Free Republic

Islanders were outraged when a wealthy summer resident clear cut land last year next to an affordable housing development so he could land his helicopter. But another fight brewing on Martha's Vineyard is not about the excesses of the rich in their summer houses. This one pits year-round residents against one another. On one side is Bill Bennett, a Vineyard electronics contractor, who raised $1 million to buy land on the island's southern edge to build 11 houses costing $350,000 each - about half the island's median house price - so his employees and family can afford their first homes....

Walt Neidlinger spent years trying to keep a Wal-Mart-anchored shopping complex from being built near his Wind Gap home. The traffic would have been suffocating for their little community, neighbors argued, so when the massive retailer and its partners packed up their plans and left Plainfield Township last year, Neidlinger was ecstatic. He figured he'd wait for the next plan to come along and remembers thinking, ''What could be worse than Wal-Mart?'' Over the past year, Neidlinger says, he's gotten an answer: RPM Recycling -- the metal-shredding plant on the same land -- causes daily noise that sounds like a...

Due to Restrictions can only post link. Residents want city gas drilling permits stopped

U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.) opposes President Bush's proposal to lift the ban, saying the debate "is not about producing more oil, it's really about producing more profits for Big Oil." He said oil companies should exploit the land and undersea areas already available to them for oil drilling. His Republican opponent, former U.S. Rep. Dick Zimmer, takes a Jersey-centric view of offshore drilling. Zimmer says he is open to environmentally safe drilling off the coasts. But, he says, "I would oppose drilling off the Jersey Shore or anywhere else that would pose a danger to the Jersey Shore."

A number of Chippewa County residents are drawing a line in the sand when it comes to a sand mine. As we first reported two weeks ago, a Canadian company is looking to build a sand processing plant in the Town of Howard. If a permit is approved, the sand mine will operate for 40 years. During that time, it's estimated 60 to 90 trucks will haul 16 hours a day in the summer and ten hours a day in the winter. That's why a committee has been formed to stop construction. Kasey Schindler, the Stop Mine Committee spokesperson says,...

Passing the Signal Hill pumpjacks the other day, which are nestled everywhere from outside a coffee shop to the lot of a used-car dealership in Southern California, I had a thought in this beautiful coastal region that inspired the fictional oilman Daniel Plainview in "There Will Be Blood." What if those who allowed new drilling in their neighborhoods were rewarded with $2-a-gallon gasoline? Would NIMBYism survive? As consumers are literally running out of gas on the roadways for trying to stretch their last fuel dollars one extra mile, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is in little mood to ease...

Richmond city officials' decision to restrict the crude oil the Chevron refinery can process if it upgrades its facility could drastically affect the company's plans.After five hours of public testimony and deliberations, the Richmond Planning Commission early Friday morning approved a crude limit to calm public fears over increased pollution and health risks."Let's try something a bit ground-breaking and see if it flies," Commissioner Charles Duncan said. "The health of the community is at stake."Exactly how much the new crude cap will alter Chevron's plan to upgrade equipment will depend on how extensive that cap is. The commission directed city...

The Marcellus Shale play is the latest huge thing in natural gas, considered by some to be a "super giant" gas field. Read more here http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/246893563.shtml The edge of the Marcellus Shale in Northeast PA and NY is about 100 miles from NYC, which means the gas needs only a very short trip by pipeline to the major metropolitan centers. Natural gas is the cleanest of the fossil fuels and also is a source for hydrogen for hydrogen powered vehicles. So here are a bunch of "concerned citizens" planning to oppose it with all their might. "The Damascus group has...

On the Spot (CNSNews.com) - The United States should increase its domestic oil supply by opening up more drilling sites, several members of the Senate told Cybercast News Service Thursday, when surveyed on the issue at the U.S. Capitol. But some senators also said they are wary of allowing increased drilling in many locations - especially in their own states. "There may be places that make sense, I am not saying, 'Let's not drill anywhere,' " Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) said in response to the question. "But do I want to drill off the California coast? No. Do I want...

