Posted - December 08, 2007

Our legislators in Harrisburg are at it again. This time they want to use our tax money to build a soccer stadium in Chester. The proposed stadium would cost $115 million and would be built on about 12 acres just south of the Commodore Barry Bridge. An artist's sketch of the proposed stadium is shown above.

Two other attempts at professional soccer in the Philadelphia area resulted in failure. The Philadelphia Atoms soccer team folded after four years (1973-1976) and the Philadelphia Fury soccer team lasted only three years (1978-1980).

In spite of these failures, the Chester project has the support of Governor Ed Rendell and Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, the former mayor of Chester. Rendell is calling on the Senate to raise the state's debt limit to free up money for the 20,000-seat stadium. The Senate Appropriations Committee authorized spending $45 million on the stadium and Delaware County officials agreed to contribute $30 million.

It is amazing that our legislators can come up with millions for a soccer stadium but they can't find any money to lower property taxes or to repair the state's infrastructure.

Most of the benefits of a soccer stadium would go to a few private owners of the sports franchise, while the benefits of the repair of the state's roads and bridges would go to all Pennsylvania citizens. We are willing to bet that the private owners were significant contributors to the campaigns of the governor and other elected officials.

Our legislators have previously spent hundreds of millions of taxpayers' dollars to finance stadiums for the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Philadelphia Phillies and the Philadelphia Eagles. Most recently our legislators agreed to spend another $290 million of taxpayer money for the Pittsburgh Penguins arena.

As stated, most of the benefits from these taxpayer-financed stadiums go to the private owners of the sports franchises. There is, of course, some trickle down benefit to some others but the vast majority of Pennsylvania citizens get nothing from these corporate welfare programs.

From where do these program come? They come from the hands of our politicians who are merely tools of the corporate owners. The politicians get campaign contributions and the private owners get the tax subsidies, grants or loan guarantees.

The free market should be allowed to dictate practical solutions for problems with sport franchises, not government subsidies for politically powerful campaign contributors. Our legislators should do what we sent them to Harrisburg to do – lower our property taxes and repair our roads and bridges.

Posted - December 2, 2007

On August 2, 2007, we posted a story entitled "Bring in the Lawyers." In the story, we stated, " We… have to bring in the lawyers to sue the dumpers and polluters for the damages that they have done and are continuing to do to us. If we get enough lawsuits and eventual judgments against the dumpers and polluters, the dumping will stop. We need to sue for the cancers, birth defects, multiple sclerosis (MS) and other adverse health effects caused by the indiscriminate and [continued] dumping of sewage sludge, fly ash, cement kiln dust, lime kiln dust, contaminated construction and demolition waste, river sludge, harbor sludge, etc."

On November 25, 2007, we posted another story entitled, "Fly Ash: Maryland Acts to Protect Citizens." In that posting, we reported that fly ash-generator Constellation Energy and dump operator BBSS Inc. had allowed metals such as arsenic, cadmium and thallium to seep into the drinking wells of 23 homes near the Gambrills, Maryland fly ash dump site.

Now, we are happy to report that the people of Maryland are fighting back against the fly ash-generator that has poisoned their water and air. On November 28, 2007, the law firm of Murphy & Falcon, P.A. of Baltimore filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of Gambrills, Maryland residents whose wells have been contaminated by nearby fly ash dump sites operated by Constellation Energy (www.murphyfirm.com).

The lawsuit alleges that Constellation Energy has known that hazardous substances linked to cancer and other serious health effects have been leaking into groundwater from the dump sties since 1999, but that residents received no warning of the discharges into the local aquifer from Constellation Energy.

Property owners were first alerted to possible problems when county health officials began testing wells in 2006, nearly seven years after Constellation Energy saw the first sign that the sites were contaminating groundwater.

The lawsuit also alleges that contaminated fly ash dust from the sites has polluted the air and soil and that the fly ash dumping has caused serious health problems to innocent people forced to breathe the toxic dust and drink the contaminated water.

