Category Archives: National

Poll: wide support for workers’ issues

local/regional, National, ,

 

A new national poll shows wide support for raising the minimum wage and other worker-friendly issues. Vermont raised the minimum wage at the start of the year from $8.73 per hour to $9.15 with increases to follow. This despite local business owners whining about it: “I don’t like the state coming in and telling me what I should be doing in my business. It’s not good for business.”

Now a national  AP-GfK Poll measuring public support for minimum wage, maternity and sick leave (Obama mentioned these in his State of the Union message) has been released. Polling shows strong support for these measures.

And in case anyone wonders about the wisdom of continuing similar efforts, the poll showed that a majority think the President should be doing more to help the middle class and poor. And two thirds say the government is doing too much to help the wealthy.

The poll showed six in 10 Americans supporting raising the minimum wage. And strong overall backing for parental maternity and paid sick days also was shown.

The AP-GfK Poll shows, while only 2 in 10 are opposed. Six in 10 also favor requiring all employers to give paid time off to employees when they are sick, while two-thirds favor requiring all employers to give time off to employees after the birth of a child.

Support for both minimum wage, paid sick leave and maternity leave is strong among Democrats, with roughly half of all Republicans supporting those proposals. However, minimum-wage support drops off with moderate/liberal Republicans and sharply with conservatives.

But the minimum wage divides Republicans more closely, with only 4 in 10 in favor, 31 percent opposed and 27 percent not leaning either way. Half of moderate-to-liberal Republicans, but just a third of conservative Republicans, favor a minimum wage increase.

Democrats are trusted over Republicans, the poll found by a two to one margin to help the middle class more and by three to one to help the poor.

 

F-35 engine burns and the economy of scale

Business, National,

Keep an eye out for progress, or lack of it on the new F-35 jet fighter. The world’s most costly jet, which someday may be seen and definitely heard in the skies over Burlington, ran into more trouble recently, an engine fire and continued cost problems, to be specific. Preliminary results into what caused an F-35’s engine to rip apart and burn on take-off report:

…excessive rubbing of fan blades in a certain section of the Pratt & Whitney-made F135 engine, […] rubbing was far more severe than normal and led to higher temperatures, cracking and fatigue, “That’s what caused that engine to come apart,” said Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, who manages Joint Strike Fighter program. [added emphasis]

Last month’s malfunction and fire resulted in orders to temporarily ground all F-35 jets. This will prohibit any from showing themselves off at the prestigious Farnborough Air Show. A much hyped appearance at the industry sponsored exhibition in Britain was hoped to impress potential buyers of the plane. Maybe a video of the runway engine fire and fleet-wide grounding demonstration could suffice.

Late Tuesday the F-35 was cleared to fly.But the BBC is reporting that only a life-sized model will make it to the Farnborough Air Show. Maybe the world’s most expensive sales display. Well plywood or inflatable I bet it very quiet.

The world’s most expensive real fighter jet and sweetheart of the Vermont’s GBIC may be caught in a budget vise. Eventually bulk purchases of the F-35 are the goal set forth to drive down the cost of the world’s most expensive fighter jet. However everyone isn’t on board.

The cost of the F-35 itself increased $3.1 billion, according to the report — a number Bogdan said is primarily attributed to DoD jets from its budget plans between 2015 and 2018, when the purchase of 33 aircraft, mostly Navy, were delayed. As of April 2014 the total cost to procure and develop the F-35 is pegged at $398.6 billion. [added emphasis]

The economies of scale don’t work when Congress (as they did recently) cuts or delays the number of jets to be purchased. And I imagine the major contractors will hold out for long-term ironclad purchase guarantees to someday make back the development dollars they are investing now to produce cheaper parts.

It looks, from a glance at the sleek F-35 webpage, as if they sliced the development pie dollars up between more than a few aerospace/defense contractors and congressional districts – Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, and Pratt and Whitney. Smaller slices of the massive dollar pie are being served to more than 1,400 suppliers from 46 U.S. states and companies from 10 other countries around the world. It’s an ongoing boondoggle Vermonters will hear plenty more from later.

 

“…now they are coming after our ceiling fans” – US Rep. Blackburn (R-TN), moving more hot air

Business, National, ,

We’ll add this to the long list of crazy from the US Congress. A reasonable bipartisan Bush-era regulation enacted with industry buy-in is now being targeted by Republican representatives. The goal, as part of a larger right wing battle with all regulation, is apparently to slow and perhaps stop progress.

