On Thursday, WFB representatives attended the 8th Annual Environmental Policy Conference & Luncheon hosted by the Washington Policy Center.

For more insight, check out Dr. Pielke’s blog at http://pielkeclimatesci.wordpress.com/.>

As the debate rages over how to deal with the “threat” postulated by government officials and some in the scientific community that the climate is spinning wildly out of control due to human-generated greenhouse gas emissions, Ross Douthat captures much of the skepticism on this issue in “Why conservatives are fighting climate-change legislation.”

Douthat deftly points out that past fear-based actions that resulted in “left-wing policy prescriptions” of the 1970s and 80s proved unfounded. The list of alarmist positions that proved untrue include such dire predictions as the end of oil by the 1980s, a world  that would be stricken with famine due to overpopulation. It is this historical pattern that serves as “the lens through which most conservatives view the global-warming debate. Again, a doomsday scenario has generated a crisis atmosphere, which is being invoked to justify taxes and regulations that many left-wingers would support anyway. (Some of the players have even been recycled. John Holdren, Barack Obama's science adviser, was a friend and ally of Paul Ehrlich, whose tract "The Population Bomb" helped kick off the overpopulation panic.)”

Our job is to analyze all the facts and let these facts guide any necessary policy. Unfortunately, the climate change band wagon is large and very attractive. It is also well funded. When any challenges to the science occur, such claimants are virtually branded as ignorant heretics.

The facts are not settled and an abundance of scientific evidence has cast tremendous doubt on the “facts” that serve as the basis for potential public policy actions today such as “cap and trade” legislation.

So check out the literature on the subject and question public agencies who claim man is the cause. We will face climate variability due to many factors, chief among these solar activity. Think first, then act. We simply cannot let fear drive our policy process.

For the past two sessions, we’ve heard majority lawmakers complain about state spending cuts. “We’ve cut to the bone” and “People will die” were common refrains to try to garner public sympathy.

But the public seems to know something that state budget writers skipped over – There’s still room to cut. Former Okanogan County Farm Bureau President and current state Rep. Joel Kretz hit that nail on the head in a recent op-ed in the Seattle Times.

Kretz highlighted the need for fiscal reform and scrutiny, and cited specific examples of state environmental agency overlap and duplication. “This has created a web of money funneling that cannot be tracked effectively,” Kretz said.

In fact, total state government spending for this year is actually higher than it was last year.

“Taxpayers deserve a government that is transparent, accountable and run by people who understand every dollar spent is first earned by a hardworking citizen,” Kretz concluded.

Bottom line: This election cycle, we need to elect people who will stop this excessive spending and restore accountability to our government.

Here at WFB HQ today we received a “heads up” from a colleague in Nevada about a crucial meeting being held in Seattle THIS THURSDAY. You read that right, we had to hear from the Nevada State Farm Bureau that a federal agency listening session, directly related to landowners and “working lands”, was being held in our state. This leads me to one of two conclusions-- either it was a gross oversight, or the agencies don’t necessarily want to hear some of us at the listening session.

In April, President Obama established the America’s Great Outdoors Initiative to “Reconnect Americans, especially children, to America's rivers and waterways, landscapes of national significance, ranches, farms and forests, great parks, and coasts and beaches by exploring a variety of efforts…” While this initiative may provide opportunities for farmers and ranchers, it also has the possibility to be harmful to them. That is why it is so important to have those voices heard during these sessions.

This sort of short, or no, notice is all too common when working with government agencies, and a major barrier to stakeholder participation. When they neglect to notify the State Farm Bureau, an obvious stakeholder, how did they intend to get the word out to the  “farmers and ranchers” they claim they want to hear from?

The good news is that we did eventually get the information, and you can still attend the meeting this Thursday, July 1. It is crucial that LAND OWNERS, FARMERS, AND RANCHERS show up to the meeting and make their voices heard. While the stated goals of the initiative support the preservation of working lands, it is important for the federal agencies to hear from you at this listening session.

The details of the event can be found HERE.

The Obama administration just named Will Stelle as head of the Northwest Office of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). Stelle was director of the same office during the Clinton Administration and played a large role during the period when dozens of species in Washington were listed as threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA).

With the appointment of Stelle, doubt is cast on a favorable conclusion to the litigation still active on the 2000 biological opinion (BiOp), which governs the operation of the Columbia River hydropower system, especially since Stelle was a main architect of the 2000 BiOp.

Capital Press reported this issue here.

This issue points out just how important it is to elect responsible leaders, since they in turn appoint officials such as Stelle. 

At its April 2010 meeting, the Washington Farm Bureau board of directors approved our own push back campaign. We call it Farm Bureau 911. Think of it this way -– when the fire alarm goes off do we run to the fire or away from it? Historically Farm Bureau members have run to the fire when our way of life is threatened as it is now.

“I hold it that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.”
-- Thomas Jefferson

“What’s real in politics is what the voters decide is real.”
-- Ben Wattenberg

Read more …