JP does homework before moratorium vote
Posted on Monday, March 3, 2008
A Pulaski County justice of the peace hopes to share what he learns at a climate-change conference this week in New York with the Quorum Court when members consider a resolution supporting a moratorium on coal-fired power plants.
Justice of the Peace Doug Reed said he learned about The Heartland Institute’s 2008 International Conference on Climate Change through an Internet search after hearing talk of the resolution from other Quorum Court members. The conference started Sunday and ends Tuesday.
Justice of the Peace Pat Dicker plans to introduce the resolution at the court’s Administration Committee meeting March 11.
Last month, a coalition of members of the Sierra Club, the Arkansas Wildlife Federation and the Arkansas Renewable Energy Association asked Gov. Mike Beebe to impose a temporary moratorium on permits for coal-fired power plants until a commission on global warming that he appointed finishes its study. The coalition is opposed to Southwestern Electric Power Co. ’s plans to build a plant in Hempstead County.
Reed, a physics teacher at Pulaski Academy, said he has doubts about information he’s heard about global warming.
“My main thing about global warming is it’s, first of all, not for sure,” he said. “I’m skeptical that we should be calling a moratorium on something that’s not a for-sure thing, because that means people could lose jobs.” He added, “To me, that’s an extreme.” But Dicker said elected officials should “look for the greater good.” “I know that we’re dinosaurs, and we’ll be dead, probably, and gone by the time it will be affecting our children and our grandchildren,” she said. “But I really think that they deserve a better world than we’re leaving them, and I think that we need to do everything that we can to help get it there.” If the resolution is passed by the full Quorum Court, Dicker plans to send it to Beebe, state legislators representing Pulaski County, members of the Arkansas Association of Counties and the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, which grants air-quality permits.
No other Quorum Court members planned to attend the conference on global warming. It is sponsored by The Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based nonprofit organization whose purpose is to “promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems,” according to its Web site.
The organization is giving free conference admission to elected officials, scientists, economists and some policy experts, and offers stipends of up to $ 300 for hotel and travel expenses.
Reed bought his own plane ticket. He does not intend to ask the county to reimburse him for the expense.
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