Financial Post

Entrepreneurial employees increasingly buying in to ownership of traditional resource-based companies Financial Post Entrepreneurial employees increasingly buying in to ownership of traditional resource-based companies ... It involved the sale of a school for heavy-equipment operators earth graders, bulldozers, mining equipment, the bedrock of Canada's economy.

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Entrepreneurial employees increasingly buying in to ownership of traditional resource-based companies - Financial Post

Submitted photoA photo by Jim Young, teacher of the photography class.

NETARTS Friends of Netarts Bay WEBS will offer a free course for emerging landscape and nature photographers 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, June 25, in the Netarts Bay area. Participants must register for details.

Jim Young, a professional photographer and marine scientist, will teach the basics of photography and how to take a good image.

The course is part of the Explore Nature series of hikes, walks, paddles and outdoor adventures. Series events are hosted by a consortium of volunteer community and nonprofit organizations. They are meaningful nature-based experiences highlighting the beauty of Tillamook County and the work done to preserve and conserve the areas natural resources and natural resource-based economy, organizers said.

The class is limited to 10 people, who will need to bring their own cameras and be familiar with transferring photos to computers. WEBS will provide transportation to natural areas.

Donations for Netarts Bay WEBS are encouraged.

Contact Young at jimyoung4990@gmail.com, or call 503-842-2153 for more information.

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Pro teaches nature, landscape photography basics - Coast Weekend

A Resource Based Economy is a proposed system where goods and services are available to all who need them, not just the select few. There is no need for money, credit, barter, or any other system that relies on debt and servitude. Our current capitalist system allows (and encourages) certain individuals to amass great amounts of wealth, leaving much of the rest of the world in abject poverty. A recent study has shown that the 62 richest people hold the same wealth as the poorest 50% in the world (http://www.abc.net.au/news/factcheck/...). How can anybody morally justify this?

Clearly, our current system is not working. Sure, many of us in the West now have smart phones, cheap fast food, clothing, and 24-hour shopping, but is this really what we want from society? At what expense does this all come? By now we have all heard of the underpaid and under-appreciated workers in Asia who are responsible for producing our clothes, shoes and electronics. They work in hot and crowded factories, barely getting enough money to pay for their families food, let alone being able to save anything. We might be living it up in the West, but they certainly arent. Our current system is inherently exploitative. It benefits the few at the expense of the many.

Jacque Fresco is an American futurist who has been around for quite a while hes almost 100 years old! He has always pushed for a society that doesnt try to take, take, take all the time, but instead shares its resources with all its inhabitants. He believes that the Earths resources should be declared as the common heritage of all people. Why should a baby come into this world with no access to clean water, because a group of rich guys dont want to give anything away for free?

Jacque believes that greed is simply a result of our current system. Think of a group of cows in a field that have plentiful grass. They dont go around fighting each other over whose blade of grass is whose. Of course not theres enough food for all! However, as soon as the farmer holds out a single carrot, cows will push and buck one another in order to get to it. Why? Because the carrot is now scarce. Our current capitalist system relies on scarcity. That is, if something is scarce (for example, an iPhone 6S Plus), then people will do whatever it takes to get one. Of course, many of our resources and products are not scarce, its just that the companies what us to think that they are scarce so that we hand over our hard-earned money. If we knew that we could just use a 3D printer to print ourselves an iPhone, then why would we line up for ten hours to pay $1200 for one? Companies use many psychological tricks to make us think their products are scarce so that we freely give them our money (https://www.businessinsider.com.au/ma...). Its a big scam that can be done away with in our future society.

Jacque has recently released a film called The Choice is Ours (https://youtu.be/Yb5ivvcTvRQ). I watched it last night and enjoyed it immensely. The first half talks about the problems with our current system and the dire need for change. It tells us about the history of the financial system and how it has been designed to benefit the ruling class. Laws, prison sentences and other punishments exist so that our rulers can maintain control. The second half of the film proposes a workable alternative to this madness. It aims to achieve and maintain a more humane society for all using technology and automation. A financial, money-based system will no longer be needed. A resource-based economy which efficiently shares and distributes the worlds resources will take its place.

The Choice is Ours has guest appearances by Jacque Fresco (Futurist, Industrial Designer, Social Engineer, Founder of The Venus Project https://www.thevenusproject.com/), Jeffery A. Hoffman Ph.D (Prof. Aeronautics & Astronautics MIT, Former NASA Astronaut), Henry Schlinger, Ph.D., BCBA-D (Prof. Psychology CAL State University), Abby Martin (Journalist & Host The Empire Files), Karen Hudes (Economist, Lawyer, World Bank Whistleblower), Erin Ade (Reporter & Host Boom Bust), Paul Wright (Founder & Director of Human Rights Defense Center, Editor of Prison Legal News, Author), Dylan Ratigan (Author & TV Host The Dylan Ratigan Show), Mark Jacobson, Ph.d (Prof. Civil & Env. Engineering, Stanford University. The Solutions Project), Erik Brynjolfsson, Ph.D (Prof. of Management-MIT Sloan School of Management, Dir. MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy, Author), Lawrence M. Krauss, Ph.D (Foundation Prof. School of Earth and Space Exploration, and director of Origins Project, Arizona State University. Author A Universe from Nothing), Paul Hewitt (Author Conceptual Physics), and Roxanne Meadows (Co-Founder The Venus Project).

Please enjoy the film.

Originally posted on Daily Rant Australia on February 8, 2016 by Andrew.

See the original post:

Resource Based Economy - YouTube

10:22 Monday 19 June 2017

The British economy is so entangled with the EU that cutting it off virtually overnight would be disastrous, writes Dominic Hinde

When I was in my first year of university, I wrote a terrible essay on the advantages of leaving the EU.

Going through the feedback on the exam script was sobering, and put an end to the delusions about my own genius Id carried over from school.

As the lecturer pointed out, I had written a barely coherent 2000 words based on some vague ideas about Norway. If I had carried on in the same vein Id have failed my degree, and it would have been entirely my own fault.

Fast-forward a decade and UK politics looks like my teenage hubris writ large.

Competing voices in the Conservatives are expressing support for hard, soft, open and wet Brexits.

Get the latest news on Brexit from our politics section

All of these are essentially meaningless, because none of them have outlined how these relate to specific parts of the Treaty on European Union, the central agreement the UK has decided to withdraw from.

Everyone knows the UK is seceding from the treaty, but nobody knows which parts it wants to replicate, and how it views its relationship to the associated Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union which outlines the details of everything from the free movement of goods to the European Investment Bank and structural funds.

Any kind of soft Brexit will mean finding a special place for Britain in the second treaty instead of relegating it to a place as merely another part of EU external policy.

The European negotiating team had hoped that Britain might give it some idea of what it wanted from Brexit, but as negotiations start in Brussels today, nobody on the European side seems sure what Britain actually sees as its destination.

READ MORE - UK will seek a deal like no other on Brexit

The fallacy that appears to exist at the top levels of British government that specific deals can be done on a sector by sector basis is a dangerous one.

The EU treaties forbid member states from negotiating individual trading agreements, so the idea that German cars (many of which are manufactured outside Germany in other EU states) being sold in the Home Counties would somehow mean a good deal for the UK is a non-starter.

The second point of the Brexit manifesto that the UK can forge trade agreements with developing economies is also difficult to stand up.

The EU already has free trade agreements with Mexico, Chile, South Africa, South Korea, and Singapore, and is negotiating or near implementation with Canada, India and Brazil, as well as a host of developing African states.

The UK will exit the European union with potentially worse trading conditions than ever before, losing access not merely to EU markets but a host of others.

READ MORE - SNP Westminster leader: Brexit talks must involve all parties

If the UK agrees to continue cooperating with EU external trade policy as a matter of necessity to keep these markets open then it will also bind itself to the EU more generally, but without having any power within the European Commission or European Parliament.

Another major risk is that the UK share of the EUs overall economic heft is footloose; something the EU knows.

If financial services disappear to Frankfurt or Paris, Britain does not have a resource-based economy to fall back on.

It is also neither food nor energy independent, and needs to avoid tariffs on importing both.

What Britain does have is fish, and all the fishing towns who voted to leave the EU may find out that access to UK waters is very much on the table when London has such a poor hand and lack of direction.

If Britain fails to agree a deal and really does fall out of the EU without reaching consensus, then there is no knowing what will happen.

Food prices could soar, the pound could plummet, and the UK tax base could shrink to the point that public services already under huge strain would fall apart.

Britains economy is so entangled with the EU that cutting it off more or less overnight would be nothing short of a catastrophe.

Hold onto your hats, because the next two years are going to be wild.

Dominic Hinde is a European correspondent and visiting researcher at the University of Edinburgh.

Read the original:

Dominic Hinde: Vague Brexit approach means UK is in for 'wild two years' - The Scotsman

Today I grabbed Berlin's S-Bahn to the coolest stop yet; I took the U2 from Zoo Station. If that sounds familiar, you might be a U2 fan like me. It was an indication of the cool things to come later in the day.

We heard from Barr Solomon Dalung, the minister of youth and sports for Nigeria. While Nigeria is not a member of the G20, they sent a delegation of observers to this summit. This shows the courage and tenacity of the Nigerian people, and their recognition of the importance of the digital economy for the future of Africa.

At the same time as Dalung's inspiring speech, the communiqu process was underway upstairs on the third floor of Haus der Deutschen Wirtschaft. The communiqu includes all the recommendations made by the G20's young entrepreneurs to help focus for policy development.

The three main priorities for 2017-2018 are(drumroll, please):

What do these priorities mean for Newfoundland ?

Newfoundland has a strong culture of passion and perseverance. The three G20 priorities can and should be promoted in our own province. We have immense talent amongour youth but we lack the infrastructure to support it. We need to realize the pace at which others are moving and accelerate our efforts.

I'd like to see the government of Newfoundland and Labrador use these recommendations to become tech leaders in Canada as opposed to laggards. We don't do enough to support the young minds and talent we have here, especially those who migrate here for education.

The founders of Hey Orca, a successful, St. John's-based startup, almost faced deportation because they worked for themselves and not for a business. They now employ 25 full-time NLers and are growing.

