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Monday, November 10 2008
I see Nuclear Energy and Nuclear Waste are back on the table in the US. We need clean energy alternatives so this is a positive thing to see. Still I have to ask if we want to move forward with nuclear energy of today, then why not process on the back side when dealing with what we in the US deam as Nuclear Waste? When will we learn to recycle these “waste” products like they do in Europe? The so called waste is 90% reusable and does not need to be buried.
Nuclear waste
Posted by: "Marcel" newpapyrus@yahoo.com newpapyrus
Fri Nov 7, 2008 3:02 am (PST)
DOE would expand nuclear dump in Nevada
By H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press Writer H. Josef Hebert,
Associated Press Writer Thu Nov 6, 11:55 pm ET
WASHINGTON â€" The Energy Department will tell Congress in the coming
weeks it should begin looking for a second permanent site to bury
nuclear waste, or approve a large expansion of the proposed waste
repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
Edward Sproat, head of the department's civilian nuclear waste
program, said Thursday the 77,000-ton limit Congress put on the
capacity of the proposed Yucca waste dump will fall far short of what
will be needed and has to be expanded, or another dump built elsewhere
in the country.
The future of the Yucca Mountain project is anything but certain.
President-elect Obama has said he doesn't believe the desert site 90
miles northwest of Las Vegas is suitable for keeping highly
radioactive used reactor fuel up to a million years and believes other
options should be explored.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has vowed to block the project.
Sproat, addressing a conference on nuclear waste, said the Energy
Department will send a report to Congress in the coming weeks
maintaining that the Yucca site will need to be expanded. He said
within two years the amount of waste produced by the country's 104
nuclear power plants plus defense waste will exceed 77,000 tons. Yucca
Mountain is not projected to be opened before 2020 at the earliest.
"We've done enough testing around the site to know that we can make it
bigger," Sproat told reporters. But he said Congress will have to
remove the capacity limit now in place.
If the limit is not removed, said Sproat, the report will urge
Congress to give the department authority to begin looking for and
evaluating a second nuclear waste repository elsewhere in the country.
The law currently prohibits any such search, said Sproat.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission must issue a license to build the
underground waste dump at Yucca Mountain, a ridge of volcanic rock in
the Nevada desert not far from where the government exploded numerous
nuclear bombs during the Cold War era. The NRC has four years to make
a decision.
Sproat acknowledged that the next president could withdraw the license
application now before the NRC. But he said that would throw "the
whole process...into a lot of confusion and uncertainty" since
Congress also has prohibited the government from considering any place
other than the Nevada site.
An alternative could be a temporary above-ground repository, possibly
on a federal site.
Sproat said the report, which has been completed, will say either
expand Yucca Mountain, begin the process of finding a second
repository, or "don't do anything and let this whole thing just sit
for another 10 to 20 years and see what happens." He said the
department would prefer the go-ahead for a larger Yucca site.
"We do think there is room for additional storage at Yucca. How much,
we're not clear on," said Sproat.
Allison Macfarlane, a geologist and associate professor for
environmental science and policy at George Mason University who has
studied the Yucca Mountain area, said there are clear limits to Yucca
expansion because of nearby earthquake fault lines and potential
volcanic activity.
"There are geological constraints on Yucca Mountain. It is not an
endless sink for nuclear waste," said Macfarlane at the conference
sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Thursday, November 06 2008
Free Webinar Series on Recruitment and Retention. For details visit: http://thedotdoctor.com/recruitment_and_retention
Thursday, November 06 2008
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One Texas trucking company's recent decision not to fuel up in Mount Vernon, IL, because of a 2-cent-per-gallon tax on diesel fuel there, has prompted other truckers to follow suit. After reading about Texas-based Clark Freight Line Inc.'s decision not to fuel up their 200-plus trucks, as well as their leased trucks, in Mount Vernon, OOIDA member Doug Geeting decided to take action, too.
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The Environmental Protection Agency has fined a trash hauling company in Massachusetts for exceeding the state's five-minute idling limit. Waste Management of Massachusetts Inc., was fined $27,200 for excessive idling at its depots in Stoughton, Taunton and West Boylston, MA. The EPA has collected $329,500 in idling penalties from Capitol Waste Services, Allied Waste Services and Waste Management.
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The general election of 2008 didn't shake things up very much in the two congressional committees that wrangle with transportation issues. "Overall, the Democrats' increased majority in the House and the Senate presents us with new opportunities, but also new challenges as well," said Rod Nofziger, OOIDA's director of government affairs.
