-------------------------------------------------- REMINDER: Only 2 Posts Per Day Per Person -------------------------------------------------- Hmmm. I see the name-calling potty-mouths are getting their day on the list again.
Is it fun yet? As Dave Hutcheson mourns this morning, the death of civility has become a hall mark of political discourse, and I find it fascinating that the Independence Party people are the ones bringing visibility to it ramifications. The writer below, once a colleague of Dave Shove's in the Green Party, now assails David in a highly personal fashion, utterly unnecessary in a public discussion, labeling him while failing to address the issue on only its merits - or lack of them. It's one thing to portray statements as idiotic and positions as idiotic, but it's quite another to publicly ridicule a private citizen like activist Dave Shove, caustic and outspoken though he can be, though many of us may be, for his positions with humiliating characterizations. Now, for a fact or two for Mr. Western, who apparently fails to understand the national and state roles in the ethanol industry generally and Gopher State Ethanol, specifically, let alone the corporate takeover of the US culture in all its aspects. The "control" issue is multi-level - where it is exercised. This hardly simply a "local" issue. 1. The FEDS - Congress and the Administration (USDA, EPA, OSHA) - set the statutes and rules for: a) ethanol subsidies on the pretext of encouraging renewable fuels development and production but creating a lucrative boondoggle for corporate farm ownership, corn producers (which is why the price has risen sky high), and ethanol production facilities - often all one and the same: Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland and Minnesota Corn Producers Assn. b) mandatory minimums in the percentage of ethanol in every gallon of gasoline sold (except of course in fuels for farming the very corn that produces ethanol, at least in Minnesota), creating an even higher demand for corn which raises corn prices as it is supposed to, and c) minimizing the dangerous poisons and cancer-causing chemicals emitted by ethanol production facilities everywhere, let alone the 150-yr-old converted sieve we once called Schmidt Brewery (by the EPA), plus other rules regarding the handling of hazardous materials which beer was not, but ethanol and its byproducts are. 2. The STATE - Legislature and Administration (Agriculture, MPCA, EQB, Health, OSHA) set the states and rules for: a) (NOTE the repeat here) ethanol subsidies on the pretext of encouraging renewable fuels development and production but creating a lucrative boondoggle for corporate farm ownership, corn producers (which is why the price has risen sky high), and ethanol production facilities - often all one and the same: Cargill, Archer Daniels Midland and Minnesota Corn Producers Assn. Moreover, the Ag Dept. spend millions promoting ethanol in- and out-of-state on behalf of corn farming). b) mandatory minimums in the percentage of ethanol in every gallon of gasoline sold in the state (except of course in fuels for farming the very corn that produces ethanol), creating an even higher demand for corn which raises corn prices even higher - as it is supposed to, and c) monitor EPA compliance for air and water pollutant characterization (identification) and standards, and for issuing permits for chemical polluters (MPCA)(including noise. Odor as a pollutant was removed from MPCA's jurisdiction years ago by the legislature and is only covered as a nuisance) and (by MDHealth) assessing public health risks associated with stack and fugitive (from other building holes) emissions 3. The CITY - Council and Administration set the ordinances, budgets and rules for: a) establishing standards and monitoring neighborhood nuisances, including odor and noise (for which there is a specific ordinance setting decibel standards for day parts and special events). The City (and County) is also responsible for protecting the public health and safety, generally, and for redressing nuisances that deprive citizens from the enjoyment of their home and environment. The redress may come in form of administrative warnings, cease and desist orders, and litigation. All are more or less subject to the political will of the Mayor, and, occasionally, the City Council, which passes the ordinances and approves litigation. The Council can also use its powers of zoning to address or redress the nature and compatibility of land and building uses, i.e., the degree to which a parcel, which may be lowest use - heavy industry - is affecting higher uses, commercial and residential, single-family homes considered the highest use under the code. Gopher State Ethanol, when it was a brewery, was industrial, but not a very hazardous industry - lighter industry, as it were, and far more compatible with the surrounding community uses - residential and small business (commercial) Once converted to a fuel additive production facility, it obviously became heavy - or heavier industrial - and far less compatible with higher uses. All in all, the