MUN's Genesis Centre has just been recognized as a qualified innovation hub for the Start Up VISA Program. Now we need the resources to administer and promote the program. We have the power to recruit talent, and a partnership with local legal firms could help this initiative succeed. Let's mobilize government, education, industry, and our young minds like the Nigerians are doing.

Taxes, taxes, taxes Let's just say Newfoundland and Labrador is not the most hospitable for startup businesses right now.

The Canadian delegation to the G20 summit in Berlin. Dana Parsons is in the middle row, second from left. (Submitted)

Everything from insurance taxation to high Canada Revenue Agency penalties impedes local start ups. I'm convinced that local government can make small incentives to assist those working in the province and lessen the desire to move to other provinces with better weather and a more hospitable tax environment.

Education this is near and dear to my heart as the chapter lead for Canada Learning Code. We are way behind. My organization is run 100 per centon a volunteer basis. We need government supports to reach rural students and business owners; to bring them into the age of technology. Every year that passes that we fail to do this we fall back five years in the global economy. Our resource-based economy has been managed poorly;let's not do the same with our knowledge potential.

Newfoundland and Labrador can become a Canadian leader.With our immense pride and resilience we have the ingredients for success, but action needs to happen immediately. There were four participants from Atlantic Canada in the 32-person Canadian delegation. I was the only one from Newfoundland and Labrador and I had to pay the entire cost of the summit to the tune of over $5,000. It was certainly worth it, but government supports could be put in place.

To apply for the next G20 in Argentina, contactScott Andrews, manager of Futurepreneur NL. Among other great programs, Futurepreneur recognizes and supports the efforts of young entrepreneurs across Canada and leads the G20YEA efforts in Canada. For more information check out futurepreneur.com.To learn more about the G20YEA watch this video.

Dana Parsons is venture lead at Memorial University's Genesis Centre and vice-president of the startup Brownie Points. She also leads Ladies Learning Code in Newfoundland and Labrador. This year, Dana was also invited to join 21inc's top 50 Innovators under 40 as a delegate from NL; she now remains active in the 21inc Alumni Network. She is also active in the Women In Technology peer group in the St. John's region. She has previously held positions as a director for TEDxStJohns, Happy City St. John's, andPMI NL Chapter.

Continued here:

Berlin blog: We need action to encourage startups to establish and stay in NL - CBC.ca

Wednesday, Summit County Council members agreed to join Salt Lake City and Castle Valley in passing a resolution urging Utah Gov. Gary Herbert and state legislators to stop using taxpayers' money to fund the transfer of control of public lands to the state.

The council unanimously approved the resolution, which recognizes the "value of federal public lands to Summit County's economy, recreation, heritage and quality of life." Nine people cheered and applauded the decision, including Becky Yih, a Kimball Junction-area resident and volunteer with the campaign "Keep Public Lands in Public Hands."

"It's a statement in favor of preserving the land as it is and listening to the native voices," Yih said. "I think it will bolster efforts in other areas and might trigger other cities and counties to take the same stance."

The resolution states that any loss of access to public lands would have "damaging consequences" for the county's economy, residents and visitors. Additionally, the resolution stresses how the transfer of the county's federal lands would undermine the county's ongoing investment in its open space programs.

"I want to remind you that of all the communication you have received is in support of this resolution and opposed to the transfer of public lands to the state," said Janna Young, director of intergovernmental affairs.

As part of the resolution, the county offered its support for the continued designation of the state's national monuments, including Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante.

"Summit County has a rich history of multiple use of public lands in support of an agricultural-and natural resource-based economy and more recently, a significant recreation-focused economy," the resolution stated. "Since 1998, the travel and tourism sector has steadily held approximately half of the countys total private employment and a significant portion of Summit Countys economic livelihood rests on having an active and desirable natural resources, recreation and tourism industry."

Yih said she became involved in the public lands discussion in 2016 after several state legislators wrote a column for the Salt Lake Tribune explaining their reasons for wanting to return control of federal lands to the state.

"They didn't say anything about recreation or the value of public lands. They said it is to develop commerce and that totally incensed me," Yih said. "Senators Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee don't represent me. But, I think, by the Summit County Council being willing to stand up for this, they are representing me and the rest of us who value these lands."

Yih further commended the County Council's consideration of pulling out of U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) public lands initiative, which has been heavily criticized by the groups who oppose the transfer of public lands. County Council members have not decided whether they want to maintain the county's involvement with the bill or pursue a separate piece of legislation, which will include Wednesday's resolution.

"The county had already tried to work with Rob Bishop and just say, 'OK we can give a little here if you'll give a little,' which he didn't," Yih said. "But by getting a group of entities to make a resolution similar to this, it at least lets the state know they will receive some pushback on the $14 million lawsuit and Public Lands Initiative."

County Council member Kim Carson said councilors had received approximately 75 emails supporting the resolution prior to the meeting.

"I just want to thank you for your input and thank everyone who sent in comments," Carson said.

To view the resolution, go to http://summitcounty.org/DocumentCenter/View/5697.

Continue reading here:

Summit County leaders pass resolution supporting public lands and national monuments - The Park Record

Friends of Netarts Bay WEBS will host a FREE course for emerging landscape and nature photographers. The class will emphasize the basics of photography and how to take a good image. Traveling along Netarts Bay, participants will practice new skills in the field with professional photographer and marine scientist, Jim Young.

This event is part of theExplore Natureseries of hikes, walks, paddles and outdoor adventures. Explore Nature events are hosted by a consortium of volunteer community and non-profit organizations, and are meaningful nature-based experiences highlight the unique beauty of Tillamook County and the work being done to preserve and conserve the areas natural resources and natural resource-based economy.

When:June 25, 2017 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Where:Netarts Bay area. Register for details.

Cost:There is no cost to attend this program. Tax-exempt donations to Netarts Bay WEBS to enable programs like this are encouraged, but not required.

Details:Class size is limited to 10 participants. Participants need to have their own cameras and should be familiar with transferring photos from the camera to a computer. Transportation to natural areas provided by WEBS.

Questions?Contact jimyoung4990@gmail.com or call503-842-2153.

Follow this link:

Friends of Netarts Bay WEBS presents Photography on The Bay, June 25 at 9 am - North Coast Citizen

In the two previous articles on the UNCTAD report on Irans standing in science, technology and innovation we summarized the main findings of the report regarding Irans human resource base and infrastructure. Both of which have developed rapidly and have played and will continue to play a significant role in the transition towards a knowledge-based economy. In the final article we will present a general image of Irans STI landscape and discuss actions which Iran can take to further accelerate the transition.

Read the previous articles: Part 1 Part 2

Irans STI policy since 1990 has gone through three stages of change. The first wave of STI policy in Iran was aimed at developing higher education and scientific publications, the implication of which was the development of the significant human resource base discussed in the first part of our report. From the year 2000 came the second wave of STI policy, which intended to develop research and emerging technologies, resulting in increased number of scientific publications and endeavors in nano- and bio-technologies. From 2010, transition towards innovation and a knowledge-based economy has gained pace. The outcome of the third wave today has been the increase in KBFs, S&T parks, VCs and other sources of funding, and the development of laws to support the transition.

The UNCTAD report in 2005 indicated that, at the time, the mostly state-owned economy created very low competitive pressure and very few incentives for technological upgrading and innovation. Before 2005 the private sector accounted for an only 15% share of the value added in GDP and policies were mainly focused on production, rather than innovation.

In an effort to devise policies that intend to support KBFs, Irans government established the Vice Presidency for S&T in 2007. The establishment of this institution along with its 16 technology councils, and the Innovation and Prosperity Fund in 2011, were among the major institutional and structural changes made to assist the growth of KBFs. Other strategies were also used to achieve S&T goals; creating a system to monitor and evaluate institutions of higher education and S&T, increasing the ratio of gross expenditure on R&D by 0.5% every year and including the indicators of S&T, such as the revenue generated from exporting, in government planning.

While government and companies have increased R&D investments, the importance of the structure and type of R&D investments should also be taken into account. The UNCTAD report found that 64% of the R&D investments is associated with buying new equipment and machinery, whereas, collaborative R&D remains largely overlooked. Other forms of R&D investments such as collaboration with foreign companies and acquisition of external knowledge should have a larger share of R&D investments, especially at a time when political tensions have decreased and sanctions have, at least partly, been lifted. The ratio of R&D investment to sales is highest among ICT firms and remains under 0.5% in the food industry and agriculture.

To stimulate knowledge-based economic growth Iran should focus on attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). For many years FDI in Iran remained below 0.5% of the GDP and is still estimated at below 1% of the GDP, compared to the average 2.6% for all developing economies. Most of the FDI is focused on the oil and gas sector and a large proportion is focused on maintaining existing businesses but not developing new leading businesses, export-oriented products or collaborating with existing firms in R&D and innovation. FDI is of great importance in economic growth, however, the government should develop incentives and policies to direct a significant share of FDI to innovation and R&D in high-tech industries. FDI should become means to accessing not only capital, but new technology and know-how.

Analyzing the input and output of STI indicators reveals a significant gap between the level of human resource and infrastructure development, and their contribution to an innovation and knowledge-based economy (high-tech exports account for less than 1% of Irans exports). To achieve this goal, policy making in Iran should be aimed at strengthening the private sector, creating a dynamic ecosystem for innovation in the business sector, creating stronger demand for innovative skills and knowledge-intensive activities in mature industries that are currently using mainly mid-level technologies, and increasing private sector investment in design, engineering, R&D and innovation.

Iranian businesses, startups and entrepreneurs are now extremely hopeful about their future. The macroeconomic context has stabilized significantly. Compared to before 2012, the entrepreneurial culture is spreading and the government has realized the importance of KBFs and has started to take action to enhance the business environment. All that s points to a brighter future for KBFs and a diversified economy less dependent on oil for Iran.

Read this article:

Iran Swiftly Moving Towards a Knowledge-Based Economy Part 3 - TechRasa (press release) (blog)

Freshman Kylee Elderkin works on an assignment in English class at Nokomis High School in Newport on Friday, June 2, 2017. Elderkin says she used to routinely miss key skills and do poorly on tests. The switch to a proficiency-based education, which focuses on making sure students can demonstrate what they know, has helped students like Elderkin. Photo: Gregory Rec/Portland Press Herald

NEWPORT, Maine Algebra was not Kylee Elderkins favorite subject at the beginning of the school year.