Further, the lawsuit accuses Constellation Energy of actively engaging in a campaign of deception to mislead neighbors into believing the waste materials do not present a threat to surrounding communities.

Wayne Curry, a member of the Murphy & Falcon legal team representing the residents said, "What this $19 billion dollar a year energy giant [Constellation Energy] continues to do to this community is blatantly unconscionable. To add insult to injury, they told this community for years that dumping fly ash in an old mine site was actually beneficial."

Curry added, "By filing this suit, the victims and the Murphy firm legal team form the vanguard of citizens trying to solve a national health and environmental crisis. Under-regulated fly ash dumps are scattered throughout the U.S. and many of them are badly polluting groundwater, surface water and the air with contaminated dust at a risk to individuals living near the dump sites. Regulations have failed in so many instances to protect nearby residents, so people must bring suit to protect themselves."

Congratulations to the residents of Gambrills, Maryland, to the Murphy & Falcon law firm and to Wayne Curry for bringing suit against a corporate polluter for the harm that it has done and is doing to innocent people.

The similarity of this environmental disaster to the situation in Pennsylvania, especially Schuylkill County, is obvious to anyone living here. We have statewide dumping of fly ash, sewage sludge, toxic dusts, etc. and we are forced to breathe the contaminants released in the air from the waste coal-burning plants. We also have a statewide cancer epidemic for polycythemia vera, the rare bone marrow cancer (see earlier story, "Polycythemia Vera Cancer Epidemic," posted November 9, 2007).

As previously reported, our elected officials are not doing anything to correct these injustices. Instead, our federal and state representatives are accepting campaign contributions from the corporate polluters. It is only a matter of time until we can fully document the harm that is being done to the people and the environment here. Then the lawyers will be coming to Pennsylvania, especially to Schuylkill County.

Posted - December 15, 2007

The Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA) is the state's leading provider of financial loans and grants for post-high school education. The agency received $451 million in taxpayer money from the General Assembly last year for grants, scholarships and other programs. In other words, taxpayers fund the agency.

In October, Auditor General Jack Wagner reported on the results of a state audit showing that PHEAA had given employees $7.5 million in bonuses since mid-2004. The Auditor General called the practice "elitist... outrageous and unnecessary" and called for an end of the employee bonus program.

The bonuses are considered part of the salary for PHEAA's 23 highest- ranking executives and are used to calculate their pensions upon retirement. As a result, some PHEAA employees' pensions exceed their salaries.

Until recently, Richard Willey was the chief executive officer of the agency and received an annual salary of $289,000. In addition, Mr. Willey received a bonus of $181,000 for the 2006-2007 fiscal year. As a result of PHEAA's pension plan, Mr. Willey is getting a $360,000 per year pension for the rest of his life, $71,000 a year more than his highest salary!

But that is not all. PHEAA gave Mr. Willey an additional $97,522 for separation pay. However, Mr. Willey wasn't as fortunate as his predecessor Michael Hershock who received separation pay of $374,850 when he left PHEAA in 2002.

PHEAA also spent $400,000 in legal bills to keep the public from knowing what the Board of Directors had spent going to resorts like Nemacolin Woodlands in Fayette County and The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, WV. Fortunately for the taxpayers, PHEAA lost the case and had to disclose its records.

Here are some examples of PHEAA's extravagance with taxpayers' money that were disclosed in the records:

• $860,000 for retreats at high-priced resorts held between 2000 and 2005;
• $697.52 for a night in a luxurious hotel room;
• $665 for cigars;
• $583 for a cooking lesson for wives of the Board of Directors members;
• $225.20 for spa therapeutic services;
• $175 for falconry lessons;
• $132.25 for a limousine ride; and
• $115 for a pedicure and a facial.

That is right, $175 of taxpayers' money for falconry lessons!

