Smithfield Farms was heavily fined for dumping waste into a Virginia River and forced to build a sewage treatment plant. When we changed trade rules by enacting NAFTA, Smithfield set up in Mexico, where environmental laws are virtually non existent. And the whole world may now be paying the price. … Read More
Who makes the rules for how you use your Internet Connection? Who decides whether it should upgrade the network speeds? For most of us, private companies make these decisions and they are more interested in maximizing their profits than what is best for the community. This is a major reason why broadband is slower and more expensive than other countries like Japan, Sweden, and France.
The Economist takes on the cable companies and why they are not interested in bringing faster speeds to the U.S.
The newly published Sustainable Food Retail Framework aims to help cities struggling with a lack of grocery stores in low-income neighborhoods better balance the need to quickly fill the gaps (a mandate that often favors large supermarket chains) with the advantages of fostering development that delivers more long-term stability and greater economic, community, and environmental benefits (a framework that favors local business). … Read More
Sticking up for its downtown businesses, the Owen Sound City Council derailed Wal-Mart’s plans to expand a current store into a supercenter.… Read More
The PUC has an approval process that stacks the deck against the public.
A few days ago the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) approved a massive high voltage transmission project (known as CapX) that will cost Minnesotans an amount equal to the projected biennium state budget deficit and four times the total bill to taxpayers for the Gopher and Twins stadiums.
This recent article by the Manager of EPRI published on EnergyCentral.com discusses how conventional photovoltaic (PV) applications can act as distributed resources when the sun is shining — rather than solely as a reduction in load. They also can help diversify supply portfolios and meet other goals. The most basic scenario is for utilities to aggregate grid-connected PV installations owned by others and to treat them as demand-side resources.
The Wired Road has begun operations, bringing an open services, fiber to the home and wireless network to the community. The network is owned by a partnership among local government, making the network accountable to the communities it is serving.
The regional network is the largest integrated fiber and wireless open access, open services municipal network in the United States, and the high performance network will eventually provide services across more than 1,000 square miles of mountainous terrain in southwest Virginia.
ILSR submitted comments to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (in the Department of Commerce) and the Rural Utilities Service regarding the Broadband Technology Opportunies Program – a program established by the stimulus package to distribute grants to build information networks and expand broadband networks.
David Morris spoke on Earth Day to the First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis on ethics. He began with some definitions:
Ethics is a set of moral values and standards that guide our conduct. Those moral values and standards are not the same in all societies. Our own country offers an excellent example. Indeed, we consider our history and culture so unique that our leaders often use the term American Exceptionalism to describe our economic and social niche.