I was a little behind, said Kylee, 14. I wouldnt understand.

The Nokomis Regional High School ninth grader said she used to routinely miss key skills and do poorly on tests. Struggling students like Kylee might not have made it through honors algebra in the past, said teacher Ellen Payne, who has taught high school math for 11 years. Payne said she used to lose four or five students a year from honors algebra; theyd have to drop down a level. In lower level classes, some would have to repeat the whole course.

This year Payne doesnt expect to lose Kylee or anyone else.

Thats due to a new teaching approach here called proficiency-based education, that was inspired by a 2012 state law.

The law requires that by 2021, students graduating from Maine high schools must show they have mastered specific skills to earn a high school diploma. Maine is the first state to pass such a law, though the idea of valuing skills over credits is increasingly popular around the country. Maine is the pioneer, said Chris Sturgis, co-founder of CompetencyWorks, a national organization that advocates for the approach in K-12 schools.

Kylee Elderkin, student, Nokomis Regional High School

This years nearly 13,500 eighth graders will be the first students required to meet the changed requirements, which are being phased in gradually. By 2021, schools must offer diplomas based students reaching proficiency in the four core academic subject areas: English, math, science and social studies. By 2025, four additional subject areas will be included: a second language, the arts, health and physical education.

When such a system works, its meant to offer students clarity about what they have to learn and how they are expected to demonstrate theyve learned it. Students have more flexibility to learn at their own pace and teachers get time to provide extra help for students who need it. Ideally, every diploma in Maine would signify that students had mastered the states learning standards.

But the law grants local districts lots of leeway in determining what students must do to prove their proficiency, which means the value of the new diplomas will still be largely determined by where students live. Logistical hurdles, resistance from teachers fed up with top-down reforms, confusion about exactly what the law requires, and missing information about how districts will be judged on their compliance are among the challenges that come with overhauling the states high schools.

Mary Nadeau, principal of Nokomis High School in Newport, poses for a photo in a hallway of the school on Friday, June 2, 2017. One of the reasons that Nokomis High School has sucessfully transitioned to a proficiency-based education model is the support that Nadeau has for the idea. Photo: Gregory Rec/Portland Press Herald

Five of the states 124 high schools are on target to hand out the new diplomas next spring, according to a spokesperson for the Maine Department of Education, while others have barely started to make the transition.

Erika Stump, a research associate at the Center for Education Policy, Applied Research and Evaluation at the University of Southern Maine, has written seven reports on proficiency-based education in the state. Asked how its going so far, Stump replied: It depends on how you define it and how you define going.

Since the mid-1990s several New England states have looked to proficiency-based education in an attempt to ensure a more equal education for all students. In fact, several Maine districts, including Gray-New Gloucester, were already working toward a proficiency-based model at the time the diploma law was passed.

Starting in 2011, several key groups and people in Maine worked to put the state ahead of the pack in terms of legal requirements for proficiency. Educate Maine, a local nonprofit with several business and technology leaders on its board of directors, spoke out early in favor of the diploma law. Former state education commissioner Stephen Bowen was a cheerleader for the idea during his tenure at the Maine Department of Education from 2011 to 2013.

Maine has really had a struggle making the transition from a natural resource-based economy to whatever this new economy is, said Bowen, who now directs innovation initiatives for the Council of Chief State School Officers, a national association for state superintendents. There was a sense that we needed to swing for the fences to make the economic transition the state needs to make.

Chris Sturgis, co-founder, CompetencyWorks

Bowen said that test scores had been flat and educators told him they felt they had squeezed all the success there was to squeeze out of the current system. It wasnt for lack of trying, Bowen said. It was a systems design problem.

Initially, there was little pushback, said Lois Kilby-Chesley, president of the Maine Education Association, the states teachers union. The way it was presented was that it was going to meet the needs of every student, and that sounds like what all of us want, Kilby-Chesley said.

As the rollout of the new system has proved challenging and confusing for many school districts though, the unions position has grown more cautious. Kilby-Chesley now worries that low-performing and special education students could be hurt.

The proficiency-based idea has also created headaches at some schools for teachers trying to monitor students individual progress. Many teachers are skeptical of yet another in what seems like a series of endless reforms from the state government. Teachers report that some parents worry that switching to a new grading system with numbers instead of letters, which is an option for schools but not a requirement of the law, could affect college admissions. And the consequences for not meeting the terms of the law, including the way districts will be judged, have not yet been published by the Maine Department of Education.

At this point, Kilby-Chesley said that the union would support legislation to repeal the current proficiency-based diploma law.

We do want all kids to be proficient, obviously, she said. But when you say, Heres the bar, and youre never going to be able to jump over it. Why would [students] bother to keep trying?

But at schools that have embraced the new system, teachers say they are finding that struggling students are seeing the biggest gains because teachers are given more time to re-teach skills and students better understand the parameters for earning a diploma.

I think its going to raise our graduation rate, said Nokomis Principal Mary Nadeau. Its going to free us from backtracking. We can just cut to the chase and say, Can you do this?

If a student can write a great essay by the end of 10th grade, she pointed out, why should it matter that he or she struggled to write essays for most of freshman year? Once the student can show proficiency in essay writing, his or her grade on that skill in a previous course can cease to be a concern.

Part of this change has been about equity, Nadeau said. Deciding to believe that all students are capable of learning all of the standards, she said, was scary.

In the classrooms at Nokomis, tests are now broken down into specific sets of skills so teachers can identify how well students understand each task. When students get less than a proficient score, they must go back and study the skill they missed. They are then given a chance to retake the relevant portions of the test until they earn a satisfactory score.

Related: Despite its high tech profile, Summit charter network makes teachers, not computers, the heart of learning

Seniors John Hachey, Lauren Brewer and Emily Taylor, left to right, discuss the dessert they created for a health class to judges Ellen Payne, left and Debbie Richardson. Health teacher Donald Thorndike, standing at far left, says that having the students explain their decision-making process and the nutritional qualities of their desserts is part of having students demonstrate what they know, one of the tenets of proficiency-based education. Photo: Gregory Rec/Portland Press Herald

Kylee said that process is why she now loves algebra and is on track with the rest of her class. I definitely would have struggled if I didnt have to go through the process of retaking, Kylee said. It ties to what were doing now, so if I didnt know it, I wouldnt be getting the grades I get.

It has always been true that algebra students need to master variables in order to move on to factoring, for example, but ninth graders werent always so adept at understanding that, Kylees teachers said.

A similar realization has motivated students who dont master all the skills in a given course by the end of the school year, Payne said. In part, thats because they now get to keep the credit for the skills they have learned.

While we will still have students having to repeat Algebra Ior any other classthey will at least not have wasted their year, Payne said. They will have fewer [skills] that they have to meet the next year which takes a little pressure off them.

Erika Stump, researcher, University of Southern Maine

If one of Paynes algebra students gets through just half of the skills one year, he will be signed up for the course again the following year. The difference now is that he will be able to start where he left off. He might work independently from the rest of the class, with Payne providing guidance, until he masters all the necessary skills.

The shift in thinking about how students learn best has inspired other changes at Nokomis too. A new algebra class for students who struggle the most with that subject meets daily instead of every other day to provide the needed extra time. English students can prove their understanding of concepts in more than one way, such as illustrating a poem to demonstrate a grasp of figurative language. Multiple-choice questions have virtually disappeared. Homework is checked, but not graded.

We really thought if we didnt grade it, they wouldnt do it, Payne said of the homework she and her colleagues assign. She said that fear proved unfounded.

Teachers and administrators here said they prioritized their students and families over fitting any preconceived idea of what proficiency-based education should look like. For example, they use the 1-to-4 grading scale in class to help students better understand how close they are to hitting their proficiency targets. For report cards, they convert those scores into letter grades to make it simple for parents, colleges and other post-secondary institutions to understand.

English teacher Elizabeth Vigue talks with senior Dylan Bickford as he works on an assignment in class at Nokomis High School in Newport on Friday, June 2, 2017. Vigue says that it was scary to give up teaching most of the novels on her syllabus but she says that it was worth it to watch her students grasp concepts that she knows will help them read any novel they want in the future. I think this takes courage, Vigue says of the transition to proficiency-based education. One thing you need to believe to work here is that every child can learn. Photo: Gregory Rec/Portland Press Herald

But despite its popularity with both teachers and students at Nokomis, this potential revolution in Maines high school experience is far from a successful finish.

On the plus side, even critics have been mostly unconcerned about costs beyond what it will take to pay educators for their extra training and planning time during the transition. To cover those costs, districts are receiving 1/9 of 1 percent of their annual state education allocation on top of their regular amount during the years of the phase-in. That could range from a few thousand dollars for smaller districts to more than $10,000 for larger districts, Stump said.

Private funding causes some to worry about outside influence. In New England, the primary private funder has been the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, which has donated to multiple projects, including Educate Maine and Great Schools Partnership, seeking to evaluate proficiency-based education and make it a reality in schools. (Nellie Mae is also one of the many funders of The Hechinger Report, the nonprofit education news publication that produced this report.)

And the practical questions for schools can seem endless: How do coaches determine athletic eligibility if every student learns different things at different times? When are teachers supposed to find time to let students re-take tests? And what about students who, due to their special education status, will never reach a universal standard for proficient?

With districts across Maine answering those questions in different ways, the new law might not result in academic improvement across the board, Stump said. If your intent is to raise student achievement, a large-scale, vaguely defined proficiency-based diploma law is not going to do that, she said.

Some schools are making unpopular changes that arent required by the law, she said. Other schools are changing the language they use to describe what they are doing without changing their practice. And still other schools have made changes only to have them reversed when leadership or other circumstances change. None of these processes have endeared teachers or students to the new rules.

Moreover, in Maine, its up to each district to decide what proficient means. So while everyone agrees that high school graduates should be able to read, Stump said, thats not a sufficient answer to what constitutes proficient reading.

Mary Nadeau, principal, Nokomis Regional High School

How much should you be able to read? Stump asked. Should you be able to read Shakespeare or should you be literate?

