Grand Lake Theater Staff Fund Raiser Hits $29,000 Goal, Now $35,000 Level Set For GoFundMe Page ONN – Grand Lake Theater Staff Fund Raiser Hits $29,000 Goal, Now $35,000 Level Set For GoFundMe Page – vlog by Zennie62 YouTube The Grand Lake Theater, famous for the Grand Lake Theater Marquee, and located at 3200 Grand … Read more
John Siegel, the former CEO of Kentucky and Oakland-based Insight Terminal Solutions (the firm of which was a Zennie62Media client before it closed down as that brand), has said he will help to recover and properly dispose of waste coal, even though he had no direct knowledge of operations ran by Bowie Refined Coal, another … Read more
Clean Coal makes headway on coal dehydration tech by finishing fabrication on rotary kiln From YouTube Channel: July 31, 2020 at 09:05AM ONN – Insight Terminal Solutions Oakland News: Clean Coal Makes Headway On Coal Dehydration Tech From Clean Coal Technologies, which writes: Clean Coal Technologies Inc (OTCMKTS:CCTC) CFO Aiden Neary tells Proactive the New … Read more
Oakland Better Off Without Sierra Club’s COVID-19 Racism, Insight Terminal Solutions Will Rise ONN – Oakland Better Off Without Sierra Club’s COVID-19 Racism, Insight Terminal Solutions Will Rise – vlog by Zennie62 YouTube Oakland Better Off Without Sierra Club’s COVID-19 Racism, Insight Terminal Solutions Will Rise Note from Zennie62Media’s Zennie62 YouTube and Oakland News Now … Read more
Jaguar Wright’s Story About Mary J Blige Was Unnecessary Put Down Of Successful Black Woman ONN – Jaguar Wright’s Story About Mary J Blige Was Unnecessary Put Down Of Successful Black Woman – vlog by Zennie62 YouTube Jaguar Wright’s Story About Mary J Blige Was Unnecessary Put Down Of Successful Black Woman Note from Zennie62Media’s … Read more
Insight Terminal Solutions Beat Autumn Wind Lending, LLC In This Round In Court. Something only posted for interest and record. Nonetheless. An interesting behind-the-scenes battle as mentioned in ” Delaware Bankruptcy Court Rules that Bankruptcy Blocking Right in Debtor’s Corporate Charter Violates Federal Public Policy” by Jones Day: Another notable case is In re Insight … Read more
Insight Terminal Solutions ITS Oakland Bulk And Oversized Terminal, Oakland Global Video From YouTube Channel: August 19, 2019 at 04:30AM ONN – Insight Terminal Solutions ITS Oakland Bulk And Oversized Terminal OBOT, Oakland Global Video The ITS / OBOT, incorrectly called a “coal terminal” is designed to be a multi-commodity bulk terminal. The objective was … Read more
OUSD to Update Public on Massive $133 Million Project to Upgrade Fremont High School in News Conference on Wednesday
Oakland – OUSD is holding a news conference on Wednesday, October 21, to update the school community and the public at large about the progress made on a major project to revamp the Fremont High School campus. Although the construction continues, the changes have come into clear focus with the addition of a new academic building, gymnasium, athletic field with grandstands and press box, a new front entrance to the school, and many other amenities. The changes also include a totally revamped academic building. (Note: also read about the Insight Terminal Solutions Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal, here.)
Fremont High’s new academic building (left) and the newly revamped academic building.
The project will also address sustainability with bioretention planters which will filter rainwater before it reaches the storm drain system, additional windows and skylights that allow for more natural lighting, and even a pair of electric vehicle chargers.
Much of the $133 million project is complete, although crews are putting the finishing touches on the new features, which are expected to be completed by the end of the fall semester in December. That means the school will be ready to welcome students and staff back to campus as early as spring 2021, once conditions related to the Covid pandemic allow for in-person instruction.
Fremont High
Fremont High sits at the corner of Foothill Boulevard and High Street, and serves as an important pillar of the community near the Fruitvale BART Station. With its 900 students, Fremont is the top choice for high school students in the area, in part because of its robust Career and Technical Education programs, which include an advanced woodworking and carpentry shop and a celebrated media arts academy. Many graduates of these programs go on to lucrative careers in Oakland’s trades industry.
Fremont High
“We are excited to show the community, and especially our school community, the new Fremont High campus,” said Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell. “For more than a century, this campus has been warm and welcoming, but we have wanted to make much-needed improvements for a long time because the students and staff deserve it. Thanks to the amazing support of Oakland voters who passed Measure J, we were able to fund the transformation of this campus into a 21st century high school environment that will serve generations of Oaklanders to come.”
WHAT: Fremont High School Construction Project Update News Conference
WHEN: Noon, Wednesday, October 21
WHERE: Fremont High School, 4610 Foothill Blvd
Post based on press release from OUSD to Zennie62Media.
On Wednesday, Scott McKibben, now the former Executive Director of The Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Joint Powers Authority and currently President Of The Oakland Panthers of The Indoor Football League, accepted a misdemeanor plea-bargain deal in the case where he was accused of violating a government law prohibiting self-dealing. The problem is, the case and the mainstream media reporting, masks a great deal of facts that, in total, show an organizational system beyond the control of McKibben, and where he was asked to be an actor in it, then burned by it.
Scott McKibben was accused of violating California Government Code Section 1090, which prohibits public officials and public employees from “making” public contracts in which they have a financial interest. The fact is, Scott was asked by the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Joint Powers Authority Board to secure a naming-rights marketing agreement with Ring Central. Scott was, contrary to the law, listed contractually as an independent consultant – just like the other marketing consulting firms the Coliseum JPA has hired over its existence, since its creation in 1996.
That Scott asked for, but did not receive, a $50,000 fee from a $4 million deal with Ring Central, should not have raised any eyebrows considering that the Coliseum JPA Board asked him to do the deal, he’s an independent contractor, and the City of Oakland and the County of Alameda at no point at all gave Scott any instructions regarding the law. Indeed, the persons who should have done that are Oakland City Attorney Barbara Parker and Alameda County Counsel Donna Ziegler.
Moreover, the other persons who should have done that comprise the same Board of Directors of The Oakland Coliseum JPA, and many of whom are friends of mine, and should not have let Scott take a fall like that, and they know it. Folks like Alameda County Supervisors Scott Haggerty and Nate Miley, Oakland City Councilmembers Larry Reid and Loren Tayor, and JPA Commissioners Yui Hay Lee (famed Oakland architect), Ignacio De La Fuente (himself a former Oakland Councilmember), and Chris Dobbins (everyone’s favorite local lawyer), and Christine Smith, both who are no longer on the JPA Board.
And I add myself to that list, because, in 2019 for the NBA Finals Game 4, Scott gave me a ticket – way up in the damn rafters, but it was a ticket. When he invited me to visit the Coliseum JPA Box, my friend Chris was there, as was Barbara Parker, among others.
“California Government Code Section 1090 (“Section 1090”) – which prohibits public officials and public employees from “making” public contracts in which they have a financial interest – is notoriously vague, broad, and malleable. Section 1090 provides that California’s elected and appointed public officials and public employees may not be “financially interested” in “any contract made by them in their official capacity. California courts have interpreted these terms broadly, making it dangerously easy to violate the statute without even knowing it. Most troublingly, Section 1090 does not require bad intent for a conviction or a fine. A public official, public agency, or employee may violate the statute if they act knowingly – that is, knowing about their financial interest and knowing what they are doing in connection with the contract – even if they don’t realize that their conduct is prohibited. In fact, because of that low general intent requirement, California courts have rejected the defense of “advice of counsel” or that they obtained prior approval from an attorney. In other words, a California official or employee might violate Section 1090 even if the public entity they work for, and its attorneys, told them that their conduct was lawful and not a violation of Section1090.
And in Scott McKibben’s case, no one told him about Section 1090 to start with. For Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley to seek to charge McKibben for a felony makes me wonder if her office was aware of how poorly the law was written and just decided to go ahead and go after Scott, anyway? And why? Well, to answer that question, read on.
The Warriors Playoffs And Coliseum Sports Ticket Distribution Scandal That Should Not Be, But Is
And in addition, the JPA Board was served by the Oakland Chief Administrator’s Office, and I attended a meeting where then Oakland Chief Administrator Sabrina Landreath served as the secretary for the meeting. But did you know Sabrina Landreath scored a Warriors playoff ticket valued at $5,000 in 2016? And did you know Yui Hay Lee was signed up for and received $35,000 in Warriors playoff tickets? And before you say Scott McKibben signed off on them, I instruct you to look online at the many Form 802 filings going back to 2016, because Councilmember Reid, and Yui Hay Lee signed off on some of them, too. http://oraclearena.s3.amazonaws.com/doc/OACCA-Form-802-May-2016-5576c104a9.pdf
Yui Hay Lee Warriors 2016
And did you know Oakland City Attorney Barbara Parker scored $840 worth of Oakland A’s tickets in 2016, as did my friend Coliseum JPA Commissioner Chris Dobbins? (And this is something Barbara Parker herself admits too, so there, but its wrong for some news media to blast Oakland Councilmember Lynette Gibson McElhaney for the same perk that Barb Parker herself obviously enjoyed. Moreover, its wrong for Reid and Parker to make Scott McKibben look bad, when they could have defended him, and put him in the bad position to start with.)