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If ever there was a time for the U.S. DOT and state governments to be cautious about leasing public infrastructure to private investors, it's during financial uncertainty, two top lawmakers said Tuesday, Nov. 4. They sent a letter to U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, urging her to tighten up the guidelines and develop stricter criteria for public-private partnerships for infrastructure.
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One state's recent announcement of steep price increases for oversize and overweight permits appears to have come with little notice, although truckers with oversize and overweight loads have begun making their voices heard. Ohio is no longer issuing 365-day permits and the 90-day permit fee jumped from $20 to $306 on Oct. 16, and will rise to $528 in March and $750 in July, which will be 36 times the previous cost.
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First CA went after the O/Os at the port and now this. Yes it is important to be concerned about the environment but forcing the small businessman out is not the answer. We need cost effective alternatives that protect both the environment and the entrepreneur spirit.
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The Federal Maritime Commission voted late Wednesday, Oct. 29, to file for an injunction asking the courts to halt parts of the "clean truck" plan at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
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Illinois Tollway officials are proposing to increase tolls for heavy trucks by 60 percent – from $4 to $6.40 – by 2015. Officials with the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority recently have opened a public comment period on the issue and will have 12 public hearings throughout the state. Click here to visit the Illinois Tollway site, which has the meeting schedule and an online comment form.
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Increase should be for all or none. Focusing on just the big trucks is not right. NJ is raising their tolls as well.
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With the clock winding down on the legislative calendar in New Jersey, the topics of consideration at the statehouse include hazardous materials and trucking on the New Jersey Turnpike. One bill that would give the Delaware River Port Authority the authority to inspect hazmat carriers and cargoes. State law now limits such inspections to the State Police, police officers of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and specially designated state Department of Transportation and Department of Environmental Protection personnel.
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The Federal Highway Administration has launched a new taxpayer-funded office dedicated to the tolling of congested roadways. Officials with FHWA announced Friday, Oct. 31, that the new Office of Innovative Program Delivery will promote congestion pricing while working with states to reduce traffic and pay for roadway improvements.
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At the national headquarters of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association in Grain Valley, MO, officials are predicting that voting by the nation’s long-haul truckers may set records. The truckers’ Association has more than 160,000 dues-paying members and keeps in close touch, fielding more than 1,500 phone calls a day and hundreds of e-mail messages. “It appears more are making it to the polls than in the past,” said OOIDA Executive Vice President Todd Spencer on Tuesday afternoon, Nov. 4. “One reason is the absentee ballot option and the early voting process offered by a lot of states.”
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Glad to see that truckers finally have a REAL option at voting time.
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Con-way Freight, a division of Con-way Inc., is shutting the doors on 40 of its service centers nationwide in an effort to cut costs. The move is expected to save Con-way Freight as much as $40 million a year.
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Take time to view the Fallen Flags Tribute from You Tube.
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The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association has been honored with two silver awards from the Greater Kansas City Public Relations Society of America. One was given for the “Truckers for Troops Telethon” and another for a project challenging the U.S. DOT’s cross-border trucking pilot program with Mexico.
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The bad news? Truckers entering most U.S. ports still will need a Transportation Worker Identification Credential at least by April 2009. The good news – a recent power outage may have bought some drivers a few more weeks to enroll in the program. Compliance requirements for workers with TWIC cards at Captain of the Port zones in Buffalo, NY, Detroit, Lake Michigan, Sault Ste. Marie and Duluth, MN, have been postponed from Oct. 31 to Dec. 1.
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No one is going to be directly observing truckers - and other transportation workers - giving urine samples for drug testing, at least for now, thanks to an emergency stay granted by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
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The government of Ontario announced the availability of $15 million over the next four years to truckers who switch to hybrid or alternative-fuel vehicles or who want to retrofit their present truck with anti-idling equipment.
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In Colorado, a trucker who police are crediting with saving the lives of two girls regrets that he was unable to save their mother as well.
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Mandating electronic on-board recorders for the 'bad actors' in the trucking industry isn't enough according to the National Transportation Safety Board. The agency unveiled its annual "Most Wanted" list this week and included mandating EOBRs for all trucks in the industry.
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A legislative package in the Michigan House is intended to limit driver distractions. Another bill would put limits on the state's youngest drivers.
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View the DOT Doctor's videos on distracted drivers.
