Trail of Tears Group Newsletter
March 13, 2002
Ozark Chapter - Sierra Club
Cape Girardeau, MO
Web
Page http://missouri.sierraclub.org/trailoftears/
Trail of Tears Group Newsletter
March 13, 2002
Ozark Chapter - Sierra Club
Cape Girardeau, MO
Web
Page http://missouri.sierraclub.org/trailoftears/
Some activity planned in co-operation with the Preserving Our Planet organization on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University. We plan to staff an information table during the event. Watch the Trail of Tears Group Program Web Page for more details.
Join Alan Journet's Conservation Biology class on a trip to the Pioneer Forest in Shannon County to explore sustainable forestry management on the largest private forest in Missouri. Depart from Southeast Missouri State University at 7:30 a.m. - bring packed lunch, returning by 8:30 p.m. Limit of 20 participants. Contact: Alan Journet (651-2366 or 651-4182) to reserve your space.
Information
supplied by Kathy Conway
Just as it takes a village to raise a child, so does it take a community of and concerned citizens, consumers, investors, and nonprofit organizations to make corporations accountable for their actions. When you add up the responsible purchases, consumer boycotts, and shareholder actions, they can make a world of difference, forcing companies to focus on more than just the bottom line.
Unfortunately, most of us don’t have the time or energy to research every purchase we make. This is why Co-op America has created an easy-to-use online tool that allows us to access the research they’ve done on the social and environmental behavior of a growing list of corporations.
Go
to http://www.workingforchange.com/shop/responsibleshop.cfm
Here are some of the features you’ll find:
· Ratings for over 400 companies.
· Compare company ratings across industries.
· Discover both what an individual company has done well and what it has not done so well.
· Find out about different brands and companies a particular corporation owns.
· Use Responsible Shopper to learn more about a particular industry, company, or issue.
· Use the “Quick Mail” function to send letters to companies about issues that concern you.
· Find out how companies have responded to the information posted on the Responsible Shopper Web site.
Source: T. Fernandez Rysavy (Spring 2001). Responsible Shopper. Co-op America Quarterly 53:16-19.
Alan Journet’s comments
on the Kinder-Morgan Power Plant
To: Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones
I have been quite disappointed at the way the County Commission has been addressing issues regarding the proposed Kinder-Morgan power plant.
My concerns are many:
I. As yet, there seems to have been no honest evaluation of the potential costs and benefits to the citizens of Cape County regarding the presence of this facility, its economic and environmental costs to local residents and taxpayers, and its potential benefits. All we have received are confusions and riddles. Indeed, although proponents have claimed there will be some 20 –25 employees, the initial application for a DNR permit stated quite clearly that the operational plant would provide but 5 permanent technical and management jobs, and will offer “negligible new growth” to the local economy. If K-M cannot even get this straight how can we trust anything that they print? Furthermore, the notion that this handful of employees would be locally sought is naïve at best; undoubtedly the company will import them.
II. Given the huge financial debacle of last year, the parallel between K-M and Enron should startle the Commission into caution:
1)
K-M and Enron are substantially in the same business.
2)
The President of K-M is a recent President of Enron and was undoubtedly at the
helm when the culture of financial abuse leading to Enron’s downfall was
established. Even though the Commission seems to think that Kinder left long
before the Enron misdeeds transpired, Forbes Magazine as long ago as1993 was
warning: ”overlooked in this euphoria are some big risks Lay is taking as he
pushes Enron's profits up so fast. Lay and his protégé, Enron Gas Services
Group Chairman Jeffrey Skilling, have adopted some very aggressive accounting
practices.” All these questionable practices were underway while K-M CEO
Richard Kinder was Enron President.
3) The apparent Enron mastermind Kenneth Lay is a long time friend of K-M president Kinder. There is every reason to suspect that they share ethical business views.
4) If K-M enters bankruptcy, Cape County will be left owning a Power Plant
III. The attempts on the part of K-M to scatter a few million dollars here, and a few million there just to buy off the School District and the Fire Department should be a warning. Clearly, this company is calculating very carefully just how much it can throw around in order to save many millions of dollar in taxes that it should be paying. As the Southeast Missourian reports it, K-M plans to short the County some $3 million in taxes. Rather than rushing to sign on the dotted line to help out the Kinder family, the County Commissioners should be looking out for the interests of long time Cape County residents and taxpayers who have been or will be detrimentally impacted by the plant.
