Large group turns out for Heppner Cap and Trade program
ii , i 11 i 1 i 1 i , i ..
By David Sykes
About 95 people
turned out Sunday in Hep
pner for a program on “Cap
and Trade” legislation. Cap
and Trade is legislation
designed to reduce green
house gas emissions and
therefore reduce global
warming.
Walla Walla attor
ney and Cap and Trade ex Approximately 95 people attended the program on Cap and Trade legislation held on Sun
pert Jeff Burkhart explained day, January 17, in Heppner. The program was given by Walla Walla attorney and Cap and
in.
Bessie Wetzell Newspaper Library
University ot Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403
Trade expert Jeff Burkhart. -Photo by David Sykes
VOL. 129
NO. 3
8 Pages
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Town and Country Awards winners announced
The Heppner Chamber of Commerce
Town and Country Community Awards
event, sponsored by CenturyLink, was held
in the pavilion at the Morrow County Fair
grounds on Thursday, January 14. This year’s
theme was “Honor Our past, Celebrate the
Future.” Each year the following awards are
given out: Youth Recognition, Business of
the Year, Woman of the Year, Man of the Year,
Lifetime Achievement, and Citizen-Educator
of the Year.
The 2009 Youth Recognition Award
recipient is Erin Price. She is involved in
the National Honor Society,
basketball, track and field,
pep band, drama club, AWA-
NAS, ASB, and is actively
involved in music with her
church. As a community
volunteer Price has been in
volved with the Mustang
Mop-Up, canned food drive, Erin Price
Town and Country, Heppner
High School Booster Club, MS Walk, Tup-
per outdoor school as a counselor, as well as
being a STARS counselor. She is described
as having character, depth, and conviction is
a natural leader.
This year’s Business of the Year
is Centu-
ry L in k .
C e n tu -
ry L in k ,
previ
ously
know n
as Cen-
turyT el, CenturyLink
has been
in th e
Heppner are for the last 13 years. When
they first came to Heppner, the company pur
chased a company that had already been here
for approximately 100 years. CenturyLink
currently has two full time employees in the
Heppner area and four to five more employ
ees in the northern portion of the county. Cen
turyLink promotes employee involvement in
the community and they have been a sponsor
of the Town and Country Community Awards
Event since 2001.
This year’s Woman of the Year is
Peggy Fishbum. Fishburn is a person who
has been described as being
most com fortable w ork
ing behind the scenes, but
not hesitating to take the
lead when necessary. Many
years ago, Heppner hosted
a refugee family from Laos
who knew no English and
nothing about the American PeRgv
Fishburn
culture. Fishbum stepped in
and helped the family leam
basic English. She has also taught tole paint
ing in 4-H and Sunday School. She serves on
the Housing Authority Board and has serv ed
on or chaired almost every committee in the
United Methodist Church. Since her retire
ment, she has been serving on the board of
the Farm Foundation, the operating entity
of the Morrow County Museum. Fishbum
can also often be found working on cleanup
crews and painting community spots. She is
woman who quietly takes care of needs that
she sees.
The 2009 Man of the Year is Tom
Mafera of the Heppner Ranger District. Ma-
fera, who has only been in the community
for a short time, has immersed himself in
volunteer work. He volunteers for the Mus-
tang Mop-Up, SOLV Cleanup, St. Pat
rick’s Day, Fair and Rodeo, and Heppner
Days. He is a member of
the Heppner Chamber of
Commerce, the Heppner
Lions, and the Willow
Creek Econom ic D e
velopment Group. He
currently volunteers one
hour a week to the Hep
pner Elementary School
Tom Mafera
HEROES program where
he works one-on-one
helping HES students
with their reading. He is responsible
for establishing a career program for
Morrow County high school students in
w hich the students attend a career camp
to obtain educational, work experience,
training, and experience in forestry,
fire suppression, and other vocations.
Each year Mafera also works with the
Neighborhood Center to coordinate stu
dents and community members as they
cut, split, and deliver wood to needy
families.
This year’s Lifetime Achieve
ment Award was given to Ron and Ginger
Bow
man.
