You’re a Liberal Night at Shorebirds Stadium

Andy Harris is sponsoring You’re a Liberal Night at the Delmarva Shorebirds game on Friday. Andy and former Governor Bob Ehrlich will be greeting fans at the gate to determine if they are conservative enough. If fans pass the test, they will be allowed to sit on the home team side. If fans fail the test, they will be on the visitors side. The really conservative fans will be allowed to sit and eat within 100 feet of Andy. The rest might be graced by a wave from the candidate during the game. After the game, fireworks will be shot at those who are determined to be liberal. Everybody better watch out, because compared to Andy, we are all liberal.

Dandy Andy, the Great Misleader

Andy Harris is continuing his trend of futile efforts to make the electorate believe one thing while reality lies somewhere else. In the most recent fundraising quarter reported to the FEC, Andy Harris released a statement on his campaign web site claiming that he had total receipts of $532,465.81 for the quarter. The campaign later had to admit that a $100,000 loan from the candidate was included in that number, and that they had only $432,000 in actual campaign contributions for the quarter.

This $100k loan follows a $20k loan from Andy Harris to his campaign during the last quarter which was made at the last minute as the Harris campaign panicked about the possibility that Frank Kratovil might have more cash on hand at the deadline.

The Harris campaign now claims to have $609,000 in cash on hand. That might be an accurate statement, but Harris has a net of $489,000 if you back out his loans. That is still a material advantage over Kratovil, who retains $454,000 in cash on hand, but the advantage hardly supports the fundraising juggernaut claimed by the Harris campaign.

Andy has made some big stretches in other statements along the campaign trail. When questioned about his staunch right wing views, Harris points to a vote for the bill to create a paper trail in Maryland elections as a sign of his cooperation with the Democrats in the State Senate. Harris did vote for the bill which passed by a unanimous vote, but it was not an effort at bipartisanship. Harris is paranoid about the possibility that Democrats would try to “manipulate elections on a grand scale”, which provides us with the real reason why he voted for the paper trail bill.

Andy Harris attempted to make us believe that he could suspend the Maryland gas tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day. He waited until after the Maryland legislative session had ended to propose the measure, and he forgot to tell us that the Maryland State House was closed for repairs, so it would have been impossible to hold a special session on the gas tax anyway. Nice try, Andy.

Andy Harris claims to support cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay, but his votes on environmental issues during his time in the State Senate have given him the worst environmental voting record of any candidate that has ever attempted to represent citizens of the Eastern Shore.

Andy Harris isn’t running to represent the voters of the 1st District of Maryland, he is running to represent the Republican Party without any regard for the wishes of the voters.

Oil Takes a Spill

The price of light sweet crude oil dropped $16.30 in four trading sessions this past week to end at $128.88. Oil prices peaked around $147 during intraday trading. I would love to hear from some of the drill here, drill now proponents with an explanation of which part of this week’s supply and demand equation triggered this precipitous drop. I don’t think supplies increased by the 12% that prices dropped. Demand is down with a resulting increase in reserves, but not by 12%. Maybe the speculators have begun to take their money and run.

Pickens Plan

I was watching CNBC a while back when T. Boone Pickens announced his plan to build a 4000 Megawatt wind farm in Pampa, TX. Pickens is promoting his wind plan on the web at PickensPlan.com. Pickens proposes that it is a realistic goal to have 20% of the electricity used in the United States supplied by wind generation within ten years. His plan is in line with estimates from the Department of Energy.

One aspect of the Pickens Plan that does not seem realistic is his suggestion that the 20% of electricity generated by wind can replace the current 20% that is generated by natural gas. Pickens suggests that the natural gas could then be used for transportation fuel to replace imported oil. I find it difficult to accept that power companies would be willing to just shut down their power plants that are running on natural gas. I think it would make more sense for Pickens to suggest that wind power could be the alternative to new power plants running on gas or coal rather than replacing existing sources.

The final piece of the Pickens Plan is to use natural gas as transportation fuel. He projects that natural gas could replace about 38% of our imported oil and redirect about $300 billion per year back to domestic natural gas sources. It makes sense to use natural gas as a transportation fuel for many reasons. Natural gas is already used as a fuel in 7 million vehicles worldwide, but according to NGVAmerica, only 150,000 are in the US. The technology exists to use natural gas as a transportation fuel. We don’t have to wait for someone to invent it. According to the Pickens Plan, 98% of the natural gas used in the US comes from North America, and domestic natural gas reserves are twice that of oil. In addition, natural gas is currently much less expensive that gas or diesel fuel.