IV. The potential environmental problems have simply not been resolved satisfactorily; in particular, issues pertaining to air pollution, potential land subsidence, and heated wastewater releases into state waterways. In short, the County Commission should be congratulating and standing alongside the state DNR in demanding that K-M install Best Available Control Technology and encouraging an evaluation of wastewater releases.
V. As even K-M most steadfast supporter, the Southeast Missourian, noted this week, recent secret meetings between K-M officials and Commissioners seem questionable at best. They probably contravene the state’s ‘sunshine laws’ regarding meetings and discussions of public entities. In the case of conflict of interest, which open meetings are supposed to resolve, the appearance of impropriety is sufficient to raise serious doubts about the ethical nature of proceedings. The impression that the ‘good ole boy network’ of Cape County buddies getting together to make decisions beneficial to one another at the cost of the rest of the community is certainly fed by the way that this project has been thrust upon the community without any critical evaluation of its merits and with no meaningful public input whatsoever.
VI. K-M brings virtually nothing to the community except maybe a handful of jobs (probably to be filled by employees the company brings to the area). The energy generated would be shipped out of the County, and probably out of the state so provides no inducement for encouraging construction. Even the short-term construction jobs they promise, if past practice is evidence of future actions, will probably be imported from neighboring areas. Yet the Commission seems willing to subsidize this venture to the tune of millions of dollars in tax exemptions.
Given the threats of local costs, and the lack of local benefit, it is difficult to imagine why the County Commission is so committed to the project. When most business people attempt to open a business, they do so with a significant investment of their own time and resources. It is clear that K-M is attempting to lure Cape County into allowing it to get fat without ever investing a dime of its own money. A basic principle of economic exploitation is OPM – Other People’s Money. The County Commission seems to have been convinced that the multi-million dollar company K-M deserves more of a break than the average business entrepreneur can obtain.
In a nutshell, even the most positive spin that anyone has so far been able to conjure up for this project (“negligible new growth”) leaves many of us wondering why all the excitement. There just seems no justification for the vast subsidy that the County Commission is proposing to award K-M to build this facility.
I urge the Commission to slow down, undertake some good faith evaluations of costs and benefits, and hold promised public meetings at which the voices of their constituents can be heard and answers provided. If Commission members, as was claimed at the last meeting, do not have answers to the critical questions, they should cease consideration of the project until they are able to provide answers.
Sincerely, Alan R.P. Journet,
Conservation Chair, Trail of Tears Group, Ozark Chapter, Sierra Club.
(Published on the editorial page of the Southeast Missourian March 12,
2002)
Remember to vote in the National Sierra Club Election by April 24! Go to http://www.sierraclub.org/bod/2002election/
Robert Zeller and Brian Alworth were elected to the Trail of Tears Group Executive Committee. Robert will serve as secretary and Brian as treasurer.
TRAIL
OF TEARS EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE:
Chair: Frank Dietiker 121 Green Acres, Cape Girardeau
334-5798
Frank@clas.net
Vice
Chair:
Jan Gieselmann 175 Aspen
Woods Lane, Millersville 243-3730
meg@showme.net
Secretary: Robert Zeller 402
N. Frederick, Cape Girardeau 334-9965
rzeller@semo.edu
Treasurer: Brian Alworth 2444
Glenridge St, Cape Girardeau 334-7978
bstorm@clas.net
Committee
Chairs:
Publicity:
Gloria Kiehne 308 Kate, Jackson
243-5084
Chapter
Statewide Delegate & Fundraising:
bstorm@clas.net
Membership
& Education:
Kathy
Conway 2812 Oakshire Circle, Cape Girardeau
651-4182
kconway@semo.edu
Outings:
Jan
Gieselmann 175 Aspen Woods
Lane, Millersville 243-3730
meg@showme.net
Conservation:
Alan Journet
2812 Oakshire Circle, Cape Girardeau
651-4182
ajournet@biology.semo.edu
Newsletter:
Kristin Smith 258 Edgewood
Road, Jackson 243-6431
bottlecap199@hotmail.com