T h e
Bow
mans
m oved
to Hep
pner ap-
p ro x i-
mately
Ginger and Ron Bowman
3
2
years
ago. Ginger works at Heppner High
School where she serves as a mentor
and friend to the students. She currently
heads up the distance education depart
ment at the school. She also works at
the snack shack during athletic events
and organizes the annual Veteran’s
Day Celebration held at Heppner High
School. During their time in Heppner,
Ron has been involved in Little League
as a coach and umpire, youth basketball,
junior golf, the Heppner Booster Club,
and Willow Creek Country Club. He
has organized the Willow Creek Invi
tational Golf Tournament for over 20
years as well as working the chain gang
for Mustang football for 30 years. Their
efforts and volunteerism have helped
make these programs the envy of other
communities.
The 2009 C itizen-E ducator
of the Year is John Flaherty, a social
studies teacher at Hep
pner High School. Dur
ing the past 10 years of
his employment with the
Morrow County School
District, Flaherty has ac
complished many things,
including: running the
clock at the football and
John
basketball games; helping
Flahertv
the Garden Club on their
many plantings; serving
dinner at the Elks with the Civics Club;
Organizing students to deliver firewood
to those in need; decorating trees on
Main Street with students; organizing,
escorting and chaperoning 17 students
-See TOWS A COUSTRY/Page THREE
what Cap and Trade is, who
the winners and losers will
be, and what the effects will
be on households and the
economy. The program was
sponsored and put on by the
Willow Creek Tea Party Pa
triots, a new group formed
in the area that plans to put
on other informational pro
grams about issues facing
the country.
The program fo
cused on the bill known
as “Waxman-Markey” that
passed the U.S. House of
Representatives on June
26, 2009. The legislation
assumes that Global Warm
ing is real and that it is man
made. Although he did not
personally agree with these
assumptions, for the sake of
his presentation Burkhart
accepted them.
Burkhart first ex
plained what “Cap” is in
Cap and Trade. The cap
is that government estab
lishes a limit, or cap, on the
amount of a pollutant that
can be released into the at
mosphere. Then companies
receive credits that allow
them to release a certain
amount of C 02 into the
atmosphere.
The “Trade” part is
that companies that reduce
their emissions will have ex
cess credits. The companies
can then sell these credits,
probably in the commodity
or other public markets,
to other companies that
can’t or won’t reduce their
own emissions. Over time
the government gradually
reduces the “cap” thereby
reducing the total amount of
the pollutant released into
the atmosphere.
B urkhart said a
company could practice
what is called mitigation to
earn extra carbon credits,
doing things such as plant
ing trees or winter crops or
changing tillage practices
to reduce fertilizers. He
said a company or group
could even develop a pro
gram teaching how bad
green house gas emissions
are, and thus earn credits it
could then sell on the open
market.
The Waxman-Mar
key bill sets caps on green
house gas emissions to a 3
percent reduction in 2010
and an 83 percent reduction
by 2050. Other provisions
of the bill include a require
ment that utilities have
a portfolio of 20 percent
renewable energy sources.
Oregon gets a large por
tion of its electricity from
hydropow er (dam s) but
hydro only qualifies as re
newable if fish passage and
other environmental factors
are met. Burkhart said the
breakdown of US power
production is currently 50
percent coal, 20 percent
nuclear, 15 percent natural
gas, 6 percent hydro, 6
percent petroleum and 2
percent renewable.
B u r k h a r t s a id
one of the effects on the
economy if the legisla
tion becomes law would
be increased energy costs,
and estimates of the impact
on individual households
varies from $80 to $3,000
per year cost per house
hold, with the congressional
budget office previously
estimating that a cap and
trade program for carbon
would cost each household
$1,600 per year. He also
pointed out that President
Barack Obama said in Janu
ary, 2008 that “electricity
prices would necessarily
skyrocket”, because that is
the point of cap and trade
legislation. The impact to
manufacturing would cause
goods to cost more to pro
duce and job loss.
Part of the program
identified winners and los
ers under Cap and Trade.
