Feb 7
2013
The Obama administration called for a 17 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. But the chance of hitting that mark is not looking good. Now, he might target existing coal-fired power plants to reduce CO2 emissions. A report by the Wall Street Journal.
Feb 6
2013
Feb 6
2013
Republicans in the state Assembly, upset with Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s propensity to press for hurried votes in the dead of the night on key bills, are striking back with both harsh words and legislation. A report from the Albany Times Union.
Feb 5
2013
You know this: Buffalo-area commuters are stuck in traffic a lot less than their counterparts in many other large cities. What you probably don’t know: Buffalonians are sitting in traffic a lot longer than they used to. The 2012 Urban Mobility Report issued by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute considered traffic congestion in the nation’s 101 largest metropolitan areas. The report includes slews of tables from which we gleaned a few highlights, Buffalo-area motorists spent an average of 33 hours in traffic due to congestion, ranking the region No. 45. The average in comparable large metro areas is 37 hours.[...]
Feb 5
2013
An emerging duopoly of beer companies headed by Budweiser and Miller is bad news for consumers, who, The Washington Post reports, should cheer efforts by the U.S. Justice Department to block Bud’s proposed purchase of Corona.
Feb 5
2013
Monday morning’s joint state legislative meeting on the environmental conservation budget turned into a question and answer session with state Department of Conservation Commissioner Joe Martens on hydrofracking. The Albany Times-Union has a good report of the meeting. One topic that caught my attention was during Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton’s peppering of Martens on the controversial natural gas drilling process. The Ithaca Democrat said 400 families in Washington County, Pa., have had water delivered to them because of contamination. She wasn’t happy about Pennsylvania’s Act 13, either. She called it “corruption,” and asked Martens what he thought about Act 13, specifically the[...]
Feb 5
2013
Feb 4
2013
Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants to cap binding arbitration rulings involving public employee union contracts working for local governments deemed in “fiscal distress”. Localities would earn this dubious distinction if their reserves represent less than 5 percent of their operating budgets if their tax rates rank among the state’s top quartile. The Albany Times Union has a good primer, including a table listing the status of each county, city, town and village in the state. Investigative Post has broken out the list for Erie and Niagara counties. The bottom line for the locals: 23 of 75 units of government are defined as in[...]