In the community of Shady Grove Woods, trees are becoming more and more scarce. Residents and other anti-Intercounty Connector activists marched through the neighborhood on Saturday, pointing out the trees that were cut down to make way for the six-lane highway. ‘‘It’s just that we didn’t have a say in it in so many ways and we’re not talking about a two-lane road, we’re talking about a major highway running through here,” resident Sam Chim said of the ICC. ‘‘We have a lot of nice, private woods back here and now we’re going to have a highway running through instead....

Last week's story about the uncertainties endured by people who live in or near the route of the I-69/Trans-Texas Corridor prompted many messages of support. But I wish there had been room in the story to quote Steve Huber, a University of Houston law professor who spoke at a January meeting in Bellville on the project. Huber opposed the corridor plan without taking the position — adopted, for instance, by U.S. Rep. John Culberson toward rail on Richmond — that the people most directly affected deserve the most consideration when a route is chosen. "My position carefully avoided the sort...

In 2006, former premier Lucien Bouchard and several business leaders blamed the not-in-my-backyard syndrome - NIMBY - for much of the Montreal metropolitan area's "immobilisme." The criticism followed the cancellation of two projects that had stirred public protests - a casino near Pointe St. Charles and the Suroît power plant. Despite the scolding, citizens remain unrepentant and as pesky as ever. Protests against noisy aircraft over the West Island, for example, are giving headaches to airport officials trying to accommodate increasing numbers of flights. Protests on the North Shore are also causing problems for the expansion of a smelly regional...

Five months ago, I wrote about the recycling center at the southeast corner of Golden Gate Park. Residents have been upset about the facility for some time. The site is noisy and ugly, and seems dated. Recycling is done at the curb of nearly every house these days, so why does the neighborhood need a special site? But most of all, the residents were upset at the fact that the homeless campers in Golden Gate Park were raiding their recycling bins at night, loading up on cans and bottles, and turning them in for cash. It was, some said, a...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Cape Cod Commission in Massachusetts Thursday denied Cape Wind's application to bury electric cables needed to connect its proposed 420-megawatt offshore wind farm in the Nantucket Sound to the state power grid. Cape Wind said in a release that it would challenge the Commission decision. The Cape Cod Commission is a local organization created by the state in 1990 to manage growth and protect Cape Cod's natural resources. Sen. Ted Kennedy and many residents who own coastal property from where they could see the wind turbines on a clear day oppose the project along with...

If you're wondering who's largely to blame for the alleged heating up of the climate you need look no further than Jane Fonda. That's what "Freakanomics" columnists Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt suggest in Sunday's New York Times Magazine. "If you were asked to name the biggest global warming villains of the past 30 years, here's one name that probably wouldn't spring to mind: Jane Fonda. But should it?" the authors ask. According to Editor & Publisher, the two cite Fonda's anti-nuclear thriller "The China Syndrome," which opened just 12 days before the Three Mile Island accident in...

About two dozen demonstrators gathered outside a D.C. Zoning Commission meeting last night to object to plans to place a day-laborer center in a Northeast shopping plaza. "I do not want to see a day-labor center in the area," said Pat Smith, a program analyst who lives a block from the proposed site, near a Home Depot at 901 Rhode Island Ave. NE. "I don't want to see my taxpaying dollars going to illegal immigrants." D.C. Council member Harry Thomas Jr., Ward 5 Democrat, plans to spend $500,000 in city funds for the project, which he says would also provide...

CAIRNBROOK, Pa. -- Since 1989, Angelo and Marian Mincone have made weekly 80-mile trips from their home in Allegheny County to an Appalachian ridge top to count the migrating raptors that ride the thermal winds. Mr. Mincone fears that a Gamesa Energy USA proposal to build 30 wind turbines on nearby Shaffer Mountain could endanger the hawks, falcons and, especially, the eastern golden eagles that fly low to feed along the Allegheny Front. He doesn't want to see a repeat of the mistake that has resulted in the deaths of more than 4,700 birds, including 1,300 raptors, each year at...