If you are interested in learning about alternatives to the drill here, drill now campaign, then check out the Pickens Plan. An old oil man himself, even T. Boone Pickens says we can’t drill our way out of the current energy crisis.

Why Aren’t They All Really Mad

I have been trying to construct a coherent discussion about this topic in my mind for some time now, and the ideas remain somewhat disjointed, so I am just going to type and see what happens.

While both major political parties probably consist of a similar percentage of people who would consider themselves religious, the Republicans have always been perceived as the more religious party while the Democrats are portrayed as the more secular group.

When it comes to environmental concerns, the Republicans usually favor business interests and property rights over environmental protection. Democrats can most often be found on the side of preserving our natural resources and protecting wildlife.

Republicans characterize the theory of climate change or global warming as some sort of conspiracy that is not supported by science. Democrats are more likely to do as much as they can to minimize their impact on the world around them.

Christians believe that God created the earth, air, water, animals, insects and people. The message of the Republican party is often dominated by conservative Christians. Republicans often characterize Democrats who are passionate about their protection of natural resources and wildlife as radicals, extremists, subversives, militants, fanatics, communists, or (insert your favorite synonym of radicals here).

If Republican Christians believe that Earth is a gift from God, then why aren’t they all really mad about the destruction of natural habitat, the loss of clean water, and the extinction of countless species of animals and insects? Why are Republicans always the first to attack environmental protectionists as crazy lunatics who are supporting some sort of global conspiracy aimed at all of humanity?

Why aren’t Republican Christians the first people in line to protect the planet that their God created?

No Intention to Take Delivery

The oil futures market used to be dominated by producers and consumers of the commodity. These were companies that actually had oil to sell or companies that would take delivery of the product at some future date for the specified price. According to a recent CBS News report, in the year 2000, only 37% of the oil futures market consisted of speculators that had no intention of taking delivery of any oil or fuel products. Recently, the percentage of oil speculators in the futures market was reported to be 71%, almost double the presence. The speculators (hedge funds, pension funds, and investment banks) are only in the market to make money. They do not have the ability to supply or receive any actual products, and they can control huge blocks of the commodities with an investment that is just a fraction of the actual value of the contract.

The futures market is a good thing when used as intended. Southwest Airlines is doing much better than their competitors due to an excellent job of hedging their fuel costs through the futures markets. Speculators are now taking advantage of loopholes in the regulations to artificially manipulate the price of oil and other fuel products. Some estimates project a 50% drop in the price of oil if regulations are put in place to minimize the price inflation caused by oil speculators. Legislation will be making its way through Congress in an effort to normalize the trading in the oil futures market. We will hear terms like the “Enron Loophole” and “legitimate anticipated business needs” in the discussion to return the futures market to the hands of the companies that actually produce and consume oil and fuel products. One such bill known as the PUMP Act addresses many of the factors that have driven oil prices up 100% in the past year. We can only hope that the legislative efforts will leave us discussing a 50% drop in oil prices over the next year.

SS Andy Made a Good Suggestion, Sort Of

Andy Harris wrote a Prescription for Pain at the Pump, and the treatment he suggests includes a couple of good ideas, sort of.

One of Harris’ suggestions is to “Increase efficiency and simplify the refining process by temporarily reducing the over 40 different gasoline blends nationwide to four blends.” This really isn’t a short term solution, because it would require the coordination of dozens of legislative and regulatory entities to change even more dozens of regulations and bills to decrease the number of gasoline blends currently in use in the U.S. However, it is a good idea over the long term to reduce the number of gasoline blends. The reduction would allow the remaining blends to be refined in greater quantities resulting in production efficiencies. The change would also reduce the downtime required by refineries for maintenance and changeovers to different blends. This should increase the refinery utilization percentage that is regularly reported and has an impact on the perceived supply and demand of gasoline.

It is possible that a reduction in the number of gasoline blends could actually raise prices in the short run, since the selection would probably have to move toward cleaner blends required by states like California. Harris wants to temporarily reduce the number of blends. If we are really looking for long term solutions, the change should be permanent. I guess he was afraid to go that far out on the limb. I’m not sure who Harris’ adviser is on this issue, but CNN Money also included reducing the number of gasoline blends in their recent list of fixes for high gas prices.

