Mark Steyn's Year-End Message

From his weekly syndicated column.

Update on Goodhue County Wind

State Representatives Steve Drazkowski and Tim Kelly, along with State Senator John Howe, have an opinion piece in today's Minneapolis Star Tribune about the Goodhue County wind project.

Also, another blogger has posted about the Wednesday meeting with the local utility.  It includes all the details that I left out of my account.

Rich Lowry on "Thatcher vs. Decline"

Over at National Review Online.

Edison light bulb to become illegal January 1st

According to The Hill.

Town Hall Minnesota In Action

I wish I could take credit for the idea, or even the execution, of the meeting I attended as an interested spectator this afternoon.  It was pure Town Hall Minnesota in action.

Two officials of the state's largest electric utility came to Belle Creek Township, Minnesota (population 437), to answer questions about a controversial wind farm project proposed for the surrounding Goodhue County, which lies about an hour southeast of Minneapolis-St. Paul.  The wind farm is being developed by a third-party with the output to be sold to the utility, under contract.  The utility officials were there to answer questions from concerned citizens after touring the area with the meeting organizers, who are opponents of the project and live within the proposed project's footprint.

The meeting literally took place within a town hall.  Not just any town hall, but this one,

a one-room meeting place for the Township's citizens.  Several dozen people, including families and children, packed the space to standing-room-only capacity.

As they themselves acknowledged, the utility officials were not necessarily giving the answers the local citizens wanted to hear.  But from where I was sitting, I thought both sides acquitted themselves well.  Questions from the meeting organizers and audience were without exception well-informed, sometimes pointed, but more often then not, delivered with humor.  Answers were informative, respectful and acknowledging of the seriousness of the occasion.  I doubt anyone left the room happy, but I suspect just about everyone left better informed.

The utility officials answered questions for almost 2 hours on topics ranging from the science behind noise pollution, to the roles of state regulators and regulated companies, to dairy farm operations in springtime conditions and just about everything else under the sun.

Attending as audience members were the local State Senator and State Representative (I apologize if there were other elected officials there that I did not recognize), but the event was centered on the local citizens and their questions.  It was Minnesota at its finest.

Experiments in Public Services

Today's lead editorial in the Minneapolis Star Tribune decries two recent experiments by local governments in delivering public services ("Don't Experiment with Public Safety").  The editors believe that public safety (police and fire) should be exempt from efforts to redesign government at the local level.

However, for small municipalities, public safety makes up the bulk of the services they provide.  To exempt those services from any makeover attempts gives small communities little room to maneuver.

In 2011, the town of Foley, Minnesota, decided to replace patrols by county sheriff's deputies with patrols by private security guards.  As the editors note, private security guards do not have the same powers of arrest, etc. as do sworn peace officers.

Nowthen, Minnesota, (yes, you read that correctly) ended patrols by deputies and replaced them with...nothing, in a cost-saving measure.

The editors lump together these two actions, but I think a reasonable distinction can be made between a community that tries a different method of delivering a service (Foley) and a community that ends the provision of a service (Nowthen).

As far as I can discern from the editorial, the editors' biggest problem with experiments like Foley's is less that public safety will be compromised, but that public "expectations" may not be met.  A lot of expectations will be disappointed as we move from a "giveaway politics" to a "takeaway politics."

Not all experiments will go well, but many will succeed and provide examples to other communities.  But to say that experiments in delivering services cannot be tried is guaranteed to lead to failure.

Minnesota Sunset Commission

It is often said that the closing thing to eternal life, in this realm, is a government agency.  As reported by Minnesota Public Radio, the Minnesota Sunset Commission is testing that theory.

Mark Steyn's message for the season

On the other miraculous birth.

Your Tax Dollars at Work: St. Paul Edition

A few days ago, I noted that the City of Minneapolis was steering a few hundred thousand dollars of federal taxpayer money to open a bike sales and repair/coffee shop in north Minneapolis.  Not to be outdone, their rival east of the river is going much bigger.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports on that city's decision to subsidize an apartment and grocery store complex at the edge of downtown.  On a split 4-3 vote, the City Council voted to kick in $15 million of city-taxpayer money in the hopes to gain a $40 million loan backed by the federal-taxpayer funded Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The new apartment building is not "affordable housing," with rent on a studio unit running more than $1,000 a month.  The grocery store will be an outlet of a higher-end local chain.

In the Minneapolis Star Tribune's take on the project, the paper reports that not everyone was happy, writing

"Private developers and rental property owners complain about tax dollars going into a project that competes with their businesses.  The three opposing council members wrote a lengthy commentary article detailing their distaste for using the entire pot of available--and scarce--development money for one project while others go begging."

and

"Opponents spoke against subsidizing market-rate housing and risking development dollars.  Cheryl Golden-Black said, "We're all struggling.  Any risk at this point that would burden the taxpayers further is too big, way too big."

As Mark Steyn says, America is the brokest nation on earth, yet the City of St. Paul has decided to spend $55 million of money we don't have to get into the property development business.  What happened to just say no?

Redesigning Government in Rural Minnesota

Everybody talks about redesigning government.  Some people are actually doing it.  This editorial from the Mankato Free Press (by way of the St. Paul Pioneer Press) lists some of the efforts underway in Minnesota.

Bikes, Coffee, and Tax Dollars

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported today in its West Metro section about the opening of a new bike sales and repair shop in north Minneapolis.

Good news right?  An entrepreneur risking hard-earned capital in a tough economy?  Not quite.

The new shop sells new (and soon will sell used) bikes and bike accessories, offers repair services and will teach maintenance and repair skills.  A coffee shop will soon join the space to make it more of a destination.

The Star Tribune reports that,

"The shop received $350,000 from the city, which was a recipient of a federal grant to help support healthy behaviors and reduce city obesity through increased physical activity and improved nutrition."

And it turns out the shop is a non-profit.

It sounds like the effort will provide good training to new workers and lots of other benefits, in line with the non-profit mission.  However, it seems that the City and federal taxpayers are subsidizing two businesses, bike and coffee, that compete with private, for-profit establishments.

Makes me wonder about our budget priorities.

The Creative Class Wants its Trains, Everywhere They Go

Today's Minneapolis Star Tribune carries an opinion piece from the epitome of the Creative Class.  She represents the very type of person that city planners are trying to attract (or to retain) to our fair burg.  This is how she describes herself,

• Parents live in the "desolate" suburbs of Minneapolis
• Graduated from college last year
• Moved to Munich, Germany

Since abandoning this "colder" and "foreboding" land (her words), she has acquired all the accoutrement needed of a Creative Class member,

• Works at a "hip" marketing firm
• Has "international" friends
• Doesn't own a car
• Lives is a "teeny-tiny" Munich apartment
• Likes to ride Munich's subway

Munich, population density of 12,470/sq. mi., and Minneapolis, population density of 6,722/sq. mi., are very different places.  In addition to having a core city twice as dense as ours, Munich has a metro population of 6 million, twice the size of our 3 million.

Regardless, this young woman believes that Minneapolis should have a subway system, based on her struggles navigating our inadequate bus and light rail network.

Key passage,

"Basically, you can trust the government [in Munich] to get you where you want to be.  It's not why I moved there, but it's why I stayed.  I've seen Munich attract plenty of other young people."

Good thing that, because Germany is among a handful of countries (mostly European) whose population is actually declining.

Nonetheless, she never makes clear whether installing a subway in Minneapolis would be enough to tempt her back to live again amongst us rubes in flyover country.  I'm sure that she is grateful to the taxpayers of the Federal Republic of Germany and its Free State of Bavaria for subsidizing her carefree lifestyle.  She writes,

"I wouldn't be nearly as successful in Munich if I had to make monthly car and insurance payments, if I had to navigate foreign streets as well as a foreign language."

And she would be grateful if we made such transit options available here, for her occasional visits.

Perhaps I'm biased, as my German ancestors were wagon makers.  But my advice to her?  Next time you visit your parents, rent a car.

