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OPINION
East Oregonian
Thursday, October 12, 2017
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Publisher
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
MARISSA WILLIAMS
Regional Advertising Director
MARCY ROSENBERG
Circulation Manager
JANNA HEIMGARTNER
Business Office Manager
MIKE JENSEN
Production Manager
OUR VIEW
A chance to learn
after natural disasters
In Puerto Rico and the U.S.
of Hurricane Maria hammering
Puerto Rico. Yet it happened.
Virgin Islands, residents and
Average people — including
authorities had several days to
our elected leaders — are bad at
brace for a looming disaster in
assessing risk and understanding
the form of this year’s horrendous
hurricanes. In hindsight, they didn’t probabilities. On top of that
do enough. There are things we can weakness, there are inherent limits
to how much to prepare for threats
learn from their experiences.
Thanks to modern atmospheric
that are legitimate but which have
science, the Caribbean islands,
uncertain or distant timelines. We
Texas and Florida all were warned
all know we’re going to need to
about giant storms while they
retire someday, but how many
were still far off in the Atlantic.
make enough effort to save for
that eventuality?
In each case, the
even easier
hurricanes’ exact
The mess in Puerto It’s
to procrastinate
tracks gradually
Rico informs us that about disaster
came into focus in
forecasting models,
even with the vast preparedness.
The mess
with the odds of
harm spiking from
in
Puerto
Rico
assets of federal
very little to very
informs us that
government, getting even with the vast
likely. It was like
watching from
of federal
help to where it’s assets
a distance as a
government, getting
drunken driver
needed can take help to where it’s
needed can take
swerved back and
weeks after a
forth across the
weeks after a worst-
highway before
worst-case disaster. case disaster. It’s
possible the Trump
finally crashing into
administration or
a gas pump.
territorial government could be
Until advances in geology and
doing better, but even the most
our understanding of Earth’s plate
competent agencies are going to
tectonics initiated in the 1990s
be hard pressed to deliver medical
by professor Brian Atwater, our
triage, potable water, rations
coast was completely ignorant
about subduction-zone earthquakes and fuel to remote areas where
highways and bridges have been
and tsunamis. It is as if we were
destroyed.
Caribbean villagers who not only
In the calm before the storm, it’s
didn’t know about the hurricane
important to remember that money
barreling toward us from just
spent on science can save lives.
over the horizon, but didn’t even
suspect such disasters were capable The behavior of subduction zones
still isn’t well understood. Perhaps
of happening. Atwater and his
research can provide reliable clues
colleagues opened our eyes.
about when the Cascadia zone is
After 20 years of research,
about to break loose.
scientists believe that in the next
Also highlighted is that even in
30 years, the Pacific Northwest
the worst circumstances, individual
has about a 10 percent chance of
actions do make a difference.
a magnitude 8 to 9 megathrust
The enormity of threats can’t
earthquake on the Cascadia
Subduction Zone. Ten percent isn’t be allowed to paralyze us into
inaction. It’s up to each of us to
very frightening and 30 years is
help our neighbors whenever need
more than a third of an average
American lifetime. Odds are pretty arises, and to take common sense
precautions on our own behalf —
good that we living here today
everything from keeping bottled
will be long gone before this epic
water on hand to signing up for first
cataclysm occurs. On the other
aid and Community Emergency
hand, when it was still forming in
Response Team classes.
the Atlantic, the odds were remote
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
Ratepayers shouldn’t
foot bill for charging stations
The Bend Bulletin, Oct. 11
E
lectric cars may someday rule
the road. It won’t happen if there
aren’t enough places for them to
plug in.
But who should pay for the charging
stations?
Both Pacific Power and Portland
General Electric have proposals before
Oregon’s Public Utility Commission
that would allow them to pass the cost of
building about a half a dozen charging
stations apiece to their ratepayers.