OrlandoSentinel.com COMMENTARY Note to Muslims: We didn't yield free speech on 9-11 Darryl E. Owens COMMENTARY August 25, 2007 After a rancorous week, Sanford City Commissioner Randy Jones and Central Florida Muslims have agreed to play nice. The feud began at a public meeting Tuesday, in which Jones rankled Muslims with an observation about redeveloping a patch of land near a mosque in his district: "The fact of the matter is, I don't think you will get a lot of takers on residential [development] next to a mosque just because of what's going on worldwide." Danette Zaghari-Mask, head of the...

FL Official 'Regrets' Mosque Comments City commissioner will take part in Muslim town hall meeting The Orlando chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Orlando) today thanked a local official who expressed regret for recent comments about U.S. mosques that some Muslims found offensive. At a recent City of Sanford planning meeting, Commissioner Randy Jones said: "I mean it might be un-politically correct, but I don't care. . .The fact of the matter is, I don't think you will get a lot of takers on residential [development] next to a mosque just because of what's going on worldwide." In response...

Several hundred Northern Virginia residents and officials packed an Arlington hotel ballroom yesterday to protest the Energy Department's proposal to build an electrical transmission line through Northern Virginia. They said the lines would displace them from their homes, reduce their property values and ruin pristine and historical countryside. "Two Realtors have told me my property is worthless right now because nobody would buy it," said Judy Almquist, a retired widow who said she depends on apartments she rents in Fauquier County for her income. The property lies in the path of a proposed transmission line.

TOWN OF DOVER, Wis. (AP) -- Barney Lavin ought to be the poster child for ethanol. A fifth-generation corn farmer, working the land his family homesteaded in 1842, Lavin should see dollar signs over a proposed ethanol plant in this small southeastern Wisconsin town. Instead, Lavin put down his pitchfork and picked up his cell phone, joining the ranks of other unlikely opponents organizing against ethanol plants, fearing air pollution, increased traffic and groundwater depletion. "I'm unwilling to give up the obvious quality of life we have here for some added income," said Lavin, who grows corn on a 300-acre...

Echoing a controversy that engulfed several neighborhoods seven years ago, a proposal to create low-income housing is again stirring passions in Northeast Baltimore. In online message groups, petitions and interviews, many residents are objecting to a proposal to convert a closed Catholic school into affordable apartments. They favor turning the shuttered St. Dominic School on Harford Road in Hamilton into a charter school, market-rate housing or senior apartments. They fear that retrofitting the building for 30 low-income rental units invites decay - not only of the property but of the largely middle-class area around it. "I'm worried about crime in...

These days, everyone is in favor of clean energy. But one particular kind - wind power, generated by turbines that are frequently larger than the Statue of Liberty - has triggered a nationwide outcry of NIMBY (“Not In My BackYard”), or, in one case, NOMB (“Not On My Beach”). Typical NIMBY behavior comes from those who oppose a development (landfill, power plant) in their neighborhood, but aren’t opposed to the development in general. With wind farms, the NIMBY factor is particularly conspicuous. As wind energy has caught on, people across the country - environmentalists and non-environmentalists alike - agree that...

NIMBY's versus Socialism - Open Space Now Becoming Socialized Good The Pasadena Pundit- April 7, 2007 Up until now new homeowner's have been willing to pay for open space land surrounding their tract homes - and for good reason because such amenities translate into pricey view premiums when the homes are re-sold. But now a developer has imposed a fee on new homes for open space that benefit property owners other than the homeowners paying the fees. We might call this open space without value capture. Now realtors are balking because when the homes are re-sold that fee will not...

Not Off My Back Porch Nation's First Offshore Wind Power Project Threatens to Block Kennedy's View and the Senator Isn't Happy By DAVID SCHOETZ March 30, 2007 — - A major battle in the politics of alternative energy has moved to a final phase in Washington, and a senator named Kennedy with a waterfront view and a bone to pick awaits. Friday was a good day for Jim Gordon, the man hungry to build America's first offshore wind farm off the Cape Cod coast. The state environmental office -- one of a battery of local, state and federal agencies reviewing...

