Looking Ahead

LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis





It is hard to feel strongly about backing a slate of candidates when your main argument is to prompt all Democratic voters, no matter how ambivalent about the Obama results they are, to go to the polls in November. That is very important, staying away from the polls will increase the risk of a formation of a national, heavily motivated critical mass of dissatisfied and nearly anarchistic Tea Party groups of our fellow Americans. These are the angriest voters ever in our memory, eager to be elected and to take over and reform in all directions, disrupting the orderly US legislative process. Even Sarah Palin, whose chirpy voice has sown dissent since the last national election, in one of her latest outbursts of tumbling words warned Americans against the danger of voting for persuasive candidates who will divide and destroy the American Dream – or so it was interpreted by a careful Palin translator.



My personal inquiries, although limited, indicate that New York City is firm in its support of the Democratic party, because where else can the unhappy dissatisfied voters go, the dangers of backing havoc are too great. New York City is expected to vote as follows:



For Governor - Democratic, Independence, and Working Families party candidate Andrew M .Cuomo, with Robert J. Duffy as Lt. Governor. Cuomo has experience and has made promises to reform the state, by cutting and capping government service expense, pension abuses, property taxes , Medicaid and other health costs, and particularly the state legislature excesses that have made NYS’s lawmaking mechanism the champion of dysfunctionality. Whether the service and teacher unions will permit Cuomo the necessary cuts is debatable, but at least the effort will have public exposure and scrutiny . His Republican and Taxpayers party opponent, Carl P. Paladino, has disgraced himself by posturing, bigotry and threats to the point that his balance is questionable, and the minor party candidates lack critical mass and valid positions and authority, being there largely for exposure, such as the Anti-Prohibition candidate, professional madam, Kristin M. Davis (the fact that her Lt. Gov co-candidate is a Brooklyn lawyer is another joke), and the Rent Is 2 High candidate, exhibitionist Jimmy McMillan. The candidates of some validity, the Libertarian lawyer Warren Redlich, he Freedom party’s socialist-minded City Councilman Charles Barron, and the Green’s Howie Hawkins, an UPS worker, lose their gravitas in the company of the exhibitionists probably seeking book contracts and reality shows.



For Attorney General, City - Democratic, Independence and Working Family candidate, veteran West Side state senator, Eric T. Schneiderman, who will work well with Cuomo for consumers,, crime victims, the environment and finance. The Republican Conservative candidate, Staten Island DA Dan Donovan is worthy, with a rational attitude to banks and brokerage firms both as sinners, and, simultaneously, NYCs chief sources of revenue.



For State Comptroller, City - Democratic and Working Families candidate, incumbent Thomas DiNapoli, for a post disgraced by his predecessor, and highly subject to bribes. One gets slightly sick to the stomach to find that Obama’s Tsar of the automotive industry and savior of GM, Steven Rattner, was such a briber and has been banned from the securities industry. But DiNapoli, initially kooked down upon as an outsider, has held the line. Conversely, his Republican, Independence and Conservative opponent, trader Harry Wilson, is the complete insider, reputable and rich, enough so to avoid temptation.



For US Senator, Two Year Unexpired Term – Democratic, Independence and Working Families candidate, senator Kirsten Gillibrand, in civilian life a former Davis Polk associate, who was attorney for Phillip Morris tobacco, and also worked in Andrew Cuomo’s HUD; elected To US Congress 20th District in 2006 and appointed to US Senate in Jan. 2009, she has been a Obama team player. representing Republican and Independence parties, her opponent is former Arthur Anderson partner, subsequently (1985-89) US Congressman Joseph J. Dioguardi, CPA, who lays her past career sins at her doorstep. As for himself, the accountant wants to clarify the budget and cure US of a frightening $63T indebtedness, a hard to believe number and program.



For US Senator, Six Year Term – Democratic, Independence and Working Families candidate , incumbent Charles E. Schumer is dominant; it is hard to see how Republican and Independence candidate and Hudson Valley political consultant, Jay Townsend, can successfully contend.



