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Ford said Tuesday it will delay until 2022 plans to launch an autonomous vehicle service, as the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted the company to rethink its go-to-market strategy. The news was shared as part of Ford’s quarterly earnings, which was released after the market closed Tuesday. Ford reported a $2 billion loss in the first […]
— Read on techcrunch.com/2020/04/28/ford-postpones-autonomous-vehicle-service-until-2022/

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The Waters of The US (WOTUS) rule that the Obama administration had developed in response to two prior directives from the US Supreme Court (in 2000, and 2006) that the Clean Water Act rules were unclear as to segmented wetlands, intermittent ephemeral streams and various lakes and impoundments.  The 2015 proposal specifically included the ephemeral streams because of the potential for pollutants to be flushed into waters that downstream agriculture, ecological and potable water supply entities were using.  That appeared to address the US Supreme Court’s directives after much public comment.  Ranchers, farmers and private property rights groups objected to the revised definition in the 2015 rule changes, specifically in the area from the Mississippi River into the Rocky Mountains.

The current administration suspended the 2015 rule and has proposed its own that removes the season, ephemeral and subsurface definitions.  It also removed categories that apply to ditches and impoundments.  That makes ranchers, farmers and private property rights groups happy, the has major consequences that were not contemplated.   The subsurface flow change has major impacts on places like south Florida where water bodies and groundwater are completely interconnected.  Even in north Florida and places with alluvial deposits, streams can disappear then reappear later.  Water in canals and stormwater treatment areas, the basis of the Everglades restoration, are exempt.  So are seepage canals. While there will be many lawsuits to fight the rule, including a potential consideration by the US Supreme Court, the changes create much uncertainty that had been removed by the 2015 rule change.

Change is not always better.  In this case water utilities are likely to see degradation of water supplies, and diversion of supplies that are no longer regulated.  Stay tuned

Have you ever pondered this?  We normally think about students – and cheating by students is rampant at all levels because of expectations of parents and others.  The amount of stress that students are under is high – and teachers and counsellors see the signs of mental anxiety.  This is not helpful to students.

But what about schools?  We  rarely wonder that.  If teachers and principals are being measured against a bar.  Does this really create an environment for learning or one to weed out poorer performing students?  Does it encourage charter schools to grab the higher performing students at the disadvantage of public schools?  Does testing encourage teaching the test versus true learning?  Is the desire to keeps moving, allow poor performing students to advance.  For example, when Rod Paige was hired as Education Secretary, he was hired because of the turnaround in the Houston schools, where the reported dropout rate fell to 1.5%.  Later is was determined that the real rate was 25%, not nearly as impressive.  Regionally, dropout rates vary – the upper Plains have very low dropout rates while much of the South has fairly high rates.  For rural southerners who lack job opportunities, this is a never ending cycle.

There are struggling school and school systems.  Enrollment has dropped in many of these schools, while those qualifying for free lunches, and indication of economic distress in the community.  Some of these school systems have as many as 80% of their kids on free lunch.  That means parents struggle to make ends meet, and de-emphasizes education in favor of economic survival.  Parents, often single, do not have time to invest in their kids education. Many of these parents are not well educated, and lack job skills that their kids desperately need.  Kids emulate their parents which means the issues go from generation to generation.

How do we fix this, as if affects all industries including the utility industry.  Finding qualified workers remains an issue across all employment sectors.  Reading, writing and math skills, things that one expects children to learn in elementary school, are cited as the most lacking skills.  Civics, basic science, history and the context for history are rarely to par.  It means the educational system as envisioned by industry when they lobbied Congress 100 years ago to set standards, is not working.  It worked better in the 1960s and 1970s.  Perhaps we should go back and figure out why.

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A couple months ago I posted a blog where I wondered why it seemed appropriate to store waste materials on the side of a river.  North Carolina is moving the fly ash.  Hopefully other states will – sounds like a great way to create jobs in the current economy people in Washington  – and at a discount!

But far more interesting was the announcement that despite prodding by the White House and Sen McConnell, the last coal fired plant owned by TVA in Kentucky was closing.  It is just not cost effective to build or even retrofit coal plants.  China and India are looking for ways to move away from coal.  It reiterates what I said before – coal is dead.  Let’s move on to the next thing, and invent it before someone else does and becomes the economic engine for the 20^th century (China).

Read it here:

https://energynews.us/digests/tva-closes-last-coal-unit-at-kentucky-power-plant/