is pure greenwashing.

The biomass they want to burn is harvested giant reed (Arundo donax) grown agriculturally specifically for that purpose.

Arundo donax is a major invasive species in California, and we do not need it infesting riparian areas in Oregon. The claims of PGE and the Oregon Department of Agriculture that it will not be invasive in Oregon because it has never set seed here before are specious; this plant very seldom reproduces by seed anywhere in North America. It spreads by rhizomes and fragments of rhizomes; this alone has enabled it to become a serious problem in California.

posted 2 years, 3 months ago
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The caller who moved here from NYC needs to get a life.

Portland is not NYC. Never has been, never will be. People are not all the same, places are not all the same. Just because she personally prefers NYC to Portland doesn't mean there's something wrong with those of use who prefer Portland.

If I really liked NYC as much as she did, I'd move there. Maybe she should consider moving back instead of complaining how horrible Portland is. (She can gripe all she wants, and it still won't change the fact that Portland is not NYC.)

posted 3 years, 9 months ago
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With all due respect, I think this is mostly a discussion about how to best arrange the deck chairs on the Titanic.

If you look at the periods of genuine progress in the USA (abolition of slavery, reining in of corporate excesses in the Progressive Era and the New Deal, the civil rights struggles, the antiwar movement), they have all happened against a background of growing -- dare I mention the word? -- revolutionary sentiment.

It is exceptionally rare for any system of power to concede any reforms when presented with anything other than the threat of a total loss of power.

If you want real change, start thinking outside the (ballot) box.

posted 3 years, 11 months ago
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