For US Congress, 14th District – Democratic and Working Families candidate Carolyn Maloney, a long-Term representative, will not see much strength in the opposition of Republican David Ryan Brumberg, a McKinsey management consultant, and the three minority party representatives.



For NYS Senate 26th District –Democratic and Working Families candidate, incumbent Liz Krueger , elected 2002, ranking member of the Housing, Construction and Community Development Committee; with David Paterson she led the Democratic takeover of the Senate. How about some more reform? Her Republican and Independence opponent Saul J. Farber is a Young Republican and Republican district leader, who recently enteredlaw school.



In the NYS Senate 29th District –Democratic and Working Families candidate, incumbent Thomas K. Duane has the advantage. His Republican opponent, Joseph A. Mendola, attorney, is also listed as Chief Counsel, Magna Securities Corp.



And, finally , in our NYS 74th Assembly District, Democratic and Working Families party candidate, incumbent Brian P. Kavanagh, attorney and former Chief of Staff for NYC Councilmember Gale Brewer, Policy Director of NYC Homeless Services and aide to Mayors Koch and Dinkins, His Republican opponent, director Dena Winokur, also ran unopposed in the primary.



Wally Dobelis thanks Louise Dankberg of the Tilden Club for insights in the thinking of organized Democrats, and a number of less organized voters, both pro and against Obama, who had a lot to say.

Labels: Louise Dankberg

LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis Dr. P. attends an ASCRAP meeting Dr. Paranoia, a frequent contributor, writes: Recently I had an opportunity to attend a meeting of ASCRAP, the American Society of Creators of Realty Action Programs. Although this report may run counter to the Society’s principle of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” borrowed from the international Bilderberg conspiracy, I felt compelled to reveal to your readership all about the new developments in reality TV. The meeting was called to discuss a new proposal for a reality show: “Tales of the Unelected Government,” a cooperative venture. It was based on the recent events in New York State governance, where, after the resignation of Eliot Spitzer, his chosen Lieutenant Governor David Paterson took over. To redress the shenanigans of Democratic Senators Pablo Espada Jr. (frequently indicted for using a medical HMO funds for campaign expenses and not convicted) and Hiram Monserrat (indicted for cutting his girlfriend’s face, and miraculously charged only for a misdemeanor) Paterson illegally appointed a Lieutenant Governor, realtor Richard Ravitch. When Hillary Clinton became Secretary of State, he appointed Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand as interim US Senator. Thomas diNapoli of Nassau County’s 16th AD was chosen by the legislature to became NYS Treasurer, appointed for the balance of the term upon the scandal-driven resignation of Alan Hevesi, involving misuse of state transportation facilities et al. So much for the unelected. There was also a suggestion of including Mayor Michael Bloomberg, for having New York’s City Council override the third term limitation in allowing him to run for office, despite the fact that New Yorkers have approved the eight-year term maximum in two elections. The proposed realty program would use state-filmed legislature and government session videos and eyewitness reports, as well as YouTube material. If insufficient, the creator offered to include episodes of New York legislators arrested and convicted for