Barbara Parker got $9,250 worth of Golden State Warriors regular season tickets for free, March 2016.
Barbara Parker Gsw Tickets
And I happened to randomly find that information about Yui Hay Lee in opening the link to the Form 802 page. I wasn’t going on a witch hunt against Yui Hay Lee (even though he did use part of my Oakland City Hall Plaza Design Concept I made at Skyline High School in 1979 for the actual plaza). I’m only demonstrating that the truth is the entire Coliseum JPA culture, and that of the City of Oakland and The County of Alameda, is to blame for what the Alameda County Coliseum District Attorney accused Scott of doing with respect to Ring Central. You can see all of the ticket request reports here: https://www.theoaklandarena.com/about-us/coliseum-authority/public-information
Now, I have long argued that the law should allow for public officials who run a giant sports complex should, to enjoy some small benefit of doing so, like occasionally scoring tickets to events – just don’t sell them. Look, how the heck is any official to see how their facility is managing a large sports event it that person can’t even attend the event? Logical, right?
Anyway, here’s a newsflash: doing that – getting sought-after-tickets – failed to become an big issue for years – or until The Golden State Warriors got real good at NBA Basketball. Prior to that, the Oakland Coliseum had not enjoyed a team that won so much, tickets to their playoff games were valued over gold.
Then, when Golden State became the daring of the NBA, those who did not score Warriors playoffs tickets and were somebodies, were railing over those who did – particularly public officials. Moreover, the public officials were getting seats so good that Alameda County Administrator Susan Muranishi wound up on national television during the 2016 NBA Finals.
And she too had an appetite for $8,650 worth of regular season Warriors tickets, all in March of 2016…
Susan Muranishi Gsw Tickets
Then, while the Oakland Public Ethics Commission was formed in 1996, it did not became the new cultural tool for use against elected officials that the folks in control of it did not want to protect, until the last seven years. So, rather than defend themselves and explain the rationale for having tickets, the officials who were enjoying that ability to get tickets went into hiding.
And then had no problem trying to remove the one person they went to for tickets: Scott McKibben. Think about that. Rather than help their “ticket friend”, if you will, they stabbed him in the back, in my humble opinion.
The trouble with the mainstream media is its institutionally racist and when its not that, it’s myopic. One news organization was all too willing to try and take down Scott because some of its editors remember him from when he ran ANG Newspapers and they worked for him in the early 2000s. So, for them, making Scott look bad was a just reward for low pay they received as journalists, back then. Fact is, they did not tell you that, and it masks the truth I’m telling you. (And why I am a blogger and not a journalist.)
The real truth is that public governance in Oakland and in California has degenerated into a culture where someone is always looking to use poorly written California laws to take down someone else, for whatever reason. It chases away good people like Mr. McKibben, my friend who ran The Rose Bowl, and was the one reason the Oakland Coliseum managed to land rent agreements with the then-Oakland, now Las Vegas Raiders that put the organization in the black after years of red ink. And it covers up the truth: that when something like Warriors playoffs tickets are to be had, the culture will figure out a way for someone to land them, and then blast someone like Scott.
You know the saying that rules are made to be broken? Well, in California, the rules are made to be used against those people who were set up by others to break them. The Coliseum JPA Board of Directors set Scott McKibben up to fail, and is the worst for it.
Scott McKibben Was The Best Sports Business Negotiator In Oakland’s History
In Scott McKibben, the Coliseum JPA lost the best sports negotiator it ever had. And, starting in 1996 when I represented Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris as his Economic Advisor, I have worked with and advised to some extent all of them since 1996: Ezra Rapport, Denna McClain, Mark Kaufmann, Ann Haley, Doug Thornton, Denna McClain again, before Scott McKibben came in (and even though the original first choice was a former elected official who had zero experience in the business of sports).
Moreover, I defend Scott because he bailed out the City of Oakland’s 2005 Super Bowl Bid in May 10th of 2000. I was the head of the Super Bowl XXXIV Bidding Committee and Executive Director of the Oakland-Alameda County Sports Commission, which I formed in 1999.Paul Tagliabue, then The NFL Commissioner, had invited us to give a presentation at NFL Headquarters in New York. After showing up 20 minutes late, then-Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown left our meeting with then NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue early, and unexpectedly.
Commissioner Tagliabue, who budgeted two hours of his valuable time for us, was fuming.
Thus, we were left with just Scott McKibben and two other board members from the Oakland-Alameda County Sports Commission to be there, in addition to me, as head of the meeting. At the other side of the room and for the NFL were Tagliabue, Executive Vice President Of Football Operations Roger Goodell, then-NFL Head of Special Events and Mr. Super Bowl Jim Steeg, and then-head of NFL Legal Derrick Haggens, Jennifer Gonsalez, and Sue Robichek. Scott spoke up for the Oakland / East Bay business community and saved our meeting with Paul. A good thing, because Tagliabue was so upset over Jerry Brown’s actions, he threatened to stop the meeting. An action that would have killed our chances to land the Super Bowl Game.
Just 10 days after that meeting, The NFL selected Oakland as one of three finalist cities (the other two Jacksonville and Miami) for the right to host the 2005 Super Bowl. As then-Oakland District One Councilmember Jane Brunner told me later that year “none of us gave you a chance.” Ultimately, we lost to Jacksonville.
On the way to that NFL meeting, I had to create the damn Oakland sports commission from scratch, and because then Oakland City Attorney Jane Williams had stood in Oakland City Administrator Robert Bobb’s way (as did McClain) with roadblocks explaining why Oakland could not even do a bid! On top of that, the Coliseum was managed by SMG and Sally Roach, who, with Deena McClain, famously told Mr. Bobb that a former employee of the Coliseum I was working because he was the architect, had stolen the facility’s drawings. Everyone believed them but me. As I told Bobb then, how can we operate the Coliseum without the drawings? The whole claim just smelled bad to me.
So, I went on my own investigation and found the drawings (which we needed for our NFL Super Bowl Bid) via an engineer with HNTB in Marin County, Ca.. That same person then said “Sally Roach says you can’t have the drawings”! I hit the ceiling, called Robert Bobb, and Sally was removed from running the effort, and Bobb told her to work with me. I wanted her fired.
Point is, Oakland had many stories of people trying to stop other people from making government work for the people, and doing great things (take Phil Tagami, Insight Terminal Solutions, and the whole Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal coal issue, for example). Scott McKibben is the latest casualty in this.
Stay tuned.
Post script: The giant list of $139,013.50 worth of sports ticket issued by the Coliseum JPA and that (I was told by a source who does not wish to be named) claimed were approved by the Oakland City Attorney’s Office, but the docs show the Coliseum JPA did as well:
2016-137 events=$139,013.50 + ???
