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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 26, 2015)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, JANUARY 26, 2015 D AILY A STORIAN Where the road meets the walrus T HE Founded in 1873 STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager CARL EARL, Systems Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager SAMANTHA MCLAREN, Circulation Manager Fresh air blows through City Hall A Mayor LaMear shows leadership, pragmatism in resolving DUIIs gust of fresh air passed through Astoria City Hall last week. By voting 4-1 last Tuesday to move drunk-driving cases to Circuit Court, the council has liberated the town from a longstanding debilitating and costly argument. Over some 13 years the adjudication of DUII cases in Astoria Municipal Court periodically produced embarrassing outcomes. The basic inadequacy of prosecuting DUII cases in our Municipal Court was the disparity between the skill levels of prosecutors and defense lawyers. In essence, part-time prosecutors faced full-time defense lawyers in front of a part-time judge. The defense of drunk-driving cases has become a highly developed specialty of the bar. Every town in America has a DUII defense specialist. Being highly experienced matters because case law on drunk driving changes frequently. The Oregon $WWRUQH\ *HQHUDO¶V 2I¿FH KDV D specialist whose main job is to answer county prosecutors’ questions on the nuances of DUII law. Role reversals were common in Astoria Municipal Court. The city prosecutor also worked as a defense lawyer in Circuit Court. Thus in one setting, that lawyer would take the side of the Astoria Police and in the other setting, he would oppose them. The court’s judge also worked as a defense lawyer. We live in a world of specialists, and that is especially true of the bar. There is a reason why judges are a distinct professional class. By giving them one task and one task only, we can expect judges to attain a level of experience and impartiality. The same is true of prosecutors. By taking on the issue of DUIIs in Municipal Court, Astoria Mayor Arline LaMear showed a large measure of leadership. During the campaign, she had favored keeping drunk-driving cases in Municipal Court. But seeing a council majority on the side of moving these cases to Circuit Court, she did not hesitate to take the pragmatic approach. It is good to have this matter put away. Huge carbon load is coming our way W Energy exporters must be held liable for spills H LQ WKH 3DFL¿F 1RUWKZHVW have watched with some complacency in recent years DV RLO WUDLQV KDYH FDXJKW ¿UH LQ faraway places and ships have disgorged petroleum cargoes and fuel on previously pristine shores. Reporting by the Seattle-based Sightline Institute reminds us that we have already suffered some serious oil spills and had numerous near misses. We also face a future that includes proposals for an astonishing amount of additional RLOWUDI¿F Summing up north Oregon and Washington schemes to export coal and natural gas, we could be WUDQVSRUWLQJ¿YHWLPHVPRUHFDUERQ than the Keystone XL Pipeline. • Oil pipelines. Two new oil pipelines would be capable of carrying more than 1.1 million barrels per day, enough to emit 199 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually. • Oil-by-rail facilities. Eleven RLOE\UDLO IDFLOLWLHV DW UH¿QHULHV RU port terminals could move 858,900 barrels per day, enough to emit 132 million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year. There are major oil-by-rail proposals in our immediate vicinity, including three on the South Washington Coast at Grays Harbor and three on the Columbia River — including a major expansion of an operation in Clatskanie. The largest, Tesoro/Savage in Vancouver, Wash., would be capable of moving 360,000 barrels of oil per day. It is working its way through the permitting process and expected to be up and running soon, though the plunge in oil prices may curb enthusiasm for it. These fossil fuel plans win political support, even here in the environmentally conscious 1RUWKZHVW 9LVLEOH RSSRVLWLRQ FDQ be dangerous: Witness Catherine Mater’s summary dismissal from the Oregon Transportation Commission after she voted against a coal-export facility. Terminals create jobs that are often union DI¿OLDWHG ZKLOH PDNLQJ RRGOHV RI money for investors. This creates a bipartisan groundswell of support in the corridors of power in Salem, Olympia and Washington, D.C. It is questionable whether ordinary coastal citizens get anything out of these plans, with the exception of eventual trickle- GRZQ EHQH¿WV IURP VWDWH JHQHUDO funds. We certainly face more risk, both from spills and from an increasingly unpredictable climate and ocean. It’s easy to lose track of just how often we’ve narrowly dodged what could have been catastrophic spills. Sightline reports an overall survey here: tinyurl.com/pssvh23. In the SDVW\HDUVWKHUHKDYHEHHQ¿YH occasions when ships or barges got into trouble in the Columbia estuary or near enough that they could have ended razor clamming, oystering and other key resource-based