They may only be pilot programs,
but it’s the wrong model. It’s wrong for
ratepayers to underwrite the expansion
of the monopoly that electrical
utilities already have to include charging
stations. If the two investor-owned
utilities want to plunge into the charging
market, they should come up with the
money themselves just like any other
business.
Electric cars are still a novelty on the
road. Last year they were only about
1 percent of vehicles sold worldwide.
But more electric cars are being built
and bought. The price point for electric
vehicles may decline even as engineers
come up with ways to extend their
range.
The right model of charging stations
may not be like the gas station. Even
with fast chargers, it can take a half
an hour to fully recharge a car battery.
It makes more sense to have people
recharge where they park — at home,
where they do their shopping or where
they work. There would still be a need
for charging stations along highways for
people making longer trips.
Electric vehicles and charging
stations are a fledgling industry. Oregon
should be encouraging innovation,
competition and customer choice. It
doesn’t do that by giving utilities the
ability to use their ratepayers to squeeze
out the competition. How is another
charging business supposed to compete
with utilities being able to fund charging
station construction by ratepayers?
Some ratepayers might be happy to
support electric vehicles. But it’s not fair
to other ratepayers to compel them to
pay to grow a utility’s monopoly.
LETTERS POLICY
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public
issues and public policies for publication in the newspaper and on our website.
The newspaper reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns
about individual services and products or letters that infringe on the rights of
private citizens. Submitted letters must be signed by the author and include
the city of residence and a daytime phone number. The phone number will not
be published. Unsigned letters will not be published. Send letters to managing
editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email
editor@eastoregonian.com.
Comment online at www.eastoregonian.com
OTHER VIEWS
From Russia with poison
here is an abiding dream in the
was dismissive and I regret it.”
tech world that when all the
One reason Facebook was slow
planet’s people and data are
to respond is that its business model
connected it will be a better place.
was to absorb all of the readers of
That may prove true. But getting
the mainstream media newspapers
there is turning into a nightmare — a
and magazines and to absorb all
world where billions of people are
their advertisers — but as few of
connected but without sufficient legal
their editors as possible. An editor
structures, security protections or
Thomas is a human being you have to pay to
moral muscles among companies and Friedman bring editorial judgment to content
users to handle all these connections
on your website, to make sure
Comment
without abuse.
things are accurate and to correct
Lately, it feels as if we’re all
them if they’re not. Social networks
connected but no one’s in charge.
preferred to use algorithms instead, but these
Equifax, the credit reporting bureau,
are easily gamed.
became brilliant at vacuuming up all
———
your personal credit data — without your
America’s democracy is built on two
permission — and selling it to companies
principles: truth and trust. We trust that
that wanted to lend you money. But it
our elections are fair and that enables our
was so lax in securing that data that it
peaceful rotations of power. And we trust
failed to install simple software security
that the news we get from our mainstream
fixes, leaving a hole for
outlets is true and that it is
hackers to get the Social
if it is not. And
These companies corrected
Security numbers and
we expect our president
other personal information make billions selling to defend both. But today
of some 146 million
many people are getting
our data, but they’re news from platforms that
Americans, or nearly half
the country.
easily polluted by
ambivalent about are
But don’t worry,
Russian or other hackers
Equifax ousted its CEO,
fake news. And our
taking responsibility with
Richard Smith, with “a
president is a liar who
payday worth as much
to hold Russia to
“for the uses, and refuses
as $90 million — or
account for anything. It’s a
roughly 63 cents for every
terrible combination.
abuses, of their
customer whose data was
We can’t fix Trump right
platforms.”
potentially exposed in its
now. But have Equifax and
recent security breach,”
these big social networks
Fortune reported. That will teach him!
become so much part of the wiring of our
Smith and his board should be in jail.
lives — and the effects of their failures
I’m with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who told
so consequential — that they should be
CNBC, “So long as there is no personal
regulated in new ways? I don’t know, but I
responsibility when these big companies
know it’s time for this discussion. It’s already
breach consumers’ trust, let their data get
started.