Follow the Money: Nonprofit 100 Edition

Each year the Minneapolis Star Tribune publishes its "Nonprofit 100" index, with statistics on the state's largest not-for-profit organizations.  Medical outfits dominate the top of the list, with Blue Cross at No. 1 and the Mayo Clinic at No. 2.  In fact, health care institutions occupy the top 16 spots.  Educational institutions dominate much of the middle of the list, with the local private colleges and universities represented.

The only environmental nonprofit to scrape into the top 100 is Pheasants Forever, the St. Paul based group, whose mission is to protect and enhance pheasant populations and habitat.  Pheasants Forever ranks 91st, with annual revenues of $33.8 million.  Its CEO makes $219,200 a year, the Star Tribune reports.

In Minnesota, the cabinet-level Commissioner of the state's Department of Natural Resources makes $108,367, an amount set by state law.  He oversees an executive department with a budget of more than $400 million a year.

Doing well by doing good.

"Bottom Up" Done from the Top Down

As the name of this blog suggests, my mission is rebuilding America (and Minnesota) from the bottom up, as I outline in my Town Hall Minnesota plan.

What I am not talking about is an approach described by Minnesota Public Radio about a recent "town hall" style meeting held in Brainerd, Minnesota.  Funded by a federal grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and led by a "sustainability organizer for the University of Minnesota Regional Sustainable Development Partnership," locals spent the day being told what they think.

A list of the issues tells you everything you need to know:  "land use, transportation, housing and economic development" were discussed as "organizers asked people's help in imagining potential economic, environmental and lifestyle futures."  These are the issues that matter to the Inside the Beltway Elite, not regular people in rural America.  Jobs, economic growth, and government spending are the big issues, not "lifestyle futures."

Nonetheless, the folks in central Minnesota dutifully parroted the talking points the organizers were looking for,

• How much growth did people want to see?  ...some growth but not rampant increases that might be prompted by a booming economy."  Really?  I'm willing to give 'booming economy' a try.
• "transportation?  ...they preferred a vision that improved main rail and road lines but let some local streets go unmaintained."  How did 'rail' get top billing?
• "Broadband?  Yes, they said.  Lots of connectivity is needed to make everything else run smoothly."

The Brainerd Dispatch has a story on the event.  The Dispatch reports,

"Work groups identified key listed issues such as affordable housing, employment, public transit, national and social environments, land use planning, technology, infrastructure, walking and biking.  Then the University of Minnesota assisted in creating scenarios using real data from current trends and incorporating information gathered from group sessions."

Again, whose issues do these sound like?  Regular people do not utter the phrases "land use planning" or "social environments."  Ah, but you get what you pay for.  The Dispatch reports,

"Region Five was awarded an $825,050 grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for a Sustainable Communities Regional Planning program with four main work areas — housing, transportation, land use and economic development."

Sounds like the emphasis was on the first three items.

What we need is a real bottom up agenda.  Let locals organize their own meetings, without any "sustainability organizers" on the scene.  I'm sure the results would be starkly different.

Bicyclists Are Better Than You Are

At least that is the subtext of this article in today's Minneapolis Star Tribune ("A new attitude about biking in Minneapolis?").  The "new attitude"?  Why the question mark?  As it turns out, the new attitude is "smug satisfaction".

But we already new that, so why is this article in today's paper?  It turns out that a local advocacy group ("Bike Walk Twin Cities," a program of Transit for Livable Communities) issued a press release, so the Star Tribune jumped into action to validate their biases.  Actually, it turns out that while the group hadn't even bothered to issue the study yet, the newspaper was happy to provide the free, pre-publicity.

The article follows the standard form.  It begins in the classic style with an unverifiable assertion, "...signaling that a decade-long cultural shift in transportation and urban design..."  Next comes the first dubious statistic from the advocacy group.  Followed by the quote from the expert from one of the coasts.  In this instance it's from a Rutgers professor of "Urban Transportation."  Us little folk in flyover country are not validated unless someone from the East or West Coast pronounces us good.

Once the preliminaries are out of the way, we get down to business:  giving the hoi polloi their marching orders,

"The trend is also producing new attitudes toward commuting and--in case you hadn't noticed--a need to share the roads no matter what the weather."

So, 'in case you hadn't noticed,' your job while operating those primitive, gas guzzling autos is to get out of the way of the important people on two wheels.

Now we follow up with the soothing reassurances:  that all of those millions spent on bike lanes are finally paying off, that soon everyone will be riding a bike (even you can do it), that all of this way made possible by the all-knowing Federal government.

Next comes the conversion story, how one brave Minnesotan (from Ohio) found biking and let go of the car.

Finally, more dubious statistics, a last, unfunny joke and we are done.  You may now resume your unworthy lives.

The 1880's Transit Solution or "A Streetcar Named Delusion"

Under the heading of "questions no one is asking" MinnPost asks this week, "Are streetcars the answer to our transit and environmental needs?"  Streetcars are that cutting edge (circa 1880) technology that moves the masses about the urban landscape at speeds rarely exceeding a brisk walk.  MinnPost writes,

"Cities could reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent or more by linking streetcars and higher-density land use."

How dense?  MinnPost informs,

"The key...is to achieve sufficient density—10 to 40 residential units per acre"

How dense are we today?  MinnPost notes,

"In the Twin Cities, the typical urban neighborhood might have a density of seven to 10 units per acre, while the density in developing suburbs is more in the range of two to four units per acre."

How dense is 10-40 units an acre?   It turns out, this level of density equals San Francisco at the low end (10 units/acre) and roughly approaching the density of the city of Paris, France (50 units/acre) at the high end.

Keep in mind, streetcars won't work if the occasional acre includes 40 housing units, we need to maintain this high density level for mile after mile after mile to build the ridership needed.  It would transform the nature of the community.

Nonetheless, "Minneapolis landed a $900,000 federal grant to explore the idea.  The city has embarked on a study of a possible nine-mile line along Nicollet and Central Avenues"

Let me off at the next stop.

The Suburbs are Not Dying, After All

In a happy convergence, the Instapundit (Glenn Reynolds) interviews New Geography's Joel Kotkin at PJTV (registration required).  They talk about the refusal of the suburbs to die off, the static viewpoint of Urban Planning, telecommuting, and the war on the middle class.

Reynolds' Law

Glenn Reynolds, a Tennessee law school professor best known for his blog Instapundit has promulgated Reynolds' law,

“The government decides to try to increase the middle class by subsidizing things that middle class people have: If middle-class people go to college and own homes, then surely if more people go to college and own homes, we’ll have more middle-class people.  But homeownership and college aren’t causes of middle-class status, they’re markers for possessing the kinds of traits—self-discipline, the ability to defer gratification, etc.—that let you enter, and stay, in the middle class.  Subsidizing the markers doesn’t produce the traits; if anything, it undermines them.”

Correlation does not equal causation.  It's a form of the Cargo Cult problem, where Pacific islanders built ersatz airstrips in a deluded effort to encourage the "cargo" to return.  Allies fighting the World War II brought in supplies and material that were shared with the islanders.  When the Allies left, the islanders tried to draw them back building fake airplanes, control towers and the like.  But the air traffic control tower was only an accessory to material wealth, it did not create it.

Durban Climate Conference Ends (Roundup)

The latest UN Climate Conference, held this year in Durban, South Africa, has come to an end, finally.  It was always going to produce the dramatic, ground-breaking triumphal agreement that "saves tomorrow, today" while allowing delegates to claim, "We have made history."

Walter Russell Mead is less convinced, concluding that delegates merely agreed to keep getting paid by the global climate industry.

Wendell Cox comes to a similar conclusion, but focuses more on environmental improvement strategies that may actually do some good (hint, "Smart Growth" doesn't make the cut).

The big news made was the withdrawal of Canada from the process.

Don't worry, there is always next year, the 2012 Climate Conference will be held in the oil-rich Persian Gulf state of Qatar.  It's a small country, so book your first-class plane ticket and 5-star hotel suite early, space is going fast.

