Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Publisher
Managing Editor
JENNINE PERKINSON
TIM TRAINOR
Advertising Director
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
Supreme Court needs
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We learned last week that
“Former prosecutors, government
President Obama is vetting an
lawyers and scholars make up most
Iowa federal appellate judge for the
of the bench today. Kelly stands
vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court. out as a federal public defender
There is a political
who represented
angle in this, of
several of the most
Justices mainly recognizable names
course.
Judge Jane L.
to face criminal
come from a
Kelly was praised
prosecution in Iowa
heavily by Iowa’s
courtrooms.”
narrow and
Republican Sen.
The malady that
rareied slice of DIÀLFWVWKH6XSUHPH
Charles Grassley,
during her prior
Court is that justices
academia.
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mainly come from a
hearing. Grassley
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is chairman of the Senate Judiciary
slice of academia, think tanks and
Committee. Kelly won eventual
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advocacy in criminal trials or even
margin. Grassley and Kelly are
with handling non-criminal clients.
Iowans. Thus a Kelly nomination
Judge Kelly has said that in the
to the Supreme Court would be
course of her criminal defense work
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she has spent so much time inside
Beyond the political calculus,
prisons that she’s probably served
there is an appealing aspect to the
prospect of Judge Kelly’s being
the equivalent of a sentence for a
nominated. She would bring
misdemeanor.
real-world perspective to the court.
It is anybody’s guess how this
She has worked as a criminal
will turn out. President Obama is
smart to seek a nominee such as
defense lawyer. The Des Moines
Judge Kelly.
Register noted last week that,
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.
OTHER VIEWS
Delay of Clean Power Plan
shows need for carbon price
J
ust how disastrous is
market-based approach favored
the Supreme Court’s
by policy makers on both the left
recent ruling delaying
and the right.
implementation of the Clean
Citizens’ Climate Lobby
recommends a policy known
Power Plan, the centerpiece of
as Carbon Fee and Dividend,
President Obama’s efforts to
whereby a steadily rising fee
reduce greenhouse gas pollution?
Worse than most people
is placed on fuels based on the
realize.
amount of CO2 they will emit
Mark
Late last year in Paris, 196
Reynolds when burned. All revenue from
nations agreed to limit global
that substantial and transparent
Comment
warming to 2 degrees Celsius
fee is then returned equally
above pre-industrial
to all households,
levels, and to strive
shielding families
to limit warming to
from the economic
1.5 C. Both goals
burden of higher
were based on the
energy costs. Border
broad recognition
tariffs, placed on
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imports from nations
the 2 C threshold
that do not have
would result in
equivalent carbon
consequences such
pricing, would protect
as sea level rise, food
American businesses
shortages, worsening
and motivate other
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governments to follow
heat waves likely
our lead.
to outpace our
A study from
civilization’s adaptive capability.
Regional Economic Models, Inc.,
Meeting either marker, the Paris
found that this policy would achieve
signatories believed, would require the
a 52 percent reduction in CO2
world to remain under a “carbon budget” emissions within 20 years. It would
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also strengthen the American economy,
emitted from 2015 onward. The EPA’s
adding 2.8 million jobs from the
Clean Power Plan to reduce carbon
stimulus effect of recycling carbon fee
emissions from electrical facilities was
revenue into the pockets of people likely
viewed an essential part of America’s
to spend the money.
strategy for staying within its portion of
Sounds great, you may be thinking,
the carbon budget.
but what are the chances Congress will
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take bipartisan action?
scientists have concluded that the true
They’re much better than you might
carbon budget is only 1,240 gigatons,
think.
about half. In light of this new estimate,
In September, Rep. Chris Gibson
the court’s stay on the Clean Power
(R-NY) introduced a resolution (H.
Plan — delaying implementation for at
Res 424), now cosponsored by 12 other
least a year — could not have come at a
Republicans, stating that climate change
worse time.
could have an adverse impact on our
:KDWDUHWKHUDPL¿FDWLRQVRIWKHQHZ nation and that Congress should start
carbon budget?
working on solutions.
It was previously thought that we
This unprecedented resolution was
have — at best — 60 years to transition
followed by another breakthrough last
to a carbon-neutral society. The new
month: the formation of the bipartisan
report cuts that number in half.
House Climate Solutions Caucus,
“At current rates, the carbon budget
co-chaired by Rep. Carlos Curbelo
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(R-FL) and Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL).
years,” said Joeri Rogelj, lead author
“There shouldn’t be this false
of the study that was published in the
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journal Nature Climate Change. “These
you want to solve this problem and if
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you’re a Republican you want to ignore
should not just sit and wait, because
it,” Curbelo told Bloomberg Business.
then the window for staying within the
“That just makes no sense.”
budget would become vanishingly small
The Supreme Court’s decision to
within decades.”
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But just “sitting and waiting” while
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action to solve the most critical
what the Supreme Court is telling us to
problem our civilization has ever
do. All of which raises a critical question: faced. As more and more Republicans
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which are subject to court challenges
table, Congress can and must work in
and the whims of whoever occupies the
earnest to enact a market-based climate
White House, to preserve a livable world solution. Carbon Fee and Dividend is
for our grandchildren?
the solution that can bridge the partisan
With so much at stake, we need
divide.
a resilient and permanent solution.
Ŷ
Congress must enact legislation that
Mark Reynolds is executive director
places an effective price on carbon, the
of Citizens’ Climate Lobby.
Just sitting and
waiting while
our window for
action closes is
exactly what the
Supreme Court is
telling us to do.