January-0 events
February-3 events=$2,500.00
02/06/2016-Warriors v OKC=$1,100.00
02/09/2016-Warriors v Rockets=$1,100.00
02/14/2016-Charlie Wilson Concert=$75.00 x 4
March-16 events=$13,074.00
03/01/2016-Warriors v Hawks= $700.00
03/03/2016-Warriors v OKC =$1,100.00
03/04/2016-Prince: Piano and a Microphone=$600.00 x 4= $2400.00
03/05/2016-Festival of Laughs Comedy Show=$93.00 x 4= $372.00
03/07/2016-Warriors v Orlando=$600.00
03/09/2016-Warriors v Jazz=$700.00
03/11/2016-Warrior v Portland=$600.00
03/12/2016-Warriors v Phoenix=$600.00
03/13/2016-Bruce Springsteen= $158.00 x 4= $632.00
03/14/2016-Warriors v New Orleans=$800.00
03/16/2016-Warrior v Knicks=$1,100.00
03/23/2016-Warriors v Clippers=$1,300.00
03/25/2016-Warriors v Mavericks=$700.00
03/26/2016-Andre Ward v. Sullivan Barrera=$105.00 x 4= $420.00
03/27/2016-Warriors v 76ers=$350.00
03/29/2016-Warrior v Wizards=$700.00
April-23 events=$20,608.50
04/01/2016-Warriors v Celtics= $700.00
04/02/2016-Oakland A’s= $112.50
04/03/2016-Warriors v Portland=$500.00
04/04/2016-Oakland A’s= $100.00
04/05/2016-Oakland A’s= $80.00
04/05/2016-Warriors v T’wolves=$600.00
04/06/2016-Oakland A’s= $80.00
04/07/2016-Oakland A’s= $80.00
04/07/2016-Warriors v Spurs=$1,200.00
04/10/2016-Carrie Underwood Concert= $134.00 x 4=$536.00
04/11/2016-Oakland A’s= $80.00
04/12/2016-Oakland A’s= $80.00
04/13/2016-Oakland A’s= $80.00
04/13/2016-Warriors v Memphis=$650.00
04/15/2016-Oakland A’s= $80.00
04/16/2016-Oakland A’s= $80.00
04/16/2016-Warriors v Rockets (Game 1)=$5,000.00
04/17/2016-Oakland A’s= $90.00
04/18/2016-Warriors v Rockets (Game 2) )=$5,000.00
04/23/2016-The Class Reunion Concert= $75.00 x 4= $300.00
04/27/2016-Warriors v Rockets (Game 3) )=$5,000.00
04/29/2016-Oakland A’s= $80.00
04/30/2016-Oakland A’s= $100.00
May-24 events=$37,568.00
05/01/2016-Warriors Playoffs=$5,000.00
05/02/2016-A’s v Seattle= $90.00
05/03/2016-Warriors Playoff)=$5,000.00
05/03/2016-A’s v Seattle= $80.00
05/04/2016-A’s v Seattle= $80.00
05/04/2016-Hill Song United= $32.50 x 4= $130.00
05/07/2016-Rihanna=$157.50 x 4 = $630.00
05/11/2016-Warriors Playoffs=$5,000.00
05/16/2016-Warriors Playoffs=$5,000.00
05/16/2016-A’s v Texas= $80.00
05/17/2016-A’s v Texas= $80.00
05/18/2016-Warriors Playoffs=$5,000.00
05/18/2016-A’s v Texas= $80.00
05/19/2016-A’s v NYY= $90.00
05/19/2016-The Who= $149.50 x 4= $598.00
05/20/2016-A’s v NYY= $100.00
05/21/2016-A’s v NYY= $100.00
05/22/2016-A’s v NYY= $100.00
05/26/2016-Warriors Playoffs=$5,000.00
05/28/2016-A’s v Detroit= $80.00
05/29/2016-A’s v Detroit= $90.00
05/30/2016-Warriors Playoffs=$5,000.00
05/30/2016-A’s v Detroit= $80.00
05/31/2016-A’s v Detroit= $80.00
June-17 events = $41,130.00
06/02/2016-Warriors v Cavaliers=$10,000.00
06/05/2016-Warriors v Cavaliers=$10,000.00
06/08/2016-Warriors Watch Party=$20.00
06/10/2016-Warriors Watch Party=$20.00
06/12/2016-KMEL Summer Jam=$62.50 x 4= $250.00
06/13/2016-A’s v Texas= $80.00
06/13/2016-Warriors v Cavaliers=$10,000.00
06/14/2016- A’s v Texas= $80.00
06/15/2016- A’s v Texas= $80.00
06/16/2016-Warriors Watch Party=$20.00
06/17/2016- A’s v Angels= $90.00
06/19/2016-Warriors v Cavaliers=$10,000.00
06/19/2016- A’s v Angels= $90.00
06/21/2016- A’s v Brewers= $80.00
06/22/2016- A’s v Brewers= $80.00
06/29/2016- A’s v Giants= $120.00
06/30/2016- A’s v Giants= $120.00
July-11 events = $1,080.00
07/01/2016-A’s v Pittsburg= $90.00
07/02/2016-A’s v Pittsburg= $90.00
07/03/2016-A’s v Pittsburg= $80.00
07/09/2016-Louis C.K.= $60.00 x 4+ $240.00
07/15/2016-A’s v Toronto= $80.00
07/17/2016-A’s v Toronto= $90.00
07/18/2016-A’s v Houston= $80.00
07/19/2016-A’s v Houston= $80.00
07/20/2016-A’s v Houston= $80.00
07/21/2016-A’s v Tampa Bay= $80.00
07/23/2016-A’s v Tampa Bay= $90.00
August-11 events = $2,962.00 + ?
08/02/2016-Adele= $274.00 x 4 = $1,096.00
08/03/2016-Dream Team= $156.50 x 4 = $626.00
08/05/2016-A’s v Cubs= $90.00
08/06/2016-Andre Ward v. Alexander Brand= $165.00 x 4 = $660.00
08/07/2016-A’s v Cubs= $90.00
08/08/2016-A’s v Orioles= $80.00
08/11/2016-A’s v Orioles= $80.00
08/14/2016-A’s v Mariners= $80.00
08/22/2016-A’s v Cleveland= $80.00
08/23/2016-A’s v Houston= $80.00
08/27/2016-Raiders v Titans = ?
September-18 events= $2,821.00 + ??
09/01/2016-Raiders v Seahawks=?
09/02/2016-A’s v Boston= $90.00
09/03/2016-A’s v Boston= $90.00
09/04/2016-A��s v Boston= $90.00
09/05/2016-A’s v Angels= $90.00
09/06/2016-A’s v Angels= $80.00
09/07/2016-A’s v Angels= $80.00
09/09/2016-A’s v Seattle= $80.00
09/11/2016-A’s v Seattle= $80.00
09/15/2016-Black Sabbath= $205.00 x 4 = $820.00
09/18/2016-Raiders v Falcons= ?
09/19/2016-A’s v Houston= $80.00
09/20/2016-A’s v Houston= $80.00
09/21/2016-A’s v Houston= $80.00
09/24/2016-A’s v Texans= $90.00
09/24/2016-Sonu Nigam & Atif= $88.00 x 4 = $352.00
09/25/2016-A’s v Texans= $90.00
09/30/2016-Bad Boys Concert= $137.25 x 4 = $549.00
October-10 events= $6,623.00+ ??
10/01/2016-Sia=$149.50 x 4 = $598.00
10/04/2016-Warriors v Clippers= $675.00 x 4 = $268.00
10/07/2017-Dixie Chicks=$89.50 x 4 = $358.00
10/09/2016-Raiders v San Diego= ?
10/10/2016-WWE Raw=$99.75 x 4 = $399.00
10/14/2016-Golden State Music Fest=136.50 x 4 = $546.00
10/16/2016-Raiders v Kansas City=?
10/21/2016-Warriors v Trail Blazers= $675.00 x 4 + $2,700.00
10/25/2016-Warriors v Spurs= $1,350.00
10/26/2016-Disney on Ice= $50.50 x 8 = $404.00
November-0 events
December-4 events= $10,657.00
12/03/2016-Warriors v Suns= $1,000.00 x 4 = $4,000.00
12/18/2016-KMEL Hip Hop Holiday House of Soul= $125.00 x 4 = $500.00
12/24/2016-Raiders v Colts= $275.00 x 4 = $1,357.00
12/30/2016-Warrior v Mavericks= $1,200.00 x 4 = $4,800.00
Here’s the record of who approved what tickets; there are 62 results:
Oakland From A Distance – In the ongoing debate against and legal challenges to the Insight Terminal Solutions Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal, there are two one constant refrains heard. One is that the Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal (where Insight Terminal Solutions is a Zennie62Media content client) is a coal terminal, when it’s not, and is designed to be a true bulk terminal that can facilitate the transport of commodities like iron ore and coal. The other is that coal can be replaced by renewables, and indeed, will be – so why bother maintaining a coal industry at all (as if it will just go away)?
The first question has been addressed so many times that those who once called the Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal a “coal terminal” have now stopped doing so. For the second question, I decided to go right to the people who would best know the answer to it: coal miners.
What did the coal miners write? Well, without revealing names, here are the entries:
1. What a big ol load of bullshit.
2. Yes it can. If they like black outs.
3. Can one make steel from renewable?
4. Well turn your power off !!!
5. You can’t melt steel without coal. Steel that builds our cars, military, sky scrappers. You people are crazy.
6. Worked in a forge plant…any electricity will melt steel…coal in steel is like flour in a biscuit…part of the recipe.
7. No substitute for coking coal .. worked it for years…all that is left here.
8. Windmills. Takes a lot of steel and coal to make one.
9. Wonder why CA is having major blackouts. They shut down their coal fired powerplants in 95 but yet bought electricity off of New Mexico
10. Screw California the whole west coast fall off the US. Wonder of the Demonrats can swim.
11. Stop sending coal power to California
12. One day these tree huggers will regret their decisions to go away from coal! It made us the superpower we are today!
13. It will take one good winter which we haven’t had in a while and theyl turn a certain grid off to keep their cities burning but rural will be without and then they’ll say well coal wasn’t so bad after all. 6 years ago AEP in Eastern, KY came 4 kilowatts of loosing their power grid during the bug snow we had. It will happen and they’ll be sorry
14. Hi I would want to ask this way: Why do you want to do away with coal?
15. If you don’t need coal. Then turn your ELC and see how much you miss it. Then think about all the work that goes into being able to warm your coffee up in the morning. Trust me u really need coal miners and COAL.
16. They are full of crap.
17. I suppose we could burn our forest up in power plants that way between that and burning down our cities we could look just like West Africa.
18. Do they know about products made from coal?
19. Make up from coal steel electricy computer components gas desiel plastic carbon fiber cement home and unlike gas it heats whey longer whit just as btu’s
Overall, the sentiment is that those in Oakland who believe that renewables can replace coal just don’t understand the basics of electric power produced from coal. America’s Power, the coal industry lobby, asked “What would it look like if we actually replaced Indiana’s coal generation with renewable generation in 2018?” and determined that it could not be done.
