Sam Adams is on Yelp
News The other day I noticed a curious tweet from our venerable mayor's Twitter account:Yes, Sam is tweet... More
Feb 13, 2012 01:20 pm by RUTH BROWN | Comments 1
Doctor Groups Flex Muscle In Capitol: $2.3 Million in Campaign Cash to Influence Health-Care Reform
News The State Capitol has been abuzz the last couple of days because of a hot list (PDF) circulating in ... More
Feb 10, 2012 06:00 pm by NIGEL JAQUISS | Comments 4
Nonsense Knows No State Boundary: Washington Legislators Get Bogus Job Claims on CRC
News Up north of here, Washington legislators in Olympia are debating whether or not they should authoriz... More
Feb 10, 2012 09:09 am | Comments 1
Occupy Arrestees Win Their Right to Full Trials—Even Though They May Not Need It
News The estimated 160 people arrested during Occupy Portland protests in the past five months have won t... More
Feb 9, 2012 01:24 pm by HANNAH HOFFMAN | Comments 4

And contrary to the hype, I really do NOT believe that biofuels are the answer...unless those of us who stand by biodiesel really entertain the thought of people starving due to farmers selling off their crops to develop the stuff.
Write to your lawmakers, people. Take Tri-Met, ride your bike. Don't spray paint someone's property or smash windows...vandalism really doesn't make an impact on the oil companies.
Kinda sets a funny precedent.
And I don't think he really grasps the nature of the credit. It's not the poor who have to pay for it. It's the tax payer who doesn't drive a hybrid.
Hell, my motorcycle and primary means of transport gets 55mpg. Maybe Toye and the rest who've taken the hybrid credit should write me a check for $1500?
Do a little research and you'll find that the gouging is not going on at the pump. The profits from gas sale are very low.
The companies making the money on oil are those who drill for it. The world market has determined the price for a barrel of oil. That price is passed on to the gas station owner.
The oil companies could subsidize gas prices at the pump, lowering the price and making up the difference on the oil at the well, but what about all those independent gas stations out there?
They don't have the well profits to make up for selling gas for less than cost.
They end up out of business because of the oil companies.
We're not being gouged at the pump, we're being gouged in Riyahd by OPEC and Wall St. by oil speculators.
To Bill, by quoting the OHSU tram project, I was making reference to the original author, Corey Pein who said that the hybrid tax credits (of 5 mil) could have been used to buy bus passes or college educations. I was merely pointing out that the OHSU project, which clearly had many critics, was a much larger expenditure and is a more direct comparison (poor bus riders vs. richer public transport tram riders.) More folks could have been assisted with the 50+mil spent than 5 mil for the tax credit.
The tax credit idea was to get people to buy products which might be a hard sell for a myriad of reasons, yet still have benefits for the society at large. We received our $1250 credit for buying a 100% electric car - clearly not on everyones' wish list. The Prius owners also got a federal tax credit whereas our electric car did not, for tax year 2007. Frankly, I would not have any problem with offering up a tax credit for a scooter or motorcycle owner as riding one of those on the streets is crazy. I used to have a bike but with the way most folks drive - the fun quickly vanished. Perhaps we do need a credit to get more folks onto those forms of transport as it would save both petrol and our air.
I get the nature of the credit - both Corey and I do. Corey said in the original story that perhaps the poor could be helped with tax dollars rather than folks who are buying a better vehicle. Neither of us said that the poor pay for the credit.