Reasons To Favor A Portland Utility Commission

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Urban Greenspaces Institute, Willamette Riverkeeper, Audubon Society of Portland and the Coalition for a Livable Future are all against it.

In virtually every case, when these turkeys oppose something, it's a good idea.

Last May, the Portland City Council approved using $6 million in storm water charges collected from utility ratepayers to help buy 146 forested acres in Southwest Portland. It's an example of utility spending that some question but that others applaud as good environmental stewardship.

Nobody bothered to ask ratepayers, and it has no relationship to the costs that they pay for ostensibly providing water and sewer services. It took 146 acres off the tax rolls, and Audubon and others bay in delight. Of course, The Zero doesn't bother to delve into stuff like that; it might force them to hire a reporter.

Audubon was at the forefront of efforts to halt a plan by USFWS and zoos to remove all remaining California condors from the wild and place them into an enhanced captive breeding program. They hired lawyers and fought the plan for years. Sanity prevailed; Audubon did not. Today, you'd think that Audubon fought on behalf of the condors (now successfully reproducing after being re-introduced into the wild) rather than arguing for their extinction.

If they don't like something, it's probably a good idea.

Comments

[Ian Random]

That is how I decide my initial on issues. I look at some group I hate and tentatively take the opposite stand until I learn all the details.

[Max]

I look for the details in everything.