In 2015 Wharton asked “Can the World Run on Renewable Energy?” Then, it struggles to provide a convincing argument that resoundingly says “Yes!” The Wharton Report says “The global picture is complex. Although coal production internationally is still increasing robustly, and the International Energy Agency sees demand growth of 2.1% annually through 2019,employment — at seven million jobs worldwide — has seen some losses.” And then it gives in and admits that “China’s reliance on coal remains a formidable obstacle. Coal produces 70% of China’s energy, and almost four billion tons were burned there in 2012 — a major reason that China has become the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter. From 2005 to 2011, China (with vast natural coal reserves) added the equivalent of two 600-megawatt plants every week, and from 2010 through 2013, it added coal plants roughly equal to half of all U.S. generation. (At the same time, China is committed to renewable energy — with hydropower included, it’s already at 20%, compared to 13% in the U.S. But demand is rising and so is production: China is planning to double its power-generating capacity by 2030.)”
The truth is that China’s trend is toward a mix of energy production types, and is working to make energy derived from coal use “cleaner”. Indeed, it must be asserted that China and Japan are far ahead of the United States in advancements in coal industry technology with respect to climate change.
My question is this: why can’t America establish a top-priority plan to make traditional energy cleaner and not throw coal miners out of their jobs, with empty promises of employment in industries damaged by The Pandemic? It’s a question that deserves an answer.
Another question that deserves an answer is this: when will Oakland climate change activists start actually reading The Limits To Growth and the research that points to population growth as the real cause of climate change?
Indeed, Population Matters, the UK-based charity which campaigns to achieve a sustainable human population, to protect the natural world and improve people’s lives, reports:
The effects of global warming are already bringing harm to human communities and the natural world. Further temperature rises will have a devastating impact and more action on greenhouse gas emissions is urgently required. Population and climate change are inextricably linked. Every additional person increases carbon emissions — the rich far more than the poor — and increases the number of climate change victims – the poor far more than the rich.
This is related to the matter of The Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal and Insight Terminal Solutions. Insight Terminal Solutions is a Zennie62Media content client.
The World Coal Association wrote:
The second in our series on ‘Misconceptions about coal’ explains why coal cannot simply be wished out of the energy mix.
All fuels and technologies are needed to meet the challenges we face and to provide opportunities for those countries looking to develop.
This includes clean coal technologies.
Read more here: https://ift.tt/2RSIKy7
Stay tuned.
Note from Zennie62Media and Oakland News Now: this video-blog post demonstrates the full and live operation of the latest updated version of an experimental Zennie62Media , Inc. mobile media video-blogging system network that was launched June 2018. This is a major part of Zennie62Media , Inc.’s new and innovative approach to the production of news media. What we call “The Third Wave of Media”. The uploaded video is from a vlogger with the Zennie62 on YouTube Partner Channel, then uploaded to and formatted automatically at the Oakland News Now site and Zennie62-created and owned social media pages. The overall objective is smartphone-enabled, real-time, on the scene reporting of news, interviews, observations, and happenings anywhere in the World and within seconds and not hours. Now, news is reported with a smartphone: no heavy and expensive cameras or even a laptop are necessary. The secondary objective is faster, and very inexpensive media content news production and distribution. We have found there is a disconnect between post length and time to product and revenue generated. With this, the problem is far less, though by no means solved. Zennie62Media is constantly working to improve the system network coding and seeks interested content and media technology partners.
ONN – This is related to the matter of The Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal and Insight Terminal Solutions. Insight Terminal Solutions is a Zennie62Media content client.
The World Coal Association wrote:
Michelle Manook, Chief Executive, WCA, delivered a keynote speech at the 29th Clean Coal Day International Symposium in September 2020. The focus of the event was on the role of coal and Clean Coal Technology in the era of the energy transition.
Visit the WCA – https://ift.tt/2gLzXMW
Follow us on LinkedIn – World Coal Association
Follow us on Twitter – @WorldCoal
Stay tuned.
Note from Zennie62Media and Oakland News Now: this video-blog post demonstrates the full and live operation of the latest updated version of an experimental Zennie62Media , Inc. mobile media video-blogging system network that was launched June 2018. This is a major part of Zennie62Media , Inc.’s new and innovative approach to the production of news media. What we call “The Third Wave of Media”. The uploaded video is from a vlogger with the Zennie62 on YouTube Partner Channel, then uploaded to and formatted automatically at the Oakland News Now site and Zennie62-created and owned social media pages. The overall objective is smartphone-enabled, real-time, on the scene reporting of news, interviews, observations, and happenings anywhere in the World and within seconds and not hours. Now, news is reported with a smartphone: no heavy and expensive cameras or even a laptop are necessary. The secondary objective is faster, and very inexpensive media content news production and distribution. We have found there is a disconnect between post length and time to product and revenue generated. With this, the problem is far less, though by no means solved. Zennie62Media is constantly working to improve the system network coding and seeks interested content and media technology partners.
ONN – Oakland Misconceptions About Coal – “Coal Can’t Be Clean”
This is related to the matter of Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal and Insight Terminal Solutions. Insight Terminal Solutions is a Zennie62Media content client.
The World Coal Association wrote:
The technology exists to address our environmental challenges.
The WCA’s membership is made up of global companies committed to advancing clean coal technologies for sustainable economic development.
Stay tuned.
Read more about clean coal technologies like CCUS here: https://ift.tt/2RSIKy7
Note from Zennie62Media and Oakland News Now: this video-blog post demonstrates the full and live operation of the latest updated version of an experimental Zennie62Media , Inc. mobile media video-blogging system network that was launched June 2018. This is a major part of Zennie62Media , Inc.’s new and innovative approach to the production of news media. What we call “The Third Wave of Media”. The uploaded video is from a vlogger with the Zennie62 on YouTube Partner Channel, then uploaded to and formatted automatically at the Oakland News Now site and Zennie62-created and owned social media pages. The overall objective is smartphone-enabled, real-time, on the scene reporting of news, interviews, observations, and happenings anywhere in the World and within seconds and not hours. Now, news is reported with a smartphone: no heavy and expensive cameras or even a laptop are necessary. The secondary objective is faster, and very inexpensive media content news production and distribution. We have found there is a disconnect between post length and time to product and revenue generated. With this, the problem is far less, though by no means solved. Zennie62Media is constantly working to improve the system network coding and seeks interested content and media technology partners.
ONN – Oakland Misconceptions About Coal – “Coal Use Is In Decline Globally”; Not So
This is relevant to the matter of the Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal, where Insight Terminal Solutions is Zennie62Media content client.
This is from the World Coal Association:
For certain regions and industries across the globe, coal is and will remain vital.
That means clean coal technologies must be part of the solution and advancing them will take cooperation and collaboration across all sectors.
Stay tuned.
Read about the role of technologies like carbon capture, use and storage (#CCUS) here: https://ift.tt/3mLUVem
Note from Zennie62Media and Oakland News Now: this video-blog post demonstrates the full and live operation of the latest updated version of an experimental Zennie62Media , Inc. mobile media video-blogging system network that was launched June 2018. This is a major part of Zennie62Media , Inc.’s new and innovative approach to the production of news media. What we call “The Third Wave of Media”. The uploaded video is from a vlogger with the Zennie62 on YouTube Partner Channel, then uploaded to and formatted automatically at the Oakland News Now site and Zennie62-created and owned social media pages. The overall objective is smartphone-enabled, real-time, on the scene reporting of news, interviews, observations, and happenings anywhere in the World and within seconds and not hours. Now, news is reported with a smartphone: no heavy and expensive cameras or even a laptop are necessary. The secondary objective is faster, and very inexpensive media content news production and distribution. We have found there is a disconnect between post length and time to product and revenue generated. With this, the problem is far less, though by no means solved. Zennie62Media is constantly working to improve the system network coding and seeks interested content and media technology partners.
The Oakland that I knew is dead. It was a city that had over 100 job training programs and several low interest loan and grant programs for businesses. It was a city that was unafraid to embrace manufacturing, transportation, and heavy industry, as much as it demanded and caused the development of an economy comparatively cleaner than most. It was a city that knew how to fix its economic problems. That Oakland is gone.
The Oakland that replaced it is one that’s marked by growing ranks of people sleeping on the streets because no one will help them. It has many who were just one lost paycheck away from eviction, and their ranks so great, a moratorium on evictions was in place before the Pandemic.
It has some who would even resort to an attempt to take property not their own. And do that thinking it will solve an overall problem that is obviously beyond their desire to deal with: an economic design that lacks the use of tax increment financing to fuel the business assistance and job training and affordable housing programs Oakland was once known for. This Oakland lacks people who want to fix the economy and far to many people who want to protest against the economy.
The fact is, we have had march after march and activist after activist, and the problems have only gotten worse. The protests have become nothing more than theater for the media, and tools to be used as part of a campaign strategy by a President who, himself, does not seem to care.
We have people who are willing to say “no coal” but not even asking “can we do coal, clean air, and jobs?” In fact, it seems like it’s just easier for them to just say no, then to try and fix anything.
Where we are is beyond sad.
It has been advanced by some media infected with the same anti-intellectualism – and worse because they believe their approach is smart. It is the complete and total lack of knowledge of where we are as a society, and to such a massively alarming point, that both the activists and that media don’t even bother to read about the past, and learn about the first publication to point to the climate change problem: The Limits To Growth. That was way back in 1971, but don’t tell that to the so-called climate change activists, they think all of this started after they hit puberty, and after 2010.
