Huummmmm er....

A young French student left this comment on yesterday's post:

Hello !
I'm french, I'm 17 years old, and I study English at school. And in my English book, we speak about you and your blog. I think that's very original to whrite all your thoughs in a blog, and I think you've got a quality writing. You have to go on !

It's amazing how one comment inspires me not to change what I'm doing. It is what I do when it comes to blogging.

I dedicate today's post to my young reader.

What vehicle first comes to mind when you think of humongous gas guzzlers the administration wants to get off our roads? The Hummer, right? They'd like to annihilate it, right?

Imagine my surprise when I saw this headline in this morning's Wall Street Journal - Hummer Plans Headquarters In Michigan! It made me realize someone out there thinks there is going to be a market for them. Not GM. It's one of the brands they chose to get rid of.

How about the Chinese? They're the ones buying the brand! They'll no doubt sell a lot of them in China. Probably enough to wipe out and carbon emissions savings that would have occurred here had the brand disappeared.

The game plan, however, is not to contain it in China. The plans for the U.S. include the creation of 300 jobs with people working on design, marketing, engineering and distribution. To keep it in Michigan, the state has committed $20.6 over the next ten years! Wow!

You've gotta love it! GM sells the gas guzzler to China who in turn will devote millions in research, development and distribution tactics in the U.S.. Michigan in particular because they need the jobs, want to keep the reputation of being the automotive capital of the world and offered the greatest incentives.

Now that the cash for clunkers deal has ended, the used car business is in shambles and showrooms of car dealers sit silent, the foundation for an uprising has been laid! Hummer will live to see another day! America loves it's gas guzzlers. America needs it's gas guzzlers, especially during the winter months, just to get around. Especially here in the West! Try driving a smart car over some of our back country roads. Try going anywhere in a car that needs a charge every eight hours and it takes nearly as many hours to complete. Try paying the surcharge on your electric bill for the extra electricity that will have to be generated!

In time, be assured, when all this hype has once more settled down, Hummers will peek out of garages along with honkin' big pickups, SUVs of all types bearing familiar brands. The difference will be the ownership will be foreign and the profits will go off shore.

Our emissions may go down for a time but foreign emissions will increase to offset them. Then ours will creep back up.

These attempts at sweeping change seem to have a few flaws. Are we just a little at odds with ourselves?

Gas Warfare!

The auto industry is in shambles. The price of gas is like a see saw; up and down, up and down. The green machine is trying to force the car manufacturers to build green cars that will run on battery power for maybe 40 miles at a crack. The tax payer is being asked to fork over billions for this effort. Never mind that no one will buy the cars anyway. At least not here in northern Idaho where pick ups are required equipment. And a forty mile drive may just get you to the grocery store before you'd have to recharge to return home. It needs a tad more study.

On the other hand, as is the way of the government, they are looking at charging farmers fees if they have gas producing animals! Okay, the technology for capturing gas from cows and pigs hasn't been perfected, but is it fair to fine those who raise them for a habit that comes naturally?

Yep. The Environmental Protection Agency officially states that greenhouse gases emitted by belching and flatulence is air pollution!

Here is the fee schedule: more than 25 dairy cows - $175 each; more than 50 beef cattle - $87.50/head; more than 200 hogs - $20 each.

That is estimated to cost a modest sized ranch upwards of $30,000 a year when they can barely buy food for the critters to begin with! Then there is worry that it might extend to chickens and other farm animals leading to our having to import them rather than raising them therefore putting another whole industry into more trouble than it already has and we already subsidize! Whew. That was a tough sentence to get out!

We best keep an eye on this or it could adversely affect we humans too. Not from a consumers point of view but from a consumption point of view. Think about how Uncle Charlie relaxes after too much Thanksgiving dinner? Think about what the boys around the TV emit after consuming too many beers while watching the big game!

It could turn ugly. They could charge me a fee for having Bacchus. He's been known to let loose on occasion. What about my fish? What's in those bubbles they blow?

Where will it stop? Where will it stop? As Kermit the Frog once said, "It isn't easy being green." Indeed. I'm turning green just thinking about it!

Breathe? Right!

A month or so ago there was an article in the Coeur d'Alene Press regarding pending legislation that would require vehicles of a certain type and age to undergo emissions testing. The intent being to reduce health problems caused by air pollution.

There was a huge hue and cry over why our county might be included since we were being lumped in with the Spokane area in determining the extent of the pollutants. How would our less affluent residents, many who drive basically junkers, be able to afford not only the test but the repairs the testing might bring about?

Today there was another article regarding the resumption of field burning. It had been stopped for a year due to law suits regarding health issues, but the farmers have been diligent in their resistance. For you not familiar with this story, it is an annual ritual that after the grass seed crop is harvested the chafe and stubble are burned to ready the fields for the next crop.

When we moved here, on prairie land that used to be grass farming territory, we were not advised that this was still the practice all around us. Each year I've written a rant complete with pictures of what we suffer through when a burn goes bad which always seems to happen. Like the wind shifting or a piece of equipment getting too hot and igniting the tinder by "accident". With a bad burn the smoke sucks the breath out of you, leaves particles, still smoldering, the size of match sticks and permeates every nook and cranny in your home even when closed up. Your fabric furniture, drapes, carpets and clothes reek for days. This is mild compared to what happens to the communities backed up against the mountains where the smoke gets stuck until it eventually settles or disapates.

Yet, it is likely to resume again this summer. Who says lobbyists aren't successful? Once again we'll be hacking and wheezing during the aggregious assault on "clean air"!

It's nice to know, however, that the residents of our fair capital city aren't without their own pollution and health problems. It seems they have a problem with smog. The Department of Environmental Quality is asking those locals to mow their lawns less often. Now that will clear up the air!

I guess, though, that may be the most practical solution since most everyone has a gas powered mower of some sort. They won't be able to afford to mow their lawns!

All we northern Idaho folk with asthma and heart problems can migrate south to escape our fouled air. I'm sure there will be a run on electric powered mowers. But no, the power plants to provide the electricity to power the mowers will pollute the air too! Arrrrgh!