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jimhiway's comments:

on A Good Place to Work?

Sandra McDonough needs to stop putting words in Joe Cortright's mouth.  She continues to conflate her one misleading fact about Multnomah County's job loss with the health of Portland's business economy. Of course she knows the study should have used MSA, but refuses to admit it.  Their study was clearly designed to obscure facts.

And then Sandra draws the conclusion that land availability and transportation are key contributors to a relatively high job loss (that really doesn't exist).  Sorry Sandra, you may have gained the microphone but you have lost credibility.

posted 2 years, 3 months ago
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on State of the Union

The President should have mentioned that Social Security is one the best funded pension Trust Funds in the country.  The balance on the Trust Fund Account is over $2.5 trillion.  

Social Security is related to the budget deficit only to the extent that a budget deficit leads to a US Treasury default on this Trust Fund obligation.

posted 2 years, 3 months ago
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on Philosophy of Taxes & Spending

Absolutely.  What most influences my belief on taxes is what I have learned about how the tax system really works.  The problem with taxes is the redistribution of  national wealth from the working class to the wealthy.  In Oregon,  as a percentage of income,  tax burdens for the working class are far higher than that for the investor class.

Why do hedge fund managers get to pay 15% capital gains rates, and no social security tax, on their so-called 'carried interest' income of tens of milliions of dollars per year? Regular tips and wages are taxed at much higher rates.

The investor class has waged class warfare on the working class, and won.

posted 2 years, 7 months ago
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on Global Trade in the Northwest

Exporting coal through the Northwest to China is like selling bullets to a suicide candidiate with a shotgun pointed at his head.

Mankind has used up all the   capacity in the global atmoshpere to handle coal's emissions.  We have realized that in Washington and Oregon; both states have passed laws forbidding new coal plants and are trying to find ways for an early shutdown of the two existing coal plants.

I cannot think of a more conuterproductive energy strategy than to sell coal to China to burn in their inefficient coal plants.

posted 2 years, 8 months ago
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on Renewable Rates

Liquified natural gas has got to be one of the most expensive risk-adjusted sources of energy we could pursue.  Guaranteed world gas price volatility, higher exposure to the very high capital costs for the infrastructure, and high exposure to carbon regulation since the life-cycle emissions of LNG (freezing, shipping, thawing. then pipelne transport) are very high compared to domestic pipeline gas.

Lets put that capital to work in bettter options.

posted 4 years, 1 month ago
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on Paying Per Mile

Two main reasons:

1> Use of fuel is one of the best surrogates for weight of the vehicle - weight is related to wear on the pavements - more weight, more road repairs, more gas consumption, more payment toward roads, correct incentive structure.

2> Use of fuel is one of the best surrogates for carbon emissions - more fuel, more carbon emissions, correct incentive structure.

The gas tax is the best incentive structure we have access to, and the least cost to administer. Mileage fees are a terrible idea.

posted 4 years, 4 months ago
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on From the Conventions: Pain at the Pump

Michelle Bachman does not know what she is talking about. She said most of the US oil is off-limits due to environmental protection. Actually, 80% of off-shore oil is available for leasing, and over 95% of on-shore oil on federal lands is open to exploration.

posted 4 years, 8 months ago
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on What's an Uncut Forest Worth?

The interview with the forester proved that his project does not satisfy the additionality criteria - that is, he cannot demonstrate that he would have cut down the forest in the absence of the payment.

Stanford researchers found that offset protocols, even under the strict regulations of the United Nations Kyoto Protocol, had failure rates on the additionality test of between one-half to two-thirds of the $20 billion in offset payments that were granted.

Offsets are not going to reduce global warming as much as cutting actual pollution. Offsets should not be allowed in compliance markets.

posted 4 years, 9 months ago
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on Capping Carbon in the Northwest

The most significant and least expensive way to meet the Western Climate Initiative reductions is through energy efficiency. In fact, most studies indicate that the reductions of the size proposed by the Initiative will rasie electricity rates a bit, but electricity bills should go down because less electricity will be consumed.

posted 4 years, 10 months ago
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on (Not) On a Jet Plane

It seems that there is no business model that can support service to these small airports - it is the least fuel-efficient way to move passengers. I do not know why Oregon is increasing it's subsidies to these airports in Salem and Astoria when this business model is becoming less and less tenable. Wouldn't it make more sense for the state to subsidize modes that work towards it's greenhouse gas goals?

posted 4 years, 10 months ago
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