Friday, April 24, 2015

PAGE 4 - FRIDAY, APRIL 24, 2015

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COMMENT

It’s heartening to see Erika took my Pulseline suggestion and enrolled in the Citizen’s Police Academy. Maybe her uneducated, anti law enforcement diatribes will cease now. Next she should take the class required to apply for her License to Carry Class A and understand the power and responsibility associated with owning and using firearms.

I was really looking forward to visiting the Green on a summer’s day and sitting in the shade of the new Gazebo, watching the world go by. A gazebo on a green is a wonderful New England tradition. But….why are there doors – that appear to be closed and locked? Does this mean that the gazebo will only be open for “events” and, for the rest of the time, it will be an unwelcoming, dead spot on the Green. Please, someone. Tell me this is not true! Response from Mayor Knapik: The Pavilion is still under construction including the electrical and finish work on the inside. As such, it is not open to the public. When it is complete, the plan is to have the door systems removed for the warm weather and reinstalled in the fall for the winter.

Dear Don Humason, I would like to thank you publicly for taking the time to help out a friend. They were very pleasantly surprised with your response. – Your Yahoo writer.

Continue the conversation http://thewestfieldnews.com/pulseline-form

POLITICAL NOTEBOOK Westfield Democratic City Committee announces May 2 Caucus WESTFIELD — Westfield Democrats are to hold a Caucus, Saturday, May 2nd, at the Dolan-Ely Apartment Complex, Common Room on Noble St. Westfield MA. The Caucus times are from 9 AM to 11 AM. The caucus is to elect delegates to the Massachusetts Democratic Convention to be held September 19th at the MassMutual Center in Springfield MA. The caucus is open to all registered Democrats in Westfield as of Dec. 31, 2014.

For caucus information please contact Mark Hanrahan at 413-562-8959.

Senate confirms Lynch as attorney general

By SEUNG MIN KIM Politico.com The Senate confirmed Loretta Lynch to be the next U.S. attorney general on Thursday, ending months of acrimonious debate and installing a black woman as the nation’s top law enforcement official for the first time in history.

Lynch’s nearly six-month nomination drama was fraught with controversy — mostly unrelated to the veteran federal prosecutor from Brooklyn or her track record. Few, if any, senators challenged Lynch’s qualifications, but her legal endorsement of President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration triggered a wave of Republican opposition.

Moreover, the lengthy delay between her nomination and eventual 56-43 confirmation vote — a delay prompted by a Senatecreated drama over a human-trafficking bill — stoked allegations

Coalition to lower energy costs Statement on New England Governors’ Meeting, April 23, 2015 HARTFORD — The New England Governor’s collaboration to increase natural gas pipeline capacity reflects the broad consensus that a highly constrained natural gas pipeline system raises our region’s natural gas and electricity prices to unacceptable levels, creating an unfair multi-billion-dollar annual “energy tax.” Increasing pipeline capacity into the region is the solution to eliminating this tax, while laying the groundwork to transition New England towards a future of increased renewable energy.

The Coalition for Lower Energy Costs (CLEC) supports the Governors’ initiative and applauds efforts to regionally coordinate a response to the multi-billion dollar energy tax that every New England consumer pays each year. Recognizing the findings of more than 25 comprehensive studies, the Governors have realized that increasing natural gas pipeline capacity into New England will have tremendous economic and environmental benefits.

In spite of favorable conditions on the global energy market, our region has still endured an energy crisis this winter.

New England’s February electricity prices were third highest ever ($126.7/MWh) and the most expensive in the country, with natural gas prices averaging $17.27/MMBtu while other areas of the country paid $3 to $4. New England relied on oil and coal for 26.2% of its electricity in February, driving up costs and regressing on its important climate change goals. In spite of low oil prices, increased LNG supply and a warm winter, New England still paid hundreds of millions of dollars more for energy than it would have with a sufficient supply of natural gas.

In addition to overpaying for energy, New England ratepayers also had to rely on oil for electric generation through the Winter Reliability Program, a $50 to 75 million subsidy which is overwhelmingly paid to oil-fired generators to ensure grid reliability. All ratepayers will continue to pay this subsidy, in addition to their market costs, until our natural gas power plants can reliably get the fuel they need. This winter, though the Winter Reliability Program, New England’s antiquated oilfired generators burned 2,717,500 barrels of oil compared to 2,700,500 barrels last winter.

We cannot continue to rely on oil for generation and hope for favorable conditions. New England must control what it can and prepare for the worst: cold weather, high oil prices, and no LNG. We need two moderately sized pipeline projects and at least 2 billion cubic feet of pipeline capacity per day in order to account for increasing regional demand for natural gas and decreasing supplies from Atlantic Canada. Additional pipeline capacity is in addition to, not in lieu of, more efficiency and increased renewable energy.

Natural gas opponents argue that New England has to choose between natural gas and renewables, but this binary choice reflects a fundamental misconception of New England’s energy markets. Renewable energy, especially from the sun and wind, is intermittently produced based on season, time of day, and weather. While we need to continue to expand our reliance on renewable energy, New England’s energy infra-

structure must be sized with enough capacity to power the entire region when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind does not blow.

