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Fwd: Jerry Taylor's Po-Ed
Recycling CRTs
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Date: Wed, 26 Feb 1997 02:23:53 -0800
From: "Susan K. Snow" <sksnow@1stnet.com>
Subject: Fwd: Jerry Taylor's Po-Ed
Corporations have gained enormous, undue influence over government, that
government is now largely serving the needs of corporations at the
expense of ordinary people. In a 1995 report, the Cato Institute noted
that "federal aid to corporations" is "a major contributor to the budget
crisis." The 1995 Cato report said, "corporate pork is everywhere,"
estimating that federal aid to corporations has now reached $250 to $300
billion per year, though the report only itemizes $85 billion in annual
corporate subsidies.
The 1995 Cato report makes the following points:
** In some cabinet agencies, such as the Department of Agriculture and
the Department of Commerce, almost every spending program underwrites
corporations;
** Through Sematach --a program originally intended to bolster U.S.
microchip producers against foreign competition --the Pentagon pours $100
million each year into the largest 14 chip makers like Intel and National
Semiconductor, giving them a big advantage over 186 smaller U.S. chip
makers;
** An estimated 40% of the $1.4 billion sugar price support program
benefits the largest one percent of sugar farms. The 33 largest sugar
cane plantations each receive more than $1 million annually. One family,
the Fanjuls, who own several large sugar farms in the Florida Everglades,
capture an estimated $60 million each year in artificial profits thanks
to government price supports and import quotas, according to the Cato
report.
** The Rural Electrification Administration (REA) was set up during the
New Deal in the 1930s to extend electric lines to rural America because
"the market" would not do it. But today $2 billion in low-cost REA loans
goes to huge corporations like AllTel which had sales of $2.3 billion
last year. Low-interest REA loans now subsidize ski resorts in Aspen,
Colorado, five-star hotels in Hilton Head, South Carolina, and gambling
casinos in Las Vegas, Nevada, according to the Cato report.
** In 1994, the U.S. Forest Service spent $140 million building roads for
logging companies. Over the last 20 years, the Forest Service has built
340,000 miles of roads --more than eight times the length of the federal
interstate highway system --all for the benefit of logging companies.
** In 1991, through the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Market Promotion
Program, American taxpayers spent $2.9 million advertising Pillsbury
muffins and pies; $1.2 million boosting the international sales of
American Legend mink coats; and $2.5 million extolling the virtues of
Dole pineapples, nuts and prunes.
** Federal environmental cleanup and defense contractors have been
milking the public for millions of dollars in entertainment, recreation
and party expenses, according to Cato. Martin Marietta charged the
Pentagon $263,000 for a Smokey Robinson concert, $20,000 for the purchase
of golf balls, and $7,500 for a 1993 office Christmas party, according to
the Cato report. Ecology and Environment, Inc., of Lancaster, N.Y., spent
$243,000 of funds designated for environmental cleanup on "employee
morale" and $37,000 on tennis lessons, bike races, golf tournaments, and
other entertainment, according to the Cato report.
"Any serious attempt to balance the budget will require a strategy for
getting businesses off the $80 billion annual dole," the Cato report
concludes.
The Cato Institute report also points out that corporations make
enormous, corrupting contributions to political candidates, in an effort
to influence elections. For example, the Fanjul family --the sugar kings
of Florida --contributed $350,000 to political campaigns in 1992. "All of
that has a corrosive effect on the American free-enterprise system," the
Cato report points out. Cato notes that Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and
its chief executive officer, Dwayne Andreas, have given senate majority
leader (and presidential candidate) Bob Dole more than $150,000 over the
years. In turn, ADM --an agribusiness giant in Decatur, Illinois --is the
recipient of huge government subsidies.
