Get the world free of fossil fuel dependence

I live in a bush village in Southeast Alaska where I can breathe clean air and drink water from the creek next to my home. I have lived this subsistence lifestyle for 35 years but fear that climate change will affect our village and the rest of the world. Supporting the proposed Keystone XL pipeline is supporting one of the dirtiest, most carbon-intensive fossil fuels on earth and an accelerator of global warming. President Obama made the right choice when he did not allow it before and he needs to take executive action to keep the pipeline from traversing American soil.

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SB 27 is not the will of Alaska's people

In reading the Tuesday, March 12, Juneau Empire it looked to me like the Grand Old Party of Senate Alaska State legislators are showing more hell-bent support for out-of-state multinational corporations — I sound alarmed — since our Governor plus 15 Senators including Anchorage’s, Ms Giessel, have seemingly organized a sweeping effort to place a huge ore-mine in the Bristol Bay area just above our magnificent and primordial red-spawning-sockeye-salmon headwaters.

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A good choice for Pope

The election of Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio to the papacy is great news.

Bergoglio is a genuinely spiritual soul, and a man of deep prayer who tends to accent growth in personal holiness over efforts for structural reform.

An accomplished theologian, he is especially well known for his great personal humility. Despite his status as a Prince of the Church, he chose to live in a simple apartment rather than in the archbishop’s palace. He also cooked his own meals and gave up his chauffeured limousine in favor of taking the bus to work.

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Legislators, please take your seats and listen

Recently, the Alaska State House Finance Committee held public testimony on one of its house bills. The chair was Rep. Alan Austerman. The exact bill and of what it entails is not important. What is important concerns the committee’s actions during the public testimony.

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ACES is a proven good deal

With only a 90 day session, I have to wonder about some legislators still working on Gov. Sean Parnell’s oil tax give away, SB 21, and pushing the bill.

We have seen the information in the Juneau Empire and heard how there are no promises from the oil companies for new exploration or increasing production from the current fields. Governor Parnell said the bill is needed to increase oil production. Here are some of the facts as cited by Sen. Bill Wielechowski that contradict the governor.

1) The number of workers on the North Slope is at an all time high (over 13,000).

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Thanks to Egan, Kerttula

Thanks very much to Senator Dennis Egan and Representative Beth Kerttula for the work they have done looking out for the interests of Alaskans regarding the governor’s proposals for changing the oil tax structure. Represenative Cathy Munoz voted for the governor’s proposed reduction in oil taxes in the last legislative session. I hope that she does not vote for another reduction in oil taxes unless oil companies are requried to make guarantees about investment in Alaska in return for tax breaks.

Jeanne Foy

Juneau

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Wi-Fi on the ferry

The school board’s support for wifi on ferries, or any other place of learning, is ironic. Several studies conclude that exposure to wireless (which includes wifi as well as cell phones) interferes with learning and memory: Fragopoulou et al., Pathophysiology 17 (3), 179-187 (2010); Wu et al., ACTA Biophysica Sinica 15, 152-157 (1999); Hao et al, Neurol. Sci. 2012 (Feb. 24).

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This business of "medical necessity"

Senate Bill 49 and its sponsor substitute is before the legislature and each of us again. This “Act defining ‘medically necessary abortion’ for purposes of making payments under the state Medicaid program” continues to be yet another attempt to do an “end-run” around the Alaska Constitution and to implement discrimination of health care for segments of our population. This proposed legislation must not be implemented for the following reasons:

Eliminate corporate income tax in Alaska

Alaska’s tax system is in dire need of reform; the state’s efforts to adjust its corporate tax brackets acknowledge the fact that corporate income taxes can have a negative effect on Alaska’s economy (“Corporate tax bill passes state Senate” Mar 2). Corporate income taxes are considered by many economists to be the most destructive tax, stunting economic growth by taking dollars out of the hands of businesses and stifling production, innovation, and risk-taking, the main factors driving economic growth.

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Taking it to the street -literally

This past weekend someone stapled a notice, exhorting dog owners to clean up after their animals, on the trunk of a spruce tree near the beginning of the flume trail downtown. “Dog poop is gross”, it said. The author or authors identified themselves as belonging to “responsible dog owners of Juneau”, or something to that effect. They also expressed concern that some trails might be closed to dog traffic if unattended dog poop continues to be a problem.