Allison Linn Senior writer -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- • Profile • E-mail Debbie Brinkman didn’t plan on being an anti-Wal-Mart activist. In fact, as a Republican, she felt it was “kind of against my politics to be fighting this.� But when the Littleton, Colo., resident heard there were plans to build a Wal-Mart Supercenter across from a large and popular park — and within sight of her own front door — she felt she had little choice but to get involved. So Brinkman became one of the early members of Littleton Against Wal-Mart, fighting a store planned for the Denver suburb.

As if our governor wasn’t already having a bad hair day last week, just as the Weekly was putting to bed its latest story on the Trans-Texas Corridor (“Brake Lights,” March 7, 2007), rookie State Sen. Robert Nichols, a former state transportation commissioner, was introducing two bills that should have made that famous coif turn white. The first would prohibit any non-toll road or bridge from being converted to a toll facility and stipulates that if toll lanes are added to a non-toll road, the number of free lanes cannot be reduced. The second would put a two-year moratorium on...

The price of progress is now considered a pain to some ears in Shallowater. Some folks there are upset about the new wind energy turbines now being used by Shallowater ISD. The school district turned them on back in January. They're meant to save tax dollars, but some say the by-product, sound, is too much.Chad Dugger, a resident in the area says, "I can hear them when they turn off and turn back on. It's not too much fun living here anymore." The wind turbine is less than 300 feet from Dugger's back yard.When one of these wind turbines goes up near residences, the standard...

The NIMBY versus the PINATA Cliche of the Housing Affordability Crisis The Pasadena Pundit - Feb. 14, 2007 There are numerous factors that reportedly contribute to the so-called housing affordability crisis in California: lack of land, high development fees and exactions, open space and environmental requirements which didn't exist in prior decades, no more infrastructure financing from surrounding homeowners after Prop. 13, etc. But, perhaps, there is another factor that has gone mostly unrecognized: the dominant paradigm from which we see the affordable housing crisis. It is the paradigm best known by the acronym "NIMBY" (Not-In-My-Back-Yard-ism). Government officials, developers and...

Protesters surround building in Mission where Kink.com says 3 videos were made - Fifty soggy yet passionate pickets marched Thursday in front of the old armory on San Francisco's Mission Street to protest the movies being shot on the other side of the brick walls. Carrying signs reading "Shut it Down" and "Stop Sex-ploitation,'' the protesters demanded that Kink.com, an online pornographer, stop its plans to make X-rated bondage videos inside the building. But instead of backing down, Kink boasted that it already had shot three videos inside the 93-year-old armory building, featuring porn star Princess Donna, who was "expertly...

When wind turbines began dotting the skyline around Dale Rankin's horse ranch near Abilene, he teamed up with other property owners to sue the company in charge of the project, FPL Energy. Brandon Wade: For the Chronicle JACKSBORO — The wind rustling the oak trees on the Squaw Mountain Ranch soon may be its undoing as a starkly empty, unspoiled corner of North Texas. Riding the boom that last year pushed Texas past California as the nation's leading wind energy producer, a wind power company wants to scatter 100 turbines across an area roughly nine miles long and two miles...

A growing legion of concerned neighbors in unincorporated Strawberry voiced fear Tuesday of increased traffic and decreased home values if a Habitat for Humanity housing development comes to the Eagle Rock neighborhood. "It's a very, very poor place to jam four more homes like a housing project," said Eagle Rock Road resident Debra Dealey. "And it diminishes the value of our homes." Dealey was among about 80 people squeezed into the tiny loft at the Strawberry Recreation Center in Mill Valley for an informational community meeting on the project moderated by the Strawberry Design Review Board. Echoing comments of several...

TIBURON, Calif. -- Some residents of this upscale San Francisco suburb plan to fight a proposed Habitat for Humanity housing development over concerns that the project would decrease property values and increase traffic. The international nonprofit partnered with the owner of a 16.5-acre tract in the town's Eagle Rock neighborhood to build four single-family homes for low-income families, but neighbors fear negative effects on the community. "Habitat for Humanity is to bring the neighborhood up, not to bring the neighborhood down," said Bill Roberts, a 40-year Eagle Rock resident. Roberts said he and dozens of other neighbors are raising money...