Corporations now routinely corrupt the initiative process, dumping
serious cash into anti-environment campaigns. For example in 1992,
citizens of Massachusetts sponsored a ballot initiative to reduce
wasteful packaging and require packaging materials to be reusable or made
of recycled or recyclable materials. Out-of-state corporations pumped
$4.8 million into Massachusetts to corrupt the political process,
defeating the measure 41% to 59%. Here is how corporations defeated the
Massachusetts packaging initiative: American Paper Institute of
Washington, D.C., spent $854,564; Dow Chemical of Michigan spent
$225,297; Occidental Petroleum of California spent $223,660; Quantum
Chemical of Ohio spent $220,000; Exxon Corp. of Texas spent $195,205;
Union Carbide of Connecticut spent $175,326; Philip Morris of New York
spent $175,000; Chevron Corp. of California spent $140,000; Mobil
Chemical of Virginia spent $128,500; Eastman Kodak of New York spent
$104,350. Of the $5.15 million total spent by corporations to defeat the
Massachusetts packaging initiative, only 6% came from inside
Massachusetts.
Many of the worst-polluting corporations spend huge sums to corrupt our
democratic institutions. Exxon, for example, contributed $507,600 to
influence federal elections in the 1993-1994 election cycle, and was
assessed $5.3 billion for environmental damage in 1994; the corporations
who brought you silicon breast implants (and agreed in 1994 to pay
victims of this technology $4.1 billion) also spent $361,000 in 1994 to
influence the outcome of elections; two giant accounting firms (Deloitte
& Touche, and KPMG Peat Marwick) together were fined $498.5 million for
failed audits of failed savings and loan associations, and together they
spent $623,921 trying to influence the outcome of federal elections.
DuPont in 1994 agreed to pay $214 million (without admitting liability)
for selling a fungicide that harmed farmers' crops, and in that same year
DuPont spent $192,708 trying to influence federal elections. And this is
but the tip of a very big, very dirty --though completely legal
--iceberg.
The preceding information was excerpted from:
Stephen Moore and Dean Stansel, ENDING CORPORATE WELFARE AS WE KNOW IT;
DRAFT REPORT (Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute, March 6, 1995). Available
from: Cato Institute, 1000 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C.
20001-5403. Phone: (202) 842-0200; fax: (202) 842-3490.
And, THE CORRUPTION OF OUR DEMOCRACY in RACHEL'S ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH
WEEKLY #433 from the Environmental Research Foundation.
http://www.envirolink.org/pubs/rachel/rehw433.htm
Currently, the combustion industry is being subsidized by the U.S. Department
of Energy, who supports burning 30 percent of garbage as co-generation in
coal-fired power plants. Despite the fact that burning mixed waste produces
less energy 5,000 - 5,200 Btu/lb and more toxic emissions and corrosive slag
than burning the filthy fuel of lignite coal, which the November, 1992 issue
of Waste Age says has an energy value of 6,900 Btu/lb.
Note: Bituminous Coal is 9,000 -14,500 Btu/lb.; fuel oil #6, 17,410 to
18,990; Natural Gas [which produces zero ash and less toxic emissions than
any other fossil or fossil-derived fuel] contains 21,800 Btu/lb. The
November, 1992 issue of Waste Age lists as its sources: IWSA. 1992; Anthony
Licata, 1992; O'Leary. Walsh and Cross, 1987; GBB, 1985; H. Lanier Hickman,
1983; Babcock and Wilcox, 1978.]
Commercial Power Plant Tests Blend of Refuse-Derived Fuel and Coal to
Generate Electricity reads:
"...As an energy resource, MSW is unique. It can be used to produce energy
(thus displacing fossil-fuel-based energy sources), while improving the
environment by reducing the amount of solid wastes that must be landfilled.
Increasing the percentage of RDF burned in coal combustors will increase
these benefits proportionally. The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 allow the
combustion of up to 30% MSW in coal plants. The results of this project will
facilitate commercialization of the combustion technology."
http://www.oit.doe.gov/Access/commercial_tech/10093194.html
Burning garbage corrodes power plants, Democracy, and wastes taxpayer dollars
and our children's right to life and a healthier environment.
Susan K. Snow
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Date: Tue, 25 Feb 1997 06:33:16 -0800 (PST)
From: "David A. Kirkpatrick" <dkirkwks@igc.org>
Subject: Recycling CRTs
John -
A company involved in CRT recycling presented at the Southeastern
Recycling Investment Forum on Feb. 10 -- Proactive Environmental
Research and Development, Houston, TX, 713/690-4121.
David Kirkpatrick
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End of GreenYes Digest V97 #38
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