Harris also suggests that we should “Provide incentives for technological innovations in alternative forms of energy like nuclear, cellulosic ethanol, solar, geothermal, and hydrogen cell.” This is also a good suggestion, but many of his faithful supporters are against subsidies and incentives. I hope the Club for Growth PAC doesn’t find out that Andy suggested it, because the Club would not approve of the use of taxpayer dollars to fund subsidies and incentives for alternative energy. While Andy is willing to suggest these incentives during the campaign, I am sure that he would be one of the first to vote them down once the campaign is over and he returns to the party line.

68 Million Acres, Drill Here, Drill Now

Everybody says drill here, drill now, and they say that we have to open up new offshore areas or ANWR to allow drilling to happen. The fact is that there are millions of acres of land that are currently available for the development of oil and gas production through existing leases that remain unused by oil companies. According to HR6251, The Responsible Federal Oil and Gas Lease Act of 2008, there are currently 68 million acres of federal land, both onshore and offshore, that have existing leases that are not being developed. The 68 million acres are reported to have the potential to increase domestic oil production by almost 100% and domestic gas production by 75%. The 68 million acres contain six times the projected peak oil production of ANWR. HR6251 will compel companies to either develop areas covered by the leases or give them up so that other companies can have the opportunity to increase our domestic production. The coastal plain area of ANWR that has been studied and proposed for development covers only 1.5 million acres. If oil companies aren’t producing oil from the 68 million acres that are currently available, then why do they need another 1.5 million acres approved to sit idle for years to come. It appears that oil companies do not feel that it is critical for them to develop new areas that are already available. The current campaign to open ANWR and offshore areas is just a distraction to keep us all from learning the reality of our domestic oil production. I am sure that oil companies did not expect prices to reach the levels we are now experiencing, but it is obvious that they have not been in a hurry to increase domestic oil production based on the millions of acres that are currently available for development but remain unproductive.

Another Frank and Chicken

According to the latest eNewsletter from the Kratovil campaign, the Democratic candidate for Congress in the 1st District of Maryland will be visiting Salisbury on Saturday. Visitors to the Delmarva Chicken Festival will have a chance to meet Frank Kratovil from 2:00-4:00 PM.

The reasons to support Kratovil are many, and a recent quote from the candidate gives us one more.

The Western Shore already has seven members of Congress…..The Eastern Shore should have at least one.

Frank Kratovil understands the concerns of citizens of the Eastern Shore. Let’s keep our congressman on the right side of the bridge.

Hear Some Frank Talk

Frank Kratovil was a recent guest on the Delmarva Today radio show broadcast by WSDL 90.7 FM, one of the local public radio stations.  The internets are a wonderful thing, and an audio stream of the Frank Kratovil interview is available online. The 1st District congressional candidate answers questions regarding many topics including his Republican opponent, his own views on economic issues, and his place in the conservative/liberal spectrum. While many Republicans try to connect the Queen Anne’s County State’s Attorney to Governor O’Malley, Kratovil offers his views on illegal immigration as a glaring difference between himself and Maryland’s top Democrat. All citizens of the 1st District of Maryland should take the time to listen to Mr. Kratovil in order to make an informed decision in an election that will likely be one of the most important that our region will see for many years to come.

The Priceless Shores of Delmarva

Residents of the Delmarva Peninsula, and those visitors who stop long enough to look around on their way to the condo, have an appreciation for the natural environment that makes up the Delmarva Peninsula. Surrounded by the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays, along with the Atlantic Ocean, Delmarva is both home and layover point to hundreds, if not thousands, of species. The importance of the shores of Delmarva occasionally make the news in relation to threats to certain species due to the destruction of habitat or food sources.

One example of this relationship can be seen in a bird called the Red Knot, which lingers on the beaches of the Delaware Bay to feed on the eggs of the Horseshoe Crab and build up enough body mass to sustain the birds on their flight to breeding grounds in the Arctic. The Red Knot population is in fast decline due to the overharvesting of Horseshoe Crabs in the Delaware Bay resulting in an insufficient food supply to support a healthy Red Knot population.