Several years back a coalition of manufacturers and retailers including Home Depot successfully lobbied congress for uniform regulations to regulate fan efficiency. The new law was signed by George W. Bush in 2005. With industry buy-in the national rules were designed to clean up a maze of varied statewide efficiency rules that made it difficult for manufacturers. A compromise was arranged exempting decorative ceiling fans, and the law requires standards to be reviewed and updated every six years.

New efficiency standards for decorative ceiling fan are now on the horizon. And US Republican Representatives Marsha Blackburn from Tennessee and Indiana’s Todd Rokita – both with decorative ceiling fan manufacturers in their districts – have offered amendments to defund and disrupt the entire process. Rep. Rokita is moving plenty of hot air:

“The disregard the Obama Energy Department bureaucrats have for the practical implications of their red tape is outrageous…”

And not to be outdone, Tennessee’s Blackburn heads to the barricades for her local ceiling fan makers.

“First, they came for our health care,” she said on the House floor. “Then they took away our light bulbs, and raided our nation’s most iconic guitar company – now they are coming after our ceiling fans. Nothing is safe from the Obama administration’s excessive regulatory tentacles.”

All this Republican hot air even though, in order to amend the Bush era “regulatory tentacles,” the Energy Department has to find that improved standards are technologically feasible and economically justified.

Oh, wait, maybe those of us trying to slow or reverse global climate change have it all wrong! Maybe this is about future beachfront property in Tennessee and Indiana!

Tired of troublesome facts? Blame the messenger.

National, , , , ,

For anyone who has been following Arnie Gunderson on Fairewinds’ videos since the Fukushima meltdowns it may be no surprise that they are attracting considerable attention. Not surprisingly the videos, produced on a shoestring, are straight forward and informative.

Pro nuclear power blogger Rod Adams has noticed too, and this isn’t the first time. Last March, Adams was taken to task by the Brattleboro Reformer for an unsuccessful effort to smear Gundersen’s reputation. He penned a letter to the editor attempting to blunt Gundersen’s critique of Vermont Yankee by attacking his reputation. The Reformer called out his methods in an editorial titled: If you can’t refute the message then try to discredit the messenger.

It’s archived unfortunately, but in it the Reformer noted the ongoing efforts at personal destruction:

That’s the tactic several Vermont Yankee advocates have taken to impugn the character and devalue the experience of Arnie Gundersen, a nuclear safety advocate who has been highly critical of the operation of the nuclear power plant in Vernon.

The writer [Rod Adams] of Atomic Insights (atomicinsights.blogspot.com) accused Gundersen of inflating his resume…,

Gundersen, a former nuclear industry senior vice president, was once praised by the Chairman of the NRC for his congressional testimony about problems in the nuclear industry to the Committee on Governmental Affairs in 1993. Former NRC Chairman Selin said “Everything Mr. Gundersen said was absolutely right; he performed quite a service….”

Fast forward to the latest effort (here) where Adams pulls no punches and accuses Gundersen (not TEPCO) of causing fear, uncertainty and doubt. He confesses to being tired due to the effort required to respond and debunk what he says are false claims. Yet Adams marshals enough strength to author a long attack piece and at the close flatly explains he believes it is simply more effective to attack the messenger rather than argue the facts. His confessed tactic in simple and straight forward terms:

Several people have challenged me with regard to my efforts to expose Gundersen as having strong personal and financial motives to attack his former industry. [Note: Adams has had a business relationship with the French nuclear firm Areva currently contracted by TEPCO and is marketing small nuclear reactors] They do not like my efforts to show that he has not been completely forthcoming about his experience. They have told me that it is not fair to focus on the messenger; they say I should focus on countering his assertions instead.

My response is to remind people that it is often far more effective to aim at the archer than to aim at the arrows. (Of course, I am speaking figuratively here. My weapon is my keyboard.)

The Energy Collective blog is an energy industry (Siemens AG) sponsored site with a variety of bloggers that offers interesting information on all forms of power sources in that context. It is significant that Adams is readily taken to task in the comment section by a fellow Energy Collective diarist for his tone and destructive methods on what should be his home turf.

This [Adams’ diary] post doesn’t create the context that correctly illustrates the news reporting climate that’s shrouded Fukushima, in your article debunking Arnie. That includes those we would expect to hear from which includes TEPCO, the Japanese government and the IAEA. Gundersen has also been completely correct in many of his assertions from day one, but you haven’t pointed that out.