Some of the winners would
be Wall Street, which will
trade the carbon credits on
the exchange, A1 G ore’s
company and existing car
bon trading enterprises
from Europe. Other win
ners will be environmental
funds and groups who will
get money from companies
buying offsets, companies
doing alternative energy
technologies, like wind and
solar “Green jobs”. “But,
every “green job” created
with government money
in Spain over the last eight
years came at the cost of 2.2
regular jobs, and only one
in 10 of the newly created
green jobs became a perma
nent job, Burkhart said. The
federal government would
also be a winner because
of the large expansion of its
power especially in the EPA
(Environmental Protection
Agency).
Surprisingly agri
culture will be a big win
ner even though it is a
huge source of C02 emis
sions from fertilizers and
livestock. Under the bill.
agriculture will get a “free
pass” and will be allowed
unlimited Green House Gas
emissions. Also plant mass
produced by agriculture
will be counted as a valu
able mitigator which farm
ers would be able to sell as
carbon offsets. Forest and
farm land values will rise
under the law, Burkhart
speculated. He said car
companies would also re
ceive $25 billion more.
Losers under Cap
and Trade would be Coal
Companies, the Nuclear
power industry
(Waxman-Markey
specifically defines Nuclear
power as not renewable,
even though it produces no
C 02 emissions), the tech
industry with 2 percent of
U.S. electricity now being
used by data centers. Also
losing under Cap and Trade
would be all consumers of
electricity since prices will
go up. The only questions
are how much, and how
fast, Burkhart said.
He said that good
alternatives to Cap and
Trade would be nuclear
power and a carbon and
gasoline tax, or to just do
nothing.
Following the pro
gram a question and answer
session was held. Many
of the questions centered
around people’s concern
about government in gen
eral, its increasing size and
influence over people’s
lives, and irresponsible
spending. Several people
in attendance expressed
frustration with both po- *
litical parties and what is
going on both at the state
and national level.
Burkhart, who is
affiliated with the Walla
Walla Tea Party Patriots
said his groups values are:
fiscal responsibility, lim
ited government and free
markets, which are similar
to the state values of the
Willow Creek Tea Party
Patriots.
People asked what
they could do to change the
direction of government.
Burkhart recom m ended
becoming involved with
politics by running for of
fice and supporting those
who share their values. He
also said people should pay
attention to public hearing
when issues come up and
make their voices heard at
these public hearings.
Ballot drop site locations announced
B allots were re
cently mailed out for the
vote on Measures 66 &67.
Ballots can be returned by
mail or at any designated
drop site. Listed below
are the Morrow County
drop site locations and the
available days and hours
the sites will be open. All
ballots must be received
by 8 p.m. on January 26,
Election Day.
-New Boardman
City Hall, 200 City Cen
ter Circle, Boardman, OR
97818; Open January 8-25,
8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday
through Friday, and on
January 26 (Election Day)
Friday, January
8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
-Irrigon A nnex-
Planning Department Lob
by, 205 NE 3rd St., Irrigon,
OR 97844; Open January
8-25,8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Mon
day through Friday, and on
January 26 (Election Day)
8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
-Bank o f Eastern
Oregon-lone Branch, 280
West Main St., lone, OR
97843; Open January 8-25,
9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday
through Friday, and on
January 26 (Election Day)
8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
-Morrow County
Road O ffice, 365 West
Highway 74, Lexington,
OR 97839; Open January
8-25,8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Mon
day through Friday, and on
January 26 (Election Day)
8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
-Morrow County
Courthouse, 100 S. Court
St., Room 102, Heppner,
OR 97836; Open 8 a.m.
to 5 p.m. Monday through
Friday, and on January 26
(Election Day) 8 a.m. to
8 p.m.
For more informa
tion contact the Morrow
County Clerk at 541-676-
5604, 541-481-2112, 541-
9224103 or visit w w w.mor-
rowcountyoregon.com.
• factory Heps • Door Prizes
Lunth
Seeding & Tillage Clinic 10 am -12 noon @12:00
Morrow County Grain Growers
Lexington 989-8221 * 1-800-452-7396
Por rma aqitpam Ttiit our *<b «ite at w n scn -M t