Some teachers worry that requiring all students to be proficient at everything is both unrealistic and unfair. Not every academic skill is essential to every person, argued Linda Morehouse, a longtime English teacher at Gray-New Gloucester High School. They can still be contributing members of society even if theyre not that great at grammar, Morehouse said. That shouldnt hold them back from a ticket to a successful career, which is our diploma.

Ideally, the additional time and support students are supposed to receive would address concerns like Morehouses, said Diana Doiron of the Maine Department of Education, who visits schools across the state to help put the new system in place.

We inherited a structure for schooling that was based on time and on philosophical beliefs that learning would be distributed across a bell curve, Doiron said. To dispense with that structure and allow all students the time they need to complete their work, she said, is really getting at the heart of what education is supposed to be.

Related: Has New Hampshire found the secret to online education that works?

Such a shift would move schools away from what educators sometimes refer to as the industrial model of education that held sway in the 19th and 20th centuries to a model geared towards the more flexible work environments of the 21st century, proponents argue.

Freshmen Sophie Platt, right, and Hayley Ogden watch as math teacher Ellen Payne works an algebra equation in class at Nokomis High School in Newport on Friday, June 2, 2017. Payne said that she used to lose four to five students from honors algebra classes every year; they would either drop down a level or re-take the course the following year. Under the proficiency-based education model this year, Payne says she doesnt expect to lose any students out of the class. Photo: Gregory Rec/Portland Press Herald

Its also potentially more motivating to students, said David Ruff, a former Maine teacher and the executive director of Great Schools Partnership, a nonprofit advocacy group focused on bringing proficiency-based learning strategies into New England schools. Its the difference, he said, between telling a kid, Youve got to spend the morning with me raking leaves, or Youve got to rake the backyard and when its done you can run, he said. In the second case, the backyard gets done pretty quick.

Back at Nokomis, where roughly half of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a few students dressed in colonial garb hurried back to class for a presentation on the Revolutionary War. Camouflage flannel shirts and hoodies were the fashion statement of choice for most of the rest of the 613 students in this rural high school.

Spurred both by the new law and by concerns that academics at Nokomis lacked cohesion, Principal Nadeau tapped her subject-area department heads to get crystal clear about what we want students to know and be able to do and then how to measure it.

Related: Blue-collar town leads Rhode Islands tech assisted learning revolution

Some teachers were initially resistant, Nadeau said, but all of the academic departments met both on their own and with administrators to develop their lists of what students in their subject area needed to know. Teachers also received additional transition help from Ruffs Great Schools Partnership thanks to a federal grant Nadeau won for the school. Now, most say they approve of the changes.

Nokomis High Schools graduation rate is on par with the state average, but its located in an economically depressed, rural area of the state with lower teacher salaries, so proponents see their success as a particularly encouraging sign.

If Nokomis can do it, anybody can do it, said Ruff, of the Great Schools Partnership.

Nokomis does boast the advantage of having a strong and trusted leader in Nadeau, a factor Stump called critical to successfully encouraging teachers to question their current practice and embrace massive changes.

English department head Elizabeth Vigue was quick to point to the biggest change her team had to make: giving up nearly every novel on their syllabus.

Having to acknowledge you didnt know what skills that novel was good for was painful, Vigue said. But shes decided that giving up classics like Charles Dickens Great Expectations has been worth it to watch her students better grasp concepts she knows will allow them to tackle any novel they want in the future.

I think this takes courage, Vigue said of making such big changes. One thing you need to believe to work here is that every child can learn.

The next story in this short series exploring Maines new graduation requirements will look at a school that has struggled to comply with the new law. The final story will examine a school thats found a different proficiency solution, one that may offer a clue to the systems future.

This story was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Read more about high school reform.

Read the rest here:

How diplomas based on skill acquisition, not credits earned, could ... - The Hechinger Report

A looming decision about whether to abolish or shrink the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah should provide an early signal of how the Trump administration will deal with a long list of public lands issues.

For roughly a month and a half, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has had 27 national monuments under a microscope, reviewing the protected status of these vast expanses of land (and, in some cases, water) at the prompting of an April executive order by President Trump.

The idea, according to the order, is to assure that each of these areas is appropriately designated under the 1906 Antiquities Act, a law that gives the president the authority to establish national monuments with a few caveats. Namely, they must include historic landmarks or other objects of historic or scientific interest, and they must not exceed the smallest area necessary for their upkeep.

At issue is whether the presidents who created the monuments overstepped their authority. But just as important to those who live around the sites is whether they restrict the economy and ignore local interests.

Bears Ears, established last year by President Barack Obama, is the first on Zinkes list. But a second Utah site, the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, offers a more comprehensive glimpse into the controversy that eddies around many of the monuments and a revealing peek into what Zinke may ultimately recommend to the president.

So, here it is: a tour of Grand Staircase-Escalante. That is, a tour of the national monuments economic impact, the political cloud surrounding it and what we can expect once Zinkes decision comes down.

The Grand Staircase-Escalante, with its famous hoodoos, or columns, has long been at the center of a local fight over whether its federal designation hurts or helps the surrounding area. (Photo by Bob Wick/BLM)/Flickr

So, what is the benefit or harm of having a national monument in your neighborhood?

According to Headwaters Economics, a Montana-based think tank that crunched the data on jobs and the economy around 17 of the national monuments under review, the effect is anywhere from nothing to a modest net positive.

Chris Mehl, the groups policy director, says that from 2001 to 2015, overall jobs in the communities around Grand Staircase, in particular, increased by 24 percent and personal income overall grew by 32 percent.

These jobs are believed to be mostly service based, in fields that include everything from health care to hospitality, outdoor recreation and tourism.

The monument lies within two rural counties in southern Utah, home to about 12,000 residents and about a half-dozen towns across an area thats nearly 10,000 square miles in size.

Mehl says the economies of rural Western communities like the one around Grand Staircase have changed dramatically, with huge social impacts were just coming to grips with. So other, larger economic factors may be involved.

But theres no sign of an economic apocalypse here, he says.

Commissioners in rural Garfield County, Utah, have long seen it differently.

In 2015, they passed a resolution declaring a state of emergency, saying the monument had all but wiped out the natural resource-based economy in the area. They cited a remarkable 67 percent drop in enrollment at Escalante High School since the monument was designated, while other schools have suffered similar drops.

We see markers that dont indicate a healthy economy, says Matthew Anderson of the Sutherland Institute, a Utah-based free market think tank. He argues that Headwaters study doesnt tell the whole story.

President Bill Clinton, with Vice President Al Gore, signs his 1996 order designating the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah. Opponents continue to note that Clinton made this move while sitting at the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Doug Mills/AP

Local anger still runs deep over President Bill Clintons 1996 designation because it also effectively nixed a proposed coal mining operation. A Dutch mining firms proposal could have brought in $100 million in new tax revenue and created about 600 jobs, according to state estimates at the time.

Anderson argues the types of jobs created by a national monument designation namely in recreation and tourism tend to be low-paying and seasonal, and he says these jobs dont always sustain families the way livestock grazing does. A national monument grandfathers existing activities like grazing leases but bars new ones.

Some residents throw cold water on the idea of shaky employment.

We are awash in jobs, Blake Spalding, co-owner of a local grill, tells The Salt Lake Tribune. What we need is people to fill them.

The debate around Grand Staircase by no means ends with the balance sheet.

Ninety-three percent of Garfield County is owned and controlled by the federal government. And for some detractors, like former Escalante Mayor Jerry Taylor, the federal presence feels akin to that of an unwelcome relative.

We love our mother-in-law, he once said, according to E&E News. But sometimes we dont want her to tell us how to run our house.

Those detractors have not forgotten how the monument was established in the first place: planned largely without input from state leaders and designated by Clinton at a signing ceremony that wasnt even in Utah.

Remember, Zinke said during a visit to the state, according to The Tribune, when this monument was formed, the governor of Utah read it in the paper.

As recently as February, Utah lawmakers called on Washington to reduce the size of the monument, citing a negative impact on the prosperity, development, economy, custom, culture, heritage, educational opportunities, health, and well-being of local communities among other grievances.

Nevertheless, when Zinke visited Grand Staircase last month, he was greeted by chants of demonstrators calling for him to save our monument, the St. George Spectrum & Daily News notes.

The site flush with ancient artifacts and fossils that date back tens of millions of years has been lauded as the Shangri-La for dinosaurs. And proponents defend its value not only for recreational visitors, but also for scientists.

What we learn here matters to the entire West, Nicole Croft, executive director of Grand Staircase-Escalante Partners, tells E&E News.

The ultimate fate of the monuments is murky partly because a presidents authority under the law that established them, the 1906 Antiquities Act, may be open to dispute.

Whats unclear right now is whether the president has the authority to undo what one of his predecessors has done, says Mark Squillace, a professor at the University of Colorado Law School. The act essentially authorizes the president to proclaim, but not to modify or revoke, national monuments.

Squillace says only Congress has the clear authority to revoke a designation because Congress has authority over public property.

While some small monuments have been turned over to states, no precedent exists for the abolition of a national monument the size of Grand Staircase.

Because of that lack of clarity, one thing is fairly clear: Any order by Trump to shrink or nullify any monument will almost certainly end up in court. It is widely expected that environmentalists would immediately sue.

Squillace says the dispute could go all the way to the Supreme Court.

Even Zinke himself hinted at the uncertainty during his confirmation hearings earlier this year.

The law is untested, he said.