Education and Money: International Edition

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is an international organization that grew out of the post-WWII Marshall Plan in Europe.  Today, among its other contributions, it provides a treasure trove of data on activity in developed and developing nations.

The group just came out with their latest (2011) edition of Education Indicators, with data through 2008.  If you dig deep, it makes for interesting reading on the subject of primary and secondary education (think K-12).

Out of 34 developed nations, on a per pupil basis, the U.S. spends more money than all except tiny Luxembourg, Switzerland and Norway for a ranking of 4th out of 34.  We beat out Austria by $1 per pupil.  (See Table B1.2, Column 3).

As for achievement, what did this extra spending buy us?  In science the U.S. ranked (2006 data) 36th out of 57 countries studied (see Figure 2.11a).  Free spending Switzerland ranked 18th, with Norway 31st and Luxembourg 33rd. 
In more recent (2009) data, in Reading, the U.S. ranked a more respectable 17th, with free spending Norway at 12th, Switzerland at 14th and Luxembourg a distant 38th out of 65 studied.

News on Math was even worse, with the U.S. dropping down to 22nd. 

Keep these figures in mind the next time someone calls for more spending on Education.

Discounts on Deck Chairs

Today's Minneapolis Star Tribune notes the efforts of Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton to cut waste in state government by employing consultants to review operations.  Twenty-two firms have been approved for such work, promising total savings of $20 million or more.

However, on a two-year budget of $35 billion, even savings in the the tens of millions--however welcome--won't make a significant difference to the state's fiscal situation.

Having served recently in state government, I have no doubt that improvements could be made.  Perhaps 1 to 2 percent of the budget (hundreds of millions) could be saved by simply adopting modern management techniques and information technology from the last twenty years.

To make a real dent in our structural deficit, we need to either stop doing some things entirely or to do many things in entirely new ways.

Over on the Star Tribune's Business page, Chuck Slocum writes in an opinion piece that "Businesses Support Government Redesign."  That's good news, because we are going to need all the support we can get when we actually get around to redesigning state government.  We will need to achieve savings of $ billions, not $ millions, and there are bound to be winners and losers in the process.  You can bet we will hear from the losers.

So what are we talking about when we talk about "redesign."  It's not about putting some government form on the Internet that now has to be filed in paper form.  It will involve providers being compensated for results, not reimbursed for inputs.  It will involve services being delivered by local non-profits and for-profits that are now delivered by government employees.  It will involve introducing competition in areas where now only monopolies exist.

Change will be disruptive, but we need new thinking, not merely tinkering around the edges.

Global Warming? Focus on Adaptability

That's the advice of Bjorn Lomborg in today's Wall Street Journal.

America's Growing Energy Security

From Daniel Yergin in today's Wall Street Journal.  The author of a number of books on the oil industry discusses America and Canada's growing energy production.

Looting the Future to Bribe the Present

Mark Steyn hits the nail on his head in his weekly column.  Writing about our current budget situation,

"The political class looted the future to bribe the present, confident that tomorrow could be endlessly postponed."

As they used to say on TV "the future is now."

News from Durban

Did you know that the annual UN climate conference is now going on in South Africa?  There has been little news of the proceedings in Durban and for good reason.  As Walter Russell Mead reports, fewer and fewer countries seem willing to sign on to a global carbon control scheme, even as the existing Kyoto treaty is set to expire.

Chalk this one up to "no news is good news."

How Competitive is Minnesota?

As it turns out, (slightly) worse than average.  Unfortunately, our neighbors are doing much better.

Hank Robison and Rob Sentz over at New Geography took a look at how states are doing competing with each another to create jobs.  Not surprisingly, oil-rich North Dakota, Texas, and Alaska rank first, second, and third, respectively.  Oil-rich and post-Katrina Louisiana ranks forth, in the period that covers 2007 through 2011.

But non-oil neighbors South Dakota and Nebraska come in at 5th and 6th, while Minnesota clocks in at a disappointing 31st.  Iowa ranks 11th and Wisconsin comes in at 22nd.  Minnesota does not rank ahead of a single neighboring state, unless you count Michigan (we share a water border in Lake Superior), which ranks 4th from last, ahead of only Florida, Arizona, and Nevada--which were hit hardest by the real estate crash.

Robison and Sentz use a methodology that seeks to screen out the effects of national economic trends, to try and tease out how each state competes against expectations in creating jobs.  About states like Minnesota doing worse than average,

"If a state is losing, then it stands to reason that there are factors within the state that make it less competitive...If a state is hemorrhaging jobs faster than the national economy, there should be cause for concern.  There are likely toxic conditions within industry sectors and economic policies that make it very difficult for employment and economic activity to flourish."

Last Night on "Late Debate" with Jack and Ben

Jack and Ben indulged my ego by having me as their guest for the full two hours last night.  Download the December 6, 2011 show at itunes.  I come in around the 25 minute mark.

Jefferson v. Hamilton: The Debate Rages On

Walter Russell Mead comments on how the ancient debate between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton continues to play out in today's politics.

The Problem with Regulation

Phillip K. Howard of Common Good makes the case for "results-based" regulation, rather than the micro-regulation we have today.

University Administrators Outnumber Faculty

Ever wonder why college tuition keeps increasing faster than inflation?  Perhaps one reason is that full-time administrators now outnumber full-time faculty members, 54% to 46%.

Doesn't sound sustainable.

Too Many Counties? I Say, Too Few

For some time I have heard the argument that Minnesota, with 87, has too many counties.  A County Commissioner from Ottertail is the latest to make the pitch, suggesting that we consolidate to between 30-35.

The argument, of course, is efficiency, economies of scale, eliminate duplication of costs, etc.  As a resident of the state's largest county by population (Hennepin), I can attest that just the opposite is true.  Huge diseconomies exist when a single political entity tries to serve 1.15 million people with a $ billion plus budget.

The latest controversy in Hennepin involves the Commissioners (on a 4-3 vote), giving themselves a backdoor $2,000 raise on top of their $97,080 a year salary.  I doubt that is what the gentleman from Ottertail has in mind.

In Jefferson's "Ward Republics" concept, government would move closer to the people not further away.  If we are looking for savings in government waste, look to eliminate the duplicate layers: watershed districts, soil and water districts, park districts, sewer districts with overlapping jurisdictions and similar missions.  In fact there are 26 different kinds of taxing districts in Minnesota.

A for Counties, look elsewhere for savings.

My One Year Blogiversary!

Today marks the one year anniversary of this web log.  It's been a blast.  A few highlights:

• My first post, a short note linking to the Wall Street Journal piece by the Breakthrough Institutes's Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger and their efforts to reframe the climate debate.
• The most read post, discussing our growing energy independence.  Most read thanks to a timely link from the great Walter Russell Mead's blog.
• The most read essay, where I discuss new ideas for marketing electricity.

Thank you, the reader, for keeping this going for a whole year.  I look forward to the next year and the adventures ahead.

America to Become a Net Fuel Exporter?

The Wall Street Journal has a front page story (subscription required) today reporting the unthinkable:  America is set to become a net fuel exporter for the first time in 62 years.

As I discussed on Monday, America's imports of foreign crude oil have fallen from 60 percent a few years ago to below 46 percent today.  Everyone was aware of our dependence on foreign crude.  What was less well known was our growing dependence on finished products:  we were importing a growing amount of our gasoline, diesel fuel, and the like from such unfriendly locales as Venezuela.

Now the tide has turned, and despite the still large crude oil imports, our exports of gasoline, jet fuel and such have grown large enough to just about tip the balance.  America is set to become a net exporter for the first time since 1949, the Journal reports.

The cloud around this silver lining is that it took a severe recession to make it happen:  when our economy was going well back in 2005, we were big importers.  With our economy in the doldrums, we are exporting to more dynamic economies in Latin America and Asia.  Nonetheless, these export opportunities are fueling new investment and job gains at Gulf Coast refineries and terminals, with ripple effects across the country.