Who was going to the retreats at the high-priced resorts? The answer is the Board of Directors. Who is overseeing PHEAA? Again, the answer is the Board of Directors. Who is on the Board of Directors? There are 21 members of the Board, including 17 state senators and representatives.

Our own state senator, Jim Rhoades, is a member of the Board of Directors overseeing PHEAA. He represents Senate District 29, which includes all of Schuylkill County and parts of Berks, Carbon, Lehigh, Monroe and Northampton counties.

This is the same Jim Rhoades who introduced Senate Bill 142, which would allow political hacks and corporate polluters to determine the safety of sewage sludge to the exclusion of exposed victims and independent scientists (see www.dante7.com, "Legislative Garbage," September 20, 2007).

This is the same Jim Rhoades who voted himself a 28% pay increase of $19,508 on July 7, 2005 and then accepted $7,708.54 in unvouchered expenses. After public outcry, he agreed to pay back the unvouchered expenses over three years, in effect giving himself a three-year interest free loan.

Is there any wonder that PHEAA's extravagance is unchecked and out of control?

In November 2008, you will have a chance to let Senator Rhoades know what you think of his representation of the people. You can tell him what you think about his supervision of PHEAA, about the legislation that he has introduced and about the pay raise that he gave himself. It is up to you to vote.

 

Larry Dubetsky

Posted - December 20, 2007

Dave "Beneficial Use" Argall

Did you know that August 29, 2007 in Pennsylvania was "Environmentally Beneficial Use of Waste Coal as an Alternative Energy Source Day?" This date was designated as such on July 7, 2007 by Resolution No. 363 of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. July 7th was also the second anniversary of the notorious illegal pay raise that our representatives gave themselves in the early morning hours of July 7, 2005.

The Resolution informs us that the waste coal energy industry has beneficially utilized more than 73 million tons of by-products for abandoned mine land reclamation. Translation: This industry has burned millions of tons of waste coal mixed with waste solvents, has generated millions of tons of fly ash and has dumped the fly ash waste into unlined abandoned mines.

A recent report by the Clean Air Task Force and EarthJustice showed that disposing fly ash in mines is contaminating water supplies throughout Pennsylvania www.catf.us. In 10 of 15 mines examined across the state, groundwater and streams near areas where fly ash, or coal combustion waste, was placed had levels of arsenic, lead, cadmium and selenium and other pollutants above safe levels.

The Resolution passed the House by a vote of 190 to 7 and our own representative, David Argall, voted for it. You should note that Mr. Argall received at least $12,500 in campaign contributions from corporate polluters and $35,770 from law firms and lobbyists in 2006 (Source: www.followthemoney.org).

Mr. Argall should introduce a resolution in the House of Representatives designating a day in 2008 as "Polycythemia Vera Victims' Day" for the people afflicted with the cancer in this area. In fact, Mr. Argall should introduce a resolution designating the entire year of 2008 as "Victims' Year" in honor of the thousands of people afflicted with cancer, asthma and other diseases caused by the polluting industries in Pennsylvania. However, I doubt that this will happen because not enough victims have contributed to Mr. Argall's re-election campaign.

I also find it interesting that our representatives have time to pass resolutions honoring corporate polluters but don't have time for property tax reform or bridge and highway repair.

Posted - December 26, 2007

Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practise to deceive!

Sir Walter Scott

Dr. Steve Dearwent, ATSDR, spinning at meeting in Hazleton

I have waited for the dust to settle before commenting on the latest episode in the cover up of our polycythemia vera cancer epidemic by the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) and the Pennsylvania Department of Health (PA DOH).

On October 24, 2007 in Hazleton, PA, the ATSDR and the PA DOH reported the results of a study showing 38 cases of the rare polycythemia vera cancer in Carbon, Luzerne and Schuylkill counties. The agencies noted that the 38 cases were 52% higher than the 25 expected over the last five years.

The ATSDR circulated a news release that stated, "ATSDR found no link between environmental factors and PV in this area." Also, Senator Arlen Specter stated in a letter to the Director of the ATSDR and to the Secretary of the PADOH, "I am heartened by the study's findings that there are no environmental or occupational causes for the disease..."

