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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 2, 2016)
Page 6A OPINION East Oregonian Tuesday, February , Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN DANIEL WATTENBURGER Publisher Managing Editor JENNINE PERKINSON TIM TRAINOR Advertising Director Opinion Page Editor OUR VIEWS Oregon lights a ¿re under coal power Most Oregonians get it: The age of coal is over. Nations, states and companies that don’t immediately begin a serious transition to non-coal electricity will face a steep upward curve in costs, which will be passed along to consumers and future generations. Though details will doubtless be re¿ned during the legislative process, utilities, conservationists and consumer groups make a good case for Oregon House Bill . Weaning Paci¿c Power and Portland *eneral Electric off coal in years, this bill is designed to satisfy state voters who would otherwise be tempted to pass a ballot initiative this year that might be more clumsy in achieving the same goal and cost million more. As the cost of wind, solar and other clean energy comes down, regulations aim to keep fossil fuel-related greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere and ocean. By starting to lock in predictable costs for alternative energy, the big private utilities and society as a whole give themselves a path that avoids future price shocks. Oregon already is planning on the end of the Boardman coal-¿red power plant by , PGE’s one facility in the state. HB would mean Oregon would cease buying coal-generated electricity produced out of state in places like Wyoming. With vast reserves of coal and other fossil fuels, the interior Western states will doubtless search for other customers for dirty power. But in the long run, it’s likely other states and the federal government will join with Oregon in developing new ways to provide electricity. HB will double Oregon’s alternative energy usage by . This ambitious push toward a sustainable future will provide an additional impetus for clean- power inventors and investors — improving the technology and bringing costs down. Paci¿c Power’s analysis of the legislation ¿nds it will increase costs by less than percent a year through . Oregon-related carbon emissions through will be million tons less than they would be without this bill. It’s rare to build such a broad coalition of support as HB has achieved. It won’t please climate- change deniers, whose mantra is still “Burn baby, burn.” A strong majority of Oregonians prefer the sane approach exempli¿ed by the legislation. OTHER VIEWS Trump, Sanders and the revolt against decadence O &DOOLQJDOOTXDOL¿HG candidates Because of the quirks of the U.S. presidential process — and democracy in general — Iowa got its day in the sun Monday. Actually, it’s been in the sun for the past two months at least, as Republican and Democrat presidential candidates have stopped in every restaurant, church, community center and school in the state in an attempt to get that crucial ¿rst foothold in the long climb to becoming their party’s nominee. As the candidates and media pack up and head northeast to New Hampshire for the next stop on the roadshow, we’ll take a minute to look at the picture closer to home. Pendleton Mayor Phillip Houk, a ¿xture in local politics for two decades, said Monday he’s not going to run again. Councilor Jane Hill left her seat to take a job with the Tribe, and two have already ¿led for it, while councilor Chuck Wood also said he isn’t going to run for another term. This is how many Americans, ne of the puzzles of the many Westerners, experience their campaign, unexpectedly civilization in the early years of the de¿ned by the ascent of a st century. And both Trump and billionaire reality TV star and a Bernie Sanders, in their very different septuagenarian Vermont socialist, ways, are telling us that we don’t have is why now? Yes, voters are angry, to settle for it anymore. yes, they’re exhausted and disgusted With Trump, the message is crude, and cynical about everything. But explicit, deliberately over the top. why is everything boiling over in this Ross particular cycle, in this presidential Douthat Make America Great Again. “We will have so much winning if I get elected campaign? Comment that you may get bored with the Consider: The economic picture winning.” is better than it was in , when But it resonates because the diagnosis Republican primary voters settled for Mitt resonates — especially with older Americans, Romney and an incumbent president was who grew up amid the post-World War II re-elected pretty easily. (In both Iowa and boom, the vaulting optimism of the Space New Hampshire, the unemployment rate is Age, the years when big government and under 4 percent.) The foreign policy picture big business were seen as effective and is grim in certain ways, but America isn’t trapped in a casualty-heavy quagmire the way patriotic rather than sclerotic and corrupt. Trump is offering nostalgia, but it’s not a true we were in 4, when Democratic voters played it safe with John Kerry and George W. reactionary’s lament. He wants to take us back to a time when the future seemed great, Bush won re-election. amazing, fantastic. As Michael Grunwald argued recently in Likewise Sanders, except that in his Politico, the worst-case scenarios of the post- case the glorious future is more midcentury Great Recession era haven’t materialized. Scandinavia than Space Age America. Obamacare is limping along without an After Obamacare became law, it seemed to imminent death spiral, and health care costs many people that the welfare state project aren’t rising as fast as feared. The de¿cit has was basically complete, that the future of fallen a bit, and inÀation is extraordinarily U.S. liberalism mostly involved tweaking low. The stock market is wobbly, but we entitlements around the edges to keep them haven’t had a double-dip recession. On the cultural front, out-of-wedlock births solvent. But Sanders is telling liberals, younger liberals especially, that the heroic are no longer rising. Abortion rates have age of liberalism isn’t over yet, that they can fallen. Illegal immigration rates are down. have a welfare state that’s far more amazing The state of the union isn’t all that one might hope, but it could clearly be a whole lot and fantastic than the one their forefathers constructed. worse. The fact that both of these messages — So what are Trumpistas and Bern-feelers Trump’s “Make America great again” and rebelling against? Bernie’s “Why not socialism?” — involve One answer might be that they’re fed up with exactly this — the politics of “it could be essentially recycled visions of the future is a sign of how hard it is for a decadent society to worse,” of stagnation and muddling through. escape the trap of repetition. They aren’t revolting against abject failure, But more important, the fact that both or deep and swift decline. They’re rebelling men are promising the implausible or the against decadence. impossible — and the fact that Trump Now it may sound absurd to cast a ¿gure is openly