OTHER VIEWS
The end of American idealism
S
ometimes it’s hard to shake
instead of a democracy.
the uneasy feeling that we are
And yet, that is an idea that most
witnessing the dissolution of an
Americans are pathologically incapable
idea that was once America.
of processing. We suffer from a blithe
The country is still a military
glacialism, occasionally cursing the
superpower and an economic and
winds that carry our demise, but mostly
innovation powerhouse, but so many
hoping against hope and pretending that
of our institutions are proving to be
evidence of things seen and felt is either
HLWKHUIXQGDPHQWDOO\ÀDZHGRUGHHSO\
Charles IDXOW\RUÀHHWLQJ,WLVQRW
broken.
We have millions of undocumented
Blow
This thought kept creeping into
immigrants in this country, but
Comment
my mind as I watched Thursday’s
comprehensive immigration reform
Republican presidential debate in
remains a thing we bicker about but
Detroit. It seemed to me the zenith of a carnival never move on.
of absurdity, as the candidates descended into
Our infrastructure is in shambles, but in
what appeared to be a penis measuring contest. a country where the bridges are crumbling,
I kept thinking with dread, “One of these
Republican candidates are obsessed about
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building a border wall. The city of Flint was
either the demagogue from New York, the
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Global warming continues unabated, most
from Florida. (I see no path for the governor
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from Ohio.)
weather — from droughts to hurricanes to
In another political season, liberals might
blizzards — and yet last month the Supreme
greet such a prospect with glee. But this is not
Court temporarily blocked the Obama
that season.
administration’s rules to limit greenhouse gas
On the Democratic side, the leading
emissions from power plants.
candidate is a hawkish political shape shifter,
Our educational system, from pre-K to
too cozy with big money, whose use of a private college, serves the wealthy relatively well,
email server has led to an FBI investigation, and but leaves far too many without access,
who most Americans don’t trust.
underprepared or drowning in debt.
(Around two-thirds of Americans don’t trust
We are plagued by gun violence and mass
either party’s front-runner.)
shootings and yet no one is moving forward on
Her lone opponent is a self-described
meaningful solutions.
democratic socialist who seeks to cram
America’s middle class is shrinking.
sweeping generational changes — hinged on
According to a December Pew Research Center
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report: “Fully 49 percent of U.S. aggregate
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income went to upper-income households in
says he will be able to do this with the help
2014, up from 29 percent in 1970. The share
of a political revolution, one that has yet to
accruing to middle-income households was 43
materialize at the polls.
percent in 2014, down substantially from 62
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percent in 1970.”
president of the United States.
Our criminal justice system has made a
And this is the country of which they will
mockery of the concept of equal justice with its
take the helm:
racially skewed pattern of mass incarceration.
We are a country stuck in perpetual warfare
Not only is the United States “the world’s
that is now confronting the threat of the
leader in incarceration with 2.2 million people
Islamic State terrorist group. The Republican
currently in the nation’s prisons or jails — a
candidates have proposed the most outlandish
500 percent increase over the past thirty years,”
approaches to that threat, including everything
according to the Sentencing Project, but the
from war crimes such as torture and killing
group also points out:
terror suspects’ families to carpet bombing in
“More than 60 percent of the people in
the Middle East until we can see whether “sand prison are now racial and ethnic minorities. For
can glow in the dark.”
black males in their thirties, 1 in every 10 is in
Our government is broken. We have a
prison or jail on any given day. These trends
legislative branch that increasingly sees its role
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as resistance rather than action. There is an
impact of the ‘war on drugs,’ in which
opening on the Supreme Court that Republican two-thirds of all persons in prison for drug
leaders in the Senate, in a breathtaking and
offenses are people of color.”
unprecedented move, are saying they won’t let
The list of woe is a mile long.
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There is palpable discontent in this country
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among those who feel left out and left behind in
president.
the bounty of America’s prosperity.
But that same Supreme Court has ruled
How long can the center hold? How long can
that money is speech, swinging the door wide
the illusion be sustained? How long before we
open to allow the ultrawealthy to have nearly
start to call this the post-American idealism era?
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Ŷ
No wonder a 2014 study found that America
Charles M. Blow is The New York Times’s
has effectively transformed into an oligarchy
visual Op-Ed columnist.
YOUR VIEWS
Immigration reform should
address only immigration
This is in response to the letter from David
Olen Cross on March 2, 2016. Before tackling
substantive issues, let me wish Mr. Cross
a speedy recovery. He jumps to so many
conclusions during the course of his letter that
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of his legs.
The basic thrust of Mr. Cross’s complaint is
that Marco Rubio is not tough on the criminals
who are here illegally. While I’m no great
fan of the young senator from Florida, I feel
compelled to defend him in this instance. Sen.
Rubio’s bill had the purpose of dealing with
the over 11 million persons here illegally. It
was not designed to address issues that are
better handled through the criminal justice
system.
When I was a prosecutor in Colorado I
dealt frequently with criminal acts committed
by illegal aliens (not the E.T. variety). It was
obvious that the immigration system was not
equipped to deal with the problem. Some
people I worked with and myself came up
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door out of and back into this country.
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to address one problem only — crime.
When people like Mr. Cross try to get it to
multi-task, the efforts fail. Immigration reform
needs to address immigration only. Any
considerations about criminal conduct can be
handled the old-fashioned way. I know, I’ve
done it.
Patrick Delaney
Hermiston
Fire bond extends crucial
service
Over the years, each time I have moved
in the Hermiston area I have moved farther
out of town. Each move has brought with it
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time of response. Essentially, “time is of the
essence” in these matters.
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Hat Rock area and watching ambulance calls
go by on Diagonal, it makes my support for
the formation of Umatilla Co. Fire District 1 a
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in 1986, there would be permanent staff at
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in an emergency situation could make all the
difference.
Floyd Turnbull
Hermiston
LETTERS POLICY
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues
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letters to Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801
or email editor@eastoregonian.com.