Oakland Created Its Own Problem And Now Can’t Wake Up To Fix It
What is so awful is that we in Oakland created this problem. Yeah. That’s right. Us.
I recall a 1996 meeting I sat in on, and on behalf of Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris, about the then-new concept of the “jobs / housing balance”. The meeting was at the offices of my long-time friend Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson. Unfortunately, I have to write that this happened.
The meeting included a number of officials, including Sunne Wright McPeak, then a Contra Costa County Supervisor and main advocate for the idea that there should be a jobs / housing balance. The problem with the concept is that it asks a City like Oakland to be able to have more employment for workers to “balance” the housing in it. The problem is that the idea calls for an industry to be grown in that city to get those workers. Or, let me put it this way: it allows for gentrification to set in, though that was not the word flavor of the day in 1996.
In the meeting, I asked how Oakland was to make sure it followed “Oakland first” jobs policies for its current workers if they did not have the skills necessary to land the biotech jobs that Keith and Sunne, and the others in the meeting prized so much and wanted for Oakland? They collectively looked at me as if I had grown the ears of a Vulcan. I must now admit that I left the meeting out of pure disgust for the lack of any real thinking – it was the typical, Bay Area, “let’s make up something that we think is smart” crap.
It’s the kind of approach that is unconsciously born from the time when white supremacists like John Muir were creating social clubs like The Sierra Club. It’s an approach that calls for the development of an amount of what the person thinks are facts that are undeniable – and so that person is hardened in their beliefs to the point where communicating with them to get them to see another way becomes folly. It’s caused a lot of problems, and in particular, in the East Bay of the SF Bay Area, where the black population is the largest of any other place in my region of the San Francisco Bay Area.
The people who have this sort of tick have become and in many cases still are elected officials and friends of mine – and Democrats. They have allowed the complete destruction of Oakland’s economic development, and allowed it to happen with a nod. They have proven that they are the latest in the long line of people to drink the kool-aid established by John Muir. When he and his friends like famed UC Berkeley Professor Joseph Le Conte formed The Sierra Club, and his ideas of preservation that gave it life, he and they did not have black people in mind. They regarded us, folks who look like me, as “dirty” and “savages.”
I write that because the Oakland that I came to know in 1974 was increasingly one that was called a “chocolate city” but the real problem is Oakland was consistently apologizing for being just that. It always embraced outside white male developers and never, then later seldom, gave a black developer a chance, and a person who was Asian (like my friend Phil Tagami) didn’t fare much better unless he worked himself to near death for ten years just to land the Oakland Rotunda Project (as Phil did with the help of a number of people, including me and Elihu Harris). That problem still exists today, and points to a real problem.
We all know the ranks of those who are jobless and homeless in Oakland are mostly black. We all know that the ranks of those suffering from COVID-19 are more likely to be black. But what we have not done in Oakland, is simply create a black-focused answer to these problems. So, for the Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal (for which its co-developer Insight Terminal Solutions, is a Zennie62Media content client) there’s the largely white “No Coal In Oakland” group just saying no, and not doing anything to try and get to yes.
They openly do not care about the same jobs problem that disproportionately hurts black folks in Oakland. Then, they try and make you believe (with the help of irresponsible media) that they have a large young black membership, when the truth is just the opposite. We need a black economic development agenda that is formed in harmony with concerns for the environment. Don’t count on No Coal In Oakland or The Sierra Club, because they’ve drank John Muir’s racist elixir and are too drunk to realize it.
Meanwhile, there’s Tom Steyer, the former coal investor and hedge fund manager who’s now (I contend) trying to hedge the western United States and as much of America as he can into a thought ethic that just says invest in renewables, and not fix the damn traditional energy pollution problem. Tom’s got a number of Oakland elected officials so scared they won’t get his money, they parrot his view about the environment, and don’t care about developing jobs at all, and mindlessly pat themselves on the back for such things as “climate action plans” that lack any interest in economic development.
On top of that, the same Oakland elected officials that signed development agreements to allow Mr. Tagami and Insight Terminal Solutions to build the Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal (knowing it was designed to handle bulk commodities like coal in a low emissions way), then set about a process of trying to back out of them just because Steyer started influencing them with money.
Take the example of Tom Steyer investing $500,000 in the Mayor of Oakland’s Oakland Promise program, and allegedly with the quid-pro-quo that Oakland would get involved in a lawsuit against American oil companies that was so silly it was tossed out of court. Why Libby didn’t get Tom to try and jump start Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal is a good question, considering its low emissions design, Oakland’s need to create low-skilled, well-paying jobs, and the now decades-long tardiness of replacing the jobs lost due to military base closures.
It’s as if Oakland just plain stopped caring about creating jobs. Even Oakland economic development director Alexa Jeffries, who was hired last year, has no formal background in economic development!
This is Oakland, folks. In other words, for economic development in Oakland, a cuss term is appropriate: we’re fucked.
In Oakland Economic Development Has Reached The “We’re Fucked” Stage
Yep. We’re fucked, folks. The City of Oakland knows it and you know it. We can get out of it, but we have to admit it, first, fast, then take action, and fast. We had the blueprint for the economic engine that can help us in the future and that’s the redevelopment laws of the past. There was no real good reason to get rid of Redevelopment, and since it was terminated, Oakland’s economic divide has only worsened and the Pandemic just made it worse.
And blacks in Oakland need to stop supporting The Sierra Club and form a new approach that fits the needs of the African American community. The problem is too many of us are trapped in thinking about us in a negative fashion, so city policy is focused on crime only, whereas in the Oakland between 1980 and 2010, the policies (like Hire Oakland First) were geared toward the economic needs of black residents. We let that go, and it’s time to bring it back. If you agree that blacks in Oakland are being harmed by a lack of programs and a lack of the social infrastructure that once made sure blacks had greater wealth, then take action. If you believe that you are only as strong as your weakest neighbor, then the only logical action is to help that neighbor, and go tell John Muir what to do with his racist ideas. I know he’s long passed on, but his point of view still holds way too much sway.
ONN – Oakland Councilmember Dan Kalb On ITS Phil Tagami Bulk Terminal After Latest Court Win vs City
Oakland Councilmember Kalb and I talked after the City of Oakland lost its anti-SLAPP lawsuit attempt against developer Phil Tagami and Zennie62Media content client Insight Terminal Solutions. This was the 4th time Oakland lost in court to Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal, but from Kalb’s words, Oakland remains firmly against any coal shipments coming through via the bulk terminal.
What’s strange and concerning about our argument (and I consider Dan a friend so its not at all personal) is that he doesn’t seem to care one bit about the Utah coal workers and the need for them to sustain their jobs. The Pandemic has rendered the idea that they can get other jobs a completely stupid one – especially since everyone agrees that Utah will benefit from the Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal.
Dan seems too focused only on coal and has zero idea that iron ore is also a bulk commodity that is shipped and used to make steel, worldwide. The Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal, was designed to move bulk commodities in a low emissions way.
Why is the City of Oakland only interested in only in banning coal and not iron ore or other commodies that have higher emissioms indexes? And why are trucks allowed to pollute in West Oakland through all of this?
And why the love for Tom Steyer, who was a coal investor until he elected to spend millions to turn America away from coal. Given that Steyer’s a hedge fund investor, and he’s poured millions into California elected officials, it seems like he and people like Utah’s Huntsman Family are trying to steer us to favor their businesses – which do not employ coal workers and have higher unemployment rates. Sorry, but something is up. It’s wrong to push people out of jobs and onto the street for a problem that can be solved in another way. For me, it’s not American. I want to know what the impacted Utah workers think of this?
Sorry Dan, you’re a great Oakland councilmember, but just plain wrong about the Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal. And what’s up with the love for Tom Steyer in this context?
Stay tuned.
Note from Zennie62Media and Oakland News Now: this video-blog post demonstrates the full and live operation of the latest updated version of an experimental Zennie62Media , Inc. mobile media video-blogging system network that was launched June 2018. This is a major part of Zennie62Media , Inc.’s new and innovative approach to the production of news media. What we call “The Third Wave of Media”. The uploaded video is from a vlogger with the Zennie62 on YouTube Partner Channel, then uploaded to and formatted automatically at the Oakland News Now site and Zennie62-created and owned social media pages. The overall objective is smartphone-enabled, real-time, on the scene reporting of news, interviews, observations, and happenings anywhere in the World and within seconds and not hours. Now, news is reported with a smartphone: no heavy and expensive cameras or even a laptop are necessary. The secondary objective is faster, and very inexpensive media content news production and distribution. We have found there is a disconnect between post length and time to product and revenue generated. With this, the problem is far less, though by no means solved. Zennie62Media is constantly working to improve the system network coding and seeks interested content and media technology partners.
Sanpete County Utah has a population of over 27,000 people, and is located 122 miles south of Salt Lake City, Utah. Of late, in the ongoing push to build the much-needed Insight Terminal Solutions Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal and replaced the lost low-skill, well-paying jobs that went away with the closure of the Oakland Army Base in 2000, Sanpete County has come into focus.