power of corporations at all levels to either run roughshod over citizens or to overwhelm citizen efforts to redress health dangers, incompatibility between uses, and the nuisances they create is legend in America, where the big buck governs most decisions, marginalizing citizens and rendering society sick and powerless to do much about it. And the only responsibility corporations are required under state law to meet is the maximization of return or profit to their shareholders/investors. This part of our hue and cry to: 1) modify the state code of corporate responsibility to require corporations to consider the health, safety and efficacy of their products, services and manufacturing processes on behalf of their customers, their communities and their workers. No. Not all of these issues are matters of "local" control, depending on how one defines "local." Local to me means city or county jurisdictions benefiting neighborhoods and residents. Anything else is not local. But Dave Shove is more right than exaggerating when he mentions corporate sovereignty as a uniquely American phenomenon. Only in America are corporations both considered as persons for purposes of constitutional protections, but also protected from the same accountability and responsibility to which the average citizen is held in the conduct of their affairs. This having it both ways has done irreversible damage to the American culture and our ability to govern ourselves, in part because their legal standing is rarely questioned (and that of citizens always is) and for their ability to buy and sell politicians at will. Denigrating Dave Shove while splitting the community on these issues may be fun and games for Mr. Western's clever rhetoric, but it would be wise to have one's facts in order when arguing with reality. Andy Driscoll Crocus Hill/Ward 2 ------ on 5/14/04 9:11 AM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Subject: Re: [StPaul] GSE Ceases Operations, for now > To: "StPaul" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "David Shove" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "David Shove" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "John Birrenbach" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >> -------------------------------------------------- >> REMINDER: Only 2 Posts Per Day Per Person >> -------------------------------------------------- >> >> On Thu, 13 May 2004, John Birrenbach wrote: >> >>> -------------------------------------------------- >>> REMINDER: Only 2 Posts Per Day Per Person >>> -------------------------------------------------- >>> >>> >>> Well, the plan developed by the government to help the American >>> Farmer by increasing uses of Corn in the production of Ethanol, and >>> as such the price has been successful. The price of corn is now over >>> $3 a bushel. >>> >>> Unfortunately for GSE that price is just toooooooo high for them to >>> pay, and on Tuesday of this week they ceased processing of corn, and >>> as of this morning the plant is ceasing production. Another promise >>> made by GSE, to help the American Farmer has been broken. They have >>> shown their true light that they could care less about farmers, they >>> could care less about St Paul, they could just frankly Care Less >>> about anything other than the bottom line. >> >> Their bottom line is the line their bottoms make with their plush velvet >> chairs. >> >> Another example of lack of local control. > > What on earth can you be talking about? The whole boondoggle was under > "local control" from start to finish. > >> Everything in this area with a >> widespread negative effect (eg GSE toxics on our air) should be open to >> local citizen control. > > Another generalization-du-jour from the Secretary of Wordplay. > a) imagine the mess if water effluent standards (with potentially > "widespread negative effect") along the Mississppi River were governed by > each, local, individual municipality that dumps into it. We've been there, > Dave, and done that. > b) the "local citizens" would have been bulldozed by GSE more easily than > the City Council. > >> Corporate sovereignty must be removed wherever it >> acts against the will of the community. We citizens should be the masters, >> not the corporations or CEOs. The people should rule, not property. We >> should take back the power that is ours. Ours, not theirs. Ours. >> >> --David Shove >> Roseville > > There is no corporate "sovreignty". All the citizens aren't the like-minded > "we" you seem to be imagining. "The local citizens" have conflicted > interests in this issue that don't arise from the same viewpoint as that of > Citizen David Shove. Some are more interested in employment, some see > ethanol as a widespread benefit for we farmers and we motorists and we > breathers of air as well, and all got bad information from Minn EPA. All > are citizens, but not all are you, and I'm sorry to say that corporations > have it just as easy taking advantage of your brand of muddled thinking as > anyone else's. > > Guy Western > the West Side _____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