In reality, increased natural gas supply is essential for reducing our region’s carbon emissions. ISO New England has also found that in order to fully retire our region’s remaining coaland oil-fired generation capacity by 2020, at least 5,000 MW of natural gas-fired replacement generation should be built as a replacement. This new generation will have a significant impact on reducing energy costs, integrating additional renewable energy output, and retiring the region’s outdated coal- and oil-fired generators, but will need access to sufficient natural gas supply in order to deliver these benefits.

Our continuing energy crisis will only get worse in future years when we don’t have the favorable market conditions that prevented catastrophe this winter. New England businesses and families are struggling to cover their high costs and cannot sustain more years of energy crisis. And beyond the economic and social impact of high prices, our region is compelled to complete our transition from dirty coal and oil generation.

The Governor’s meeting today signifies an acceptance of these fundamental economic and environmental facts, and is a positive step towards eliminating the multi-billion-dollar energy tax paid annually by all New England consumers of electricity and natural gas. Now, our region’s leaders must act to ensure the development of two new pipelines carrying at least two billion cubic feet of natural gas a day in order to end New England’s energy crisis.

——— About the Coalition to Lower Energy Costs The Coalition to Lower Energy Costs is an association of individual consumers, labor unions, larger energy consumers and institutions concerned about the threat to New England’s families and economy from skyrocketing natural gas and electric prices. Its members employ tens of thousands of New Englanders concerned about unfair energy costs. For more information, visit www.energycostcrisis.com.

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from Democrats, particularly black lawmakers in the House, that the historic lag had racial overtones. Lynch was nominated by Obama in November.

Still, the final margin of her confirmation vote was wider than expected. For a few weeks, only five Republicans had said they would support her. Two more declared their support right before the vote, and 10 GOP senators ended up casting their ballots in her favor, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

“Today, the Senate finally confirmed Loretta Lynch to be America’s next attorney general – and America will be better off for it,” Obama said Thursday. “Loretta has spent her life fighting for the fair and equal justice that is the foundation of our democracy.”

Once she is sworn in, Lynch will replace Eric Holder, who has led the Justice Department since the beginning of Obama’s first term and developed a toxic relationship with congressional Republicans — with the GOP-led House even holding him in contempt in June 2012. Holder had pledged to stay in his job until his successor was confirmed, which took longer than most had imagined.

“I have serious concerns about the current attorney general, who has stated that he will stay until a new attorney general is confirmed,” said Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who waited until Thursday to announce his support for Lynch. “No one disputes that Ms. Lynch is well-qualified.”

The GOP-led Senate cleared Lynch’s nomination through a procedural vote, 66-34, late Thursday morning. Under new rules pushed through unilaterally by Senate Democrats in November 2013, she needed only a simple majority, rather than 60 votes, to clear a filibuster. The comfortable margin on the procedural vote was a way for Republicans not to validate the Democrats’ controversial rules change — which the GOP vehemently opposed.

Still, forcing the Lynch nomination to cloture breaks new ground: All previous attorney general nominees have gone straight to a confirmation vote, according to the Senate Historical Office. In fact, her wait was the longest since the Reagan administration, when it took 13 months for Ed Meese to be confirmed — primarily because of ethical questions surrounding his nomination.

Senate Democrats bear some blame for the delay in the Lynch’s confirmation process. They could have worked on her confirmation during their final weeks of Senate control after losing the majority, but instead chose to push through judicial nominees — who have lifetime appointments.

Aside from McConnell and Portman, the Senate Republicans who supported Lynch were: Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Susan Collins of Maine, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Orrin Hatch of Utah, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, and Mark Kirk of Illinois.

Some recent speculation had centered on Cochran as a potential vote, in part because he owed his victory over a conservative challenger last June to black voters in Mississippi who backed Cochran in the state’s open primary. And McConnell, the top Senate Republican, kept his cards close to the vest for weeks on whether he would support Lynch.

“I am hopeful that Ms. Lynch will use her lengthy professional experience and skills to provide the new leadership, reform, and improved relations with the Congress that the Department sorely needs,” McConnell said in a statement after the vote.

Senators such as Ayotte, Johnson, Kirk and Portman are up for reelection next year and are top targets for Democrats.

“Ms. Lynch is a well-respected U.S. attorney with a proven record and significant experience handling difficult cases,” said Ayotte, who announced her support on Thursday. “After meeting with her and reviewing her qualifications, I believe she is clearly qualified and has the necessary experience to serve as attorney general.”

As her nomination languished in the Senate this year, lawmakers traded increasingly sharp rhetorical attacks, including Democratic accusations that the delay was racially motivated.

Underscoring the historic nature of her nomination, black leaders on and off Capitol Hill launched an intense lobbying effort in the final weeks before she was confirmed, urging undecided Republicans to back the veteran prosecutor.

Lynch’s track record includes two stints as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York where she handled cases involving terrorism, police brutality and public corruption.

Lynch, the daughter of a Baptist minister, set out in December to charm senators through private, one-on-one meetings, and some Republicans — including those who ultimately opposed her on Thursday — even came away from the sit-downs inclined to support her.

Her father, the Rev. Lorenzo Lynch, attended her confirmation hearing and committee vote, and was on hand again Thursday in the Senate chamber to watch his daughter become the next U.S. attorney general.