The reason is that Sanpete County is one of four Utah counties (which are Sevier, Carbon and Emery), which intend to provide financial support of $20 million from a $53 million state economic development fund.
The media consistently gets what the Utah PCIB does completely wrong. In all of the explanations I have read from traditional news organizations, they express surprise that the Utah Legislature (at least the Republican side) would think of using funds from the Utah Permanent Community Impact Board for the ITS Oakland Bulk and Oversize Terminal.
Without spending more time on revealing those words from traditional media, let’s jump right to the real explanation of what the Utah Permanent Community Impact Board does – right from its own grant and loan program page:
The Permanent Community Impact Fund Board (CIB) is a program of the State of Utah authorized in Section 35A-8-301, et seq. The goal of the CIB is to maximize the long term benefit of funds derived from these lease revenues and bonus payments by fostering funding mechanisms which will, consistent with sound financial practices, result in the greatest use of financial resources for the greatest number of citizens of this state, with priority given to those communities designated as impacted by the development of natural resources covered by the Mineral Leasing Act. TheCIB’s source of funding is a portion of federal mineral lease royalties returned to the State by theFederal Government. https://jobs.utah.gov/housing/community/cib/documents/cibreport.pdf
And the real reason the Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal has come into focus is because the words “greatest use of financial resources for the greatest number of citizens of this state, with priority given to those communities designated as impacted by the development of natural resources covered by the Mineral Leasing Act” translate to “we need the Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal to help save coal industry jobs, by allowing businesses in our counties a better way to get their coal product to the overseas markets that demand them.” If you understand that, then you do understand why the fund was tapped.
On The Supposed Reason For The Opposition To Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal, Climate Change, And System Dynamics
Before I continue, let me get this out of the way: climate change is not something new, and because the fact is that climate change has been with us as a problem for most of my 58 years on this planet. I was born August 4th, 1962, in Chicago. That year, we had an estimated 180 million people in America and about 2.6 billion on the Earth, as a whole. Since then, the United States has expanded to 330 million people and the Earth is just over 7 billion people – we’ve added 4.4 billion more people in my 58 years.
There’s one fact in all of this: as we add more people to a room, the temperature in that room increases.
In 1979, and via a family friend, I was introduced to The Limits To Growth: a book by Dennis and Donnella Meadows, and The Club Of Rome-financed MIT Project on the Predicament Of Mankind (that was the title). It was written in 1971, and introduced to me the problem-framing concept called System Dynamics (I am now an expert in System Dynamics). System Dynamics was originally created by MIT Professor Jay Forrester and introduced in a book called Industrial Dynamics. But that was based on one kind of model made in a programming language called DYNAMO.
What the The Limits To Growth presented was a much more advanced System Dynamics model called World 3. As Magne Myrtveit put it in his paper “The World Model Controversy”:
Limits To Growth MIT Team
In 1971 Jay Forrester published his book World Dynamics, where he presented a high-level simulation model of the socio-economic-environmental world system. The main purpose of the model and the accompanying book was to encourage an open debate about the long-term future on our planet. The World Model was created in a time where pollution and other negative effects of industrialization and economic growth started to become recognized. Forrester made the assumption that life on earth is bounded within certain limits, such as available space and resources. Based on this he concluded that exponential economic growth cannot continue forever; sooner or later one or more limits will be reached. The question, then, is how mankind can manage its own future in ways that can avoid an unpleasant encounter with the limits to growth.
Since then, a number of researchers have concluded that constant increases in population growth have caused global warming. The World Models forecast that, eventually, population will fall. Indeed, the World Models presented in the book The Limits To Growth, and then Beyond The Limits in 1993, both originally predicted that would happen in the year 2000 and then the forecast was adjusted for 2010; this is 2020. We’re 10-years into living on borrowed time, because the World’s population is still growing, and with it the rate of change in the climate.
The scientists who have emerged to publish on this and point the finger singularly at traditional energy as the cause of climate change are not trained in system dyanamics. Thus, they collect data, but lack the right paradigm from which to think about what numbers they gathered. World modeling using a system dynamics approach consistently shows population growth to be the problem. Moreover, The Limits To Growth models and books, introduced the concept of climate change decades ago. And in this, a number of scientists who are more focused on ecology have said this:
The largest single threat to the ecology and biodiversity of the planet in the decades to come will be global climate disruption due to the buildup of human-generated greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. People around the world are beginning to address the problem by reducing their carbon footprint through less consumption and better technology. But unsustainable human population growth can overwhelm those efforts, leading us to conclude that we not only need smaller footprints, but fewer feet.
And to bring the point home, zero-emissions will not stop climate change pressures unless population growth slows. The good news, from every indicator, is that the gradual lessening of the rate of growth of population slowed from just over 2 percent 50 years ago to about 1.05 percent, today. So, from this, we have another 50 years of time. The “10 years from now” forecast of climate change impact should have happened in 2000, but it did not. But, the cold fact is the result, a reduced rate of growth in population, is the desired one. The point is, low emissions operation is the focus of the Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal, but the opposition to it, as well as the reasons for it, are unrealistic.
To better understand the Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal, listen to then-Oakland Economic Development Director Fred Blackwell talk about it with me in 2012:
Note that, at the video’s 3:14 mark, Mr. Blackwell says that the use of rail rather than trucks supports the West Oakland Environmental Justice Movement (which he shorthand refers to as “things going on there”).
If Climate Change Due To Global Warming Is Here, And OBOT Is Low Emissions, Why Stop People From Working?
Now, the opposition to the Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal has made a lot of wild and completely baseless comments about it. For example, some claim that it will cause coal in open hopper cars to go through poor neighbors in Oakland. Not true. First, OBOT will use covered hopper cars. Second, the rail lines used run through Port of Oakland land and Jack London Square, where the dwellings are for middle to high-income residents for the most part. Third, still others say that they don’t want coal to be delivered to China and other nations that rely on traditional energy.
The fact is that traditional energy is still cheaper to produce than renewable energy at this point, and efforts are being made to make it more environmentally friendly. Our focus should be in encouraging increases in rates of education as a way to cause a reduction in world population growth, faster. But robbing the workers in Sanpete County, Utah from jobs today because of a future that’s already here in climate change, and one that’s going to come in reducing rates of population growth, is nothing less than evil.
Indeed, Robert Stevens, Managing Editor Of The Sanpete Messenger, wrote this in support of the Insight Terminal Solutions Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal:
The four counties invested in this project all have strong economic ties to coal. With the demand for domestic coal dropping all the time, but booming in countries like Japan, the coal industry in Utah could stand to benefit a lot from access to an export terminal like the one ITS is developing.
The unique location of the port, which is being built at a former Army base on the Port of Oakland, has the two important components to make it all happen—a deep water bay for heavy coal ships, and a rail line connection. If the terminal is realized, 10 million tons of Utah coal could come in via rail each year, get loaded on ships and be exported to Asia.
Yet, with that, we have some in Utah, at the Salt Lake Tribune, openly saying that coal workers in Sanpete County should be transitioned to other supposedly “cleaner” jobs. The problem is we are in the middle of a Pandemic that has caused the elimination of many service jobs, while manufacturing and transportation positions largely remain. The Salt Lake Tribuneseems more interested in driving support for businesses that the Huntsman Family has an investment in (they own the news organization), than saving the coal industry jobs in Sanpete County, Utah.
The reason I sought Insight Terminal Solutions as a client for Zennie62Media was not just that I have a history with OBOT that goes back to 1991, or because I have a network of 100 blogs and hundreds of social media and YouTube platforms, but because my formal training is in economic development. In other words, job creation for an urban area.
Sanpete County, Utah needs the Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal for jobs, just as the homeless in West Oakland do. To deny both for flimsy reasons that crumble when someone asks why 18-wheel trucks are still running through West Oakland neighborhoods is criminal, or should be considered that.
Contrary to a biased news in America, there are coal facility projects under way around the World. That’s the reason for Insight Terminal Solutions OBOT (Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal) News. To share the stories you should be aware of. This is from China News on YouTube:
Located in northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, the Ningdong Energy and Chemical Industry Base, with a planned area of 3,484 square kilometers, is one of China’s largest coal production bases and a coal-to-chemical industry base. It’s also home to the world’s biggest single coal-to-liquid project.
Stay tuned.
Note from Zennie62Media and Oakland News Now: this video-blog post demonstrates the full and live operation of the latest updated version of an experimental Zennie62Media , Inc. mobile media video-blogging system network that was launched June 2018. This is a major part of Zennie62Media , Inc.’s new and innovative approach to the production of news media. What we call “The Third Wave of Media”. The uploaded video is from a vlogger with the Zennie62 on YouTube Partner Channel, then uploaded to and formatted automatically at the Oakland News Now site and Zennie62-created and owned social media pages. The overall objective is smartphone-enabled, real-time, on the scene reporting of news, interviews, observations, and happenings anywhere in the World and within seconds and not hours. Now, news is reported with a smartphone: no heavy and expensive cameras or even a laptop are necessary. The secondary objective is faster, and very inexpensive media content news production and distribution. We have found there is a disconnect between post length and time to product and revenue generated. With this, the problem is far less, though by no means solved. Zennie62Media is constantly working to improve the system network coding and seeks interested content and media technology partners.