At the meeting, Dr. Steve Dearwent of the ATSDR stated, "There's no conspiracy to hide any information." With reference to determining how elevated the 38 cases of polycythemia was, Dearwent said, "Quite honestly, the benchmark is fuzzy."

Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive!

It was fuzzy all right. The ATSDR actually found 131 suspected cases of polycythemia vera in the study, more than five times what was expected (Polycythemia vera cancer epidemic, www.dante7.com, November 9, 2007).

In the November 16, 2007 issue of Blood, researchers from the ATSDR and Mount Sinai School of Medicine reported in an abstract that there were actually 131 possible cases of polycythemia vera found in the study, that residents living within 13 miles of the McAdoo Superfund site had a 4.5 times greater risk of developing polycythemia vera and that the data strongly suggested that an environmental influence led to the development of the polycythemia vera.

This latest report was not in agreement with the results presented at the October 24, 2007 meeting in Hazleton. The abstract indicated a much larger problem and it pointed to an environmental cause. What could the agencies do? They had to save face, they had to make Arlen Specter look good and they had to get the polluting industries off the hook.

"We essentially jumped the gun in releasing something we ultimately don't think is true," said Steve Dearwent. The research is a "stew" of expertise, he said, and "the ingredient we added was not good."

Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive!

Dr. Dearwent explained that the findings were biased by failure to consider that many of the cases of polycythemia vera were diagnosed in people who had lived in multiple places during the "clean up" of the Superfund site.

In other words, there was a polycythemia vera cluster but only because people with this rare cancer moved to the same place, which just happened to be near the Superfund site http://blog.wired.com. Dr. Dearwent wants us to believe that people who suffer from polycythemia vera tend to flock together and roam the country side looking for a place near a toxic waste site to settle.

Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive!

However, there was another major problem for Dr. Dearwent, the ATSDR and the PA DOH. Dr. Ronald Hoffman, the lead investigator of the study, is not a federal or state employee. He is a professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and not subject to influence by the government agencies. Dr. Hoffman refused to go along with the ATSDR's back pedaling and insisted that the data does in fact point to something in the environment as the cause of the polycythemia vera in this area.

Dr. Hoffman stated, "Based upon the data, there's significant concern that there is something in the environment leading to the development of polycythemia vera in that area."

Oh my, what was Senator Specter to do? The lead investigator refused to back pedal and play along with the senator's absurdity that he was "heartened by the study's findings that there are no environmental or occupational causes for the disease…."

Senator Specter then announced that he, U.S. Senator Bob Casey and U.S. Representative Tim Holden had sent a letter expressing concern over the release of the abstract and urging officials to make clarifications.

Then in a bit of understatement, Rep. Holden admitted some confusion over contradictory results between the October meeting and the latest report.

Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practise to deceive!

Holden then stated, "Don't ask me to answer any questions because I don't know any more than you." Oh really! I thought that it was our representative's job to know what was going on in his district.

There is no doubt in my mind that our elected officials are working frantically to protect the polluting industries that are causing the polycythemia vera in this area. There is no other rational explanation for the deceptive practices detailed above.

I have also noticed an almost complete absence of State Senator Jim Rhoades and State Representative Dave Argall from any involvement with this study in their respective districts. They seem too busy having their pictures taken giving away our money with cardboard checks.

I hope that you remember the actions of Specter, Holden, Rhoades and Argall the next time that they are up for re-election.

Posted - December 31, 2007

It's a Syn

by Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren
This article appeared in the National Review on June 11, 2007.

