I OPEN THIS COLUMN WITH A DRAMATIC BREAKING DEVELOPMENT in the debate over climate change, one that has brought joy to Wall Street and every oil, gas and coal conglomerate in the land. The hyping of a so-called 15-year “pause” in global warming is the biggest story in energy industry circles, carried expansively in all […]
For Benicia’s sake, stop Crude by Rail
MANY THANKS TO THE BENICIA HERALD for its detailed coverage of Valero’s presentation earlier this week on its Crude-by-Rail Project. Donna Beth Weilenman’s lengthy report presented the very best in understanding Valero’s message. I was somewhat disappointed, however. A small but growing segment of Benicia residents and business owners attended Valero’s meeting, offering a peaceful […]
Matt Talbot: Conscience, and history, as our guide
The past is never dead. It’s not even past. — William Faulkner BEING AN AMATEUR STUDENT OF HISTORY, it strikes me sometimes how much our perception of time is an elastic and uncertain thing. America, ever in love with the new, habitually discards anything with the slightest mustiness of age. There was a time not […]
Crewmember Report: Benicia, California, Spaceship Earth: Big ideas
IN HIS ENLIGHTENING TELEVISION SERIES, “The Power of Myth,” Joseph Campbell once described the reality that so often in our lives we spend time and effort on small things or goals when something powerful and transformative is right in front of us: “Standing on a whale, fishing for minnows.” I love the power and insight […]
Crude by rail: An opportunity to lead
THE VALERO REFINERY WANTS TO BRING IN A NEW FORM OF CRUDE OIL to process in their refinery here in Benicia. Union Pacific Railroad will be the transporter. There is a host of safety concerns, not the least of which is the volatility of this newer crude. Should a mishap in transportation cause any one […]
Yes to GMO labels: Moms need to know, demand to know
Editor’s note: On Wednesday, the California Senate Health Committee passed Senate Bill 1381, authored by Sen. Noreen Evans, to label genetically engineered food sold in California, on a 5-2 vote. I READ LABELS. With two growing boys, I am at the grocery store a lot, I am in the kitchen a lot, and I spend […]
Jerome Page: The perils of a welfare state
TIME, I THINK, FOR A SCARE STORY TO LIVEN UP THE PROCEEDINGS. Imagine what it would mean if we were to reexamine our corporate assumptions about prerogatives, priorities and worker pay. Not that it’s going to happen, just imagine. There are two trend lines that clarify a great deal about the nature of our society, […]
California warming — what does the data show?
WHY DO I CARE WHETHER CALIFORNIA IS WARMING? Well there is a group of very loud and angry people yelling that we are all going to die of heat stroke. If that is true, I plan to move to Alaska. But before I take such a drastic step, I would like to know if there […]
Matt Talbot: Light in the darkness
IF I HAD TO CHOOSE A UNIFYING THEME OR NARRATIVE on the life of my dear brother Mark, I would pick a passage from the Gospel according to John: “The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” My late brother Mark’s adolescence was troubled, matching, in a sense, the wider […]
Jerome Page: On fracking, chapter two
SINCE OPENING THE SUBJECT OF FRACKING THREE WEEKS AGO, I have found myself buried in a literature on the subject simultaneously huge and profoundly dispiriting. To begin to grasp the enormity of the problems and dangers involved in the explosive growth of fracking as one of the central components of America’s energy development present and […]