A major concern is the huge contribution tar sands oil is projected to make to global warming and climate change. Ninety-seven percent of climate scientists agree that the primary cause of atmospheric warming is the rising level of greenhouse gases, including CO2 methane and others. NASA’s leading climate scientist, Dr. James Hansen, has called the […]
op-ed
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No more stalling the Keystone XL
After almost 1,700 days, the northern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline remains in regulatory purgatory. Those of us who believe it will bring jobs and an economic boost have a new poster child: Cash Western Store. Mr. Berry echoed those sentiments when I visited his store a few weeks ago. The proposed pipeline, which […]
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College shouldn’t be never-ending
Today, more and more kids think college should take five or six years. Why? If you plan it right, get the core courses out of the way in the first two years, identify a major so you know what you’ll need to graduate, it will take about the same number of classes and hours to […]
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Ogling open government
They also respected the concept of representative government, which suggests that those elected by the people are empowered to do the people’s business. What emerged from those private discussions seems to have worked out pretty well, for 226 years so far. That’s why we should take a realistic view of the ongoing dust-up over who […]
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Common sense about Common Core
Now they must also implement policies that may or may not make sense, such as creating high school academies, retaining third-graders who don’t pass reading tests, remediating seniors who have not passed four graduation examinations and avoiding state takeover of schools that fail according to the state’s report card. Even more time and money must […]
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Connecting the dots
Each year, hundreds of bills and tax-related initiatives are approved that, when viewed independently, may not seem to have a significant impact. Yet by not connecting the dots of various actions when it comes to public schools, the picture of Oklahoma education becomes disturbingly distorted. If citizens don’t start connecting the dots, a true picture […]
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Miracle on 23rd Street: a tax cut
The long-expected agreement on this year’s scheme proposes to drop Oklahoma’s personal income tax rate from 5.25 percent to 5 percent effective Jan. 1, 2015. The net effect will be to provide a family of four earning about $40,000 an additional 50 cents a day in their pockets. This is not even “trickledown” economics, it’s […]
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‘Local control’ in education
The same could be said about use of the term “local control” in relation to education policy. An appeal to “local control” is thrown around at the state Capitol nearly every time education legislation is proposed. Over the last few years, I have worked with other legislators to improve our state’s anti-bullying statute. But efforts […]
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Pump up the volume
A few months ago, Cain’s — a highly respected, mid-sized live music venue in Tulsa — announced that it had booked two of my favorite touring bands, Tame Impala and Local Natives, for shows within a day of each other. Normally, this news wouldn’t be so eyebrow-raising for me. Tulsa is just a short drive […]
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OG&E must move past coal
Oklahoma has been both a driver and a beneficiary of the growing clean energy economy. Our wind industry has soared as new wind farms continue to open. More than 15 percent of the state’s energy now comes from renewable sources, creating new jobs and sparking innovation. According to The American Wind Energy Association, as many […]