In the future, we might be hearing these same concerns about other species that grace our peninsula. It was recently discovered through satellite tracking that a bird known as the Whimbrel makes a 3200 mile trip to the Mackenzie River near Alaska after stopping over on the barrier islands of the Eastern Shore of Virginia. The bird that was tracked by the Center for Conservation Biology at the College of William and Mary made the transcontinental flight in just six days after building up their energy on a diet of fiddler crabs on the Virginia islands. The press release regarding this discovery expresses the importance of the Delmarva habitat in terms of worldwide importance.

This discovery sets a new distance record in the flight range of this species and highlights the hemispheric importance of the Delmarva Peninsula as a staging area for migratory shorebirds.

For more than a decade, scientists have believed that the seaside of the lower Delmarva Peninsula in Virginia played a significant role in the life cycle of the whimbrel. During spring migration in the mid-1990s, Bryan Watts from the Center for Conservation Biology at the College of William and Mary and Barry Truitt of The Nature Conservancy documented the densest concentration of whimbrels ever recorded in the western hemisphere within the barrier island lagoon system of the lower Delmarva Peninsula. Since that time, it has been believed that the site represents a critical, coastal staging area where birds feed on the staggering numbers of fiddler crabs that inhabit the lagoon system and build up energy reserves before making their last overland flight to the breeding grounds.

The seaside of the Delmarva Peninsula has been recognized as a globally important bird area, a hemispheric shorebird reserve, and a UNESCO biosphere reserve. The discovery that whimbrels use the site as a terminal staging area before embarking on a transcontinental flight suggests that the site is uniquely suited to provide the tremendous amount of energy required to prepare birds for such a flight.

Revelations such as those reported about the flight of the Whimbrel will hopefully increase the appreciation for the absolute importance of protecting the natural environment that surrounds us on the Delmarva Peninsula but often gets lost in the noise disguised as progress. Every decision about every square foot of our land has an impact that can only be measured by the long term cost.

The cost of a thing is the amount of what I call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run. - Henry David Thoreau

A Fondness for the Chesapeake Bay

It is no secret that Andy Harris does not share a concern for the environment that is critical to both the livelihood and recreation of citizens of the 1st District of Maryland. The Baltimore Sun published an editorial last month suggesting that Harris’ votes on environmental issues might be the only reason that 1st District voters need to exclude the Republican State Senator from consideration. The editorial echoes the opinion of many including the League of Conservation Voters that concerns about the health of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries are lost on Andy Harris. Harris’ views are a stark contrast to any other legislator that has served the 1st District of Maryland, especially outgoing Congressman Wayne Gilchrest. The Sun is clear in its opinion.

No current Eastern Shore delegate or senator has as bad a lifetime voting record on environmental issues. And that makes all the more indefensible Mr. Harris’ unashamedly poor judgment.

If you are concerned about the quality of the waterways in and around the Delmarva Peninsula, Andy Harris couldn’t care less. A vote for Andy Harris is a vote against the Chesapeake Bay and all of our waterways.

The Revenge of Dr. Andy

I have written previously that the only reason that former Gov. Ehrlich endorsed Andy Harris was to exact revenge against Congressman Wayne Gilchrest. It appears that State Senator Andy Harris is following the lead of his favorite Republican by suggesting that his State Senate colleague David Brinkley, a fellow Republican, should relinquish his leadership role based on unconfirmed reports of marital misconduct. Andy Harris has his own reasons to wish ill on Brinkley. As Kevin Dayhoff reports, Brinkley defeated Harris in a bid for the Republican Minority Leader role that Brinkley currently holds. So now we know why Harris was so quick in his attempt to throw his colleague under the bus, and he was obviously a good student of Gov. Ehrlich.

If you will recall it was in December 2006, that a divided Republican caucus labored over the choice of choosing Senator Brinkley over Senator Harris to be the Senate Minority Leader

One meeting on December 5, 2006 deadlocked seven to seven for over 10 hours without a winner. Finally on December 18, 2006, the Republican caucus decided upon Senator Brinkley over Senator Harris.

Then on December 26, 2007 Senator Brinkley endorsed State Sen. E. J. Pipkin over Senator Harris in the primary contest in which Senator Harris ousted Maryland’s 1st Congressional Representative Wayne Gilchrest.

