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Show Obituaries Robert Richards , Robert Sturgeon Richards passed away Saturday, June 7, 2008. corn on Dec. 8, 1946 in Vernal to Vernon L. Richards and Beulah Richards. He attended Highland High School and served an LDS mission mis-sion to England. He married Bette Gardner of Vernal. They lived for several years in Summit Park and were later divorced. His grandfather, Lloyd Richards, Rich-ards, instilled a deep appreciation in him for the outdoors. He lived his dreams in the Uinta Mountains, Moun-tains, sharing good times with close family and friends. He later moved to Ketchikan, Alaska, to build his dream home where he enjoyed fishing as well as the mountains. As much as he loved Alaska, he later wrote to his parents that he realized he had moved away from the family he loved more. He spent the last years of his life devoted to caring for his mother who was slipping into Alzheimers, she died only 12 days before his death. May animal shelter statistics down Uintah Animal Control Special Spe-cial Services District released figures this week for its May operations. Animal control received 34 calls for service in May, down from the 42 received in April, regarding stray dogs. There were 22 calls for stray cats over he month of May as well. Once again, there were no calls about animal cruelty over the month-long period. There were 10 incidents of dog bites in May. This number is reflected in 69 calls for assistance assis-tance - a relatively large number - about dogs at large and six calls about dogs among livestock. , , , i - i Ten calls for stray horses and 14 calls for stray cows resulted in the collection of 12 horses, 53 steers and 15 sheep. Fourteen dogs were destroyed in May, "most of which were euthanized due to illness or aggressive behavior. One dogwas euthanized as per court order," Oil and gas lease sale results The Bureau of Land Management Manage-ment sold 10 parcels totaling 5,430 acres of federal land located in Emery and Uintah Counties at the Utah quarterly oil and gas lease sale last week. During the oral auction, the BLM received more than $2.1 million in bonus bids for the federal oil and gas lease rights. In addition to the bonus bids, the sale netted $8,149.50 in first year's rental and $1,400 in administrative ad-ministrative fees, for $2,111,597 in total revenues from the lease sale. Bids ranged from the minimum mini-mum of $13 per acre to $2,100 per acre and averaged $387.12 per acre. International Petroleum Petro-leum of Salt Lake City submitted the highest total bid per acre in the amount of $2,100 on parcel UT 006 containing 160 acres in Emery County. International Petroleum also submitted the highest total bid per parcel in the amount o$770,000 on parcel UT 004 containing 440 acres in Emery County. Matheson backs Obama SALTLAKECITY(AP)-Utah congressman Jim Matheson has finally made up his mind. The state's only Democrat in Congress announced a favorite for president. It's Barack Obama, the candidate who has locked up the nomination. Matheson is a Democratic Party Par-ty superdelegate, which means he gets a vote at the Democratic convention in Denver. He's one of six Democratic superdolegutes from Utah, and the last to pick a candidate. He possessed the same good nature of his father to make friends wherever he was. During Dur-ing the time spent in Salt Lake, while caring for his mother, he went nearly every day to the Blue Plate Diner. Thank you to John and Tamrika and all the employees who were so good to him. He could not have made it without you. The friendships with neighbors neigh-bors on 22nd East were very special to him. Their support enabled him to continue being the true caregiver. He always looked forward to brief visits to Vernal where he enjoyed his favorite cousins, David Da-vid Merkley and Randy Richards. They are greatly appreciated for giving him good times whenever he returned. His Aunt Beth and her family were always available whenever he needed their help. Their presence pres-ence and support during his last hours provided comfort and peace. He will be greatly missed by his sister, Carol, who looked forward to sharing time with him which never came due to his sudden passing. Her love and gratitude are immeasurable. Bob is survived by sister, Carol Davey of San Rafael, Calif.; brother-in-law, Bruce Davey; niece, Elizabeth Davey and nephew Richard Davey as well as many aunts and cousins he loved so much. Services will be Saturday, June 14, at 3 p.m. at the Maeser Fairview Cemetery. The family will receive friends one half hour prior to graveside services. states the Uintah Animal Shelter report