Against this backdrop, the Minneapolis Star Tribune carries a commentary by Charles Ebinger arguing that "Democrats need to get real about U.S. energy policy."  Ebinger is a self-described Democrat and director of the liberal Brookings Institution's Energy Security Initiative.  He believes that Democrats are getting it wrong on energy policy,

"Increased domestic oil production, coupled with growing imports of Canadian oil sands, would result in a reduction of non-North American oil imports, leading to a significant improvement in the country's yawning trade deficit.  Increased gas production would be valuable for cleaner electricity generation (when compared with coal) and could also signal a revival of the U.S. industrial and petrochemical sectors.  Further, if natural gas could be deployed in the commercial heavy-duty vehicle fleet, we would be able to reduce our oil imports dramatically.  We may even be able to export gas to our allies and trading partners."

For the first time in my lifetime, we have the prospect of achieving true energy independence.  Rather than being a drag on our economy and limiting our growth, domestic production and refining of conventional energy sources could actually drive an export-led economic recovery.

If we let it.

A good idea from MNDOT

Here is my chance to say something nice about Minnesota's Department of Transportation.  The St. Cloud Times reports that MNDOT is studying the movement of freight on Interstate 94 and considering the construction of a freeway connection between I-94 and U.S. Highway 10 to improve freight traffic flow on the busy corridor between Fargo and Minneapolis.  This kind of long-range infrastructure planning is exactly what we need more of in Minnesota, and less emphasis on high speed rail and other such boondoggles.

Bravo, MNDOT!

Updated: Tempest in a Trash Can

[Updated:  As expected, the Maplewood City Council voted to end competition for trash collection in that eastern Minnesota suburban community.  The 4-1 vote capped a contentious meeting.  Chalk it up to a cautionary tale about representatives not listening to voters and the dangers of lame duck legislative sessions.  As least the citizens went down fighting.]

The St. Paul, Minnesota, suburb of Maplewood has all but decided to end competition among garbage haulers in the city and award one company a monopoly franchise.  Somehow the lame-duck City Council has decided that this will somehow save residents money in the long run.

The real driver behind this wholesale silliness is Minnesota's Pollution Control Agency, (PCA) who are convinced that all those competing trucks driving down the street are bad for the environment (diesel fumes) and everything would be so much tidier if only one monopoly provider were at work.  Capitalism often turns out to be a messier business than our enlightened central planners would prefer.  The PCA couldn't sell this policy to the state legislators, so they are taking their 300-page study of how capitalism doesn't work on the road.  The PCA is now trying to convince each city to drop garbage competition.  I'm not sure what state law authorizes a state agency to lobby city by city for its own agenda, but no matter.

As usual, the people are ahead of their leaders.  The Star Tribune quotes one Maplewood resident, Sue Stark,

"They are not saving me any money," said Stark, who pays about $16 a month for service.  "They are taking away my rights."

Sorry Ms. Stark, as usual, your rights were in the way.

America's New Deal for Global Energy

Today's Wall Street Journal "Heard on the Street" column (subscription required) discusses America's improving energy independence ("America's New Deal for Global Energy Mix").  Observing that the U.S. now imports less than half of its oil, down from 60 percent just a few years ago, the Journal's Liam Denning explores the implications of this shift on world energy markets.

In fact, the share of imported oil continues to fall, now below 46 percent, due in no small part to North Dakota, where crude oil production has more than quadrupled since 2005.  The share of natural gas imports has also fallen.

Denning reports that the oversupply of natural gas, as a result of the shale gas revolution, is causing some to consider exports.

The drop in oil imports could put a de facto cap on world oil prices and improve America's trade deficit, Denning speculates.

All of this is good news, should we let it continue.

Why Companies are Leaving California

We hear frequently about the dire economic conditions in California and that companies are leaving in droves.  But Steve Malanga has the bill of particulars in the Autumn issue of City Journal's California edition.

Prosperity is not always pretty

As Walter Russell Mead points out on his blog, prosperity is not always pretty when we find it in the wild, unlike this achingly beautiful photo essay in the January 2008 National Geographic on the ghost towns of western North Dakota.  Now less than four years later those ghost towns are springing back to life with oil and gas exploration, and it's all so...untidy.  Fifth generation newspaper mogul A.G. Sulzberger writes in his great-great-grandfather's newspaper of the boom town horrors being visited upon the once-unspoilt prairie.

More than ten years ago, when young A.G. was just a teen, his father's newspaper was writing off North Dakota, and not for the first or last time.  ("As Others Abandon Plains, Indians and Bison Come Back")  In May 2001, the Times' Timothy Egan wrote,

"In writing the obituary of the Great Plains, social historians have looked out at the abandoned ranches, collapsed homesteads and dying towns huddled against the wind in a sea of grass and seen an epic failure."

Sadly for the Times, North Dakota has failed to fail on schedule.

Mead captures this sentiment from the Timesmen, across the generations,

"Decline is so much more decorous.   Prairie towns slowly wither on the vine; the young people quietly leave, the stores gradually empty and close.   Reporters from the Times write haunting and moving stories about the gentle, drifting sadness of it all.  Novelists in creative writing programs can write delicate tales of rural decline; filmmakers can make understated little films about the lost hope and vanished promise of the American dream."

Long live North Dakota.

Must Read: "Reckless Endangerment"

I just finished reading Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon.   Written by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner, it tells the inside story of how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac brought down the world financial system back in 2008.  Must read for everyone.

Google Quits Renewable Energy Effort

Google quits effort to make renewable energy cheaper than coal.  Maybe they know something.

Spain to Cut Solar Subsidies?

Even before the landslide victory for Spanish conservatives, speculation began that generous subsidies for solar power projects would need to be cut as part of the new government's austerity measures.  As Reuters reports, the former government financed subsidies by issuing government bonds.

Minneapolis Hates Cars

Minneapolis Star Tribune columnist Jon Tevlin dares to take on the "complete streets" mafia with this piece headlined "New bike lanes bring confusion and criticism."  Feel the condescension emanating from the City of Minneapolis' "non-motorized transportation programmer," Shaun Murphy,

"I drive and I don't like to be stuck in traffic either," said Murphy. "It's part of the trade-offs.  In some of these places, there have also been huge safety improvements for both cars and bikes.  It's a balancing act, and we have to compromise."

He means you, the driver, have to compromise by not getting to where you want to go.

Is the EU Doomed?

Niall Ferguson still seems to think so.

Dr. Steven Chu--Venture Socialist

Certain corners of the media are thrilled with Nobel-prize winning Energy Secretary Steven's Chu's "no apologies" performance on Capitol Hill yesterday, defending the Administration's awarding of $535 million in loan guarantees to now-bankrupt solar power firm Solyndra.

The Washington Post editorial board writes,

"Steven Chu appeared before a Republican-controlled House committee Thursday and immediately turned the tables on his GOP critics.  Yes, it’s regrettable that a half-billion-dollar government loan to Solyndra went sour.  But, Mr. Chu reminded the panel, the loan was part of a program that Congress itself authorized (during the Bush administration)...

"...Well played, Mr. Secretary."

Ah, yes.  Blame the Republicans.  Shrewd move.  We would expect nothing less from a Nobel-prize winner.  You see, the Republicans forced Chu to loan a half-billion dollars to a bankrupt firm with Democratic party ties.

The Post does partially redeem itself with this passage, later in the editorial,

"You can call it crony capitalism or venture socialism—but by whatever name, the Energy Department’s loan guarantee program privatizes profits and socializes losses.  It’s an especially risky approach in the alternative-energy space, where solar energy is many years from being cost-competitive with fossil fuels for most uses—and history is littered with failed government attempts to back the next big thing."

Dr. Steven Chu has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California and was a professor at Stanford University.  Nothing in his distinguished scientific background suggests a background suitable to a career in venture socialism.

