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
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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
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Energy exporters must be
held liable for spills
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have watched with some
complacency in recent years
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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
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Summing up north Oregon and
Washington schemes to export
coal and natural gas, we could be
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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
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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
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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
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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-
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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
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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
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proposals. But at a minimum,
we should be prepared to
comment on them and to exert
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push for maximum safety and
accountability.
Corporations
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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,
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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
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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.