MICHAEL O. ALLEN

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A Recurring Nightmare

By HomepageOne Comment

The BP Deepwater Horizon catastrophe is a perfect Republican Party trap: Watch as a Democratic administration and Congress drown in the oil disaster while they clean up at the polls. Then Republicans return to office and begin the cycle by laying the bombs that’ll detonate under the next Democratic administration.

Does anyone remember Dick Cheney’s behind-the-door meetings with energy executives in W.’s maladministration? Or the two wars they bequeathed Americans?

For those who have forgotten, Brian Conners has written a recap at Associated Content that I think is worth reading. His earlier piece pointed fingers also.

Sure, President Barack Obama has been feckless in dealing with a disaster-not-of-his-making.

How difficult can it be to say that British Petroleum, besides paying for every penny that it costs to clean up the Gulf and other regions affected by this disaster, should have all of its officers brought to account for this disaster.

Yet, the president has  not been able to summon the passion to condemn this crime. Fine, set up a commission, if you must. But, first, BP executives should be wearing prison jumpsuits.

Cheney has some explaining to do. Before Congress.

A final question: Why is it that Halliburton (Dick Cheney’s employer) is always around looking guilty whenever something is hurting our nation?

June 3, 2010
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Foes Trash City Over Exporting

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

March 06, 1997

by MICHAEL O. ALLEN and JOEL SIEGEL, Daily News Staff Writers

Mayor Giuliani’s plan to close Fresh Kills landfill and export the city’s trash has prompted howls of outrage — and some eager welcomes — from activists and officials in communities that might get tons of banana peels and dirty diapers.

The city should solve its garbage problem at home and not foist its trash on communities such as Dunmore, Pa., whose landfill is being eyed by sanitation officials, said Dan Scheffler of the Sierra Club of Northeast Pennsylvania.

“It’s ironic that Mayor Giuliani doesn’t want guns imported to New York City, but he doesn’t mind exporting the city’s garbage,” said Lynn Landes of Zero Waste, a Pennsylvania environmental group.

But mayors in two nearby cities with huge trash-burning plants — Newark and Bridgeport — said they would accept New York’s garbage with open arms.

“It’s what the plant is here for,” said Chris Duby, spokesman for Mayor Joseph Ganim of Bridgeport, home to an incinerator whose owners have submitted a bid to burn tons of New York City trash.

The anger and anticipation came in reaction to the planned closing of the massive Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island by the end of 2001. The Sanitation Department recently announced it has received six bids from companies to ship garbage produced in the Bronx out of state for burning or dumping.

Three of the bids call for burning the garbage in Newark, Bridgeport or Hempstead, L.I. The others would dump the trash in Virginia or Pennsylvania landfills.

“We the people in the Ironbound will not benefit from New York City’s trash being burned here,” said June Kruszewski of the Ironbound Community Corp., a group based near Newark’s incinerator. “We don’t like it. We did not want the incinerator to begin with.”

Pennsylvania state Rep. David Argall said Schuylkill County residents feel they may be unfairly dumped on. “You can imagine the frustration my constituents feel,” he said.

But in Newark and Bridgeport, officials had the opposite reaction. Both cities receive huge payments for having the trash plants within their borders. And both signed agreements that all but bar them from restricting the flow of garbage from outside areas.

In addition, Newark and Essex County, N.J., officials said they need garbage for the American Ref-Fuel Co.

If the plant fails to receive enough garbage to operate at an efficient capacity, Essex County must dig into its own treasury to pay off investors who bought bonds that financed the plant, said Newark Business Manager Glenn Grant.

Original Story Date: 03/06/97

March 6, 1997
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N.J. Wins Battle In Sewage-Dump War

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

February 19, 1997
by MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer
New York retreated in the Great Sewage War yesterday after tough talk from New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman.

After a day of counter-charges, the city and state agreed to at least a year-long delay in plans to release 560 million gallons of raw sewage into the East River — a plan Whitman (below) warned would trigger environmental damage.

“We are going to agree to go through further review process to make certain that there are no questions about this, to make certain that it is perfectly safe,” Mayor Giuliani said.

Under the agreement, city, state and federal environmental officials will conduct months of study on the consequences of a massive sewage release. That means the release will be delayed until at least next winter, because the dumping is allowed only in cold weather.

The concession, announced after renewed threats of a federal lawsuit by Whitman, avoided a showdown that would have pitted her against Gov. Pataki and Giuliani — fellow Republicans.

Whitman claimed victory, saying the decision would help preserve New Jersey shellfish beds.

“It is utterly medieval when you talk about putting this kind of raw sewage into the waterways,” Whitman said.

The battle erupted last week, after New York State environmental officials approved the city’s plan for shutting down a lower East Side sewage treatment plant for repair work on two valves.

The shutdown would have released the massive quantity of untreated sewage into the East River over four days, the first release of its kind since 1987.

State and city officials initially said the release would cause few environmental problems.

Whitman, however, warned that the sewage would flow through Lower New York Harbor to the Sandy Hook and Raritan Bay area, damaging shellfish beds there.

Before the agreement, city officials accused their cross-Hudson counterparts of maintaining a sewage double-standard. They said the New Jersey communities of North Bergen, Woodcliff, New Brunswick, Perth Amboy and Rahway have dumped untreated sewage in the shared waterways for many years.

Whitman spokesman Pete McDonough said the city’s planned sewage release would have been far more massive than anything from New Jersey.

Original Story Date: 021997

February 19, 1997
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