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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (May 15, 2015)
4C THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MAY 15, 2015 PARTING SHOTS A weekly snapshot from The Daily Astorian and Chinook Observer photographers Warrenton and Astoria are seen from the cockpit of Allen Sprague’s 1965 Beechcraft Bonanza during a flight earlier this month. JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian Q&A Q: How did you start teaching tai chi? (In the 1970s, Fong suggested to Rooper that she start teaching the classes, but a few years passed before she acted on his suggestion.) with Marilyn Rooper Rooper, a Cannon Beach resident since 1971, is a tai chi instructor. By ERICK BENGEL EO Media Group Q: How did you become involved in tai chi, and where, and why? A: Actually, I got involved in it down here because one of my friends, Beth Holland, had taken the class from (Gregory )ong. 7here are ¿ve different styles/types of tai chi. Beth was teaching me one of them — the Wu form — so I learned that and did it. photo courtesy of Marilyn Rooper Marilyn Rooper does tai chi. Marilyn Rooper And then, one time, she came to me and said, “You’ve got to know this ... Gregory is coming down.” And so I was just ecstatic ... I signed up for Greg’s class, and I followed him all over the place. We were doing tai chi, be- lieve it or not, in the Whale Park ... and then we went to Nehalem ... and then we went to Manza- nita. Finally, one day, there was just me in the class, which was wonderful, to have one-on-one. But then I felt sorry for him be- cause he had a class going on in Portland. I started going to Portland once a week and taking classes up there. It was very intense, but it was wonderful. I absolutely loved it.” Q: Did you have a pre-existing interest in tai chi? A: No, but I’ve always been very interested in Asian cultures, and tai chi is Chi- nese. I also am a calligrapher, so that helps a little bit with un- derstanding (tai chi) ... with the movements and the circular form of your letters. … A lot of practitioners of (do) beautiful calligraphy, too. Unfortunately, my teach- er just passed away at a very young age, and it’s going to be really hard to ¿nd someone to replace him. I guess you really can’t replace him. One time, I gave him a ride back to his class in Portland, because I was going to go and take the class from him, and he said, “When are you go- ing to start teaching?” And I said, “Gregory, I don’t know everything,” and I said, “I feel awkward.” And he said, “You think I know everything? Why do you think I learn all the time from different teachers? Why do I go to Hong Kong? Why do I go to Hawaii?” He traveled around be- cause his goal, as a teacher, was to get some of the best teachers available so he could study with them and learn more, and then he would give it to us. It was like a gift, all the time — he came in and always had new things going for him. So, after he said that, I thought, “Well, I’d better go ahead and wade in.” Q: What is it about tai chi as a practice that keeps you interested? A: It’s an incredible prac- tice. It’s called “meditation in motion.” It has 108 different moves with my form, the long form (of) the Yang-style, and some of the moves have four or ¿ve moves within them. Tai chi is incredible for your mind — the mental, the phys- ical, the spiritual. Each tai chi movement is at least one mar- tial arts movement, so you do something in tai chi and it can be three different martial arts movements. Q: How do you usually feel when it’s over? A: Oh wow, I feel wonder- ful. … “Chi” means energy, and, when you do the form, you develop a lot of energy. I can drive into Portland, go to class for an hour and a half. When I get back in my car, I’m just wide awake. I have so much energy. I feel safer on the high- way. Q: What are some of the biggest misconceptions about tai chi? A: I think one of the big- gest ones probably is, “Oh, this is going to be easy. Piece of cake,” She laughs Credits: Oregon’s goal is to reduce carbon emissions by 10 percent Continued from Page 3C Oregon lawmakers passed a low-carbon fuels bill in 2009, but the Department of Envi- ronmental Quality had not implemented it. The program was set to sunset this year, until lawmakers passed legislation to make it permanent. Fuel producers and truck- ers have ¿led a lawsuit to stop Oregon from implementing the low-carbon fuel standard, and the Western States Petroleum Association is also challenging it at the Oregon Court of Ap- peals. Existing alternative fuels providers qualify for credits under the program because the state agency administer- ing the program, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, did not include them when it calculated the 2010 baseline for the 10 percent carbon reduction. Cory-Ann Wind, an air quality man- ager for the Department of Environmental Quality who works on implementation of the low-carbon fuels program, said alternative fuels were such a small portion of the market that it did not make sense to go through the com- plex calculations necessary to include them in the baseline. “The major consideration was that the alternatives were used so little in 2010 that it didn’t make sense to put a lot of effort into quantifying it,” Wind wrote in an email in late April. “In other words, even if we did factor it in, the change to the baseline would be indis- tinguishable.” It is unclear whether this is true, since DEQ never calcu- lated the potential impact from awarding credit to existing fuel providers. According to the U.S. De- partment of Energy, there are at least 384 electric vehicle charging stations available for public use in Oregon, 37 pub- lic propane stations, 22 stations with at least 20 percent biodies- el, four compressed natural gas stations, ¿ve stations with 8 percent ethanol fuel and one liqui¿ed natural gas station. There are additional private sta- tions used by the governments and companies that operate them. Gastellum said some orga- nizations have used these fuels to run their vehicles for years, such as Schwann’s Home De- livery and Franz Bakery. Other more recent adopters include Willamette Valley Medical Transport and the Polk County Sheriff’s Of¿ce, which began to convert 10 patrol cars to run on propane in 2013. In Salem, a portion of the Cherriots public buses Àeet runs on compressed natural gas. The station owners who fuel these Àeets can generate credits to sell starting next year, even if they reduce carbon emissions by the same — or lower — amounts than in previous years. Those credits will count toward Oregon’s goal to reduce carbon emissions by 10 percent. Gastellum agreed with Wind that allowing existing alternative fuels providers to receive carbon credits will have a minimal impact on Oregon’s ability to reach the 10 percent carbon reduction goal. “It’s pretty small,” Gastel- lum said of this sector of the Oregon transportation fuels market. “...It’s a good start, but it’s not going to get you per- cent reduction already. I think it’s OK to reward some of those early actors in this case, be- cause I think if it were a signif- icant share DEQ really would have looked into that.” 7KLV VWRU\ ¿UVW DSSHDUHG in the Oregon Capital Insider newsletter. To subscribe, go to oregoncapitalinsider.com GE T Y O U R CO PY TOD AY ! D iscoverO urCoa st.com