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Out of hours and needing to rest for the night, Richard Lohrding was out of options when he pulled into a vacant Goody's store parking lot in Morrow, GA, on Wednesday, Oct. 22. He woke up the next morning only to find a parking ticket for $418 on his windshield.
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This is all too common a problem for most OTR drivers especially in the NE and coastly states. Before we ticket drivers, we need to improve the parking options.
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The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association's Member Assistance Department recalls countless trucking operations that lost hundreds and thousands of dollars at a time. This past week, John Russell was ordered to serve 51 months in federal prison and to pay $165,000 in restitution to his victims. Russell had previously pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud.
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What who you do business with and protect yourself!
Thursday, November 06 2008
Have you read the latest news?
| Trucking Headlines |
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Election could affect trucking issues
By Avery Vise
The election of Barack Obama and the addition of at least five Democratic seats in the Senate on Nov. 4 put Democrats within striking distance of several major changes in employment laws affecting the trucking industry.
Among those are a measure that would make it much easier for labor unions to gain a foothold in a company and another that could change independent contractor classification.
The Employee Free Choice Act, which passed the House of Representatives in 2007 on a party-line vote and had the support of all Democrats in the Senate, would require the certification of a union at a non-union company if the union obtains a card check of a majority of employees in the bargaining group. Opponents have raised numerous objections, arguing especially that denying employees the right to a secret ballot would lead to intimidation.
Despite support from a majority in both houses of Congress, the Employee Free Choice Act had no chance of becoming law. Democrats in the Senate were unable to gain the necessary 60 votes to kill a filibuster, and President Bush would have vetoed the legislation anyway if Congress had managed to pass it.
Now Republicans have lost one "firewall" - the presidency - and have a much smaller margin for enforcing a filibuster. But Republicans apparently will deny Democrats the all-important 60-vote majority. As of the morning of Nov. 5, Republican incumbents are leading each of the four remaining races, although in Minnesota and Oregon the margins are razor-thin.
President-elect Obama sponsored another bill - the Independent Contractor Proper Classification Act - that would authorize the Treasury Department to issue new criteria for determining independent contractor classification. Whistleblower protections would be imposed to encourage disgruntled owner-operators to contest classification, and the IRS would adjudicate the disputes. The safe harbor provisions allowing carriers to rely upon industry standards would be repealed. That legislation did not have the broad-based support of the Employee Free Choice Act, however, and did not make it past the Senate Finance Committee.
In addition to changes in employment law, an Obama administration may have the opportunity to reconsider some major safety regulations regarding motor carriers. For example, regulations concerning electronic onboard recorders have yet to go to the White House for review, so the chances for approval before the Bush administration departs are dwindling. Also, while approval of new hours-of-service regulations before Obama takes office appears likely, the new administration may have opportunities to make changes if the federal appeals court once again sends the regulations back to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
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Wednesday, November 05 2008
| News > Headline News > 11/05/2008 |
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OOIDA blasts PQ Minister for reneging on speed limiters; promises to sue
11/05/2008 |
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GRAIN VALLEY, Mo. – Quebec's Transport Minister Julie Boulet has backed out of a promise to hold off on mandatory speed limiters until other Canadian jurisdictions jump on board the bandwagon, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) is complaining.
So far, Ontario is the only other province to pass speed limiter legislation requiring truckers to set engine speed settings to 105 km/h. As todaystrucking.com was the first to report last week, both provinces are aiming for a 'soft enforcement" implementation date of Jan. 1, 2009.
In a press release, OOIDA denounced Boulet for the "changé l'esprit." Last December, Quebec trucker and OOIDA member Jean Catudal insists he was given assurances by transport officials that Quebec would hold off on its proposed rule until the rest of Canada enacted similar legislation and Transport Canada released its own studies on the effectiveness and safety issues of speed limiters.
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OOIDA hopes Ontario and Quebec's speed limiter
plans aren't infectious and spread to south of the border |
Transport Canada unveiled that series of reports this past summer, and while an initial press release from the minister's office chose to tout the environmental benefits of speed limiters, the completed studies, when read fully, don't exactly paint a rosy picture of mandatory engine governors (as we reported at the time in an exclusive feature, found here).
"Our members are furious," said Rick Craig, OOIDA's director of regulatory affairs. "Not only is Minister Boulet going back on her word, she is also disregarding the grim implications this decision will have on trade at a time when Canada and the U.S. can least afford it."