contemptuous of our ragged like Donald Trump, the much-married prince republican norms — is a reminder that there of tinsel and pasteboard, as a scourge of are worse things than decadence, grimmer decadence rather than its embodiment. possibilities for the future than drift and But don’t just think about the word repetition. in moral or aesthetic terms. Think of it The disappointment and impatience that as a useful way of describing a society people feel in a decadent era is legitimate, that’s wealthy, powerful, technologically even admirable. But the envy of more heroic pro¿cient — and yet seemingly unable to moments, the desire to just do something to advance in the way that its citizens once prove your society’s vitality — Invade Iraq took for granted. A society where people to remake the Middle East! Open Germany’s have fewer children and hold diminished expectations for the future, where institutions borders! Elect Trump or Sanders president! — can be a very dangerous sensibility. don’t work particularly well but can’t seem There are pathways up from decadence. to be effectively reformed, where growth is But there are more roads leading down. slow and technological progress disappoints. Ŷ A society that ¿ghts to a stalemate in its Ross Douthat joined The New York Times foreign wars, even as domestic debates as an Op-Ed columnist in April 2009. His repeat themselves without any resolution. A column appears every Sunday. Previously, society disillusioned with existing religions he was a senior editor at The Atlantic and a and ideologies, but lacking new sources of blogger for theatlantic.com. meaning to take their place. They have been three of the most energetic members of Pendleton’s city government, and their absence will be felt. While there are no clones out there who will exactly replicate what they have brought to the council chambers and the city at large, we know there are many in this community who would make great civic leaders. We’ll refrain from naming names (for now), but ask our readers to take a minute to think about those you know who have the energy, wisdom and poise it takes to make a good councilor or mayor and encourage them to run. Sometimes all it takes is a nudge. And if we end up with multiple quali¿ed candidates, all the better. We’ll let them pitch their ideas and thereby achieve the promise of the democratic process. We may be fascinated with the presidential race, but in truth the local election has the potential to affect our daily lives in more ways in the next four years. Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of Publisher Kathryn Brown, Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, and Opinion Page Editor Tim Trainor. Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily that of the East Oregonian. YOUR VIEWS Fed up with politics as usual Enough is enough when it comes to the politicians, whether locally, state-wide, or on the national level, taking a stand, demanding this or that, and then when something bad happens they either blame someone else or deny they had any part of it. Such is the case with “sit-in governor” Kate Brown, and Oregon’s clown prince U.S. Senator Merkley. Both were front and center in demanding that the feds step in, concerning the Harney County standoff, both demanding Tuick and ¿rm actions to end it. Well folks, they got their wish. The FBI was dispatched by the Obama regime and as a result one person is dead. Almost instantaneously, Katie and Jeff ran out saying “nothing we did helped create the killing of an individual, it was all the doing of the people of Harney County.” Sounds a bit like the “Fast and Furious” gun running of Obama and Holder, or the murders in Benghazi. Personally I am tired of politicians who are more concerned with photo ops, even when it ends with the death of an individual, than they are about common sense resolutions to problems. This standoff could have ended with some basic tactics: shut off power, stop the in and out travel and stop letting the group access to town for food, and most important, send the media packing as attention was what this group sought and the media was more than happy to provide it. In my view, Brown and Merkley both have blood on their hands as they demanded this be brought to an immediate end, mostly for political reasons, i.e. Katie wanted to show how well she handled the situation, Merkley wanted to show he has Obama’s ear, and as a result an Idaho man is now dead. Now to the naysayers, I did not support the group’s actions, or the actions of the individual killed, but I do support an investigation into the overreach by the BLM, Dept. of Interior, EPA and the DOE. And yes, I know such an investigation will not happen with the current politically motivated Justice Department under Obama. John Harvey 6WDQ¿HOG Extremism in anti-Planned Parenthood agenda Now that the little children are almost done with their playground temper tantrum because they don’t like the way the game is being played, can we get back to the serious matters facing this country. The nonsense going on at the Malheur NWR obscured the actions of a Houston, Texas (noted bastion of left-wing ideas), grand jury. The persons responsible for producing the Planned Parenthood videos were indicted while no charges were ¿led against Planned Parenthood itself. This was the issue some extremists were willing to risk a draconian shutdown of the federal government over last fall. Think carefully before you cast a vote for someone who would endorse that kind of scorched-earth governance. Patrick J. Delaney Hermiston Let voters decide on Plute Those of us that are circulating the petition for recall of Al Plute, city councilor, are neither cowards nor bullies. We are just concerned citizens. There is no personal vendetta against Mr. Plute. The city council lists this as one of their goals: “Creating a vibrant business and community environment.” City councilors vote on many issues that affect business in Pendleton. How can we expect Mr. Plute to be a part of creating a vibrant business environment if he refuses to pay a bill from a local business? Even though a settlement has now been reached, it took a lawsuit and over three years to come to that point. When the latest ruling was made, the East Oregonian felt the same way: “... Judge in ruling ¿nds , attorney bill ... ‘reasonable’ for winner, scolds losing Pendleton developer and city councilman as ‘unreasonable. ...’ (East Oregonian, December , .) We are exercising our rights as citizens of Pendleton to use the recall process. We don’t dislike Mr. Plute or wish him ill will. We simply feel he is ineffective as a city councilor. Once the required signatures are gathered, the citizens of Pendleton will decide. Larry Anderson Pendleton Plute recall is baseless It’s fact that Al Plute has done much good for the City of Pendleton. His comments to the East Oregonian are an effort to educate the citizens of this city about the problems we are facing. His opponents in this ‘Recall Campaign’ are basing their arguments on emotion and little else. Ignore the petition! Terry Hill Pendleton