Now keep that in mind when you read Senator Harris being quoted, “if the charges of marital infidelity leveled against Senate Minority Leader David Brinkley (R-New Market) are true, ‘Voters would expect’ Brinkley to step down from his leadership position… ‘If it turns out these rumors are true-I think this is why voters are looking for change.’”

Here’s a newsflash for you, most reasonable folks expect Senator Harris, who aspires to gain a higher office with greater responsibilities, to withhold his judgment until all the facts are thoroughly heard.

And yes, voters have expressed a desire for change – away from the what Sen. Alex Mooney explained on December 19, 2006, in a Frederick News-Post article: “I do think Andy would have been more confrontational … I always thought (Mr. Brinkley would) do a good job, (it’s) just that I thought Andy would do a better job.”

A better job at being confrontational – that is.

What change voters want is an end to the bomb-throwing confrontational approach to public policy making – and the Democrats in the Maryland General Assembly.

It is quite obvious from this portion of the post that Maryland State Senate Republicans chose Brinkley over Harris because the latter was seen as too confrontational. I have suspected this trait even from the limited exposure that Harris has had in the 1st District race. If the State Senate Republicans don’t want Harris as their leader, why would the voters of the 1st District of Maryland choose him as their representative?

Full Capacity

There has been an abundance of news regarding various areas of the Wicomico County Board of Education lately. From the retirement of some long time employees, to the progress of the Bennett High project, we are seeing a lot of change going on. The students of Prince Street School finally got to move into their new facility in April, and the ceremonial ground breaking took place at the site of the new JMB high school. For many months, the completion date for the high school had been quoted as 2010, but in the latest news article, that has changed to 2011. The change in the completion date isn’t new. Brain Foret, the Director of Facility Services, offered 2011 as the completion date over a year ago. Apparently nobody let the PR department know that, because all of the press releases during the past year gave 2010 as the date, until now.

Another interesting detail of the plans for JMB High School as well as Bennett Middle is that both of the new buildings are being built for a capacity that is roughly equal to the current enrollment. The plans for Bennett Middle allow a capacity of 930 students, which is only slightly above recent enrollment figures and is the same as the current State Rated Capacity, which probably includes the half dozen or so portables on the grounds. Pemberton Elementary is one of our recently renovated school buildings, and the playground of that school is already home to two portable classroom buildings.

All of this leads me back to the retirement of Alan Brown, who reported at the October 2007 Board of Education meeting that he had recently met with officials at Peninsula Regional Medical Center. This seemed odd to me at first, but then he offered one of the details that came out of that meeting. PRMC was seeing record numbers of births at the hospital. Obviously, the BOE needs to be able to project enrollment figures for the future, and the statistics from PRMC’s maternity ward probably help accomplish that. The problem is that the WCBOE has done nothing to increase the capacity of our schools, and nothing will be done in the next five years while we focus on the construction of two schools named Bennett.

The record birth numbers at PRMC last fall mean that in four or five years the enrollment at our elementary schools will also begin to reach record numbers, and there is no plan to handle this increase, unless you consider moving in more portable classrooms as a plan. Wicomico County already has 75 portables in use at various schools according to a recent inventory for a total of 68,000 square feet. It has been reported that the new Prince Street building is approximately 77,000 square feet. That means that we have roughly the equivalent of an entire school in portable classrooms. There are also 30 portable buildings covering 34,000 square feet that are currently being used as office space in the Central Office Annex and Facility Services.

Based on recent enrollment figures, Wicomico County schools are operating at 102% of their State Rated Capacity, and there is no plan to increase the capacity with permanent structures for at least the next five years. Both of our kids will be out of school in six years, so I guess I am glad that we won’t be impacted by the increased overcrowding that will be occurring in the future, but I do worry about the impact that the situation will have on the students and teachers of Wicomico County schools. The quality of education in Wicomico County has a direct impact on the quality of life and the property values in our area, and unless something drastic is done to improve our school facilities, that quality has only one direction to go. Down.

Congressional Probe Finds Energy Market Manipulation

They aren’t saying that they have found anything illegal yet, but that hasn’t been ruled out. At this point, the Congressional energy panel chaired by Bart Stupak (D-Mich) is willing to say “that oil and products markets were being “manipulated” by the biggest trading houses in the futures markets.” The big players include Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, and the suggestion is that the companies were using loopholes in current laws to game the system. We will have to wait until June 23rd to get the full report.