stolen, cheat their consumers ... then nothing
These companies make billions selling
is going to change.”
our data, but they’re ambivalent about
Facebook, Google and Twitter are
taking responsibility “for the uses, and
different animals in my mind. Twitter has
abuses, of their platforms,” argued Harvard
enabled more people than ever to participate political philosopher Michael Sandel. “They
in the global conversation; Facebook has
can’t have it both ways. If they claim they
enabled more people than ever to connect
are neutral pipes and wires, like the phone
and build communities; Google has enabled
company or the electric company, they should
everyone to find things like never before.
be regulated as public utilities. But if, on the
Those are all good things. But the three
other hand, they want to claim the freedoms
companies are also businesses, and the last
associated with news media, they can’t deny
election suggests they’ve all connected more responsibility for promulgating fake news.”
people than they can manage and they’ve
In the early 20th century, Sandel added,
been naive about how many bad guys were
“the rise of monopolies and concentrated
abusing their platforms.
economic power brought forth an era of
As Mark Warner, the top Democrat on
progressive reform that regulated railroads,
the Senate Intelligence Committee, put it to
banks and utilities in the public interest.
me, “Up to now these companies have not
Today, we need a similar spirit of reform.
taken the threat that Russia and other foreign These platforms are so dominant that, like
agents pose to our system seriously enough
electric wires or telephone lines, we can
or invested enough or to really reveal
scarcely avoid using them. But when they
what happened in 2016 — or what is still
allow our personal data — or elections — to
happening now.”
be hacked, there’s not much we can do about
In November last year, Facebook CEO
it.”
Mark Zuckerberg dismissed as “a pretty
“A century ago, we found ways to rein in
crazy idea” evidence that people were
the unaccountable power associated with the
using Facebook to generate fake news
Industrial Revolution,” Sandel concluded.
to tip the U.S. election. Last week, after
“Today, we need to figure out how to rein in
disclosing hundreds of Russia-linked
the unaccountable power associated with the
accounts — where fictional people posing as digital revolution.”
U.S. activists spread inflammatory messages
■
about immigration and guns and trashed
Thomas L. Friedman became the New
Hillary Clinton and boosted Donald Trump
York Times’ foreign affairs columnist in 1995
— Zuckerberg admitted, “Calling that crazy
and has been awarded three Pulitzer prizes.
T
YOUR VIEWS
Political manipulation swings
both ways
Friday, Oct. 6, 2017, was the deadline for
referring legislative action to the ballot. Our
democratic overlords in Salem have again
done their best to corrupt and defeat our
referendum/petition system. It appears the
tax or assessment on health care will qualify
while the gun confiscation law will not.
Our overlords use various tactics. On
the health care referral the title was drafted
by a democratic committee that called the
tax an assessment. That language is being
challenged as supporters want rightly to call
the tax a tax. Assessment sounds more benign
to voters.
On the gun confiscation law Governor
Kate Brown delayed signing the bill into law,
which reduced by 30 days the time allowed to
collect signatures. It may have not qualified
anyway but Brown should have signed the
bill and let our system work.
No matter which way you swing this
manipulation should give you pause. My
democratic friends are outraged at the
manipulation at the federal level because it
doesn’t fit their political view. I am outraged
at all political corruption and manipulation of
the voters’ right to decide.
Bruce Staley
Pendleton
County commissioners paid
better than governors
Umatilla County commissioners
announced that two are running for
re- election. George Murdock said his focus
remains on the county’s financial management
and stability. He is the commissioner
responsible for the county budget and said he
works closely with the chief financial officer
and department heads to keep the county on a
financially “prudent” path.
Umatilla County pays each of its three
county commissioners more than Colorado
pays its governor. Umatilla County
commissioners’ salaries are $90,853 while
Colorado’s governor brings in $90,000. Not
to mention Maine’s governor only makes
$70,000.
Sally Sundin
Walla Walla