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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (June 16, 2005)
news briefs FAIR ENERGY BILL PASSES The Oregon Fair Energy Bill, SB 527, passed in the state Senate on June 13 by a unanimous 29-0 vote. The bill will now go to the House. Lisa Arkin of the Oregon Toxics Alliance helped to draft the bi-partisan bill with Sens. Bill Morrisette (D-Springfield) and Doug Whitsett (R-Klamath Falls), and Reps. Phil Barnhart (D-Eugene) and Bill Garrard (R- Klamath Falls). In recent years, residents of Coburg, Turner and Klamath Falls have complained to their legislators about the inability of local govern- ments (and their constituents) to weigh in on decisions about large gas-fired power plants proposed in those areas. Under current law, the governor-appointed Energy Facility Siting Council has the authority to override state and local land-use regulations in approving new power plant siting. The Fair Energy Bill would require the siting council to work with local governments if they object to such an override. The bill also directs the siting council to consider the environmental impacts of pro- posed facilities and examine applicants’ quali- fications and financial backing when review- ing power plant siting applications. In addition, the bill creates a Task Force on Regional Energy Policy to make long-term en- ergy recommendations, including how to de- termine the need for new facilities and how to give priority to renewable energy projects. “Both our elected representatives and the public noticed that the siting council was ap- proving energy projects that exceeded Oregon’s future need, and could destroy our environment while shipping energy to more lu- crative markets elsewhere,” Arkin said. “The bipartisan support for the bill indicates that everyone felt the need to build a better public process into our power plant siting rules.” — Kera Abraham BY PAUL NEEVEL W a y n e T h om p so n Medford native Wayne Thompson joined the Peace Corps following graduation from Willamette University in 1964. “It changed my life,” says Thompson, who met his wife, Rolly, during training, then lived with indigenous people in the Urubamba Valley of Peru. He and Rolly remain active in the local returned-volunteers group. On his return, Thompson got into teaching to avoid the Vietnam draft, and ultimately taught social studies for 28 years at Roosevelt Junior High and South Eugene High School. When he and Rolly moved to Fox Hollow Road south of Eugene in 1976, they began to raise colored sheep at the suggestion of Sachiye Jones, originator of the annual Black Sheep Gathering (BSG). “I’m the shepherd’s helper,” says Thompson. “Rolly understands genetics and wool. She’s the fiber artist.” However, Thompson himself helped put the BSG on the map when he organized the Third World Congress on Colored Sheep in Eugene in 1989. This year’s BSG is free and open to the public, June 24-26 at the Lane County Fairgrounds. “We’ll have over 600 animals from Western states,” he says. “Fleeces are judged, then go on sale. Spinners from all over get in line to buy them.” 8 JUNE 16, 2005 MORE THAN ONE AGENDA The first item on the Lane Regional Air Pollution Authority (LRAPA)’s June 14 board meeting agenda was clear enough: to interview two candidates for the open at-large board po- sition and then appoint one of them. The interviews happened. The appoint- ment didn’t. Candidate Barbara Allen, who works with special education students in Springfield, emphasized research linking learning disabil- ities with air pollution. Candidate Marie Richey said that air quality shouldn’t be a po- larizing issue. “Our breath is sacred,” she said. “That doesn’t mean I’m anti-business and pro-environment.” The motion to appoint Richey failed 2-6, and the motion to appoint Allen failed 4-4. The Eugene representatives were split on the latter vote, with Betty Taylor and Drew Johnson in favor and Gary Rayor and Earl Koenig opposed. The board then voted to re-open the appli- cation deadline until July 8. Drew Johnson questioned the legality of the board’s stated preference for a Springfield resident, but LRAPA Interim Director Jim Johnson as- sured him it was legal. “Are you going to advertise for an at-large member from Springfield who is anti-envi- ronment?” asked Taylor, earning chuckles from the standing-room-only audience. Some attendees felt that rejecting both Allen and Richey was the plan all along. “I’m not surprised,” says Eugene resident Leslie Maguire. “This wasn’t about the quality of the candidates. It was about an agenda.” Public health advocates allege that the LRAPA board is too slanted toward industry, while pro-business activists complain that the board is environmentally biased. Recent R-G articles suggest that the board’s four Eugene representatives vote as a pro-environment bloc despite meeting minutes to the contrary. Koenig usually votes in line with pro-business board members Dave Ralston, Glen Fortune and Faye Stewart. Rayor, like at-large repre- sentative Carol Tannenbaum, is a swing vote — when he shows up. (Rayor has missed three monthly meetings since October, and he plans to miss the July meeting as well.) Taylor votes staunchly along the public-health line, only re- cently with the support of new Eugene ap- pointee Drew Johnson. — Kera Abraham GARDENERS GET BIG BILL The city of Eugene has hit the Eugene Garden Club with a $14,600 bill for paving the alley behind their 1645 High Street club house. The house is used by the club for meetings, (continued on page 10)