ONN – Fred Blackwell On Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal OBOT Oakland Army Base Project By Phil Tagami
In 2012, Oakland Economic Development Director Fred Blackwell introduced what is now The Insight Terminal Solutions Oakland Army Base Project – Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal. Oakland Global.
In this video, reposted as part of Zennie62Media’s engagement by its client, Insight Terminal Solutions, and to get out the real truths about Oakland’s involvement in OBOT and the bulk terminal itself, you will see and hear that the City of Oakland was the partner with Mr. Tagami and his California Capital Investment Group.
Stay tuned.
Note from Zennie62Media and Oakland News Now: this video-blog post demonstrates the full and live operation of the latest updated version of an experimental Zennie62Media , Inc. mobile media video-blogging system network that was launched June 2018. This is a major part of Zennie62Media , Inc.’s new and innovative approach to the production of news media. What we call “The Third Wave of Media”. The uploaded video is from a vlogger with the Zennie62 on YouTube Partner Channel, then uploaded to and formatted automatically at the Oakland News Now site and Zennie62-created and owned social media pages. The overall objective is smartphone-enabled, real-time, on the scene reporting of news, interviews, observations, and happenings anywhere in the World and within seconds and not hours. Now, news is reported with a smartphone: no heavy and expensive cameras or even a laptop are necessary. The secondary objective is faster, and very inexpensive media content news production and distribution. We have found there is a disconnect between post length and time to product and revenue generated. With this, the problem is far less, though by no means solved. Zennie62Media is constantly working to improve the system network coding and seeks interested content and media technology partners.
The largest single threat to the ecology and biodiversity of the planet in the decades to come will be global climate disruption due to the buildup of human-generated greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. People around the world are beginning to address the problem by reducing their carbon footprint through less consumption and better technology. But unsustainable human population growth can overwhelm those efforts, leading us to conclude that we not only need smaller footprints, but fewer feet.
Oakland, Utah, Wyoming, and other parts of America involved in the debate over coal need a wake up call. In the ongoing policy debate about the Insight Terminal Solutions’ Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal, the words of America’s Power President Michelle Bloodworth are a sober reminder of the need to maintain the reliable and affordable source of energy provided by coal.
In The Washington Times (sad that Michelle has to go to a conservative publication to address a problem that should not be a political issue), she wrote:
Policymakers know that our nation’s fleet of coal-fired power plants play an indispensable role in powering our lives, helping ensure that the electricity grid is both reliable and resilient. The coal fleet contributes to the nation’s fuel security and diversity, and serves as an insurance policy against electricity shortages and price spikes.
These are the functions of critical infrastructure during the best of times. In the face of the current, unprecedented crisis, the role of the coal sector assumes even greater importance.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which has jurisdiction over the criteria that most of these policymakers rely upon to determine which segments of our economy represent essential enterprises, listed coal power as “uniquely critical” in guidance issued in March. Essential critical infrastructure like coal, DHS said, is “imperative during the response to the COVID-19 emergency for both public health and safety and community well-being.”
And while the nation’s power grid is diverse, no fuel source is more resilient than coal in the face of unexpected or extreme events. During the Bomb Cyclone of 2018, for example, more than 60 percent of incremental electricity demand was met by coal, while natural gas, wind and solar power faced outages.
Today, our fleet of coal power plants are playing an essential role in our nation’s response to the pandemic.
The Real Climate Change Problem Is Not Energy But World Population Growth
What is bothersome right now is that mob rule has come to have some say over America and the World’s energy future. What the mob should pay attention to is the very growth of, well, the mob. And by that, I mean world population control.
The simple fact is that climate change is due to a large and increasing Earth population density. Few want to pay attention to the real truth: we have to control future population growth. That has not been done, or pushed – reducing coal production and dreaming of a shift from traditional energy will not solve the problem; population growth control will. Calling for the “end of coal” is a silly pipe dream advanced by those who fear to see the real truth.
Stephanie Feldstein, population and sustainability director for the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the environmental groups that addresses the link between population and climate change in its work, said: “If we don’t address population growth, our efforts to reduce that pressure on the climate and habitat and water resources will always be an uphill battle.”
Areas of high population growth and high vulnerability to climate change impacts overlap. Evidence suggests that the poorest countries and poorest groups within a population are most vulnerable to climate-related hazards such as floods, droughts, and landslides.2 Many developing countries are currently experiencing rapid population growth, increasing the number of people who will be exposed to projected impacts of climate change. Other demographic trends, such as urbanization in coastal areas and encroachment of populations into ecologically marginal areas, such as hillsides or degraded land, can exacerbate climate risks.
Zennie62Media is proud to have been commissioned by Insight Terminal Solutions to use its vast media platform and technology to get out the truth about climate change, and de-politicize energy economic development so we can maintain an affordable and safe standard of living. Further, I am personally committed to an effort to change the argument to save the World. The current over-politicized energy policy environment dooms the World to an uncertain energy future amid constant climate change, completely undisrupted by decline in the use of transitional energy sources.
It’s possible to have what we are already creating: a cleaner traditional energy industry. But killing traditional energy will not solve the climate change problem – population control will. Any claim to the contrary is baseless. The simple fact that a room gets warmer with more people in it is all of the model evidence one needs to show the larger global problem. We have to stop dooming traditional energy jobs and start saving them via improving the plant and equipment used.
In closing, if you have never seen the 1973 movie Soylent Green starring Charlton Heston, that film provides a more realistic model of a future we don’t want than any other popular culture has provided:
Soylent Green is a 1973 American science fiction film directed by Richard Fleischer and starring Charlton Heston and, in his final film, Edward G. Robinson. The film overlays the police procedural and science fiction genres as it depicts the investigation into the murder of a wealthy businessman in a dystopian future suffering from pollution, overpopulation, depleted resources, poverty, dying oceans, and a hot climate due to the greenhouse effect. Much of the population survives on processed food rations, including “soylent green”.
ONN – Insight Terminal Solutions Oakland Bulk Terminal, Utah Coal Industry: Salt Lake Tribune Tricks Seen
Wow.
So, at first glance, the “letter to the editor” in the Salt Lake Tribune, and called “Letter: Coal port is not worth Utah’s money”, would appear to be by some random reader of the paper and website owned by the publication, right?
But then the letter contained the same tired words I have seen again and again. That’s because my company, Zennie62Media, is the content development consultant to Insight Terminal Solutions. It’s a role I personally sought after and not just to tell the truth about the Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal (OBOT), but to use the vast network of interconnected blogs, video channels, and social media to the work the mainstream media will not do.
And I made the decision long ago that I would say who my clients are. The reason is simple: I believe that there’s no such thing as “objective journalism”, and the best way to attack what I consider to be the big lie, is to be direct and in your face about who we rep. I mean, you watch commercials for products, you know who the spokesperson is, you make the decision whether to hear the news or not.
So, when I was reading “Letter: Coal port is not worth Utah’s money”, something in my head said “Who is Micki Moulton?” So, I went to Google her name and saw this: “Search Results. Web results. Micki Moulton | Salt Lake Tribune Journalist | Muck Rack”. Turns out Micki Moulton is not a random resident who happened to chime in on the Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal, but a listed journalist with the same Salt Lake Tribune.
Basically, the Utah Legislature is to vote on an action that will result in something like $20 million being invested, to some degree, in OBOT – the ultimate result will be the maintenance of coal industry jobs in Utah, due to the operation of the multi-commodity bulk terminal (not strictly a coal terminal) in Oakland, opening up trade routes for the transport of bulk commodities, coal in this case, to the Pacific Rim.
That should be a simple story, but the work to scare people away from coal (as if other bulk commodities were cleaner, and they’re not) and by the spending on politics and media by people like Tom Steyer (who spent millions of dollars in investments in California and Oakland elected officials, non-profit political organizations, and media efforts), and Paul Huntsman, in this case, have made the matter complicated. To wit, both Steyer and Huntsman have investments in renewable energy, with Mr. Huntsman both owner and manager of The Salt Lake Tribune, while also serving as President and CEO of Huntsman Family Investments. In turn,The Salt Lake Tribune has taken a wild stance against the planned Utah Legislature action to help the coal industry via an investment in the OBOT.
I wonder if this kind of Paul Huntsman “two-step” caused Jennifer Napier-Pearce to resign as Salt Lake Tribune Editor, earlier this month?
The Salt Lake Tribune is consistently putting out the message that it wants coal workers to lose their jobs in the middle of the Pandemic, get job training, and then go for jobs that, drum-roll-please, will not be there. If you look at the data the largest job loss numbers in Utah are in service industry-related firms, not in transportation, manufacturing, or mining.
Climate Change Is A World Population Growth Problem, Not So Much A Traditional Energy Product
The conventional wisdom is that climate change is completely the product of using traditional energy sources. But the fact is, climate change is really the byproduct of world population growth. To put it simply, we have too many people on this planet, and we need to slow the rate of population growth – a rate reduction of perhaps by 50 percent going forward.