See the rest here:

What Utah's Canyon Country Can Tell Us About Trump's Monuments Review - KTOO

The pursuit of transition to a knowledge economy in the context of low foreign direct investment is one of the main challenges facing President Hassan Rouhani since his reelection on May 19, 2017. Although the Iranian economy returned to positive growth in 2016 of about 6.4%, this rebound can largely be ascribed to the return to near-capacity oil exports after the UN Security Councils endorsement of the nuclear agreement in July 2015 led to the easing of international sanctions. According to the World Bank, integration of Irans banking sector with the global banking system has been slow since the sanctions were lifted. This has impeded foreign direct investment to Iran and trade, which will be crucial for the development of Irans non-oil sector, reads an article recently published in Malaysia Sum. Excepts follow:

Focus on Using Human Capital to Create Wealth The UNESCO Science Report recalls that the government first set its sights on moving from a resource-based economy to one based on knowledge in its 20-year Vision Plan (2005-25). This transition became a priority after international sanctions were progressively hardened from 2006 onwards and the oil embargo was tightened. In February 2014, Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei introduced the concept of Resistance Economy, a plan advocating reliance on domestic potentials and a lesser dependence on imports that reasserted key provisions of Vision 2025. Vision 2025 challenged policymakers to look beyond extractive industries to the countrys human capital for wealth creation. This led to the adoption of incentives to raise the number of university students and academics, on the one hand, and to stimulate problem-solving research and industrial research, on the other. For instance, in order to ensure that 50% of academic research was oriented toward socioeconomic needs and problem-solving, the Fifth Five-Year Economic Development Plan (2012-17) tied development to the orientation of research projects. It also made provision for research and technology centers to be set up on campus and for universities to develop linkages with industry. Vision 2025 foresaw an investment of $3.7 trillion by 2025 to finance the transition to a knowledge economy. It was projected that one-third of this amount will come from abroad but, so far, FDI has remained elusive. It has contributed less than 1% of GDP since 2006 and just 0.5% of GDP in 2014. Much of the $3.7 trillion earmarked in Vision 2025 is to go toward supporting investment in research and development by knowledge-based firms and the commercialization of research results. A law passed in 2010 provides an appropriate mechanism, the Innovation and Prosperity Fund. According to the funds president, Behzad Soltani, 4,600 billion rials ($171.4 million) had been allocated to 100 knowledge-based companies by late 2014. Public and private universities wishing to set up private firms may also apply to the fund. Domestic expenditure on research stood at 0.7% of GDP in 2008 and 0.3% of GDP in 2012. Iranian businesses contributed about 11% of the total in 2008. The governments limited budget is being directed toward supporting small innovative businesses, business incubators and science and technology parksenterprises that employ university graduates.

Surge in University Rolls In line with the goals of Vision 2025, policymakers have made a concerted effort to increase the number of students and academic researchers. To this end, the government raised its commitment to higher education to 1% of GDP in 2006. After peaking at this level, higher education spending stood at 0.86% of GDP in 2015. Higher education spending has resisted better than public expenditure on education overall. The latter peaked at 4.7% of GDP in 2007 before slipping to 2.9% of GDP in 2015. The result has seen a steep rise in tertiary enrolment. Between 2007 and 2013, student rolls swelled from 2.8 million to 4.4 million in the countrys public and private universities. Some 45% of students were enrolled in private universities in 2011. There were more women studying than men in 2007, a proportion that has since dropped back slightly to 48%. Enrolment has progressed in most fields. The most popular in 2013 were social sciences (1.9 million students, of whom 1.1 million were women) and engineering (1.5 million, of whom 373,415 were women). Women also made up two-thirds of medical students. One in eight graduates go on to enroll in a Masters/PhD program. This is comparable to the ratio in the Republic of Korea and Thailand (1 in 7) and Japan (1 in 10).

Science, Engineering Attracting More PhD Graduates The number of PhD graduates has progressed at a similar pace as university enrolment overall. Natural sciences and engineering have proved increasingly popular among both sexes, even if engineering remains a male-dominated field. In 2012, women made up one-third of PhD graduates, being drawn primarily to health (40% of PhD students), natural sciences (39%), agriculture (33%) and humanities and arts (31%). According to UNESCOs Institute for Statistics, 38% of Masters and PhD students were studying science and engineering fields in 2011. There has been an interesting evolution in the gender balance among PhD students. Whereas the share of female PhD graduates in health remained stable at 38-39% between 2007 and 2012, it rose in all three other broad fields. Most spectacular was the leap in female PhD graduates in agricultural sciences from 4% to 33%, but there was also a marked progression in science (from 28% to 39%) and engineering (from 8% to 16% of PhD students).

Surge in Research Pool According to the Institute for Statistics, the number of (full-time equivalent) researchers rose from 711 to 736 per million inhabitants between 2009 and 2010. This corresponds to an increase of more than 2,000 researchers, from 52,256 to 54,813. The world average is 1,083 per million inhabitants. One in four (26%) Iranian researchers is a woman, which is close to the world average (28%). In 2008, half of researchers joined the academia (51.5%), one-third in the government sector (33.6%) and just under one in seven in the business sector (15.0%). Within the business sector, 22% of researchers were women in 2013, the same proportion as in Ireland, Italy and Norway. The number of firms declaring research activities more than doubled between 2006 and 2011, from 30,935 to 64,642. The increasingly tough sanctions regime oriented the Iranian economy toward the domestic market and, by erecting barriers to foreign imports, encouraged knowledge-based enterprises to localize production.

See the rest here:

Iran in Pursuit of Knowledge Economy - Financial Tribune

Welcome to the Grand Staircase National Monument in southern Utah. Bob Wick, BLM/Flickr hide caption

Welcome to the Grand Staircase National Monument in southern Utah.

A looming decision on whether to abolish or shrink the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah should provide an early signal of how the Trump administration will deal with a long list of public lands issues.

For roughly a month and a half, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has had 27 national monuments under his microscope, reviewing the protected status of these vast expanses of land (and, in some cases, water) at the prompting of an April executive order by President Trump.

The idea, according to the order, is to assure each of these areas is appropriately designated under the 1906 Antiquities Act, a law that gives the president the authority to establish national monuments ... with a few caveats. Namely, they must include "historic landmarks" or "other objects of historic or scientific interest," and they must not exceed "the smallest area" necessary for their upkeep.

At issue is whether the presidents who created the monuments overstepped their authority. But just as important to those who live around the sites is whether they restrict the economy and ignore local interests.

Bears Ears, established last year by President Obama, is the first on Zinke's list. But a second Utah site, the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, offers a more comprehensive glimpse into the controversy that eddies around many of the monuments and a revealing peek into what Zinke may ultimately recommend to the president.

So, here it is: a tour of Grand Staircase-Escalante. That is, a tour of the national monument's economic impact, the political cloud surrounding it and what we can expect next, once that final call comes down.

The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument's famous hoodoos, seen at sunset. Bob Wick, BLM/Flickr hide caption

The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument's famous hoodoos, seen at sunset.

So, what is the benefit or harm of having a national monument in your neighborhood?

According to Headwaters Economics, a Montana-based think tank that crunched the data on jobs and the economy around 17 of the national monuments under review, the effect is anywhere from nothing to a modest net positive.

Chris Mehl, the group's policy director, says that from 2001 to 2015 overall jobs in the communities around Grand Staircase, in particular, increased by 24 percent and personal income overall grew by 32 percent.

These are believed to be mostly service-based jobs in fields that include everything from health care to hospitality, outdoor recreation and tourism.

The monument lies within two rural counties in southern Utah, home to about 12,000 residents and about a half dozen towns across an area that's nearly 10,000 square miles in size.

Mehl says the economies of rural Western communities like the one around Grand Staircase have changed dramatically, "with huge social impacts we're just coming to grips with." So other, larger economic factors may be involved.

"But there's no sign of an economic apocalypse here," he says.

Commissioners in rural Garfield County, Utah, have long seen it differently.

In 2015, they passed a resolution declaring a state of emergency, saying the monument had all but wiped out the natural resource-based economy in the area. They cited a remarkable 67 percent drop in enrollment at Escalante High School since the monument was designated, while other schools have suffered similar drops.

"We see markers that don't indicate a healthy economy," says Matthew Anderson of the Sutherland Institute, a Utah-based free market think tank. He argues that Headwaters' study doesn't tell the whole story.

President Clinton signs his 1996 order designating roughly 1.7 million acres of southern Utah as the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The designation has long drawn resistance from some people, partly for perceived losses it inflicted on the local economy. Others have asserted the monument has actually offered an economic boost. Doug Mills/AP hide caption

President Clinton signs his 1996 order designating roughly 1.7 million acres of southern Utah as the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The designation has long drawn resistance from some people, partly for perceived losses it inflicted on the local economy. Others have asserted the monument has actually offered an economic boost.

Local anger still runs deep over President Clinton's 1996 designation because it also effectively nixed a proposed coal mining operation. A Dutch mining firm's proposal could have brought in $100 million in new tax revenue and created about 600 jobs, according to state estimates at the time.

Anderson argues the types of jobs created by a national monument designation namely in recreation and tourism tend to be low-paying and seasonal, and he says these jobs don't always sustain families the way livestock grazing does. A national monument grandfathers existing activities like grazing leases but bars new ones.

Some residents throw cold water on the idea of shaky employment.

"We are awash in jobs," Blake Spalding, co-owner of a local grill, tells the Salt Lake Tribune. "What we need is people to fill them."

Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke talks to reporters before departing from Kanab Airport, where protestors were present to challenge the revisions of national monuments on May 10, in Kanab, Utah. Zinke spoke with state and local officials, touring the Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, to determine their future status under the Trump Administration. George Frey/Getty Images hide caption

Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke talks to reporters before departing from Kanab Airport, where protestors were present to challenge the revisions of national monuments on May 10, in Kanab, Utah. Zinke spoke with state and local officials, touring the Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, to determine their future status under the Trump Administration.

The debate around Grand Staircase by no means ends with the balance sheet.

Ninety-three percent of Garfield County is owned and controlled by the federal government. And for some detractors, like former Escalante Mayor Jerry Taylor, the federal presence feels akin to that of an unwelcome relative.

"We love our mother-in-law," he once said, according to E&E News. "But sometimes we don't want her to tell us how to run our house."

Those detractors have not forgotten how the monument was established in the first place: planned largely without input from state leaders and designated by Clinton at a signing ceremony that wasn't even in Utah.

"Remember," Zinke said during a visit to the state, according to the Tribune, "when this monument was formed, the governor of Utah read it in the paper."

As recently as February, Utah lawmakers called on Washington to reduce the size of the monument, citing "a negative impact on the prosperity, development, economy, custom, culture, heritage, educational opportunities, health, and well-being of local communities" among other grievances.

Nevertheless, when Zinke visited Grand Staircase last month, he was greeted by chants of demonstrators calling for him to "save our monument," the St. George Daily Spectrum notes.

The site flush with ancient artifacts and fossils that date back tens of millions of years has been lauded as "the Shangri-La for dinosaurs." And proponents defend its value not only for recreational visitors, but scientists too.

"What we learn here matters to the entire West," Nicole Croft, executive director of Grand Staircase-Escalante Partners, tells E&E.