industries. There are limits on what we FDQ GR WR LQÀXHQFH HQHUJ\H[SRUW proposals. But at a minimum, we should be prepared to comment on them and to exert SUHVVXUH RQ HOHFWHG RI¿FLDOV WR push for maximum safety and accountability. Corporations WKDW SUR¿W PXVW DOVR EHDU DOO WKH ¿QDQFLDO ULVNV 7KH\ PXVW LQVXUH WKDW DYRLGLQJ VSLOOV LV WKHLU ¿UVW priority and that response plans are effective and fully funded. noticed, during the State of one-shot revenues. Corker has been known to com- the Union, that Obama was plain that he’s been in the urging Congress to bring Senate for eight years and the capital gains tax back et’s raise the gas tax. never saw Congress per- There are several reasons we up to Reagan-era levels? manently solve a problem. Who’d have thought? We need to discuss this now. Last year Corker live in ironic times, people. One is that plummeting gasoline and Sen. Chris Murphy, The federal gas tax, cur- prices make the idea very timely. rently 18.4 cents a gallon, '&RQQ ÀRDWHG WKH LGHD Also, people will be asking you this LVQRWLQGH[HGIRULQÀDWLRQ of raising the gas tax 12 week what you thought of President and it has not gone up since cents over two years. “Our Gail bet when we went out on a Barack Obama’s State of the Union 1993. The Highway Trust Collins limb last year was that we address. Even though he did not men- Fund, which pays for the could position it as a topic tion the gas tax, bringing it up will federal highway construc- allow you to avoid having an opinion tion program, keeps falling deeper for serious discussion this year, and I on whether it’s time to close the cap- into the red. It’s scheduled to implode hope it’s going to pay off,” Murphy said. ital gains stepped-up-basis loophole. sometime this spring. And it’s working, sort of. A num- The gas tax raises much-needed The White House has been very money for roads and mass transit. clear about its lack of enthusiasm for ber of prominent Republicans have Our roads, you may have noticed, are solving the problem with a gas tax been muttering things like “nothing falling apart. Every time you hit a pot- increase. Mainly, the objection is that is off the table.” Sen. James Inhofe, hole, yell: “Raise the gas tax!” if Congress wouldn’t pass Obama’s R-Okla., the new chairman of the Even more important, it encour- proposal to pay for early education Environment and Public Works Com- DJHV$PHULFDQV WR XVH IXHOHI¿FLHQW with a tobacco tax, it’s not going to mittee, and a man whose position on cars. While we’re all happy as clams fund road repair with a gas tax. This is global warming makes him an ene- about falling gas prices, every gallon a pretty good point. However, deeply my to walruses everywhere, has said produces more than 19 pounds of cynical souls could also argue that the a gas tax is “one of the options.” An planet-warming emissions. current majority likes road option that is not off the table! Truly, We just had the hottest year construction more than pre- the worm has turned. On the other hand, Rep. Paul RQ UHFRUG7KH LFH ÀRHV DUH We school. Ryan, R-Wis., the new chairman of melting. Walruses keep pil- During the State of the live in ing up along the Alaskan Union, Obama made his the House Ways and Means Commit- shore, where the babies can pitch for another idea: re- tee, recently announced: “We won’t ironic get squashed. form the tax on overseas pass a gas tax.” That would seem to times, Raise the gas tax and re- EXVLQHVV SUR¿WV FUHDWLQJ D be somewhat discouraging, but there member the walruses. windfall of are still these gleams of hope that Re- people. one-time-only Plus, it’s not really a tax! revenue for the government publicans might come around since: • You can call it a user fee. (Ask Or at least not necessarily. to use in a mega-road-build- Reagan) Just ask Ronald Reagan. When he en- ing spree. • Obama doesn’t like it. WHUHGRI¿FH5HDJDQVDLGKHGLGQ¶WVHH Three reasons the gas tax is a bet- • Compromise is possible. Many the likelihood of a gas tax increase ter idea: conservatives hate the fact that the “unless there’s a palace coup.” But 1) Walruses. then, you know, stuff happened and 2) Half the members of Congress Highway Trust Fund also helps sup- The Great Communicator discovered are eyeing that very same windfall to port mass transit and invests in things OLNHKLJKZD\EHDXWL¿FDWLRQDQGELNH that a levy on gasoline wasn’t really pay for their own pet programs. a tax but merely a “user fee.” So no 3) Only works once. “It’s just a paths. There might be some room for problem at all, and under his admin- coward’s way out,” says Sen. Bob give here. Let’s throw something in istration the, um, fee was more than &RUNHU 57HQQ *HQXLQH ¿VFDO FRQ- the fund under the proverbial bus. I doubled. servatives hate the idea of paying for nominate “transportation museums.” Walrus seconds the motion. Ah, Ronald Reagan. Perhaps you permanent ongoing programs with By GAIL COLLINS New York Times News Service L Iran’s emerging empire worries Gulf Arabs By CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER Washington Post Writers Group W $6+,1*721 ² :KLOH Iran’s