It has been said by a number of researchers that reducing carbon emissions to zero would not stop the climate change problem. And then consider how we got here:
According to the United Nations Population Fund, human population grew from 1.6 billion to 6.1 billion people during the course of the 20th century. (Think about it: It took all of time for population to reach 1.6 billion; then it shot to 6.1 billion over just 100 years.) During that time emissions of CO2, the leading greenhouse gas, grew 12-fold. And with worldwide population expected to surpass nine billion over the next 50 years, environmentalists and others are worried about the ability of the planet to withstand the added load of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere and wreaking havoc on ecosystems down below. – “Does Population Growth Impact Climate Change?”: Scientific American, July 29, 2009
Meanwhile, coal demand worldwide has suffered the same problems as other industry sectors, and renewable energy has suffered even worse in many cases. But the fact is, coal is used to make steel, and 70 percent of the urban development in the World comes from it, and demand to use it to do that is not going away. The move should be to make traditional energy cleaner in operation, launch a Sputnik-level of investment to do so, and we need to slow the rate of world population growth. We have to stop the disconnect between jobs and the environment, and get back to a “Star Trek” mentality that asks what technology can make the world better? Then do that tech.
But, back to the Salt Lake Tribune. Something else is up. Why do I get the idea that this effort works to the benefit of Huntsman Family Investments? What will the Utah Legislature think when it gets wind of this? What about Utah’s coal workers?
Stay tuned.
Note from Zennie62Media and Oakland News Now: this video-blog post demonstrates the full and live operation of the latest updated version of an experimental Zennie62Media , Inc. mobile media video-blogging system network that was launched June 2018. This is a major part of Zennie62Media , Inc.’s new and innovative approach to the production of news media. What we call “The Third Wave of Media”. The uploaded video is from a vlogger with the Zennie62 on YouTube Partner Channel, then uploaded to and formatted automatically at the Oakland News Now site and Zennie62-created and owned social media pages. The overall objective is smartphone-enabled, real-time, on the scene reporting of news, interviews, observations, and happenings anywhere in the World and within seconds and not hours. Now, news is reported with a smartphone: no heavy and expensive cameras or even a laptop are necessary. The secondary objective is faster, and very inexpensive media content news production and distribution. We have found there is a disconnect between post length and time to product and revenue generated. With this, the problem is far less, though by no means solved. Zennie62Media is constantly working to improve the system network coding and seeks interested content and media technology partners.
Note from Zennie62Media and Oakland News Now: this video-blog post demonstrates the full and live operation of the latest updated version of an experimental Zennie62Media , Inc. mobile media video-blogging system network that was launched June 2018. This is a major part of Zennie62Media , Inc.’s new and innovative approach to the production of news media. What we call “The Third Wave of Media”. The uploaded video is from a vlogger with the Zennie62 on YouTube Partner Channel, then uploaded to and formatted automatically at the Oakland News Now site and Zennie62-created and owned social media pages. The overall objective is smartphone-enabled, real-time, on the scene reporting of news, interviews, observations, and happenings anywhere in the World and within seconds and not hours. Now, news is reported with a smartphone: no heavy and expensive cameras or even a laptop are necessary. The secondary objective is faster, and very inexpensive media content news production and distribution. We have found there is a disconnect between post length and time to product and revenue generated. With this, the problem is far less, though by no means solved. Zennie62Media is constantly working to improve the system network coding and seeks interested content and media technology partners.
Salt Lake Tribune Takes Government PPP Loan, Yet Denies Coal Industry Aide; Paul Huntsman’s Two Step? From YouTube Channel: August 15, 2020 at 11:45PM ONN – Salt Lake Tribune Takes Government PPP Loan, And Denies Oakland OBOT, Coal Industry Aide; Paul Huntsman’s Two Step? The Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal (video), of which its co-developer … Read more
Utah Coal Jobs Must Be Saved During A Pandemic; Insight Terminal Solutions OBOT Is Needed From YouTube Channel: August 14, 2020 at 04:11PM ONN – Utah Coal Jobs Must Be Saved During A Pandemic; Insight Terminal Solutions OBOT Is Needed Note from Zennie62Media and Oakland News Now: this video-blog post demonstrates the full and live … Read more
Oakland Should Back The Insight Terminal Solutions OBOT, Which Influences 10,000 Jobs. ONN – Vasu Vaddiparty vlogs about OBOT, (Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal) Project based on Insight Terminal Solutions agreement with the city of Oakland that the city wants to break. Even though losing three different times in court, the City of Oakland wants … Read more
The Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal, the planned bulk terminal originally planned by the City of Oakland in partnership with California Capital Investment Group’s Phil Tagami, and now with Insight Terminal Solutions (headed by John Siegel) as a tenant partner, will influence the maintenance of over 10,000 coal jobs and many thousands more in other … Read more
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra Loses To OBOT Oakland Bulk Terminal In 9th Circuit ONN – California Attorney General Xavier Becerra Loses To OBOT Oakland Bulk Terminal In 9th Circuit The Office Of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra became the latest California organization to lose to Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal or OBOT in the … Read more
Utah Counties Pledge $20 Million For Insight Terminal Solutions Oakland OBOT; 25 States Need It Too ONN – Utah Counties Pledge $20 Million For Insight Terminal Solutions Oakland OBOT; 25 States Need It Too The idea that Utah is the only coal-producing country with respect to the Insight Terminal Solutions Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal, … Read more
OBOT v City of Oakland Oral Argument Anti-SLAPP: U.S Court Of Appeals – Insight Terminal Solutions ONN – OBOT v City of Oakland Oral Argument Anti-SLAPP Hearing: U.S Court Of Appeals – Insight Terminal Solutions Note from Zennie62Media and Oakland News Now: this video-blog post demonstrates the full and live operation of the latest updated … Read more
Insight Terminal Solutions Oakland Bulk And Oversized Terminal Focus Of Job Seeking Utah Counties ONN – Insight Terminal Solutions Oakland Bulk And Oversized Terminal Focus Of Job Seeking Utah Counties An inaccurate and wholly biased Salt Lake Tribune article that’s full of typos, discusses Insight Terminal Solutions reorganization effort but tells falsehoods about the Utah … Read more
After his Oakland home and neighborhood were harassed by a 90-car march of people representing a non-profit group effort organized by someone named Anya Svanoe, Phil Tagami posted this question on Facebook: So the new campaign by ACCE and certain special interests funding ACCE (a multi million dollar state wide advocacy organization) is to attack … Read more
Added Flights at Oakland International Airport Prompt Full Reopening of Terminal 2 Airlines adding capacity; FAA distributes ½ million face coverings to OAK Oakland, CA: (July 1, 2020) – July will welcome added air travel opportunities for Bay Area residents and visitors as airlines increase capacity at Oakland International Airport (OAK). During the month, Southwest … Read more
Insight Terminal Solutions Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal Video ONN – Insight Terminal Solutions Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal Video Note from Zennie62Media and Oakland News Now: this video-blog post demonstrates the full and live operation of the latest updated version of an experimental Zennie62Media , Inc. mobile media video-blogging system network that was launched … Read more
The City of Oakland has lost yet another legal battle against the bulk terminal project it helped create, and against Phil Tagami, the man it once tried to get out of the project via The Tioga Report in 2011. Overall, The City of Oakland has racked up approximately $10 million in legal fees to date. … Read more
Coal Burned by China Power Plants Jumps on Heat, Virus Recovery ONN – Oakland Note: Coal Burned By China Power Plants Jumps On Heat, Coronavirus Recovery Detractors of The Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal developed by Phil Tagami and Insight Terminal Solutions should take note of this news, for they are under the impression the … Read more
China to Finance & Build a Massive New Coal Power Plant in Zimbabwe ONN – Oakland Note: China To Finance, Build Massive New Coal Power Plant in Zimbabwe For those who do not think a large market waits for the Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal by Phil Tagami and Insight Terminal Solutions’ John Siegel, think … Read more
No Coal In Oakland Misses Fact 1996 SF Bay Seaport Plan Called For New Bulk Terminal ONN – No Coal In Oakland Misses Fact 1996 SF Bay Seaport Plan Called For New Bulk Terminal “No Coal In Oakland”, the non-profit financed by the Sierra Club and Tom Steyer, has a tendency to base its views … Read more
City Of Oakland, Sierra Club Loose To OBOT And Insight Terminal Solutions In Court, Again ONN – City Of Oakland, Sierra Club Loose To OBOT And Insight Terminal Solutions In Court, Again Note from Zennie62Media and Oakland News Now: this video-blog post demonstrates the full and live operation of the latest updated version of an … Read more
Oakland had some indication that coal was one of the potential commodities that might be handled” prior to contracting with developer, Court finds. OAKLAND, Ca – The City of Oakland (“City”) breached its contract with Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal (“OBOT”), a City-selected developer at the former Oakland Army Base, according to the United States … Read more
Oakland from a distance – Even though we’re in the middle of a worldwide pandemic, some people insist on maintaining their pre-pandemic behaviors and won’t get a clue: such is true for the extreme left in Oakland and the SF Bay Area, who are starting to look like the extreme right in rural Florida and … Read more
