editorial
Measure 3 will help
to protect consumer
Proponents of Ballot Measure 3 know that they are up
against a tough fight with Northwest utility companies. The
reason is simple. Passage of Measure 3 would create a
Citizens Utility Board (CUB) sanctioned under Oregon law
to represent consumers and act as a watchdog on utility
company rate hikes.
A CUB would be a citizens’ action group designed to
represent residential ratepayers in hearings before the
Oregon Public Utilities Commissioner and other legislative
bodies. The main purpose of CUB is to protect Oregonians
from unneccesary rate increases by utility companies seek
ing higher profits at the expense of the consumer.
Threatened by the idea of a CUB, utility companies in
Oregon have already poured over $500, 000 into campaigns
to defeat Measure 3. Among the most financially active in
trying to stop passage of Measure 3 are Pacific Northwest
Bell,and Portland General Electric.
Establishing a CUB in Oregon, according to Measure 3,
would mean the creation of a statewide, non-profit organiza
tion with an elected board of 15 members coming from each
of the state’s congressional districts. Citizens interested in
joining the CUB would be asked to voluntarily contribute a
$5 membership fee which would help fund the group’s ac
tivities. The board would be elected by CUB members, and
would decide the organization’s policies towards represen
ting public interest before the Public Utility Commissioner.
Oregon consumers should have a CUB to represent
them. Currently the Public Utility Commissioner has the job
of representing both consumer and utility companies at rate
increase hearings. One person (the Commissioner) has the
final say on whether a rate increase will take place or not.
How can the Commissioner work effectively as both ad
vocate and defendent at the same time? Someone is bound to
lose out, and in the past it has often been the consumer.
For example, early this year the Public Utilities Com
missioner gave Portland General Electric and Pacific Power
and Light over $85 million in rate increases to pay for the
new Colstrip Power Plant in Montana. These rate hikes were
given without' a single public hearing on the subject. In
Montana the result was different. After a series of public
hearings, a major rate increase was rejected by the Montana
Public Utilities Commissioner. Oregonians have been left
paying more for a power plant in Montana than Montana
itself.
Opponents of Measure 3 say that Oregonians are well
represented by the Public Utility Commissioner and his
staff. If this was the case, then at least one public hearing
would have been held on the decision to increase utility
rates in Oregon to fund the building of the Colstrip Power
Plant in Montana.
Oregonians need protection from big business and the
one-man, one-decision role given to Oregon’s Public Utility
Commissioner. Without CUB, Oregonians will remain vic
tims of the utility companies and their financial power. Vote
Yes on Measure 3.
Reagan’s words stand in
contrast to his policies
Everyone was sure of the winner in Sunday’s final
presidential debate. It was simple. If you were a Republican,
the winner was President Reagan, and if you were a
Democrat, then the winner was Walter Mondale.
As far as facts go, Mondale appeared to be in better
form. Reagan, looking more lively than during the first
debate, relied less on facts and more on emotion to make his
points. Regarding his “Star Wars” proposal, Reagan talked
a lot about themes of human rights and peace, but couldn’t
say how the system would be launched. Considering that he
is putting millions of tax dollars into this idea, he ought to at
least understand how it works.
Americans must look at the deed rather than the word
when it comes to evaluating Reagan’s politics. He talks of
stopping the arms race, but has launched the biggest
military build-up in peacetime history. He talks of ending
terrorism to overthrow the government of Nicaragua. Now
Reagan tells us that sending weapons into space will be an
act of human rights. Yet here on earth, poverty and hunger
run rampant as America’s greatest technologists are sought
by the government to create new weapons systems.
With Reagan, nuclear missiles are called “peace
keepers” and terrorists in Nicaragua are praised as “freedom
fighters.” With Reagan, talk of justice has meant acts of in
justice. Mondale, at least, offers hope. Will America listen?
, , Page 2, Section A
letters
Sports anger
I don’t know exactly what
sort of reputation “sports
writer” Allan Lazo is trying to
build for himself while covering
Duck football this season, but
clearly he has discredited
himself as a reliable source of
information; in the process,
Lazo has displayed an embar
rassing lack of knowledge con
cerning Pac-10 football.
Three weeks ago, Lazo rested
full blame on Chris Millers’ 4th
quarter interception toss for the
Duck’s disheartening loss to
Arizona. Remember Mr. Lazo,
one play does not a game make,
and your telescopic reporting of
that Miller miscue was an
outrageous abhorrence of
forthright journalistic tenets.
Elsewhere, one can witness
Lazo’s haphazard “Pac-10
predictions” as a preposterous
absence of insight into the en
tire realm of college football.
In his re-cap of the USC game,
the ever gullible Lazo seems
taken in by the overblown
media-hype of USC linebacker
Jack Del-Rio. Lazo paints an All
American picture of Del-Rio,
using one-sided machismo
quotes from the Trojan Star,
completely ignoring the fact
that Steve Jensen’s inspired
play neutralized Del-Rio for
most of the game. Sadly, Lazo’s
story appears to have been bas
ed more upon the USC press
guide than on the game itself.
It is indeed a sad state of af
fairs that Lazo is allowed to use
a University-funded publication
as a personal mouthpiece for
biased discourses in his own
self interest, ridiculing himself.
as well as the Emerald as a
whole.
Robert Thompson
Eugene
Beta Pictoris
The star-gazer that I am. I feel
compelled to point out a couple,
of discrepancies in the recent'
article written by Michael Doke
on the discovery of a new solar
system.
He states that the Beta Pictoris'
star is “50 billion light years
away” and that scientists “have
been studying another star 2000
billion light years away.” Now
either geology Professor Gordon
Coles misled him. or Doke took
the facts down wrong.
Beta Pictoris is, in fact, only
50 light years away or 293
trillion miles from earth. As for
a star 2000 billion light years
away? It simply is not possible.
To put this in perspective,
cosmologists estimate that the
universe itself is less than 300
billion light years old. Thus, for
a person to observe a star 2000
billion light years away, it
would mean observing light
from before time began — as far
as we know, this is impossible.
I enjoyed the article, but felt
these points should be cor
rected. Space is old and big
enough as it is.
Nick Be res
Astrological Physics
Distortions
Normally when an informed
Republican disagrees with an
article or letter to a publication,
that individual attempts to •
refute its assertions with con
tradictory evidence or better
reasoning. This is not the case
with the feeble response to my
recent letter which exposed
Reagan's do-nothing record on *•
crime.. .
Ms. Parkman apparently
debates those who disagree
with her by calling their opi
nions "distortions.” Unable'to
refute my claims, she praised
Reagan’s record by citing the >
meaningless symbolic gestures
that the Republicans have made
concerning crime. I was not im
pressed. and 1 doubt that
anyone else was.
The Reagan record on crime
remains a failure — a miserable
failure. And as the old saying
goes. "A circus blanket on a
jackass does not a showhorse
make." The facts I cited did not
come from campaign brochures.
They came from congressional
committee research reports.
It can’t be denied that violent
crime hits 1 out of every 10
American households each
year. It cannot be denied that
21.000 Americans were ..
murdered in 1983. It cannot be .
denied that there are more than
500.000 heroin addicts in *
America — more than ever
before.
Stop kidding yourself Lori.
Read the newspapers. Crime is
rampant. Victims are more vic
timized than ever before. And
all that Reagan has done both as -
governor of California for eight
years, and as President for four
years, is talk about it. Talk, talk,
talk. It’s time for a change.
Kenneth Hacker
Speech
emerald
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Tuesday, October 23, 1984