Soaring gasoline prices are prompting politicians on both sides of the aisle to contemplate a re–embrace of one of the worst financial boondoggles of the 1970s — synthetic fuels. Of course, the coal industry is smart enough to rebrand this technology, so the new term of art is "coal–to–liquids." While turning coal into oil (and then into gasoline) would be a wonderful idea if it could be done cost effectively, it can't — which is why the coal industry is banging on the federal door for lavish taxpayer subsidies. The fact that these proposals are being seriously entertained in Washington speaks volumes about why politicians should be kept as far away from the energy business as possible.

Should Congress go down this road again, it would represent the fourth federal effort to jump–start the industry with taxpayer money. If past is prologue, it will fail yet again.

The first effort began in 1944 with the "Synthetic Liquid Fuels Act," which authorized the construction of a host of federal coal–to–liquids demonstration plants. The New York Times reported that "The next ten years will see the rise of a massive new industry which will free us from dependence on foreign sources of oil. Gasoline will be produced from coal, air, and water." By August 1949, the federal Bureau of Mines was reporting that coal–to–liquids technology was, in theory, economically competitive with conventional gasoline, a claim that the bureau made again in a massive report issued in 1951.

What the federal demonstration plants actually "demonstrated," however, was that coal–to–liquid technology wasn't nearly as economically viable as advertised. When budget–cutting Republicans swept into Washington after the 1952 elections, the synfuels program was one of the first things to go.

The second effort came in 1960 with the Coal Research and Development Act. Originally adopted as a measure to prop–up the depressed coal sector, the law established the Office of Coal Research and funded the construction of six synthetic fuels demonstration plants. The most notorious of these was "Project Gasoline," a coal–to–liquids facility in Cresap, West Virginia under the protection of — you guessed it — Senator Robert Byrd (D., W.V.). Although the feds alleged that the Cresap plant would produce gasoline at eleven cents per gallon, construction delays, and cost overruns prevented the facility from ever coming fully on–line. Project Gasoline was quietly terminated in April, 1970.

The third and most ambitious effort was launched as a consequence of the 1973 oil embargo. Appropriations for coal–to–liquids programs increased 19–fold from 1970–1978. Three new federal coal–to–liquids demonstration plants were started, Robert Byrd's Cresap facility was brought back on–line, and President Ford promised that one million barrels of oil a day would come from coal by 1985.

Alas, the industry disappointed yet again, so when the 1979 oil–price shock hit, a frustrated Congress passed the 1980 Energy Security Act. Among other things, the law authorized a staggering $17 billion to fund the notorious Synthetic Fuels Corporation (SFC), a public–private entity charged with producing 500,000 barrels of oil per day by 1987. Another $68 billion was promised four years hence once the SFC submitted a "comprehensive strategy" to meet that target. The government actually talked about pressing the nation's entire construction industry into a crash program to build the envisioned fuel plants.

By the time the first $100 million of taxpayer funds went out the door, however, all but two SFC projects (none coal–to–liquid) were still–borne or cancelled due to yet more cost overruns and technical problems. The Synthetic Fuels Corporation was shut down in 1985 before it could spend any more.

As economists Linda Cohen and Roger Noll later observed, "The entire synfuels program had a quality of madness to it. Project after project failed. Cost estimates were connected to the price of substitutes rather than to the program itself. Goals were unattainable from the start. Official cost–benefit studies estimate net benefits in the minus of billions of dollars. Even apart from the Synthetic Fuels Corporation, the dogged continuation of the research and development program seems incredible."

After three bad fiscal marriages between the taxpayer and the coal–to–liquids industry, one would think that the madness of this political love affair would safely be a thing of the past. Alas, the "audacity of hope" marches on. Presidential candidate Barack Obama is talking–up the most ambitious set of coal–to–liquid subsidies yet, while Republican presidential candidate John McCain promises another ambitious round of federal demonstration plants and liberal doses of "can–do" attitude in the Oval Office. Virtually every politician in Washington has his or her own twist on how to use taxpayer money to subsidize coal companies for the public good, fulminations about "corporate welfare" notwithstanding.

If the definition of insanity is doing something over and over again with the constant expectation of a different result, then you know all you need to know about Washington in 2007.