Tuesday, February 13, 2007
U.S. security tied to biofuels, Vilsack says
He'll present his energy policy today, the first from the Democratic field.
BY TOM BEAUMONT
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack plans today to outline - in his first national
policy speech as a candidate for president - an energy strategy that fuses
the goal of weaning the United States off petroleum with reducing global
warming.
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070213/NEWS09/702130405/-1/archive
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Senate panel OKs cloning of embryonic stem cells
Democrats supporting the bill say it maintains Iowa's ban on cloning humans,
but Republican opponents disagree.
By JONATHAN ROOS
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
Medical researchers in Iowa would be allowed to create embryonic stem cells
through cloning under a bill that took its first step Monday in the
Legislature.
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070213/NEWS10/702130393/-1/archive
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Sunday, February 11, 2007
Shape this farm bill for the future
THE REGISTER'S EDITORIAL
As Congress begins writing a new farm bill, agriculture in America stands at
the precipice of unprecedented change.
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070211/OPINION03/702110310/1035/archive
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With biofuels, consider: Who suffers? Who benefits?
By ERIC HOLT-GIMENEZ and KEVIN FINGERMAN
SPECIAL TO THE REGISTER
Biofuels, derived from everything from corn to French-fry grease, are being
widely touted in corporate advertisements, news stories and recently in the
president's State of the Union address as a silver-bullet solution to global
warming, the savior of depressed rural economies and the key to reducing our
dependence on foreign oil.
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070211/OPINION01/702110315/1035/archive
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Attributes of best biofuel: Cost-efficient, eco-friendly
By DOUG FRATER
SPECIAL TO THE REGISTER
Disparate, powerful factions are unified that the world needs to find an
alternative to fossil fuels. The World Economic Forum and President George
W. Bush's State of the Union address both sounded the alarm on America's
dependence on foreign sources of energy. Hopes are high for the United
States to find ways to become less dependent on gasoline
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070211/OPINION01/702110317/1035/archive
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A battle over biofuels
Don't underestimate farmers and science
By DEAN OESTREICH
SPECIAL TO THE REGISTER
While nearly 80 percent of Americans favor increased use of ethanol to ease
our "addiction" to oil, there is still concern that ethanol's demand for
corn will create grain shortages that drive up the cost
of food.
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070211/OPINION01/702110316/1035/archive
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Journey to Antarctica
Step aside if a penguin waddles nearby. It even may have an egg between its
feet.
By VERNICE KINGSBURY
SPECIAL TO THE REGISTER
On Dec. 6, 2006, my granddaughter, Gwendolyn Kingsbury, and I left Indianola
on a trip to Antarctica.
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070211/LIFE/702110301/1039/archive
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Brasher: Farm bill worries livestock producers
WASHINGTON FARM REPORT
Well-funded activists will push legislation to stop practices they consider
inhumane to animals.
By PHILIP BRASHER
REGISTER WASHINGTON BUREAU
Washington, D.C. - It used to be that farmers only watched the debates over
a farm bill to see how much money they would get out of it.
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070211/BUSINESS01/702110327/1029/archive
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Monday, February 12, 2007
LTE -- Clean water, air are apolitical
The Democratic leadership in the Iowa Legislature has indicated that local
control for the siting of livestock confinements may not be discussed this
year. In a recent Iowa Press episode, David Yepsen addressed this and opined
that "there's a lot of liberals in the Democratic party who thought that's
what they were fighting their hearts out for."
The statewide fight for local control is neither left nor right, Republican
nor Democrat, liberal nor conservative. It is being fought by people from
all walks of life and belief systems who feel that they should decide what
is best for their communities. Is it so extreme to think that communities
would want a voice in the siting of an industry that may impact their
drinking water, their air quality and their quality of life?
You don't have to be a "liberal" to want plentiful, clean water or clean air
to breathe. You don't have to be a "liberal" to want the right to enjoy your
property as the Iowa Constitution allows.
Farm-group leaders like to talk about Iowa's livestock "industry." Well,
then, let local governments and citizens have a say in whether or not this
industry locates in their community, just as they would have the say for any
other commercial business.
- Barb Kalbach,
president, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement,
Dexter.
----------------
Saturday, February 10
LTE - Iowans should lead the charge against warming
Your editorial, "Iowa Should Step up on Global Warming" is admirable in some
respects (Jan. 27). But interestingly, the editorial missed an essential
step in limiting CO2 emissions in the atmosphere. Energy conservation is
critical.
Without a sharp reduction in the amount of energy used, implementing
successful wind or ethanol solutions will be difficult, if not impossible.
Individuals need to conserve automobile and household consumption. We need
to look closely at how we use energy. Do we often drive to places that we
could easily have walked? Do we commute long distances alone in a car when
we could take public transportation?
We shouldn't look to just technology and regulation to solve the problem. It
needs to be an attitude change from within every individual.
- Gervase Gallant,
Windsor Heights.
LTE - Corn should go to fuel, not pigs
The CEO of Tyson Foods recently said that Americans have to choose between
feed for fuel and feed for livestock or corn prices will remain high,
protein prices will rise and Americans will pay higher prices for their
meat.
Moreover, high corn prices will have farmers taking land out of the
Conservation Reserve Program for corn production, further degrading Iowa
soil, not to mention missing the future opportunity to supply ethanol plants
with mature prairiegrass and switchgrass instead of soil-eroding corn.
There are several good reasons to sacrifice the pig: A three-year moratorium
on hog confinements (CAFOs) will jump-start the ethanol industry; pacify the
environmentalists; heed the human-health warnings of the University of Iowa;
and do much to save small family hog farmers.
- Eileen Dannemann,
Fairfield.
LTE - Grassley's common sense doesn't work on Big Oil
February 10, 2007
4 Comments
I am so tired of reading the Register's praise of U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley's
"common sense." Yes, he is chasing down tax loopholes involving taxidermy
and contributions to college athletics, but why does it take a Democratic
Congress to discuss abolishing the big oil subsidies?
This is a man who still does not take global warming seriously enough to
answer "planet" instead of "economy" when asked which of the two is more
important.
In a 2006 letter to me, he stated: "I believe that the scientific evidence
[for global warming] to date is a cause for concern, but that it does not
yet dictate radical measures that could have a damaging effect on our
economy and our way of life."
No wonder he backs every effort to open up new, ecologically fragile areas
to oil drilling while doling out a few tax breaks here and there for
alternative energy sources. We should not be propping up the oil industry by
permitting it to despoil our coastlines and our Arctic Wildlife Refuge. We
should appropriate truly significant funds for the development of wind and
solar energy and ocean thermal energy conversion. Let Big Oil run out of new
drilling sites and watch it suddenly diversify into wind farms and solar
home-heating kits.
- Barbara Aszman Stone,
Grinnell.
Neila Seaman, MPA
Director
Sierra Club, Iowa Chapter
3839 Merle Hay Road, Suite 280
Des Moines, IA 50310
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