driving while drunk, accepting kickbacks for contracts (sometimes called consultant fees), employing relatives and friends, offering no-show jobs, accepting free vacations and similar perks. As a further extension, he offered such deliverables as interviews with the accuseds’ attorneys, loudly proclaiming the innocence of their clients. A further corollary to the show, dealing with ways of financeers getting investment advisor positions with state and union funds, involving payoffs well beyond campaign contributions, was considered by the group as mundane and depressingly ordinary, though possibly worthy of an episode, as were ideas of presenting banker and mortgage broker family and business lives. A takeoff on Madoff family adventures, suggested in humor, was actually dubbed ethically reprehensible and indefensible, as an instruction set for commercial crime. The proposal received attention, with some concern about nasty reactions from the politicos, but as someone remarked, “this is not the UK, we have the First Amendment to look after us.” It was further mentioned that Keith Olberman has forever been calling people “the worst,” with no repercussions and scant attempts at defense and rebuttal, and that Lou Dobbs of CNN has had lists of perceived economic miscreants displayed on screen several years ago. Moving along, a suggested reality show about the private lives of Mafiosi families was deemed too close to the copyrighted Sopranos, as did several proposed themes on the topic of unfaithful housewives, Randy the mailman, and suburban life, also too similar to Sex and the City. Better reception was offered for a series of private lives of traveling wrestlers, the WWWF variety, male and female, for points in violence with some sex (although skeptics claimed not to have enough reality there to be believable). An extension into free-form kick-boxing, with real blood, was received a bit better when someone offered the free use of the term “real blood,” as an added incentive , utilizing a red bottled fluid trademarked as “real blood.” This scared a few participants, and, although the chairman declared that “no one ever went broke underestimating the desire for sex and violence in American entertainment,” the discussion veered into martial exercise, peoples’ lives centered on sports studios, exercise halls, fitness clubs as trysting places. Social activities with YouTube, Facebook and such for boy-meets-girl excitement were downers, although the interest picked up when job opportunity actions and mean messages were mentioned. The pace picked up when someone recommended a new kind of overlarge family reality show, a category that has had early overexposure. The new one would involve families chasing storms in cars and balloons, and kids getting lost in the process. It almost had a tinge of real life about it. We thank Dr. Paranoia, a critic of virtual reality, for the observations, and Clyde Habermann of the NYTimes, who inspired him. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wally Dobelis apologizes about last week inadvertently misstating Iran’s 2002 contribution to the rebuilding of Afghanistan as $500,000. It was actually $500,000,000. It emphasizes Iran’s fear of its Sunni neighbors on its borders, and the need to neutralize them. This is underscored by the recent Sunni suicide terrorist act on five Iranian Revolutionary Guard generals. Shias are not known to do suicide bombings. They should heed President Obama’s proposals, offering peace with its neighbors. The Israeli threat is not idle, they have religious precedent, the blind Samson destroying the Philistines.

LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis Union Square, no drama With Ocupy Wall Street somewhat off the front pages, it my be of interest to come back from the now famous Zuccotti Square news to our own Union Square news. The name of that downtown property brings back memories – it was the realtor John Zuccotti, former City Planning Commission chair and first deputy mayor, who in 1986 recommended that the NYC Police Academy be upscaled to the quality of the FBI Academy in Quantico, VA, and be moved from East 20th Street to the Bronx, a cheeky extravaganza that caused a betrayed community to protest until budget considerations made Mayor Edward I. Koch back off. People were reasonable, and the City Council listened to citizenry presenting cost comparisons. There is a faintly comparable strife between the community and the Parks Department that has been going on for at least five years (seems like 15) between the Union Square Community Coalition and city planners , who want to convert the beautiful Palladian style Pavilion at the north end of the Union Squire Park into an upscale seasonal restaurant. USCC has sued the city and Union Square Partnership Business Improvement District for breach of the rules that protect a landmarked property (the north end was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1997.) The park was part of the grandiose city plan of 1811, that gave Manhattan its geometric avenues and side streets pattern, The park, at the meeting point of Bloomingdale and Broadway, was a concourse and trading area, with fashionable stores of the era contending for space with theatres, all dominated by a 1856 statue of George Washington. As the city moved uptown, the real estate values declined, and the north end Plaza became a rallying point for political activities and meetings; in 1861 there were rallies and parades in support of Union troops, and labor union meetings were held; on September 5, 1882 it marked the starting point for a labor union parade that gave birth to Labor Day, and May Day rallies became an annual socialist event. The pavilion, first built in the mid- 1800s, was dedicated as a Women’s and Children’s structure. Its current fine form stems back to a 1931 reconstruction and elevation, as a bandstand, and in my memory it has mainly served as a Parks Department storehouse and office, with a major public restroom, occasionally sharing labor union election campaign pulpit and gathering functions with the former Tammany Hall, near northeast corner of the park, on 17th Street. Historically, the Pavilion was important as the pulpit for May Day and other political rallies/ The Rosenbergs’ support meetings of 1953 were the most memorable, with half of the square’s population on its knees, awaiting the verdict. As Union Square deteriorated in the mid-1900s, so did the Pavilion building, until the park’s renewal in the 4th quarter of the century, initiated with the arrival of the Zeckendorf Towers building at the southeast corner, the coalition of local merchants that resulted in the 14th Street-Union Square Local Development Corporation /Business Improvement District (now Union Square Partnership), and, particularly, the Farmers Market, aka Union Square Greenmarket, in 1973. With the shrinking of the City’s funds, the Parks’ budgets had diminished, and pay-for-itself thinking started to prevail at the Arsenal, Parks headquarters. Volunteer groups arose in major parks areas (Central Park in lead), offering donated and street- market- raised funds, and stoutly objecting to excessive commercialization of the shrinking public spaces. In Union Square the Parks Departmnt /USP thinking prevailed and a restaurant contract for the Pavilion was offered to eatery enterprises, presumably prompted by the use of the Pavillion’s parkside courtyard (or amphitheatre for the bandstand) as the casual Luna Café, a pleasant interlude, before the struggles began. The park spaces were converted to expanded playgrounds, to meet the needs of the neighborhood, and the pavilion’s interior rooms were offered and , seemingly, tentatively accepted by an entrepreneur at aimpossibly huge investment and $400K annual rental. Alas, the recent economic crisis, coupled with the threat of continued USCC law suits, sent everybody back to Square One. Looking at Union Square and the park today, the upscale restaurant in the pavilion seems financially unfit and physically out of place, and the proponents should give up.There is a surfeit of elegant fulltime restaurants in the pertiphery, and a seasonal food shed would be more than adequate. The area has been Bloombergized (not a bad thing), with partial street closings, patio furniture here and there , flower pots with gian tropical red plants on the periphery, a total tourist destination. Admirers are lured by a serious Mahatma Gandhi memorial on the west edge of the Park, and a silvery pop Andy Warhol statue temporarily placed north of it, something for every taste. Besides the Greenmarket, on the edges of the park there are sellers of prints, books, tee shirts and offerers of giveaway pets/Tango fanciers practice their art to Latin rhythms on the Pavilion’s main open floor in good weather, and here are other community uses of the building(USCC wants a small Museum of Protest) . We may be a bit banal but we are peaceful, no troublemakers are wanted. Let’s leave it that way. Wally Dobelis thanks Jack Taylor.

LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis Insurance when your COBRA expires In this a post-recession period - or is not? More and more of our traditionally Democratic neighbors are worried and angry about protecting as well as regaining their jobs, and about expiries of benefits, such as COBRA. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided an employer –provided health insurance continuation (COBRA) for employees who were involuntarily terminated , through May 31 , 2010, subsidizing the premium above 35% of the premium, for up to 15 months. This benefit is gradually expiring and unemployment benefits limit is nearing, and Medicare payments are curtailed, and doctors are opting out, and… and jobs are still scarce!. Not only Obama is getting blamed, the pols as a whole are condemned – a local tradesman became very vocal in describing how the Socialist president gives the poor what they need by taking from the rich what they have, quoting Karl Marx, sort of; and how the Secretary of Treasury Geithner did not pay taxes, how Senator Dodd gave bonuses to traders from bailout funds, how stimulus funds are abused,, and how Gov. Bloomberg cripples the small businessmen by sending the cops to write tickets, to fix the shorts in his budget. Add to that the normally evenhanded David Brooks in the NYT blaming liberalism destroying itself by overpaying civil servants – Gov. Chris Christie cancels the $5B tunnel, because the state benefits packages for civil servants are 41% higher than those of a Fortune 500 company and are rising 16% per year; NY schools are strained, but we pay retirement benefits to 10,00 cops who have quit before age 50; California cannot afford water projects because 90, 000-state cops get 90% of pay when thy retire at 50, and correction officers earn $70K, routinely boosted to $100K a year with OT. And so it goes on; Brooks was not yet aware of another NYS governments’ debt, $200B owed by city and local governments for retiree health benefits, guaranteed without setting up adequate fund sources and reserves. This was revealed in an October 13, 2010 report by the Empire Center for New York State Policy, a research center that studies fiscal policy, you can look it up on the Internet. If you If you want to make the conclusions about liberal benefit policies international , think of the Greeks striking because the age 50 retirement at full benefits will be taken away for some; and the French, who are striking en masse parce que the retirement age she goes form 60 to 62. But I digress. About the COBRA loss; one alternative is covered by the Health Care Reform Act of 2000, under which NYS established a Healthy New York program, requiring all group health providers so sell uniform low-cost coverages for individuals and small businessmen. In 2007 the providers were Aetna, Atlantis, Cigna, Empire, GHI, Health Net, Hip, and Oxford. Please note that all prices quoted will be for individuals, adding children and spouses increases the numbers proportionately. Do not hold me to the numbers, conditions and restrictions are illustrative, and not attempted to be complete. Oxford currently has a Healthy NY health policy for $294.19 a month, with restrictions, involving a $1,200 deductible, and $5,250 out of pocket expenses. Office visits cost $20 copay, and emergency and walk-in surgery etc copays are relatively higher. Substance abuse, mental health and some other impairments are not covered, and there are limits. Oxford states that this is decent in-between jobs coverage, and offers a network of 55,000 Oxford/Liberty physicians. There is also a HAS (health Savings Account) format. My insurance actuarial sources tell that Healthy NY policies are, although uniform among providers, not that easy to get, and the size an distribution of the MD network should be a determinant. One will have to choose a primary care physician from the network. For ex-COBRA beneficiaries there may be a lag period. It may help to buy Healthy NY coverage from your former provider of employer-subsidized insurance. Oxford’s unsubsidized plans are pricey, as are all the private plans. Oxford’s personal HMO costs $1174.18 a month, office visit copay is $15. The next, Oxford POS costs $1729.56 a month ($10 copay). Oxford’s sales office is at 800-969-7408, very helpful, and they will email scads of coverage info, as I am sure will the other providers I named. Another alternative, Freelancers Union was formed within the decade, to provide for the insurance needs of the freelancer, contractor and entrepreneur population, claimed to constitute 30% of the working population. It is a private firm, Barbara Horowitz is president, and Freelancers owns the Freelancers Insurance Company, licensed in NYS.. For out of state participants they have a .United Health Care Golden Rule Company connection. FIC offers a range of five plans, the highest-cost, PPO1 charges a premium of $497/mo, $25 copay, $1,500 deductible ($4,200 for prescriptions, $6,000 out of pocket). PPO2 costs $381/mo,$2,500 deductible, then, three plans below , the lowest-cost plan with $196/mo premium and $10,000 deductible with all other fees scaled up. Application fee to join the plans is $50, annual maintenance $75, then premium. The phone contact number is 800-856-9981, they are located in Brooklyn Heights. Internet data are not fully accessible on Internet Explorer, you must use Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome for detailed pages.. Wally Dobelis is not connected to any of the insurers cited.

LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis



In this a post-recession period - or is not? More and more of our traditionally Democratic neighbors are worried and angry about protecting as well as regaining their jobs, and about expiries of benefits, such as COBRA. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided an employer –provided health insurance continuation (COBRA) for employees who were involuntarily terminated , through May 31 , 2010, subsidizing the premium above 35% of the premium, for up to 15 months. This benefit is gradually expiring and unemployment benefits limit is nearing, and Medicare payments are curtailed, and doctors are opting out, and… and jobs are still scarce!.



Not only Obama is getting blamed, the pols as a whole are condemned – a local tradesman became very vocal in describing how the Socialist president gives the poor what they need by taking from the rich what they have, quoting Karl Marx, sort of; and how the Secretary of Treasury Geithner did not pay taxes, how Senator Dodd gave bonuses to traders from bailout funds, how stimulus funds are abused,, and how Gov. Bloomberg cripples the small businessmen by sending the cops to write tickets, to fix the shorts in his budget. Add to that the normally evenhanded David Brooks in the NYT blaming liberalism destroying itself by overpaying civil servants – Gov. Chris Christie cancels the $5B tunnel, because the state benefits packages for civil servants are 41% higher than those of a Fortune 500 company and are rising 16% per year; NY schools are strained, but we pay retirement benefits to 10,00 cops who have quit before age 50; California cannot afford water projects because 90, 000-state cops get 90% of pay when thy retire at 50, and correction officers earn $70K, routinely boosted to $100K a year with OT. And so it goes on; Brooks was not yet aware of another NYS governments’ debt, $200B owed by city and local governments for retiree health benefits, guaranteed without setting up adequate fund sources and reserves. This was revealed in an October 13, 2010 report by the Empire Center for New York State Policy, a research center that studies fiscal policy, you can look it up on the Internet. If you If you want to make the conclusions about liberal benefit policies international , think of the Greeks striking because the age 50 retirement at full benefits will be taken away for some; and the French, who are striking en masse parce que the retirement age she goes form 60 to 62. But I digress.



About the COBRA loss; one alternative is covered by the Health Care Reform Act of 2000, under which NYS established a Healthy New York program, requiring all group health providers so sell uniform low-cost coverages for individuals and small businessmen. In 2007 the providers were Aetna, Atlantis, Cigna, Empire, GHI, Health Net, Hip, and Oxford.



Please note that all prices quoted will be for individuals, adding children and spouses increases the numbers proportionately. Do not hold me to the numbers, conditions and restrictions are illustrative, and not attempted to be complete.



Oxford currently has a Healthy NY health policy for $294.19 a month, with restrictions, involving a $1,200 deductible, and $5,250 out of pocket expenses. Office visits cost $20 copay, and emergency and walk-in surgery etc copays are relatively higher. Substance abuse, mental health and some other impairments are not covered, and there are limits. Oxford states that this is decent in-between jobs coverage, and offers a network of 55,000 Oxford/Liberty physicians. There is also a HAS (health Savings Account) format. My insurance actuarial sources tell that Healthy NY policies are, although uniform among providers, not that easy to get, and the size an distribution of the MD network should be a determinant. One will have to choose a primary care physician from the network. For ex-COBRA beneficiaries there may be a lag period. It may help to buy Healthy NY coverage from your former provider of employer-subsidized insurance.



Oxford’s unsubsidized plans are pricey, as are all the private plans. Oxford’s personal HMO costs $1174.18 a month, office visit copay is $15. The next, Oxford POS costs $1729.56 a month ($10 copay). Oxford’s sales office is at 800-969-7408, very helpful, and they will email scads of coverage info, as I am sure will the other providers I named.



Another alternative, Freelancers Union was formed within the decade, to provide for the insurance needs of the freelancer, contractor and entrepreneur population, claimed to constitute 30% of the working population. It is a private firm, Barbara Horowitz is president, and Freelancers owns the Freelancers Insurance Company, licensed in NYS.. For out of state participants they have a .United Health Care Golden Rule Company connection.

FIC offers a range of five plans, the highest-cost, PPO1 charges a premium of $497/mo, $25 copay, $1,500 deductible ($4,200 for prescriptions, $6,000 out of pocket).

PPO2 costs $381/mo,$2,500 deductible, then, three plans below , the lowest-cost plan with $196/mo premium and $10,000 deductible with all other fees scaled up.

Application fee to join the plans is $50, annual maintenance $75, then premium. The phone contact number is 800-856-9981, they are located in Brooklyn Heights. Internet data are not fully accessible on Internet Explorer, you must use Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome for detailed pages..

Wally Dobelis is not connected to any of the insurers cited.

LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis



This column does an annual informal survey of fuel efficiency in our neighborhood, counting SUVs as a proportion of total vehicles parked on 14th Street between certain avenues. My archives have become temporarily inaccessible (my wife has another expression), but as of last week no significant reductions have been noted. I now have another more detailed analysis to offer, that of alternate fuels in use by NYS official vehicles.