In the Wall Street Journal, Kimberley Strassel writes about Dr. Chu's strange new career in her opinion piece "Steven Chu: Energy CEO" (subscription required).  Strassel writes about a physics professor sounding more like a seasoned investment pro,

"In Obamaland, department secretaries run the economy, baby!  They swim in a pile of balance sheets--creating, funding and managing America's future, one company at a time...Mr. Chu noted that he'd had to hire a McKinsey consultant merely to 'manage this huge portfolio.' "

Strassel makes the obvious point that an agency tasked with nuclear safety should not be in the investment portfolio management business.  But I guess it is a not-so-obvious point, as nothing is being done about ending Dr. Chu's curious second career as a venture socialist.

The Political Allocation of Capital: RFK Jr and BrightSource

On a day when Nobel-prize winner and U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu is on the hot seat on Capitol Hill, answering questions about the Solyndra scandal, details are coming out about an even larger, potential scandal.

The U.K.'s Daily Mail reports about a $1.4 billion bailout for a firm tied to environmental lawyer and Presidential nephew Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  The Mail reports,

"The revelation was made in an explosive new book, Throw Them All Out, which exposes the secret financial deals of an inner circle of businessmen and politicians in the White House.  The author Peter Schweizer says that the payment was made to Kennedy Jr. thanks to connections in Washington."
BrightSource Energy is a solar power company whose investors include Vantage Point Capital Partners, an investment firm where Kennedy serves as a partner and senior advisor.

According the U.S. Department of Energy, BrightSource Energy received a $1.6 billion loan guarantee from the Department for a solar project in the California desert in April 2011 (to create 86 jobs!).  According to the DOE, the project "will nearly double the generation capacity of concentrated solar in the U.S."

The Daily Mail makes much of (1) the role of a former BrightSource employee who later worked from the Department of Energy and (2) Kennedy's ties to the Democratic establishment.  But focusing on the role of individuals implies that the problem is fixable:  remove the conflicts of interest and favoritism and the program would work just fine.

But the real story is so much bigger.  Government, by its very nature, makes for a terrible venture capitalist.  Risk taking, risk assessment, and risk management--picking winners and losers among private ventures--are just not skill sets to be found in a government agency, especially one filled with nuclear scientists and the like.

Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus of the Breakthrough Institute argue in a recent New Geography post,

"We should stop bluntly subsidizing the deployment of more of the same energy technologies--whether current-generation wind, solar, biofuels, or nuclear--and retool energy incentives to demand steady and continual innovation and cost improvements."

They may have a point, but it is unclear whether the Department of Energy is the proper vehicle for even such "retooled" energy incentives.  The graph below shows the Department's budget over the last 40 years.

That spike you see in recent years is the 2009 Obama stimulus program, which provided funds for efforts such as the loan guarantee program.  When you assign an institution (public, private, or whatever) the task of shoving as much money out the door as quickly as possible, mistakes will be made.  The DOE has proven to be unequal to the task.

Regardless, the Daily Mail quotes Schweizer from his book, making a good point,

" 'Politicians have made politics a business.  They are increasingly entrepreneurs who use their power, access, and privileged information to generate wealth.  And at the same time well-connected financiers and corporate leaders have made a business of politics.  They meet together in the nation’s capital to form a political caste.  In short, the Permanent Political Class has clearly figured out how to extract wealth from the rest of us based solely on their position and proximity to power.' "

Since When is 80 MPH "High Speed Rail"?

Today's Minneapolis Star Tribune touts the "progress" in the St. Paul to Chicago $3 billion high speed rail project.  A route between St. Paul and LaCrosse, Wisconsin has been selected.  The Star Tribune reports,

"Advocates say upgrading the existing track could produce top speeds ranging from 80 to 110 miles per hour and cut more than two hours from a Twin Cities-Chicago trip."

First of all, the last time I traveled from the Twin Cities to Chicago, I traveled by commercial jet:  the whole trip took less than two hours.

Second of all, I just checked the web site for Megabus, the inter-city passenger bus service.  A one-way ticket from Minneapolis to Chicago went for $23 for an eight-hour trip.  I doubt that high speed rail can complete with that sort of price, not with a cost of $3 billion.

Third of all, what high speed?  80 miles per hour?  The Japanese "bullet train" travels at speeds of more than 150 mph.  In Europe, France's TGV line reaches average speeds of more than 170 mph.

I'm afraid taxpayers are being sold a bill of goods on this one.  The real purpose of high speed rail is to appeal to the so-called "creative class."  Creative class guru Richard Florida writes,

"It’s been hard to justify high-speed rail (HSR) projects in terms of conventional cost-benefit analysis.  But, it may be time to rethink – and broaden -the way we think of the benefits of HSR."

Sorry.  I'm a stickler for those "conventional" cost-benefit analyses.

Government and Energy: A Different Take

Over at New Geography,  Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus of the the Breakthrough Institute have a different take on the role of government in the energy business.  Instead of massive subsidies for current technologies or crony capitalist deals for shaky ideas, they recommend spending on basic research.

Franken Touts Solar Project With 75 Year Payback

As reported in the St. Cloud Times newspaper, U.S. Senator Al Franken visited the small Minnesota community of Royalton to tout the town's installation of solar panels on city hall.  Quotes the Times,

“It’s a great example of the kinds of things that federal government, for-profit companies and nonprofits can get together and start.”

Let's see what they started.  Total project cost, $90,000.  Electrical output:  10,000 to 12,000 kWh per year.  Let's take the high end of the output estimate and value the generation at a generous 10 cents/kWh.

$90,000 divided by 12,000 kWh/year divided by $0.10/kWh equals a 75-year payback.

Quoting the panels' manufacturer, "“The equation does work in the long-run ... I think everybody should be doing it."  Which equation is he working with?  The panels will be long gone before they can pay back the initial cost.

Why is Best Buy Speaking to Utility Regulators?

Dan Haugen of Midwest Energy News features Best Buy's Smart Grid strategy and mentions Kris Bowring's recent address to a group of national utility regulators.

Minneapolis vs. Brown Jobs

Minneapolis Star Tribune business columnist Neal St. Anthony writes about the travails of a Minneapolis business in today's paper and illustrates just about everything that's wrong with the city's economic development policies.

The headline frames the story as "Caught between Minneapolis' past and present" but it is more about Minneapolis' ongoing war against "brown" jobs and its own aspiring middle class.

"Past" is represented by the 88-year-old Smith Foundry, an industrial business that recycles old metal into useful material for reuse by other industry.  (Isn't that "green"?)

"Present" is represented by the ""creative class" strategy that emphasizes the role of "knowledge workers" in the new service economy.  St. Anthony writes,

"But [this] strong-back-and-dirty-hands factory, which will generate a record $12 million in revenue this year, is not in vogue in a town where the mayor last week was hailing growth of the service sector.  And neighborhood-based manufacturing has declined in Minneapolis for years, partly by design."

St. Anthony reports that the foundry "employs 10 administrative staff and 70 blue-collar workers at up to $23 an hour, plus benefits", but has been mired in no end of regulatory hassles to the point were the owner "fears that city elders want to banish Smith Foundry."  Regulatory woes include,

• Rezoning.  The foundry's neighborhood has been rezoned to the point where the 88-year-old business is "now a 'nonconforming use' in this location"
• Noise ordinances.  A new ordinance designed to regulate noisy late-night, downtown bars is being used by a neighbor against the foundry.
• Right-of-way.  Hennepin County is enforcing its property rights on the nearby Midtown Greenway bike trail to prevent the re-construction of a sand tank on the foundry's property.  The county is reserving its space for a future trolley-car line.

The city denies that it is trying push out the business.  St. Anthony reports,

"The city is not trying to shut down this foundry," said Council Member Gary Schiff.  "This business can continue to operate.  [The owner] has made good-faith efforts [on some recent noise-ordinance issues].  He's hired people locally and has a good name in the community.  But if you were planning the city today, you would not put [a foundry] in the middle of that neighborhood.  You would put it in a heavy-industry zone."

Ah, the "P"-word, "planning."  First of all, what "heavy-industry" zone?  The heavy industry is all but gone from Minneapolis.  Second, why the need for planning?  Why should the city decide what businesses stay and go?