Massachusetts’ highest court has upheld a decision facilitating construction of an environmentally friendly "wind farm” that Sen. Ted Kennedy had opposed. The decision on Monday allows construction of 18-mile-long transmission lines to bring electricity from the Cape Wind project – a collection of energy-producing wind turbines – to shore. The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed a May 2005 decision by the state Energy Facilities Siting Board that was challenged by a group opposing the Cape Wind project, Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound. If it receives needed federal approval, Cape Wind would become the nation's first offshore wind farm. The developer seeks...

LEE COUNTY: The Lee County Commission voted unanimously to proceed with plans to build a bio-diesel plant at the Gulfcoast Landfill. The decision upset residents in the nearby Stoneybrook Community, and even brought one woman to tears. Homeowners have safety and health concerns about the plant. Cathy Ciaffone lives right across the street from the landfill. "We came to where we thought we'd be happy at. We have to move if our health doesn't get better," said Ciaffone. She says her children and her neighbors suffer from fevers and sore throats. According to her the problems can all be blamed...

When Washington targeted Nevada as the nation's nuclear waste dump, the state didn't have the political power to say no.Twently years later the most ardent foe of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump is about to become the Senate Majority leader.

<p>CHALK UP a victory for the xenophobes and the not-in-my-back-yard crowd in the city of Gaithersburg, and a setback for tolerance and decency. After a fruitless yearlong search for a site to place a day-laborer center, city officials have declared defeat, turned tail and thrown themselves -- and dozens of immigrant day laborers -- on the mercy of Montgomery County. Now, to add insult to injury, the officials are weighing a prohibition on workers soliciting jobs at curbside, a measure that would impede the city's own residents from seeking gainful employment.</p>

The Meigs County school system is dismissing students around 9 a.m. this morning due to an issue at the Watts Bar nuclear plant, although TVA said the issue has been resolved. TVA declared an "unusual event" at 6:15 a.m., when a water leak in the plant’s cooling system was suspected. That’s standard procedure in the event of a suspected leak, spokesman Gil Francis said, and includes notifying the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. "The investigation showed there was no water leakage and, therefore, the (unusual) event was canceled," Francis said. The alert was canceled at 7:35 a.m.

When it comes to natural gas, California faces a quandary. On one hand, the state does not have a terminal anywhere along its coast that can off-load LNG (natural gas that is stored in a ship in its super-cooled, liquefied form). On the other hand, California does have an increasing demand for natural gas. It has become the clean-burning fuel of choice to generate electricity and heat homes. Yet new domestic supplies aren't keeping up with future demands. That leaves foreign sources to fill the gap with LNG, and a ship has to unload this natural gas at a terminal...

(CBS) MALIBU Celebrities and coastal residents held a protest in Malibu against a plan to build a massive, floating liquefied natural gas terminal off the coast of Malibu and Oxnard. Actor Pierce Brosnan and big wave surfer Laird Hamilton hosted the "Paddle Out Protest" at Surfrider Beach, near Malibu Pier in an effort to stop the BHP Billiton LNG terminal. Opponents claim storing liquefied natural gas poses a danger since it's highly flammable and explosive. The terminal would also draw huge tankers to the site from foreign countries several times per week and has the potential for significant and irreversible...

Former James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan and other celebrities gathered Sunday to protest a natural gas facility proposed for a site 14 miles off the Malibu coast. "We have to use our voices and band together and stop this," said Oscar winner Halle Berry. The gathering _ also attended by Cindy Crawford, Jane Seymour, Dick Van Dyke and Tea Leoni _ was intended to raise awareness about how the energy industry has invested billions to liquefy and ship natural gas across oceans. There are five facilities proposed for California, with three along the Southern California coastline. One of the world's...

