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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (May 19, 2011)
letters TO THE EDITOR the desert and over some mountains to the Columbia River near The Dalles. F. Del Helm Eugene AND THE POOR SUFFER Seneca, with the approval of the state of Oregon, wants to continue the practice of burning the chips, wood debris and even whole trees from the site of former clearcuts. Allowing nonsustainable logging to take place is bad enough. Taking away biomass from the forests for any reason, (which when decomposed with the help of fungi, insects and microorganisms,) will be the foundation upon which the forest will re-grow, is lack of foresight. Without abun- dant vegetation to photosynthesize oxygen and consume CO2, this planet will die. Furthermore, burning cellulose produces more greenhouse gases than burning coal. There are some local politicians who call this method of producing electricity green or clean. I am referring to Mayor Piercy, Rep. DeFazio, Sen. Wyden and Gov. Kitzhaber. There are others who refer vaguely to the economy, but biomass provides fewer jobs than truly green sustainable forestry and energy production. To create electricity there are more modern and reliable methods. Using the power of the sun, wind and geothermal will get civilization simultaneously out of the energy crisis, climate change, war over resources and weak economy. Putting solar collectors on every rooftop and spreading windmills out evenly to account for loss of power during transportation is the way to go. In this manner, we would have our energy needs met and wouldn’t have to worry about the destruction of our forests. David Ivan Piccioni Eugene Asian Food Market Largest Selection of Asian Groceries Seaweed, rice, noodles, frozen products, deli, snacks, drinks, sauces, spices, produce, housewares, and more. We carry groceries from Holland, India, Pakistan and Polynesia Sushi & Asian deli take-out WoodÀ eld Station SHOPPING CENTER 29TH AVENUE 5 Sunrise Open Everyday 11am to 9pm DELIVERY TO YOUR HOME OR OFFICE STARTS SOON CATER WITH RON’S Great Prices • Short Notice Open Everyday • All Events OAK STREET LACK OF FORESIGHT It’s encouraging that the UO is fi nally starting to consider more appropriate locations for their Riverfront Research Park expansion. It’s depressing that they continue to cling to an unhealthy obsession with vast parking lots. Gas hit $4 a gallon this week, and is going to go nowhere but up. Parking lots are for dinosaurs. The Pacifi c Northwest is home to a growing number of 21st century construction projects. In Seattle, they are designing the super-green Cascadia Center for Sustainable Design and Construction. It will include facilities for lots of bicycles and a small pool of electric cars, but tenants will be expected to commute via bikes and public transit. Portland is planning the Oregon Sustainability Center, which provides just bicycle parking and street rail access. In beautiful downtown Eugene, LCC is busy building a green housing facility for 250 students. It will provide generous parking for bicycles and zero parking for cars. The building is located conveniently close to the city’s totally amazing EmX system. The UO is a world-class institution of higher learning. It wants to become a growing center for world-class research. So why design a 21st century facility surrounded by an asphalt pasture for ugly, smelly, stupid horseless carriages? If the Texas developer insists on building a weird anachronism, maybe it’s time for a new developer — maybe a progressive Oregon developer, someone with their eyes on tomorrow, not yesterday (if expansion is truly necessary). Richard Reese Eugene WILLAMETTE STREET The Seneca biomass-fi red generator (cover story, 5/12) is profi table, not eco- nomically sustainable, because the compa- ny, owned by perhaps the wealthiest man in Lane County, Aaron Jones, is planning on a $10 million tax break — half its investment — from the state government. This is the Oregon government that is so broke it is cutting to the point of destroying programs that actually reduce the cost of services, provide living-wage jobs (such as home health care workers), put armies of volunteers in effi cient service to the those whom no one else will help, and rescue families with children from desperate and dire straits. The Seneca situation is somewhat anal- ogous to the largest and most profi table cor- poration in the history of the world, Exxon Mobil, getting ongoing federal tax breaks, for doing what it does best — making rich people richer and poor people poorer. Finally, if you think sending forest nutrients up an urban smokestack and into landfi lls while using enough water for 1,444 households is renewable or ecologically sustainable, the Oregon Joint Committee on Tax Credits would like to add you to their list of special (very special) interest supporters. Robert Beal We the People — Eugene DINOSAUR PARKING www.sunriseasianfood.com M-Th 9am-7pm•F 9am-8pm•Sa 9am-7pm•Su 10am-6pm 70 W. 29th Ave. Eugene • 541-343-3295 4 GREAT EUGENE LOCATIONS 2506 Willakenzie Rd. | 342-3006 55 W. 29th | 344-5880 1249 Alder St (Campus) | 344-1960 401 W. 3rd Ave. | 344-3324 (M-F 11am-4pm) Celebrating 12 Years! Stylish Comfort Dazzle your friends and co-workers in these cute and comfortable sandals by pr!vo. OLD ARGUMENTS Thank you for publishing my Viewpoint, “Smells Fishy” in your April 21 issue. In light of Congressman DeFazio’s reply, “Breaching Dams?” (5/5), and other feedback, I’d like to make a clarifi cation. In my opinion piece I summarized that the Northwest Power and Conservation Council determined the Northwest could meet its increased electricity needs over the next 20 years, remove the lower Snake River dams and retire all Northwest coal plants, and save on energy bills. This actu- ally represents the fi ndings from a related study called “Bright Future” by the North- west Energy Coalition, an alliance of en- vironmental, civic, and human service or- ganizations, progressive utilities and busi- nesses. The two plans differ on replacing the energy from the four lower Snake River dams. NPCC’s analysis looked at energy replacement primarily through gas and coal, a proposal many conservation groups would never support. Instead, salmon and clean energy advocates call for the forward thinking found in “Bright Future.” There is a lot more to the story and fi ght for salmon in the Snake River Basin than can be discussed by DeFazio, or myself, in this forum about the pros and cons of dam removal. I stand by what I wrote: DeFazio seems clouded by old arguments on this issue. What is needed most right now is his political will to step away from supporting status quo hydro power operations and start embracing sustainable values that WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM Follow Your Feet to Footwise SANDALS SHOES CLOGS BOOTS &#SPBEXBZt%PXOUPXO&VHFOFt 48.BEJTPOt%PXOUPXO$PSWBMMJTt .PO4BU4VOtXXXGPPUXJTFDPN EUGENE WEEKLY MAY 19, 2011 5