Back to the trolley car line.  The "creative class" is said to be enamoured of all forms of public transit, not that they use public transit, but they like to see it in the background as part of a bustling city-scape.

But why the hostility to the foundry?  The foundry's owner explains,

"The idea was that everything along the Greenway eventually would become residential.  We were in an industrial-preservation zone.  But we got rezoned.  And now we seem to be without a place to exist and grow."

Record revenue?  High-paying blue-collar jobs, "hiring ex-felons and recovering addicts from a neighboring halfway house"?  Sorry, doesn't fit the with new vision of a "cool" city.

These neighborhood industrial jobs are exactly the kind of businesses that we need to keep and attract to get our economy moving again.  Bard College Professor Walter Russell Mead writes about the need for "bad" jobs,

"Think of the path to successful middle class living as a ladder; the lower rungs on that ladder are not nice places to be, but if those rungs don’t exist, nobody can climb.  When politicians talk about creating jobs, they always talk about creating “good” jobs.  That is all very well, but unless there are bad jobs and lots of them, people in the inner cities will have a hard time getting on the ladder at all, much less climbing into the middle class."

And Mead adds,

"To get these jobs, we have to change the way our cities work...The kind of metal bashing repair shops that fill the cities of the developing world are almost impossible to operate here."

You don't have to tell Smith Foundry.

The EPA's Willingness to Compromise Electric Grid Reliability

The lead editorial in today's Wall Street Journal tackles the apparent willingness of the EPA to let electric grid reliability suffer for the cause of...of...what exactly? 

When Niall Speaks, We Should Listen

Newsweek columnist Niall Ferguson warns us that Europe's crisis is headed our way.

What's Good for GE is Good for America

Or so says GE.  The industrial giant is just one of several cashing in on big renewable energy subsidies, as documented in today's New York Times.

Modernizing Conservatism

Power Line's Steven Hayward writes on the topic of modernizing conservatism in The Breakthrough Journal.

Daniel Hannan on the Italian Crisis:

The U.K. Daniel Hannan (MEP) writes in the Daily Mail about the Italian debt crisis now gripping Europe.  He quotes from an appropriate Kipling poem,

"This is midnight—let no star
Delude us—dawn is very far.
This is the tempest long foretold—
Slow to make head but sure to hold."

A Conservative Guide to Good Governance

These sound like good ideas whatever your ideology.  From the Heritage Foundation's website.

Mark Glaess Writes on MN's RES

The Alexandria Echo Press reprints a commentary from Mark Glaess on Minnesota's Renewable Energy Standard, the state law that requires utilities to buy 25 percent of their energy from renewable resources.  His commentary first appeared in a local electric coop newsletter.

Rather than feel good bromides, Glaess brings hard numbers on what the well-intentioned policy is costing Minnesota electric ratepayers,

"In 2009, Minnesota utilities produced 3,441,000,000 kWh by capturing the wind.  On average, utilities paid 4.5 cents for each kWh...the market only paid an average of 2.7 cents for each kWh produced by wind... The loss of 1.8 cents per kWh spread over 3.4 billion kWh cost Minnesotans some $62 million in 2009."

Read the whole thing.

Feed-In-Tariff Fail: Is the US Bailing Out Spain's Solar Industry?

Almost a year ago, I posted about the failure of Spain's solar power "feed-in-tariff" program.  Simply speaking, a feed-in-tariff is an above-market price paid to an energy producer, subsidized by utility ratepayers or taxpayers.

Any first-year economics student can tell you that paying above market will bring producers out of the woodwork, which will quickly bankrupt any such program.  Nonetheless, solar power advocates want to bring feed-in-tariff to Minnesota and the U.S.

Two years ago, the New York Times reported on the collapse of Spain's solar power industry, "Spain's Solar Market Crash Offers a Cautionary Tale About Feed-In Tariffs," quoting the CEO of Spain's Abengoa Solar,

"What's important for the regulation of solar is stability," said Santiago Seage, the CEO of Abengoa Solar SA, one of Spain's largest solar developers. "Unfortunately, up to now, we have had too many changes. ... [And] if the context changes, you can make mistakes in business decisions."

Regardless, Seage stills recommends feed-in-tariff to us in America.  The New York Times reports,

"Americans and others would be wrong to avoid the feed-in tariff based solely on Spain's experience, Abengoa's Seage said.  'The feed-in tariff is a mechanism that, typically, Americans don't like,' Seage said. 'They believe it doesn't optimize costs for the taxpayers. ... Nevertheless, I feel it has a huge advantage. It's a simple mechanism to get the market started.' "

Now PJ Media reports the possibility that the U.S. government (and its taxpayers) may be bailing Abengoa out of its "mistakes in business decisions."  The Department of Energy's loan guarantee program (think Solyndra) rushed to complete transactions before the program ended on September 30th.  One of the last guarantees approved was for an Abengoa ethanol project.   Earlier, the DOE underwrote Abengoa solar projects in Arizona.  Writes PJ Media,

"Over the last two years, DOE Secretary Steven Chu has awarded Spain-based Abengoa—a sprawling, multi-national industrial firm operating in 70 countries—loan guarantees worth a staggering $2.78 billion for solar and ethanol plants."

PJ Media concludes,

"According to Chris Horner, a senior attorney at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Abengoa is not an exception, but the rule for the Obama administration’s artificially stimulated “green” industry.  He tells PJ Media, 'This is not unique to Abengoa. It defines the [green] industry, which exists in any meaningful way solely due to political creation, not performance or economics.' "

Your tax dollars at work.

Tom Steward Writes on the St. Cloud Airport Fiasco

The Freedom Foundation's Tom Steward has a piece up at the Big Government.Com website on the St. Cloud Airport.  The Airport has burned through big dollars of federal grants in a futile effort to attract an airline.

Collapse of the Blue Social Model

Bard College Professor Walter Russell Mead writes frequently about the collapse of the "Blue Social Model," the collection of policies and attitudes that form the progressive state.

Most recently Mead writes about a police corruption (ticket-fixing) trial in the Bronx, New York, and how it stands in for the breakdown of big-city, liberal politics.  Mead observes that the following vignette outside the Bronx courthouse, illustrates a great city in crisis,

"Between the good government, pro-minority [New York] Times reporters, the angry crowd of police rallying to protect their privileges and perks against the background of a city facing financial cutbacks, and the crowd of poor benefit seekers waiting in the street, resentful of the privileged police, we see can see the political and social crisis of New York in a single space."

We in "good government" Minnesota think we are immune to this sort of thing.  Think again.  In the Minneapolis Star Tribune appears a report about a pensions issue, with a City pension fund being rolled up into a larger state plan.  This merger of plans means the workers assigned to managing the now-defunct City plan are in line for generous severance benefits.  Writes the Star Tribune,

"The four employees of the soon-to-be-defunct Minneapolis police and fire pension funds will leave their jobs with at least $400,000 in severance benefits, although all four have preference for jobs with a statewide pension plan that's absorbing their organizations."

$400,000 divided by four workers equals $100,000 per worker.  One case study,

"The biggest salary settlement goes to Minneapolis Firefighters' Relief Association executive secretary Wally Schirmer, a retired firefighter already drawing a city pension of more than $41,000 annually.  He was granted about $116,500, or one year's salary."

He's already getting a pension, he continued to work, drawing a six-figure salary, and now gets a six-figure severance.  That doesn't count "continued health insurance and cashouts of their unused sick and vacation time."

What ties the Bronx and Minneapolis together in the belief that there will always be enough money to satisfy the various big city liberal constituencies.  Whether its public employees, benefit seekers, or "good government" media, we have run out of cash to make everyone happy.

Complete Streets on Libertarian Viewpoint

Here are the links to my TV interview last month by Sue Jeffers on Libertarian Viewpoint.  Subject:  Complete Streets in Minnesota.

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3

St. Cloud and Complete Streets

Just like the European Union and local school districts, "Complete Streets" advocates insist that the voting continue until the correct result is reached.  They won't take "no" for an answer, but once "yes" is reached, the question is closed.