One of the biggest hiking attractions in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument: the Calf Creek Falls. Chad Douglas/Flickr hide caption

One of the biggest hiking attractions in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument: the Calf Creek Falls.

The ultimate fate of the monuments is murky partly because a president's authority under the law that established them, the 1906 Antiquities Act, may be open to dispute.

"What's unclear right now is whether the president has the authority to undo what one of his predecessors has done," says Mark Squillace, law professor at the University of Colorado. The act "essentially authorizes the president to proclaim, but not to modify or revoke, national monuments."

Squillace says only Congress has the clear authority to revoke a designation, because Congress has authority over public property.

While some small monuments have been turned over to states, no precedent exists for the abolition of a national monument the size of Grand Staircase.

Because of that lack of clarity, one thing is fairly clear: Any order by Trump to shrink or nullify any monument will almost certainly end up in court. It is widely expected that environmentalists would immediately sue.

Squillace says the dispute could go all the way to the Supreme Court.

Even Zinke himself hinted at the uncertainty during his confirmation hearings earlier this year.

"The law is untested," he said.

Read more from the original source:

What Utah's Canyon Country Can Tell Us About Trump's Monuments Review - NPR

Minnesota Power, a utility division of ALLETE (NYSE:ALE), today announced the next step in its EnergyForward strategy for ensuring a safe, reliable and competitive energy supply for customers and the region. If approved by regulators, the resource package coupled with the companys existing renewable resources will result in renewable resources providing 44 percent of the companys energy supply by 2025, further reducing carbon emissions while keeping rates affordable.

In an upcoming filing with the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (MPUC), Minnesota Power will request the addition of 250 megawatts of wind power capacity, an additional 10 megawatts of solar power and 250 megawatts of combined-cycle natural gas generation to meet customer demand for power, which is projected to grow throughout the region. The new resources will increase the companys already robust wind portfolio of 620 megawatts and double its solar generation.

For the past four years, EnergyForward has been exceeding expectations for how an energy company can transform the way it produces and delivers energy, said Brad Oachs, president of Regulated Operations. We look forward to working with our customers and regulators to continue down the path toward a safe, reliable, cleaner and affordable energy future.

With approval of the proposed resource package by the MPUC, renewable energy resources including wind, Canadian hydro, solar and biomasswill account for 44 percent of the utilitys energy supply portfolio, exceeding the initial EnergyForward goal of one-third renewable power. Minnesota Powers long-term goal is an energy mix of two-thirds renewable energy and flexible, renewable-enabling natural gas and one-third environmentally compliant baseload coal.

Natural gas is an essential component of the resource package to be filed with regulators. Without this plant, Minnesota Power would be reliant on fluctuating wholesale market prices when sun and wind resources arent available, increasing overall costs over the long-run.

Through a unique partnership with Dairyland Power Cooperative and access to a competitive natural gas supply, this approximately $350 million investment will further balance Minnesota Powers energy mix while contributing meaningful growth for ALLETEs shareholders, said ALLETE Chairman, President and CEO Al Hodnik. Minnesota Powers EnergyForward investments and industrial load prospects complement nicely the nexus of energy and water growth initiatives already announced and additional opportunities being pursued by ALLETE Clean Energy and U.S. Water. The ALLETE of today is a stronger and much more balanced company, with each of its businesses providing attractive growth and diversity consistent with our overall growth thesis.

Minnesota Power will file later this summer with the MPUC requesting approval of the resource package. After filing, state regulators will open a formal review process to consider Minnesota Powers request. After input from stakeholders and the public, a final determination is expected in the latter half of 2018.

The details of Minnesota Powers proposal include:

Minnesota Power already is meeting or exceeding state standards for renewable power, energy conservation and carbon emission reduction through fleet transition of smaller coal units and the addition of renewable energy. The company has already achieved a 25 percent renewable energy mix well ahead of Minnesotas goal of 25 percent by 2025. Minnesota Power expects to reduce carbon emissions on its system by about 40 percent by 2030 compared with 2005 levels.

We believe this resource package is the best way to meet changing customer expectations for clean energy while preserving safe, affordable and reliable supplies of energy for the customers who depend on us to power homes, schools, hospitals and the natural resource based industry that fuels our regions economy, Oachs said.

Minnesota Power provides electric service within a 26,000-square-mile area in Northeastern Minnesota, supporting comfort, security and quality of life for 145,000 customers, 16 municipalities and some of the largest industrial customers in the United States. More information is available at http://www.mnpower.com. ALE-CORP

View post:

Minnesota Power Proposes Next Step in EnergyForward Plan - POWER magazine

Thursday June 8 2017

Wilson Otieno feeds fish being reared in ponds in Homa Bay County on May 11, 2016. The uptake of aquaculture in Kenya will boost employment. PHOTO | TOM OTIENO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

Kenyas blue economy represents the latest global move towards marine-based economic development.

Its space in the Indian Ocean as well as inland waters holds promise for the exploitation of sectors such as industrial fisheries, aquaculture, marine tourism, transport, container repair and cleaning, ship-building and repair, coastal and inland shipping, bio-prospectingenergy,sand-seabed mining.

The blue economy encompasses resources in the oceans and inland water bodies.

This, unlike the green economy (agriculture), has been the least understood and explored pillar.

On September 25, the world adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a follow-up to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all.

Listed 14th is the goal to Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources.

In January, President Uhuru Kenyatta commissioned a Blue Economy Committee to prioritise programmes for the development of blue growth potential.

Maritime transport and human resource capacity building have emerged as the most potential areas to provide wealth and create jobs for youth.

With Mombasa Port recording an annual throughput of 22million tonnes, there is no reason why part of that cargo should not be carried on Kenyan-owned ships, just as Kenya Airways has flown the national flag in the aviation industry.

It is in this regard that a new strategic direction to revive the Kenya National Shipping Line (KNSL) as the national carrier has been adopted.

As a member of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), the United Nations agency responsible for the safety and security of shipping and the prevention of marine pollution, the government is putting in place measures to implement IMO resolutions for sustainable development through green shipping.

One of the aims is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through energy efficiency and increased uptake of low-carbon technologies in the maritime industry.

This is because climate change affects marine life through acidification of the water bodies, changes in circulation patterns, sea-level rise and ecological changes.

Shipping accounts for an average of 2.7 per cent of the annual global CO2.

Studies project an increase of 50 to 250 per cent in the period up to 2050.

Kenya has been elected to host the Regional Maritime Technology Cooperation Centre for the African region.

The centre will promote the reduction of harmful emissions from ships.

The coastal ecosystem, with its accompanying goods and services, is worth Sh440 billion; a huge part of which can be tapped directly from marine-related tourism.

The government recognises the importance of preserving the ocean due to its impact on lives today and in future.

Local communities, who are the immediate beneficiaries of the ocean, are being sensitised on the impact of climate change and pollution to empower them to take charge in charting their future and that of generations to come.

With recent discoveries and off-shore exploration, deep-sea fishing, seaweed farming, aquaculture, offshore oil and gas extraction and the expected growth in cargo volumes, there is a need to boost maritime security.

Blue growth will promote trade, increase revenue from exports and curb unemployment.

The ocean is of utmost importance to our nation and we are proud to be part of this global initiative.

A healthy world ocean is critical to our national survival.

The World Oceans Day provides us with a unique opportunity do all we can to honour, protect, and conserve our oceans.

Ms Karigithu is Kenya's shipping and maritime affairs principal secretary

Record 15,000 candidates from 35 political parties to contest in August.

Kenyatta joins Ruto in tour of Uasin Gishu where ethnic tensions are simmering after nominations.

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We must tap 'blue economy' for progress - Daily Nation

6 June 2017: On the second day of the UN Ocean Conference, side events focused on, inter alia: regional governance for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 (life below water) implementation; the ocean economy; Swedish Initiatives for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; global cooperation on ocean science; and environmentally sound waste management. Sustainable Ocean Initiative (SOI) Global Dialogues also convened.

On regional governance for SDG 14 implementation, participants stressed the need for increased focus on international ocean governance to ensure effective implementation of SDG 14 and shared examples of cooperation between regional seas. Participants highlighted regionalized approaches to management, urged avoidance of segmentation of policies and underscored the importance of integrated approaches for climate and ocean issues.

On the ocean economy, participants highlighted innovative sustainable technologies and sustainable business and platform models for an ocean-based economy. Swedens Minister for Rural Affairs, Sven-Erik Bucht, called for finding the necessary balance between economic growth and environmental protection in a sustainable ocean-based economy. Representing the shipping industry, Carl Carlsson, described the Zero Vision Tool (ZVT) Platform, an industry-driven public-private partnership (PPP) collaboration method and project platform for safer, more environmentally and energy-efficient maritime transport. He underscored the creation of financial mechanisms to ensure profitability as a necessary condition for a transition to greener transport.

On Swedish Initiatives for the 2030 Agenda, panelists showcased projects related to four initiatives: the ZVT Platform; a partnership for a carbon-free steel industry; a partnership for resource-efficient water purification using mineral-based by-products from steel and metal industries; and an innovative technology to achieve clean drinking water. Participants underscored their projects support to multiple SDGs, such as by cutting carbon dioxide emissions, reducing ocean acidification and promoting resource efficiency and circular economy.

UNESCO Director-General, Irina Bokova, supported by Prince of Monaco, Albert II, called for 2021-2030 to become the International Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.

On global cooperation on ocean science, a presentation ceremony announced the laureates of Oceans 8 for Ocean Science: The Seychelles, for innovative financing; Norway, for promoting professional involvement in ocean science; UN Environment, on behalf of 13 countries, for developing science-based solutions to reduce plastic in the ocean; Argentina, for sustained national investment in ocean science; the US for promoting ocean science for the benefit of the global community; Morocco, for promoting gender equality; Portugal, for international cooperation; and the Nippon Foundation (Japan) for education and outreach. The event then discussed whether the ocean needs more science and more action, with participants stressing the importance of science in achieving SDG 14 while also recognizing that policymakers may need to make decisions without all required knowledge available. UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Director-General, Irina Bokova, supported by Prince of Monaco, Albert II, called for 2021-2030 to become the International Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.

