And, by the way, it's a "nanny state" that is increasingly willing to use bad science, lousy economic excuses, preferential treatment to unions, and even heavy-handed coercion to get its way.Case # 1 -- Rhode Island's bumbling state governments have for years neglected their infrastructure. Now the Department of Transportation reports that more than half of the state’s roads are in fair, poor or “failed” condition and 164 of her 772 bridges are classified as structurally deficient. The answer? Well, it seems that the state is considering spending yet more money on their failing public transit system and paying for it (and the needed repair to roads and bridges) from 1) charging tolls at the state line on every interstate highway and 2) creating a new tax for each mile a vehicle is driven. Here's the latest from the Providence Journal.
Case # 2 -- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Gwinnett County (some 30 miles northeast of Atlanta) has a new solid waste management ordinance that "puts teeth into it." I'll say. The new laws include a fine of $500 for each violation, including the failure to “source separate residential recovered materials.” Connie Wiggins, the executive director of Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful insists, "We don’t intend for this to be the garbage gestapo, running around, looking in people’s garbage about what’s there and what’s not there” but she does insist that anything other than full compliance with the law (i.e. letting trash get deposited with recyclable materials or getting the types of recyclable materials mixed) will result in a strict administration of fines.Case # 3 -- Bob Johnson of the Associated Press details the response of farmers down in Alabama to the EPA's plans to start taxing the flatulence of cows and pigs. And, no; this isn't a joke. Read on...
For farmers, this stinks: Belching and gaseous cows and hogs could start costing them money if a federal proposal to charge fees for air-polluting animals becomes law.Farmers so far are turning their noses up at the notion, which is one of several put forward by the Environmental Protection Agency after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that greenhouse gases emitted by belching and flatulence amounts to air pollution.
"This is one of the most ridiculous things the federal government has tried to do," said Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks, an outspoken opponent of the proposal.
It would require farms or ranches with more than 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200 hogs to pay an annual fee of about $175 for each dairy cow, $87.50 per head of beef cattle and $20 for each hog.
The executive vice president of the Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation, Ken Hamilton, estimated the fee would cost owners of a modest-sized cattle ranch $30,000 to $40,000 a year. He said he has talked to a number of livestock owners about the proposals, and "all have said if the fees were carried out, it would bankrupt them."
Sparks said Wednesday he's worried the fee could be extended to chickens and other farm animals and cause more meat to be imported. "We'll let other countries put food on our tables like they are putting gas in our cars. Other countries don't have the health standards we have," Sparks said...
"It makes perfect sense if you are looking for ways to cut down on meat consumption and recoup environmental losses," said Bruce Friedrich, a spokesman in Washington for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. "We certainly support making factory farms pay their fair share," he said...