Case in point, the City of St. Cloud, Minnesota.  Back in September, the City Council voted down a "Complete Streets" policy, but that result was not allowed to stand.  Yesterday, the City Council finally voted the right way and passed the policy on a 4-3 vote.

Warning to St. Cloud residents:  now that "Yes" is official, good luck getting a bad project reversed.

Snatching Environmental Defeat from the Jaws of Victory

Driving around this afternoon, I caught this story on Minnesota Public Radio (MPR).  With great sadness, MPR reports that Minnesota currently meets national air quality standards.  But don't despair, big opportunities are coming to micromanage your lives.

Our victory against air pollution is one of the great untold stories of our time.  On August 1, 2010, the St. Paul Pioneer Press published an astonishing article ("A Not So Dirty Secret in the Air"), which revealed the following,

• Since 1970, Minnesota has slashed air pollution by more than 50 percent
• Air pollution, per capita, has dropped by more than two-thirds
• National emissions of carbon monoxide, down 62 percent
• Sulphur dioxide (acid rain), down 65 percent since 1970
• Ozone emissions, down 9 percent since 1990
• Particle emissions, down 14 percent since 2000
• In Minnesota, emissions from cars and trucks are down 51 percent since 1990

But the Pioneer Press also revealed in 2010 that the metro area was in danger of exceeding new, stricter federal standards for air quality, the development which gives MPR much joy,

"The Twin Cities metro area has so much fine particulate pollution that it could fail to meet the new standards expected from the federal government next year.  And in 2014, a more strict standard for ozone could be issued."

Please note, particulates and ozone emissions are going down not up.  The feds are ratcheting the standards to the point where we no longer can meet them, even with the massive reductions we have made and continue to make.

The culprit?  As MPR reports, "The Enemy...is us."  And by "us" they mean "you," the polluting public,

"another source of pollution goes unregulated and is a big part of the toxic pollution problem: our automobiles, boats and ATVs."

adding,

"Our tailpipes produce the single largest chunk of air pollution that the state sees, both in particulate pollution —a lot of that comes from diesel — and also ozone, which is a big emission from gasoline-powered vehicles."

Wait, the Pioneer Press told me last year that car and truck emissions were down 51 percent in 20 years and both particulates and ozone are decreasing, not increasing.  Let not the facts interfere with a good story and good money.

The MPR pieces quotes a spokesperson for the American Lung Association.  The Association began in 1904 to fight the disease tuberculosis, a fight which was largely won in this country back in the 1950's.  Rather than declare victory, dissolve the institution, and discontinue its lucrative Christmas Seals campaign, the Association reinvented itself in the early 1970's, taking on smoking and air pollution as its causes.  A non-profit, like other corporations, enjoys perpetual life, it can live on long after the founder passes from the scene. 

No matter, next stop social engineering.  MPR reports that regulators will be taking additional steps,

"Not just telling people to stay inside, but don't mow your lawn.  Don't fuel your cars until after sunset, because of the sunlight contribution to ozone...That certainly is a fairly common strategy, and I'm sure one we would be thinking about."

Don't mow my lawn?  So there is good news here.  But wait, won't I get fined by the City for not cutting my grass?  I can't win.

Those Opposed to Democracy

A pair of columns skeptical of democracy dominated the Opinion page of Sunday's Minneapolis Star Tribune.  Columnist Lori Sturdevant decries the surplus of democracy in Minnesota, ("Punting the tough issues to the people:  Is there such a thing as too much direct democracy?  Ask California.  Ask schools.")

Her thesis is that referenda on school levies and stadium taxes show a failure of leadership by elected officials.  To be clear, by failure she means the failure to raise taxes, writing, "This is a case of legislators running amok with their desire to dodge blame for higher taxes."

As readers of this blog will know, I favor direct democracy.  Yes, we have a Republic, with representative democracy.  But whenever the people vote on an issue, I believe that the outcome is, by definition, the "right" outcome.

Former third-party candidate for Lt. Governor, Jim Mulder, writes about the redundancy of all the overlapping levels of government in Minnesota.  I am very receptive to arguments in favor of government redesign.  But I think that Mr. Mulder is attacking the problem from the wrong end.  Basically, Mr. Mulder thinks we have too many counties, with some including more than a million people, but some with just a few thousand.

He makes some good observations regarding overlap.  I have often wondered why we have local Soil and Water Districts and a state Board of Water and Soil Resources.  However, he believes archaic the "Jeffersonian principle of democracy--that no one should live more than a day's horse ride from the county courthouse." 

The implication here is that any political arrangement supported with an argument related to horse travel must be discarded as hopelessly out of date.  Well, how about this, political boundaries should be small enough that the people governed together are likely to know one another.

My county, Hennepin, holds more than 1.1 million people.  I cannot believe that densely populated neighborhoods in Minneapolis share much in common with semi-rural areas at the County's western edge.  Yet all are governed by the same County board.  I would argue that residents would benefit from having the jurisdiction split into three or four entities, grouping populations with like interests.

The actual Jeffersonian principle has nothing to do with horse travel but that "the government closest to the people is the most responsive" (1787).  Mr. Mulder would have the government move away from the people, trading responsiveness for some notion of "efficiency."

Trapped at the Airport: A Parable for Our Times

In the category of almost "too good to check" comes this story from the Daily Mail, which surely must be a parable for our times.

A 55-year-old California woman, Teri Weissinger, was at the San Francisco airport, for a flight to Idaho where she hopes to start a new life.

Down to her last $30, she didn't have money for the airline's baggage fees ($60), and was told that abandoning her luggage was not an option (security risk, you see).  (She had purchased the plane ticket before the rule on disclosing hidden fees took effect.)

A desperate series of calls to family and friends failed to raise the money in time for the flight's departure, and now she was down $210--$60 for the luggage and a $150 change fee for missing her original flight.

What followed was an 8-day ordeal reminiscent of the Tom Hanks movie The Terminal, about a man trapped at JFK airport because of visa problems.  The Terminal movie itself was based on the real-life story of Mehran Karimi Nasseri, an Iranian refugee, who lived at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris for 17 years because he had his briefcase stolen and did not have the proper visa to either enter France proper or fly on to another destination.

M. Nasseri finally escaped the airport when an illness forced him into a nearby hospital and he now lives in a Paris shelter.

Ms. Weissinger's story is not nearly as dramatic, as she was always free to leave the airport, with luggage in tow.  After 8 days of sleeping at the airport and living on trail mix, she finally received help from a nearby church, the Airport Church of Christ, who raised the $210 to see her off to Idaho.

Self-employed for the past 25 years, she was leaving California to take a new job in Idaho.

San Francisco International Airport is located in San Mateo County, but is owned by the City of San Francisco.   Ms. Weissinger thus received no assistance from the most liberal city in the most liberal state in America.  You can understand why.  As a economic refugee on her way out, she was in no position either to continue in the dependent class, voting in her would-be benefactors in election after election or continue as a producer, funding the progressive state.  As she was of no use to them, they provided no help.  The Daily  Mail reports,

"When she tried to plead with airport authorities for help, Ms Weissinger claimed she was threatened with arrest on vagrancy charges."

Who did come to the rescue?  Not any level of government, but a local faith community.  And after 8 days in the airport, she boarded a flight on a different airline, who waived the change fee, but not the baggage charge.

Someone needs to update the lyrics to the Al Jolson song, "California Here I Come", as the flow is now the other way.

A False Dawn for Detroit

Recently, I posted about some inklings of good news for the beleaguered city.  In the past few days, it has made a turn for the bleaker.  Mayor Dave Bing muses about the need for a state takeover of the city, with the possibility that its cash may be exhausted by February.  The town of Highland Park, which lies within the footprint of surrounding Detroit, has followed through on its plans to have all the streetlights removed for lack of funds.

Democracy is Dead, After All

An update of my post yesterday.  It seems democracy is dead.  Greece caved into European demands and dropped the idea of a national referendum on the bailout.  Although the stock market liked it, Walter Russell Mead thinks that it reflects badly on the ability of European institutions to cope with the crisis.  Mead writes,

"Europe’s institutions cannot cope.  Decades of building intricate rules and complicated institutions have failed to create an institutional architecture than can resolve basic disputes."