The 160,000-trucker strong, Missouri-based group -- backed by its Canadian counterpart, the Owner-Operators Business Association of Canada -- is forging ahead with plans to sue the provinces if they go through with the enforcement of speed limiters. OOIDA says the rules are an affront to NAFTA.
"If Minister Boulet follows through with this announcement, thousands of truckers throughout Canada and the U.S. will effectively be barred from operating in Quebec. That is a serious anti-competitive move that cannot go unchallenged.”
The large trucking companies who are pushing for a speed limiter mandate "well know it will not increase safety or benefit the environment as they’ve advertised," Craig added, reiterating a common concern of many independent operators. "They’re in it for limiting competition and harming the little guy."
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Source: Today's Trucking.com
RESPONSE FROM THE DOT DOCTOR
Speed limiters are an unsafe idea unless you are going to place speed limiters equally set on ALL vehicles. It is just like split speed limits which are equally unsafe. Singling out trucks is unsafe and should be illegal. Traffic needs to flow together not in status clumps with rolling roadblocks due to slower vehicles. States and Providences that require “special” regulations to operate in their jurisdictions are hurting the economy. CA has excessive rulings in place at the ports as of Oct 1 and now Quebec wants to join that same status making them undesirable to do business within their jurisdiction. San Francisco’s “special law” regarding forced health insurance coverage if you do business in the city is forcing businesses out instead of protecting employees which was the intent of the law. The speed limiters and clean air restrictions will produce similar results.
These insurance, clean air and speed restrictors are not the answer. The special interest groups behind these regulatory decisions are only trying to force the little guy out of business; just as your article states. It is tipping the field in favor of big business who can afford these restrictive items. To me, this is along the same lines as the US Government who wants to implement the EBORs which only big business can afford. Both the US and Canada are both moving in the direction of putting the small business man out of business. What they do not realize is that the big business man cannot do some of the specialty jobs that the independent can. Moreover, they are not willing to do the job and if they do the cost will be exceedingly high. If the small business man, who is currently doing the work, charged the rates that the big business will ultimately charge, they too could remain afloat with the ever increasing regulations.
The government needs to stay out of business. Oversight is one thing but this is now moving to a new ground of interference. The US has gone over the deep end with the preface of “Homeland Security” before anything they desire that would not otherwise be legal. Now state and providential jurisdictions are jumping on a similar bandwagon to strong-arm their will into the business arena. Their mask is the preface of “safety”. It is good to see the ATA and US Justice Dept standing up to CA legislators against the Port Authority. The Owner Operator Associations in the US and Canada need to take a stand against Quebec.
It is sad that we cannot afford to just boycott these areas of excessive regulations without causing ourselves excessive financial harm. Hitting ones bottom-line is always the best way to make a point. They are hitting ours. It is time to hit back. We all need to be safe, obey the law and work together out there. The trucker has enough limitations and unrealistic time frames on him/her already. Adding more regulations only hurts the economy, the consumer and trade.
Support the OOIDA and small business.Your comments are encouraged and welcomed. Please post here and at the Right Turn Blog via the link above.
Wednesday, November 05 2008
Congress wants to make all trucks have electronic onboard recorders to track drivers hours of service.
Read Dr. Sitler's paper addressing this hot issue.
Comments welcomed!
Monday, November 03 2008
Visit the new pages just added to the site (http://thedotdoctor.com)
Technical Writing and Authorship Services - http://thedotdoctor.com/author
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Updates have been posted to other pages. Be sure to check out the site.
Thursday, October 23 2008
House Rules on HOS
ATA Gets Justice Dept. Backing Against Oct. 1 Ruling for LA Ports
Read the latest on these events at: http://thedotdoctor.com/industry_news
Wednesday, October 22 2008
Free Download for Hours of Service and Driver Logbook Training
Please fill out the visitor form on The DOT Doctor's site when downloading the training, powerpoint presentations and/or certificates.
One form submittal is all that is requested for unlimited downloads.
Driver Logbook Training
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The training is available in English and Spanish. You may use this for your own knowledge or for training your drivers.
Logbook Training videos and a certificate are also available.
Supervisor Training is available to aid your dispatchers and other managers in properly planning your driver's workload. Learn how to tell when your driver will have available hours again. Figure out if you overdispatched your drivers.
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800# is no longer in operations.
Please dial direct at: 903-910-9075
With the small profit margin, while pay unnecessary fines? TDD can help!
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