You cannot say that NYS has not tried to be green. George Pataki, for whom the Republican candidate Carl P. Paladino has a crude name, was an environmentalist, who bought parkland and in 2001 issued Executive Order 111 (renewed 2005), which required the state vehicles to move away from gasoline. This actually started with the Federal Energy Policy Act of 1992, requiring states to buy alternatively fueled cars in increasing proportions. Nothing slow about NYS, we were prepared by the time of the issuance of Federal Act of 2005, specifying use of increasing amounts of ethanol through 2022, and subsidizing it by $6B a year. This was typical of Bush, pushing the politically advantageous energy solution, even though ethanol contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and requires fossil fuels to produce it, at a worse than 1-for-1 energy exchange rate.



As to NYS, research by Times Union of Albany shows that 39% of 18,300 vehicles run by 76 agencies of the state are capable of operating on alternate fuels, as compared to 92% of the total of 10.5M vehicles registered in NYS. Since 2007 the percentage has improved, up from 35%, with purchases of 777 fuel-efficient vehicles replacing 587 gasoline cars. The greenest agencies are the MVB, State Power Authority, NYS Thruway, Office of Government Services and Office of Mental Health.



In NYS the most prevalent alternate fuel vehicles are SUVs with bi- fuel gasoline and natural gas facilities, although there are no statistics as to the use of natural gas. To stop here for a moment, Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) came to public attention in 2000, when Daimler –Chrysler, Ford, GM, Honda and Toyota offered vehicles with natural gas capability (NGV), using factory-installed converters. Statistics vary, but it appears that in the US 150,000 cars are CNV or L(iquified) NV equipped, although world-wide the count is five million, and may be as high as nine million. Fleet taxis in Atlanta, LA, Las Vegas and Washington DC are so equipped, and New York may have as many as 300 CNV taxis (this could not be confirmed by the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission – 400 employees - where I was stalled on the telephone). By 2007 only the Honda Civic GX was in the marketplace, plus some tailored conversions. The problem appears to be refueling. According to a NYSERDA (NYS Energy Research and Development Authority map, there are less than 100 fueling stations statewide, and less than 20 in NYC/Long Island area. It appears that although NYSERDA provides financial incentives, the consumers consider CNG/LNG a short-term solution. Not seeing many natural gas pumps, one tends to be cautious.



Diesel fuel, although efficient and used in 4% of private vehicles, is rarely noted in the state fleet. Electric cars, also minimally used, appear on the way out, although one would hope that the new Chevrolet Volt (range of 40 miles on battery and several hundred on gasoline; the latter also recharges the battery), Nissan Leaf (100 miles on battery) and their two dozen plus competitors will create more state overnight fueling facilities and prompt increased general use of vehicles refueled at night on cheap hydroelectric rates (2 cents a mile vs. 12 cents a mile for gasoline). However, their use involves a change in the philosophy of state property use. Electric cars, requiring say 7-8 hours of recharge time, are most advantageously recharged overnight, at home, and one shudders to think of the red tape this will create.



Flex vehicles, run on 85% ethanol or gasoline are on the rise in NYS agencies, despite the fact that ethanol is 30% less effective and costs the taxpayer a 45 cent credit. The R85 vehicles in 2009 constituted 10.5% of NYS fleet, vs. 2.6 % of the total registered. This is not really renewable fuel, in view of the high non-renewable energy cost in creating it. The greenhouse gas effect from ethanol also takes an elimination cost, estimated at $750 a ton of carbon dioxide. In 2008 Governor David Paterson ordered new cars to be in top 30% of efficiency, but that was not applied to the SUVs, favorites of DEC and police.



Looking over the entire scenario, it appears that the state has been successful in implementing the jaw and executive orders, but not the intent of meaningfully reducing carbon emissions and substituting renewable energy sources. This is a national failure. Let us hope that the upstate wind farms and oncoming additional nuclear energy plants will help (repulsive as the latter resource still seems to be), else the Earth will run out of energy in a few generations.

Wally Dobelis thanks the Albany Times Union and internet sources.