Circular logic at work in asphalt plant permitting

The fallacy of “circular logic” or “begging the question” is committed when a proposition requiring proof is assumed to be correct without proof. This fallacy consists of begging the listener to accept the question or proposition before the labor of proof is undertaken. In other words, it's arguing for a conclusion that has already been assumed to be correct in the premise.

Because Garfield County Commissioners John Martin, Mike Samson and Tom Jankovsky have revised the county land planning codes to fast track new development, a proposal to construct an asphalt batch plant immediately adjacent to a $12 million certified organic farm on Mamm Creek actually reached the final planning phase for county commissioner approval without proper due diligence from the county planning department.

To reiterate, this asphalt plant proposal was scheduled for approval on the BOCC docket, without any due diligence whatsoever conducted by the county planning department staff inquiring into the potential environmental and economic impacts of allowing an asphalt facility to operate next door to a 1,200-acre certified organic farm that has a local payroll of 50 people.

At the meeting, Commissioner Jankovsky once again publicly demonstrated his inherent circular logic and the circular logic of fast tracking as he made the statement: “Any concerns about pollution are just speculation.”

Carl Mc Williams

Silt

CMC student calls for road safety improvements

As students of Colorado Mountain College, we would like to address an issue regarding the safety of County Road 114 to Spring Valley Campus.

The front page of the Post Independent on Jan. 31 revealed a glaring issue that has not been addressed by Colorado Mountain College Board. One cover story is about the car crash that occurred last fall semester on County Road 114, where a car flew off the road and a young woman died. The driver was found not to be under the influence.

The other cover story is a discussion about another increase in tuition. Apparently the trustees will not (as of now) raise tuition for the third consecutive year. This is impressive, as the college has many things to pay for, such as the new buildings on Spring Valley Campus and the downtown building they are purchasing, to name a few off hand.

We, students of CMC, would like to see our administration take some responsibility in assuring the safety of students by improving the road conditions up to the Spring Valley Campus.

When questioned, one administrator (who is also a professor), denied that the crash was even on the Spring Valley Road. Now, CMC is devising a way to get the students to give each other rides (because there is no public transportation up the mountain) without assuming any responsibility for themselves.

We all know the hard curve at the top of the mountain that every student has envisioned flying off. We believe this is the corner that the students ran off and were not even the first to do so.

Of all the improvements needed to make Spring Valley safely accessible, that corner, first and foremost, needs a guard rail to ensure our safety. CMC maintains that this responsibility belongs to the county, but it is their students, faculty and administration who are most at risk.

What is our third annual “modest” increase in tuition paying for? As far as we can see, new buildings, expansion and salary increases. Not, in any way, the students.

Eva M. Sion

Glenwood Springs

Editor's note: The curve referred to was not the location of the October 2011 fatal accident. It occurred farther up County Road 114, east of the CMC campus.

Clarifying county's $1M for Silt infrastructure

With respect to recent articles, reports and letters appearing in the Glenwood Springs Post Independent, we submit this statement regarding our recent commitment to the town of Silt to provide funding for infrastructure.

On Jan. 23, 2012, the Garfield Board of County Commissioners voted to appropriate $1 million from its Oil and Gas Mitigation Fund to the town of Silt, not to the Urban Renewal Authority later created by the town.

An intergovernmental agreement (IGA) will be drafted to ensure that all funds distributed to Silt will be consistent with the BOCC's intent, and with applicable federal and state law. Once drafted, the IGA will be submitted to the commissioners and town trustees for final approval.

All distributions to the town of Silt will be subject to an appropriate level of accounting and audit control, and the county's ad valorem tax revenues (property taxes) will not be part of any distribution.

The BOCC did not “pledge the money to help finance and economic development program for the town,” and did not authorize the use of any funds for “a building shell, which the Urban Renewal Authority could then lease to a grocery store or other business” as incorrectly reported in the Post Independent on Jan. 25, 2012.

John Martin, chair

Garfield Board of County Commissioners

Glenwood Springs

Oil shale extraction uses too much water, energy

Change can be scary, but common sense tells us that it is inevitable. If we are to have a future with an environment that is sustainable, then changes must occur.

Keep in mind, oil shale is not shale oil. Their extractive processes are not the same, nor do they produce the same product.

With oil shale, the extravagant overuse of four to five barrels of water to every barrel of product (Source 1), and energy, as production of 100,000 barrels would require the amount of electricity needed to power 1.2 million homes for a year (Source 2) to extract this fuel type is wasteful beyond comprehension.

The General Accountability Office released a report in October 2010 concluding that oil shale could have significant impacts on water quantity and groundwater quality in the West. With 30 million people depending on water from the Colorado River Basin, can we chance losing that much water to a theoretical proposition?

Another concern to the Bureau of Reclamation from the production of oil shale is salt-loading and other contaminants leaching into the Colorado and Green rivers (Source 3).

Both Shell and the American Shale Oil Association have admitted publicly that it will be at least a decade before they know if production is even viable. Production, if it happens, won't occur until 2050 or later. Does this look good?

Job production can come in other forms for alternative energies such as wind, geothermal and solar, and with experienced gas and oil personnel who are already in the field, opportunities of retraining for new technologies is a given.

Sources:

1. GAO. “Energy-Water Nexus...” October 2010

2. BLM, Oil Shale and Tar Sands Resource Management Plan Amendments to Address Land Use Allocation in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, PEIS 2008

3. Bureau or Reclamation comments on BLM Draft Oil Shale and Tar Sands Programmatic EIS, March 2008

Penni Palthe

Grand Junction

Obama should consider other Bible verses, too

I have some advice for President Obama.

Since he has become so adept at plucking New Testament verses to support his agenda (to wit, “From them to whom much has been given, much is required” — the same verse misappropriated by an Occupy Glenwood protester last fall), here's another one:

“For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he shall have in abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.” (Matthew 13:12.)

I mean, if Obama can turn Jesus into a Marxist Barabbas, then why can't I turn him into a 1 percenter, or a Bernie Madoff?

Actually, this verse should serve Obama well when his government starts levying all those taxes that are forecast for 2013. Frankly, I can't understand why he hasn't used it already in proposing to take away freedom of conscience from Catholic health services, as announced in the latest HHS ruling. He's going to need all the help he can get with that one.

The liberation theology the president learned at Pastor Jeremiah Wright's knee isn't going to fly with the Catholic Church. It knows a little more about Jesus than Obama does. It also knows more about the First Amendment.

Chad Klinger

Carbondale