All too many denizens of the city instinctively rail against corporate America as an article of their political faith but inevitably undermine the entrepreneurial spirit of the mom-and-pop tavern operators in their neighborhoods. This disconnect is played out in various areas of the city, initiated by civic association groups and the elected officials of the Advisory Neighborhood Commission. Their hubris is surpassed only by their thorough misunderstanding of the marketplace.

LOWVILLE, New York (Reuters) - From the front of the Flat Rock Inn, a restaurant and campground on a gravel road, owner Gordon Yancey can see more than 100 windmills spinning, part of the electricity-generating wind farm that surrounds his property in upstate New York. The sight and sound of them burns Yancey, 47, who grew up on a nearby farm and considers Lowville, 300 miles northwest of New York City with a population of 3,500, too crowded to live in. "The noise, it's all a matter of opinion, who it is," Yancey said. "People who come from the city,...

CHARLESTON, S.C. - Governors worried about damage to the economy and complained about years of neglect on energy policy after an Alaska oil field shutdown, but offered far different solutions on Monday. Energy independence and alternative fuels had already been part of the weekend's summer meeting of the National Governors Association. News of the oil field shutdown and the spike in oil prices, spurred by corrosion of a key oil pipeline, put a sharper edge to the topic. Democratic Gov. Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana, whose state is at the center of the nation's fuel production and distribution, criticized the federal...

Once, flying was an exotic experience; now, not only is it mundane, but the damage it does to the environment is insupportable Before the environment was invented as a cause, we had to make do with High Tory bigotry to protect us from error. Appalled at the prospect of proles enjoying democratic travel, John Ruskin mused on the rapacious penetration of a railway into the hitherto virgin Peak District. He boomed that the sole advantage to be gained from this 'progress' was that every fool in Birmingham could be in Buxton and every fool in Buxton could be in...

ABC News: At San Francisco's Wharf, a Fight for Medical Marijuana Ensues July 25, 2006 — San Francisco has more cannibus clubs — the dispensaries of marijuana for the medical treatment of the nasty side effects of chemotherapy, glaucoma or AIDS — than any other city in the nation. Yet, that doesn't mean cannabis clubs make welcome neighbors, even in bluest of the blue San Francisco, a city that prides itself on being tolerant of almost every lifestyle. (snip) But the reality of the program is apparently harsher than the notion. However accepting San Francisco may consider itself to be,...

WASHINGTON The House voted Thursday to end a quarter-century offshore drilling ban and allow energy companies to tap natural gas and oil beneath waters from New England to Alaska. Opponents of the federal ban argued that the nation needed to move closer to energy independence and insisted the gas and oil could be taken without threatening the environment and coastal beaches. They said a state choosing to keep the moratorium could do so. The measure was approved 232-187. But the bill's prospects in the Senate were uncertain. Florida's two senators have vowed to filibuster any legislation that would allow drilling...

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has dismissed Tracy Rep. Richard Pombo's request for support on his bill that would open the coasts of some states to oil and gas drilling. Although Pombo and Schwarzenegger are both Republicans, Schwarzenegger - who is locked in a re-election campaign against Democratic state Treasurer Phil Angelides - has long opposed lifting the federal moratorium on offshore drilling. "Just last month, the House of Representatives voted once again to extend this moratorium, a process that has worked in the past and is working today to protect our coast. I see no reason to jettison this...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Just two Arab countries have supplied almost 50 percent of California's imported oil over the past five years, a dependence that leaves the state more vulnerable than the rest of the country to disruptions in the world oil markets. The finding, based on an analysis of state and federal crude oil import statistics, underscores the challenges confronting both California -- the biggest gas-consuming state in the U.S. -- and the country as a whole as lawmakers grapple with consumer outrage over high prices at the pump and a U.S. deficit that has widened on the back...

Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., has a new ally in his effort to torpedo an environmentally friendly "wind farm” off the coast from the Kennedy compound in Hyannis – the Pentagon. The Defense Department has begun a study to find out if wind turbine projects designed to produce energy could interfere with military radar – even though wind farms are already operating in military radar areas. The study is threatening not only the Cape Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts, but other wind farm projects around the country as well. The study was inserted in the 2006 Defense Authorization Act...