New Rules from EPA on 2008 Cars & Medium Duty Vehicles

Via Green Car Congress: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued its final ruling on how fuel economy is calcuated and posted for new cars. The methods, last revised in 1984, are now supposed to provide closer to real MPG for most drivers. This means, ta da, the estimates posted for the cars will be dropping.

Compared to today’s estimates, the city mpg estimates for the manufacturers of most vehicles will drop by about 12% on average, and by as much as 30% for some vehicles. The highway mpg estimates will drop on average by about 8%, and by as much as 25% for some vehicles.

The decreased fuel economy, the EPA took pains to point out, is not a result of a change by the automakers, but in the agency’s methodology for estimating performance.

This will have an impact on the perception of hybrids as well:

In vehicles that achieve generally better fuel economy, such as gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles, new city estimates will be about 20 to 30% lower than today’s labels, and new highway estimates will be 10 to 20% lower, according to the EPA.

The nature of current hybrid technology—the addition of a battery as a second source of on-board power, sophisticated control systems, and sometimes a smaller engine—makes a hybrid’s fuel economy more sensitive to certain factors, such as colder weather and air conditioning use.

The new calcuation method and posting of information will be on all 2008 models, including for the first time medium-duty trucks. And the auto industry being what it is, you can expect some 2008 models in showrooms in the first few months of 2007.

Earth Moving at the Old Sears Site on Grand

Via 15thWardSTL.org comes news that some activity is taking place on the old Sears Site, the very one Pyramid had hoped to switch for a McDonald’s.

Pyramid has started pushing dirt around on the former Sears site in preparation for construction of their proposed Senior Housing apartments. They appear to have staked out the corners of the building (perhaps in preparation for soil testing). At this time they do not have a building permit (per Geo St. Louis), nor have they appeared in front of the Board of Public Service for any variances.

It looks like we are continuing our pattern of pushing projects through the system with little public input.  Ald. Jennifer Florida’s last update on her blog was October 27, 2006 — just shy of two months.  Where is all the planning for South Grand? Where is the input from citizens on the future of our commercial corridors?  Seems like as soon as the pressure is lifted in this town things go back to “normal.”

Roberts Brothers Seem to Like Ald. Williamson, Give $3,250 to Campaign

In light of H. Lee Willis filing to run against 26th Ward Alderman Frank Williamson again (Willis lost to Williamson in 2003), I decided to take a look at their past campaign reports. I would have preferred to look up the election results from 2003 but it seems the St. Louis Board of Elections has decided to remove pre-2004 election history from their new “improved” website.

In Williamson’s last report from the 3rd quarter of 2006, filed late by the way, he racked up a tidy $3,250 from 10 companies controlled by the Roberts brothers:

• Talley Properties, L.L.C.
• Talley Properties II, LLC
• Talley Properties III, L.L.C.
• Roberts Brothers Properties IV, LLC
• Roberts Brothers Properties VI, LLC
• Roberts Brothers Properties VIII, LLC
• Roberts Hospitality Services II, LLC
• Roberts Tower Management LLC
• Roberts Hotels Mgmt Houston LLC
• Roberts Hotels Management Tampa LLC

All 10 checks are dated 9/13/2006. This is perfectly legal, questionable, but legal. What was not legal was the amount — each was over by $25 each but Williamson’s report shows they refunded the overage, as required.

Come January 1, 2007 the contribution limits will become a thing of the past. The flood gates will be opened. Will wealthy citizens like the Roberts brothers and others continue writing smaller checks from their many limited liabilty companies or will they simply open their personal and/or main corporate checkbook and write one big fat check?

Dropping the contribution limits is supposed to be a reform measure. The theory is the wealthy have always given more than the limits they just had to break it up into pieces that met the limits. So without limits they are free to give that one big fat contribution without having to break it up. The “reform” being the end result is more accountable because we can clearly see who gave what amounts rather than having to piece through a series of smaller contributions.

Personally I think you have those individuals and their companies that really like a candidate and want to help them succeed, perfectly acceptable. The other 90% of the contributors, I believe, are buying influence and favors. Giving a single aldermanic candidate roughly 10% of their annual salary in the form of a contribution is excessive in my view — regardless if broken up into 10 pieces or one big fat check. The intent is the same.

We need elected officials working for the citizens of St. Louis, not those with big bank accounts that can buy their way into the system.

I Know One Candidate I Am Not Endorsing

A little over a month ago I stated I was going to wait until the end of January, after campaign reports were filed, to make any endorsements for candidates in upcoming elections. While that will remain the case I did not mention anything about ruling out candidates from consideration.

After witnessing the 6th ward executive meeting from two tables away last night I can say this, there is no way in hell that I’d endorse Patrick Cacchione for alderman. He is clearly an integral part of the factional ward system I seek to destroy. This is the very system that has been holding back our city for decades. Why do we allow our city to be run this way?

Kacie Starr Triplett is young and optimistic, both good and bad qualities. The third candidate in this race is Christian Saller, someone completely removed from the ward process, a huge bonus in my view. What would be great is if Triplett and Saller both completely blew off the 6th ward democratic good-ole-boy clique — don’t even show up at the meetings. Ignore them completely. Don’t build up the importance of this petty little group. Boycott the 6th Ward Democrats! And for everyone else out there, if you are handed a sample ballot on election day just think about why those names are on that list. Is your ward “open” like the 6th or is it closed where the officiers of the tiny factional ward group determines who you should vote for?

In the end I may not make any endorsements at all, I might find reason enough to write-off every last candidate in the upcoming election. To one degree or another they all play the ward game. We’ll see what happens over the next couple of months but at the moment I can scratch one name off my list: Patrick Cacchione.

Welcome to the 6th Ward Circus

Tonight I had dinner at the lovely Pestalozzi Place restaurant, conveniently at the same time the executive committee of the 6th Ward Democracts were having a dinner meeting. At issue were a large number of new members that Kacie Starr Triplett brought to the organization. The executive committee, including opponent Patrick Cacchione, have suggested something is not right and wants most if not all the new members banned from voting at the endorsement meeting next month.  Triplett has a brief comment on her campaign website.
I have to say, if Kacie Starr Triplett thought she had a chance at getting the ward endorsement over the committeeman, Patrick Cacchione, she was kidding herself. Yes, she is on the executive committee but not as the committeewoman. You see Kacie, this is St. Louis and here we dutifully wait our turn. Your hard work and dedication has been noted and that is why you were given a leadership position but it is the committeewoman and committeeman that are the next in line to become Alderman. Once the committeewoman decides she no longer wants the position you coudl have been considered so that you’d be next up. Basically Kacie, you are being insubordinate for stepping out of line — shame on you. But at least you are not as rude as that Christian Saller guy — he just blows off the ward stuff altogether.

This is not, I don’t think, about race. I don’t believe that Cacchione or the others have a problem with a large number of black members joining the group — they have a problem with a large number of people of any race joining the group with the intention of supporting Kacie Starr Triplett at the endorsement meeting in January.

And all you voters out there who think you actually get to decide the election in March don’t kid yourselves either. Here we have two out of the three candidates packing a partisan ward committee with new members so they’ll be the endorsed candidate by that committee. Does this make any sense? Why not just have non-partisan elections and let the voters in that ward weigh the pros and cons of each candidate and make a decision? Why must we go through this whole circus of holding a committee-level election simply to hold a ward-level election?

Christian Saller is the smart one of the three in all of this, staying clear of this party in-fighting. No wonder our city has declined to the point it has over the last 50 years, when our leaders are not passing legislation to add or remove a stop sign they are spending time debating by-laws relative to how to pack a ward committee for an endorsement. Give me a break…