march toward a nuclear bomb has provoked a major clash between the White House and Congress, Iran’s march toward conventional domination of the Arab world has been largely overlooked. In Washington, that is. The Arabs have noticed. And the pro-American ones, the Gulf Ar- abs in particular, are deeply wor- ried. L a s t week, Irani- an-backed Houthi rebels Charles seized control Krauthammer of the Yemeni government, heretofore pro-American. In Sep- tember, they overran Sanaa, the capital. On Tuesday, they seized the presidential palace. On Thurs- day, they forced the president to resign. The Houthi have local religious grievances, being Shiites in a ma- jority Sunni land. But they are also agents of Shiite Iran, which arms, trains and advises them. Their slogan — “God is great. Death to America. Death to Isra- el” — could have been written in Persian. Why should we care about the coup? First, because we depend on Yemen’s government to support our drone war against another local menace, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. It’s not clear if we can even maintain our embassy in Ye- men, let alone conduct operations against AQAP. And second, be- cause growing Iranian hegemony is a mortal threat to our allies and interests in the entire Middle East. In Syria, Iran’s power is simi- larly rising. The mullahs rescued the reeling regime of Bashar al-As- sad by sending in weapons, money and Iranian revolutionary guards, as well as by ordering their Leba- nese proxy, Hezbollah, to join the fight. They succeeded. The moder- ate rebels are in disarray, even as Assad lives in de facto coexistence with the Islamic State, which con- trols a large part of his country. Iran’s domination of Syria was further illustrated by a strange oc- currence last Sunday in the Golan Heights. An Israeli helicopter at- tacked a convoy on the Syrian side of the armistice line. Those killed were not Syrian, however, but five Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon and several Iranian officials, in- cluding a brigadier general. AP Photo/Rick Wilking, Pool U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, shakes hands with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif before a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, Jan. 14. What were they doing in the an domination. Syrian Golan Heights? Giving The nightmare would be hugely “crucial advice,” announced the compounded by Iran going nucle- Iranian government. On what? ar. The Saudis were already stupe- Well, three days earlier, Hezbol- fied that the U.S. conducted secret lah’s leader had threatened an at- negotiations with Tehran behind tack on Israel’s Galilee. Tehran their backs. And they can see appears to be using its control of where the current talks are headed Syria and Hezbollah to create his — legitimizing Iran as a threshold nuclear state. very own front against Israel. Which makes all the more in- The Israelis can defeat any con- YHQWLRQDO DWWDFN 1RW VR WKH *XOI comprehensible President Obama’s Arabs. To the north and west, they fierce opposition to Congress’ of- fer to strengthen see Iran creating the American ne- a satellite “Shiite gotiating hand by Crescent” stretch- The nightmare passing sanctions ing to the Med- would be hugely to be triggered if iterranean and Iran fails to agree consisting of Iraq, compounded to give up its nu- Syria and Leba- clear program. non. To their south by Iran going After all, that was and west, they see the understanding Iran gaining proxy nuclear. Obama gave Con- control of Ye- gress when he be- men. And they are gan these last-ditch negotiations in caught in the pincer. The Saudis are fighting back the first place. Why are you parroting Tehran’s the only way they can — with massive production of oil at a time talking points, Mr. President? asks of oversupply and collapsing pric- Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez. es, placing enormous economic Indeed, why are we endorsing pressure on Iran. It needs $136 oil Iran’s claim that sanctions relief to maintain its budget. The price is is the new norm? Obama assured the nation that sanctions relief today below $50. Yet the Obama administration was but a temporary concession to appears to be ready to acquiesce to give last-minute, time-limited ne- the new reality of Iranian domina- gotiations a chance. Twice the deadline has come. tion of Syria. It has told The New York Times that it is essentially Twice no new sanctions, just un- abandoning its proclaimed goal of conditional negotiating extensions. Our regional allies — Saudi removing Assad. For the Saudis and the other Arabia, the other five Gulf states, Gulf Arabs, this is a nightmare. Jordan, Egypt and Israel — are They’re engaged in a titanic re- deeply worried. Tehran is visibly gional struggle with Iran. And on the march on the ground and they are losing — losing Yemen, openly on the march to nuclear losing Lebanon, losing Syria and status. And their one great ally, watching post-U.S.-withdrawal their strategic anchor for two gen- Iraq come under increasing Irani- erations, is acquiescing to both.