Green Jobs Fail

For someone involved in the energy industry, I probably haven't paid as much attention to the Solyndra and subsequent scandals as I should.  But to paraphrase an infamous quote, "one Solyndra is a scandal, a thousand Solyndra's are a statistic."

The problem isn't that some politicians steered some government money toward a few favored donors, it is that the whole enterprise is misguided.

Today, Walter Russell Mead posts on his blog about the subject, "Time To Change Course on Green Jobs." where he asks the question,

"Is there something about the word ‘green’ that makes people go weak in the head?"

Adding, "What three months ago was widely hailed by the establishment press as a sign of the futurism and forward-thinking of the Obama Administration now, post-Solyndra, is increasingly seen for the bone headed blunder it was."

Also today, the Wall Street Journal has an editorial on the issue ("Solyndra Without the Tears," subscription required) covering the energy scandal du jour, the now-bankrupt Beacon Power Corp.  The editors ask an interesting question,

"Would the Obama Administration's record be better or worse if it tried to pick losers instead of winners?"  The world will never know.

More "Complete Streets" in St. Paul: Goodbye Parking!

The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports on major street work planned for the City's Raymond Avenue in 2013.  And yes, "complete streets" is on the job. 

"About 50 of the existing 112 parking spots along the avenue would be eliminated to add bike lanes and other improvements."  Comments at the hearing were split evenly, 7 to 7.  In baseball, a tie goes to the baserunner.  In Urban Planning, it seems, a tie goes to the bike rider.

Climate Change and Pseudoscience

Dr. Matt Ridley, a British journalist with a Ph.D. in Zoology from Oxford, delivered a great lecture on Halloween on scientific heresy and pseudo-science in the climate change field,

Key paragraph,

"The problem is that you can accept all the basic tenets of greenhouse physics and still conclude that the threat of a dangerously large warming is so improbable as to be negligible, while the threat of real harm from climate-mitigation policies is already so high as to be worrying, that the cure is proving far worse than the disease is ever likely to be.  Or as I put it once, we may be putting a tourniquet round our necks to stop a nosebleed."

It's worth reading the whole thing.  Dr. Ridley does everyone a service by explaining the role that Confirmation Bias plays in the controversy.

Are Greeks Ready for Democracy?

Not if you believe European Union's leadership. 

Daniel Hannan, a British Member of the European Parliament, is on the case.  Today on his blog, Hannan takes them to task (reprinted on the pages of the Daily Telegraph), opening with,

"Shall I tell you the truly terrifying thing about the EU?  It’s not the absence of democracy in Brussels, or the ease with which Eurocrats swat aside referendum results.  It’s the way in which the internal democracy of the member states is subverted in order to sustain the requirements of membership."

On Monday Hannan wrote about the initial reaction to the news that Greece would hold a referendum on the European bailout,

"I wish I could convey the sheer writhing horror that George Papanderou's referendum proposal has provoked in Brussels.  Eurocrats instinctively dislike referendums.  They feel that their work is too important and complicated to be vulnerable to the prejudices of hoi polloi..."

Today's Wall Street Journal sees the benefits of this referendum in an editorial.  The Editors write,

"As for the rest of Europe, they may eventually come around to thanking Mr. Papandreou and the Greeks, even for a no vote.  Today's conventional wisdom is that a Greek default would spread contagion, never mind that past bailout packages for Athens haven't exactly contained it...A Greek default would provide a lesson in what happens to countries that can't live within their means."

Even if the Greeks vote no, at least they will have chosen their own fate.  The only cure for the excesses of democracy, is more democracy.

Niall Ferguson on how America can avoid collapse

From his Newsweek column.  Add his name to those you should read regarding the decline and fall, but don't call him a "declinist."  He's more of a "sudden collapse" kind of guy.

To avoid that fate here, Ferguson offers this software analogy,

"What we need to do is to delete the viruses that have crept into our system: the anticompetitive quasi monopolies that blight everything from banking to public education; the politically correct pseudosciences and soft subjects that deflect good students away from hard science; the lobbyists who subvert the rule of law for the sake of the special interests they represent—to say nothing of our crazily dysfunctional system of health care, our overleveraged personal finances, and our newfound unemployment ethic."

The Receding Tide of Prosperity

Picking up on yesterday's theme, there are more good analyses popping up of the current situation, particularly of the Occupy Wall Street phenomenon.  Over on his blog, Walter Russell Mead calls attention to an analysis by Megan McArdle at The Atlantic.  She builds on the essay I linked to yesterday by Kenneth Anderson, who argues that the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement really represents an intra-class conflict between the upper and middle tiers of the (his word) virtueocracy.

Before returning to that thread, I first want to call more attention to to this piece from Anne Applebaum in the Daily Telegraph, "Can America survive without its backbone, the middle class?"  This quote helps frame the issue,

"Despite all the loud talk of the “1 per cent” of Americans who, according to a recent study, receive about 17 percent of the income, a percentage which has more than doubled since 1979, the existence of a very small group of very rich people has never bothered Americans.  But the fact that some 20 per cent of Americans now receive some 53 per cent of the income is devastating."

Rich Lowry, in the New York Post, picks up on a theme of inter-class struggle in "Stuck at the Bottom:  Culture and the American Dream."  He concludes, "old-fashioned bourgeois virtues, and particularly marriage, rarely figure in the public debate.  Everyone is more comfortable talking about taxes or the banks, as the American Dream frays."

Finally, from Sunday, Ross Douthat writes in the New York Times about stresses on the middle class and diminishing expectations.  While the OWS crowd may harbor some legitimate (if well-hidden) grievances, their preferred policy solutions--higher taxes and a bigger government--will only lead to more grief,

"The public-sector workplace has become a kind of artificial Eden, whose fortunate inhabitants enjoy solid pay and 1950s-style job security and retirement benefits, all of it paid for by their less-fortunate private-sector peers.  Some on the left have convinced themselves that this 'success' can lay the foundation for a broader middle-class revival.  But if a bloated public sector were the blueprint for a thriving middle-class society, then the whole world would be beating a path to Greece’s door."

Instead, Douthat makes an argument for what he terms "small-government egalitarianism," which to my ears sounds a lot like "aspirational conservatism" combined with "redesigning government."  His concept,

"would seek to reform the government before we pour more money into it, along lines that encourage upward mobility and benefit the middle class.  This would mean seeking a carefully means-tested welfare state, a less special interest-friendly tax code, and a public sector that worked for taxpayers and parents rather than the other way around."

Back to McArdle's analysis, "The Rage of the Almost-Elite."  Picking up on Anderson's analysis, she extends it, by harkening back to this work by George Orwell from the last century, where he describes another time and place occupied by the "wreckage left behind when the tide of Victorian prosperity receded."

McArdle touches on the culture theme, as did Lowry, not to praise "old-fashioned bourgeois virtues" as he did, but to explain why members of Anderson's "New Class" seem so obligated to trash those same virtues,

"It's not entirely crazy to suspect, as Orwell did, that this has something to do with money.  Specifically, you sneer at the customs of the people you might be mistaken for."

But McArdle confirms with her experience that the New Class saves their ire more for the tier directly above them, than the classes they view as below them,

"They didn't see it coming.  Yes, yes, maybe they were naive about the possibilities of a fulfilling and secure life in the field of non-profit environmental management.  Probably they should not have sunk tens of thousands of dollars into acquiring a BFA.  But these mistakes didn't usually used to be crippling.... Unfortunately their choices became utterly, horrifyingly disastrous just at the moment when we had a terrible financial crisis that spiked our unemployment rate up to 10%."


I find much of this analysis persuasive in explaining current events, like the OWS protests.  More importantly, these analyses show the Internet at its finest.  Rather than fomenting dissent and spreading confusion, analysts around the globe are able to read and react to each others' work almost in real time, strengthening arguments and building on one another.