On environmentally sound waste management, participants called for action against both land-based and sea-based marine litter and discussed opportunities to address synergies among SDG 14, SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation) and SDG 12 (responsible consumption and production). Highlighting that 80% of marine litter comes from land-based sources, Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation and Climate and Deputy Prime Minister, Isabella Lvin, said Sweden will commit to targeting marine litter through, inter alia, contributions to the UN Environments (UNEP) Global Programme of Action for the Protection of Marine Environment from Land-based Activites (GPA) and the UNEP Regional Seas Programme. She said the government will, for the first time, highlight sustainable oceans in its next global strategy for development, and will scale up capacity building efforts for sound waste management domestically and internationally. Indonesias Deputy Minister for Maritime Sovereignty in the Coordinating Ministry of Maritime Affairs, Arif Havas Oegroseno, said Indonesia is setting a tax on plastic bags; building 55,000 km of road from recycled plastic; and working with Nordic countries on developing waste energy projects. Participants further supported: a circular economy; plastic deposit schemes; and public awareness campaigns.

During a special high-level reception as part of the SOI Global Dialogue, high-level policy makers and representatives of UN entities and international organizations shared insights on how marine and coastal biodiversity can provide solutions for addressing critical challenges in achieving sustainable oceans. A second SOI Global Dialogue with Regional Seas Organizations (RSOs) and Regional Fisheries Bodies (RFBs) focused on facilitating cross-sectoral regional collaboration to support SDG 14 implementation. The SOI, launched in the margins of the 10th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 10) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), aims to provide a holistic approach to marine biodiversity. The Global Dialogue with RSOs and RFBs began in September 2016 to accelerate progress towards the Aichi Biodiversity Targets and the SDGs by identifying opportunities to enhance cross-sectoral collaboration and support achievement of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets and the SDGs.

The UN Ocean Conference is convening at UN Headquarters in New York, US, from 5-9 June 2017. [ENB on the Side (ENBOTS) Coverage of UN Ocean Conference] [ENBOTS coverage of CBD Special Events at the Ocean Conference] [SOI Website]

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Ocean Conference Side Events Highlight Cooperation on SDG 14 ... - IISD Reporting Services

Wal van Lierop is President and CEO at Chrysalix Venture Capital.

Despite a decade of policies meant to foster entrepreneurship, Canadas technology industry remains frail. The Conference Board gives Canada a D on innovation, ranking us 13th among 16 peer countries. They are surpassing Canada in income per capita, productivity and quality of social programs.

Canada is weak in innovation by choice. Id like to discuss the reasons why and propose a solution.

Our federal and provincial governments ritually pledge funding for STEM education, startup tax credits and similar initiatives. These are nice gestures, but they alone cannot improve Canadian innovation. The disconnect is in our execution. Those funds have no clear aims.

Canada is still very much a resource-based economy. The predominance of traditional industries on the TSX testifies to that. If taxpayers want a return on investment, then innovation funding should maximize the value of our national assets.

Toward that end, I propose a strategic aim: Lets become the No. 1 developer and exporter of sustainable industrial innovations. Lets transform mining, hydrocarbons and forestry rather than abandon these sources of prosperity.

Government funds that stimulate industrial innovation achieve a double payout by increasing the value of our resources and by creating high-paying tech jobs. Let me put this in perspective: The revenue per employee in the B.C. mining sector was, according to a PwC study, more than $885,000 in 2015. Compare that with B.C.s digital-media industry, which had less than $150,000 in revenue per employee.

Industrial technology could strengthen our largest resource-based companies and protect them from foreign takeovers. Yet only a tiny amount of government funding reaches technology companies focused on natural resources. Its a disappointing mismatch a result of unclear strategy and poor incentives.

Today, fund-of-fund managers oversee the governments capital (i.e. your tax money). Many earn exceptional returns. Frequently, they finance the newest mobile apps in syndication with Silicon Valley firms. These capital-light innovations can turn a quick profit. However, fund-of-fund managers often shy away from capital-intensive innovations that take longer to commercialize and scale, let alone IPO. Thus, our tax money tends to stimulate innovation abroad rather than in Canada.

I dont blame our government or fund-of-fund managers for investing outside Canada. The financial markets have little appetite for heavy-duty innovation in traditional industries. They dont yet reward companies that embrace sustainability.

Look at NRG Energy from the United States, as an example. Their attempt to fill their portfolio with renewable energy sources ended with the ousting of the chief executive officer and tumbling stocks.

The dissonance between our strategic interests and use of capital has created a big-city bubble in Canadas tech sector. While we have winners from time to time, we struggle to sustain Nortels and BlackBerries for the long haul. The few successes we do have are small and sold to U.S. owners.

Along that path to a U.S. buyout, we subsidize thousands of small companies with SR&ED tax deductions and similar programs. In the Vancouver area alone, these allow 9,000 startups to survive for 12 years or more. At least 8,000 of them would be cut off if a commercial venture capital firm were in charge. Some people call this practice occupational therapy or dub us the too nice Canadian tech industry. Others call it political currency.

Wouldnt it make sense to prune actively and only strengthen startups that have good odds and the highest potential value for Canada?

One company scaled up can produce far more jobs and opportunities than dozens of small startups combined. Canada needs to produce Googles and Facebooks in the industrial sector. Were unlikely to beat out Silicon Valley in search, advertising and social technology, but we can win in industries that accentuate our competitive advantages. We have resources that Northern California doesnt have. The surest way to keep Canadian innovation at a D is to copy and fund the Silicon Valley model.

So, lets be deliberate not just in our ideas but also in our execution. Lets support innovations that maximize our inherent strengths and offer the greatest returns to our society. Its time to pop the Canadian tech bubble and develop the right strategy for our future.

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A strategy that will make Canadian innovation flourish - The Globe and Mail

Last week I anticipated President Trumps shortsighted decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord and predicted that his actions might provide environmentalists with a common enemy to rally against. That seems to be happening. Former NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg is organizing American corporations, states, cities and other institutions to commit to greenhouse gas reductions and be recognized by the U.N. as they fulfill the U.S. reduction obligations under Paris. Now all we need is a few billion dollars for renewable energy in the developing world and Trumps Rose Garden rant last week becomes truly meaningless. Bloombergs leadership and the rapid mobilization of leaders concerned about climate change demonstrates that Americas power resides both inside and outside the Washington beltway.

Withdrawing from the Paris Agreement was the most straightforward part of Trumps rhetoric last week. The truly convoluted part of his talk was his misread of the economic impact of environmental regulation and his ideas about how Americas economy will be revitalized.

It is true that some of our trade deals and regulations could be better, but the world has a global economy and America has the strongest economy in the world. The rules and our trade agreements cant be that bad if we seem to be winning. This horrible, depressed, crime-ridden America the president presented in his inaugural address and again in the Rose Garden may be the view he sees from Trump Tower, but its not the reality a majority of Americans experience.

Still, enough people are suffering that it makes political sense for him to try to serve as their voice. I get his motivation. But the part that really makes no sense is his idea that a vast increase in the fossil fuel business will generate an American economic boom. It wont.

The economic future does not belong to resource extraction industries. Communities that host these businesses know what I mean. The resource extractors come, they dig, drill, pump and spread money around but also strain local services and infrastructure. Eventually they leave, and the local folks get to clean up the mess.

Theres always a good economic reason that extraction comes to an end. The price of the resource might drop, the resource becomes harder and more expensive to get to, or cheaper alternatives are discovered. For the coal business, its been fracking and natural gas that caused them pain. For coal workers, it was mountain top removal and other mechanized forms of extraction that reduced the employment in mining. It is unbelievably deceptive of the President of the United States to articulate an economic strategy that calls for the revival of these businesses. The coal miners know that they need to prepare for a different type of work. They certainly know their children need to be prepared for change.

The nature of economic life is changing and it is very important that we look forward instead of backward. The U.S. energy sector added 300,000 jobs in 2016: most were in energy efficiency and renewable energy. According to the Department of Energys U.S. Energy Employment Report:

The report also notes that 2.2 million Americans are employed, in whole or in part, in the design, installation, and manufacture of Energy Efficiency products and services, adding 133,000 jobs in 2016. Modernizing our energy system to make it more efficient and less polluting is a growing business. Coal mining is a shrinking business. President Trump is doubling down on a loser.

The energy future, like the rest of our economic future, depends on technological innovation and ingenuity. We are now in the brain based economy. Software makes more money than hardware. A century ago most of our economy and most of our labor was in the production of food, clothing and shelter. Today, less and less of our GDP is in those necessary but relatively shrinking businesses. Massive investment in education, scientific research and infrastructure would result in economic growth. Running away from environmental rules and global treaties might help a few small businesses, but in the long run will cause economic damage. The benefits of a clean environment far outweigh the costs.

As an educator, I am biased, but I believe that the economic future requires us to attract, educate and employ the worlds best minds. That requires intelligent and encouraging immigration policy, improved public schools, great universities, and great quality of life in the cities that house Americas researchers and businesses. Great quality of life means clean air, clean water, health care, safe cities, stimulating and exciting cities, along with preserved and beautiful natural spaces. Walking away from a global climate treaty, discouraging immigration, and cutting spending on science and education make it more difficult for our communities and for our nation to be competitive in the brain based economy.

Fortunately, many of Trumps plans are being countered by other parts of our government, other institutions, and his own inability to form a competent government. Congress seems to be restoring some of his science budget cuts, the courts are countering his immigration policy excesses, and nearly everyone is trying to reduce their greenhouse gases. President Trumps visible attack on the climate treaty is disheartening, but it is far from the last word on the subject.

Paris, after all, does not mandate greenhouse gas reductions, it sets voluntary targets; Americas own Clean Air Act mandates reductions in greenhouse gases. This was decided in a Supreme Court decision handed down in 2007 when George W. Bush was president. The Court was responding to a lawsuit brought by a group of state attorneys general. The U.S. Supreme Court determined at that time that greenhouse gases were dangerous air pollutants. EPA was directed to develop regulations to reduce that pollution and Trump and his EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt are required to issue and enforce that regulation. Trump can withdraw from Paris, but he is sworn to uphold the U.S. Constitution.

The U.S. must act, but what about the rest of the world? Climate change is a global problem that requires global solutions. Nearly every government in the world understands that and we have seen no retreat from the climate treaty since the presidents announcement. In fact, we have seen a broad and uniform recommitment to the goals of mitigating climate change. President Trump took a symbolic act to achieve a political objective. He kept his campaign promise, largely because he and his team do not understand the climate issue or the economic opportunity presented by the transition to a renewable resource based economy. While we still do not know the long-term impact of his action, the short term impact has been to mobilize a broad segment of the U.S. and global public in support of the agreement. The Paris agreement remains intact, despite Trumps reckless action. As Bogart told Bergman at the Casablanca airport: Well always have Paris. Of course, he meant the memory of what might have been. Lets hope we do better with the planet than Bogey seemed to do with the Nazis or his love life in the movie Casablanca. I suspect we will.

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We'll Always Have Paris: Trump's Impact On The Climate Agreement - HuffPost

The House of Representatives has an opportunity to support New Hampshire jobs. Senate Bill 129 (the New Hampshire Clean Energy Jobs and Opportunity Act of 2017), the product of almost a year of hard work and compromise among numerous stakeholders, will be voted on today.

This much-needed, bipartisan clean energy bill advances biomass jobs, forest products jobs, sawmill jobs, clean energy jobs and solar jobs. These are good jobs and good industries right here in the Granite State.

SB 129 makes an important fix to New Hampshires renewable portfolio standards law (also called the RPS) that will help sustain the biomass power plants. Good paying New Hampshire jobs are literally at stake right now.

One needs to look no further than the biomass power plant in Alexandria, to see why SB 129 is necessary. The plant recently suspended operation. These plants support over 900 jobs and over $250 million yearly in economic activity in our state. SB 129 is critical to their survival. Without SB 129, the remaining biomass plants are likely to close by 2018 and these jobs will vanish.

The biomass industry is also critical to New Hampshires statewide natural resource-based economy and its scenic character. It is the one area where our energy policy intersects with our natural resource policy. Not only does the biomass industry produce electricity, but the biomass plants also serve as the market for low-grade wood.

With New Hampshire being the second most forested state in the country, biomass serves as a critical market for the states logging, forestry, sawmill and landowner communities. Proper forestry practices produce healthy forests for recreation, wildlife habitat and an annual $1.4 billion forest products industry.

SB 129 also supports and advances more than 1,200 solar-related jobs in New Hampshire. Solar continues to be a growing industry in New Hampshire. More jobs have been added in the clean energy job sector than in most other New Hampshire industries. These jobs also appeal to a younger workforce something New Hampshire desperately needs. SB 129 supports our solar industry and also expands its benefit to low- to moderate-income residential customers.

As we continue to promote New Hampshire as the state to locate business, we need to focus on growing our clean-energy sector. Without these opportunities, clean-energy companies will continue to shift and expand jobs in neighboring states.

Opponents have tried to label this bill as a hidden tax. This is far from the truth. The RPS was passed over 10 years ago. The programs and industries that have participated in the RPS have yielded significant benefit to the states ratepayers in terms of energy diversification, state economic activity, thousands of jobs and reducing peak demand, all of which contribute to lowering electric rates and the promotion of a strong New Hampshire economy. The RPS must be updated to remain competitive in our region. Many residential, commercial, municipal and industrial customers have taken advantage of the RPS to lower their electricity costs. We want this to continue.

How do you determine whether a law and program is worth the investment? We look at the return on investment.

Although RPS opponents continue to call it a subsidy and claim higher rates, the fact is our states renewable energy industries and programs provide value in lowering bills, creating and sustaining New Hampshire jobs, and providing economic activity that has a ripple effect in our economy. If we lost the biomass industry tomorrow, we would see small-business bankruptcies, lost taxes, lost jobs and an increase in unemployment in every region of our state.

Instead, our support of these renewable energy industries means we continue to receive the benefits of reduced electricity costs brought about by ensuring we have effective and updated renewable energy policies, like those in SB 129.

At the end of the day, the benefits in terms of jobs and economic activity far outweigh the cost.

It is time to move forward with this bipartisan effort to support and sustain our renewable energy industries. Its time to pass SB 129 and support our New Hampshire energy and related sector jobs.

(Jeb Bradley is a Wolfeboro Republican. Dan Feltes is a Concord Democrat. Herb Richardson is a Lancaster Republican. Robert Backus is a Manchester Democrat.)

Excerpt from:

Our Turn: Pass SB 129, save 900 New Hampshire jobs - Concord Monitor

THUNDER BAY Kevin Page says the biggest threat to the global economy isnt oil prices.

Its politics, the former Parliamentary budget officer told a crowd of about 60 people on Thursday at a Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce-sponsored luncheon.

An economist at the University of Ottawa, Page said its undeniable the world is considered about the results of the most recent United States election and the impact on the economy going forward. And with good reason, he added.

But theres no need to panic, Page said.

Weve also seen there are a lot of checks and balances in the United States, so theres been a lot of pushback. President (Donald) Trump hasnt been able to push through changes on health care and (other) issues, Page said.

And were going to wait and see where they will go on climate change and other trade issues.

Page, who in 2013 drew the ire of former prime minister Stephen Harper when he took the Conservative government to court for not releasing details about planned austerity, said hes confident Canada is strong enough to get beyond the Trump rhetoric, especially when it comes to issues like the presidents decision to rewrite the North American Free Trade Act.

In the U.S. system they still need to pass laws. NAFTA will have to be passed by Congress. And I think Congress has a strong understanding of the trade relationships with Canada.

Its not just Canada that has Page concerned. Theres uncertainty throughout the world, from strongmen like Vladimir Putins interference holding Russias reins to the authoritarian measures in places like the Philippines, Turkey and North Korea.

The possible collapse of the European Union and Great Britains decision to opt out of the EU is also troubling to investors, who seek certainty when risking their money.

This hurts investment. And we need investment. If you look at investment numbers in Canada over the past five or six years, were pretty much flat, said Page, who this weekend will receive an honourary degree from his alma mater, Lakehead University.

Were going to need to deal with the politics. Its not going to happen quickly. Were stuck with what were stuck with. Then the question becomes how do we support our political parties in Canada to provide a different political direction?

Should Trumps isolationism increase, Thunder Bays resource-based economy could struggle further. The task of government will be to help find a new strategy and forge growth elsewhere.

We still have strong trading relationships with the United States, but where are the opportunities we can exploit with these emerging economies, be it India or China or Brazil? Its a difficult period, but it creates opportunities in that sense, for us to find those new relationships, Page said.

Its not easy, but Thunder Bay has lived through difficult times in the past, as well.

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Politics biggest determinant of economic future, says Page - Tbnewswatch.com

Theres a battle brewing between British Columbia and the federal government that could have an indelible impact on the future of Canada. It comes down to one question: Can Ottawa effectively exercise its responsibilities if the provinces refuse to recognize its authority on controversial issues?

The issue at hand is pipelines. Last fall, the Trudeau government approved Kinder Morgans Trans Mountain expansion project, which will twin an existing pipeline along a route from Alberta to Burnaby, in Metro Vancouver. The decision came after a full review of the project by the National Energy Board.

In other words, Ottawa played by the rules and approved a project of the type that the Constitution places squarely in its jurisdiction: railways, canals, hydro lines, pipelines and other infrastrcture that cross provincial boundaries.

Ottawa also has clear jurisdiction over seacoasts, navigation and shipping, which ties into issues that arise from the fact that the pipeline expansion will increase tanker traffic in Vancouver harbour and along the coast of B.C.

And Ottawa has sole jurisdiction over trade and commerce, which is what this is mostly about. Getting the crude from Albertas oil sands or any other Canadian product from any other landlocked part of the country to coastal waters where it can be loaded onto boats and shipped to foreign markets goes to the heart of Canadas ability to be a successful trader.

On top of all that, there is a clause in the Constitution that gives Ottawa jurisdiction over projects that are declared by the Parliament of Canada to be for the general Advantage of Canada.

So its clear. Ottawa has authority over the Trans Mountain expansion project. That pipeline is critical to Canadas resource-based economy. And it appears to have the support of Canadians and British Columbians, who in polls last fall consistently backed Ottawas decision to greenlight the project.

And yet its not clear at all. British Columbia is poised to be governed by the New Democrats with the support of the Green Party; the two party leaders have promised to use every tool available to prevent the Trans Mountain expansion.

Those tools are considerable. If the NDP and Greens form government, they will be able to undertake a bureaucratic guerrilla war against the project.

The B.C. provincial government could collude with municipal governments to deny needed construction permits, which would cause delays and raise costs for Kinder Morgan.

They can also rescind the previous Liberal governments approval of the project and set new conditions on it. And they could side with the plaintiffs in the many court challenges, 19 and counting, brought by environmental groups, municipalities and First Nations, that claim that the federal approval process was flawed.

The NDP-Greens are also armed with political clout. They are positioning themselves as the defenders of B.C.s coastal waters. And, by trying to block the export of crude oil, they claim to be on the side of the angels in the fight against climate change.

Thats a tough combo for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to punch against. He has promised that the coastline will be protected by strict rules that minimize the chances of a tanker going aground, but the possiblity of a spill can never be reduced to zero.

And while there is a solid three-fold argument for building the pipeline Canada has to continue to exist as a resource-based economy while it and the rest of the world transition away from carbon; oil sands crude will continue to be shipped even without a pipe, by rail; and pipelines are safer than rail there is no question that the product it transports will ultimately contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.

There are a lot of green votes at stake for the Trudeau government in the Vancouver area. The NDP and Green members know it, and they will use it to their advantage. In the end, they could kill the project by forcing delay after delay, while Ottawa, paralyzed by a fear of alienating voters, stands by.

That must not happen. Mr. Trudeau should stick to his guns and see the project through. There is a principle at play. Simply put, one provincial government should not have a veto over Canadian trade because of its geography. This has to be a national decision and that means the federal government and federal institutions.

As Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said last week, We can't be a country that says one of its two functional coastlines is only going to do what the people who live right beside it want to do.

We would go further than that. Provincial parties should not espouse the use of clever delay tactics for the sole purpose of usurping the duly exercised authority of the federal government. Trans Mountain has the law and Parliament behind it. That may not please its opponents, but their displeasure doesnt give them the power to undermine a valid federal decision.

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