for the month. Nineteen cats were euthanized eutha-nized over the same period. Shelter official Tina Williams said this number reflects the large number of feral cats and kitten kit-ten in the area. Williams writes, "We have calls every day from residents that need a solution to their cat problems. We do not have answers other than to spay and neuter." According to shelter officials 102 vouchers for reduced cost spay and neuter operations have been issued since the program started in February. The total .amount in, .May paid, through f used vouchers. Was $690.'"' " "' In May, a total of 89 dogs were received by the shelter, of which 48 percent were dropped off by animal control officers. Seventeen dogs and one cat were owner released to the shelter shel-ter in May. Twenty-three dogs picked up by animal control were claimed in May. Twenty-one dogs and one cat were released to the Pet Samaritan foster group. Four cats and eight dogs were adopted from the shelter in May. Finally, one unclaimed steer was sold at auction. The shelter school education program presented by Tomi Machuca ended for the year. Program Pro-gram dog ambassadors, Sugar and Quazzi, have earned a much needed rest for the summer. Machuca plans to continue the program next year. She will continue con-tinue visits every other week to the Care Center for elderly residents. resi-dents. Both hands-on programs have been a critical success. IRA )T. -4 "Mark Raymond will make an excellent leader. On June 24th, I will be supporting Mark Raymond...." - Kevin VanTassell Vernal Climate change legislation fails By Geoft Lesik Uintah Basin Standard News With Americans already paying pay-ing an average of $4 a gallon for gas nationally, a climate change bill that opponents said would have driven energy costs even higher died in the U.S. Senate on Friday. Senate bill 2191 - America's Climate Security Act of 2007 - was drafted by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and sponsored by Sens. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and John Warner, R-Va. R-Va. The bill, which would have placed a tax on emitters of six greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, didn't make it off the Senate floor after it failed to gain the 60 votes needed to prevent a filibuster threatened by Republicans. But the bill's supporters viewed the 48-36 vote as a good sign for 2008, when Democrats could control more seats in Congress Con-gress and either John McCain or Barack Obama is president. The Republican senator from Arizona and the Democratic senator from Illinois both favor mandatory reductions in greenhouse gases, while President George W. Bush had promised to veto the bill. It's that kind of optimism - despite the bill's defeat last week - that has Deseret Power President and CEO Kimball Rasmussen worried. "I think that it's a high likelihood likeli-hood we'll either see something in 2009 or 2010," Rasmussen said during an interview before Friday's vote. Under the proposed legislation, legisla-tion, the federal government would have placed caps on emissions emis-sions of carbon dioxide and five other gases beginning in 2012. Companies that emitted the targeted gases would have been required to buy federally created permits for each ton of emitted gas. However, power plants like the one operated by Deseret Power in Bonanza would only be allocated 40 percent of the allowances allow-ances they needed. The remaining remain-ing 60 percent would have to be purchased on the open market at auctions. The percentage of allowances allocated would continue con-tinue to be reduced until 2050. "In essence what they're doing do-ing is trying to get party A to stop emitting and sell their right to emit to party B that wants to continue to emit," Rasmussen said;' "It's like a musical chairs situation." Rasmussen said Deseret's models showed that the company, which provides power for Moon Lake Electric Association and five other electric cooperatives in Utah and Wyoming, would have experienced a $95 million mil-lion increase in operating costs had the Lieberman-Warner bill passed. That cost would have 3 CASH STEPS TO QUALIFY FOilSJOUft own HOME O GET PRE-APPROVED O LOCATION O HOME Clayton Homes 3768 So Redwood Rd West Valley Utah Fax: 801-975-7782 Phone:-801-975-7781 Mlh mpmiD) iii Express escalated to $160 million over the next 20 years. Moon Lake officials estimated that the average customer would have seen a $2,500 to $4,000 increase in their annual electric bill. Rasmussen said the proposed legislation would have also led to an exodus of U.S. companies to foreign countries where environmental envi-ronmental controls were more lax. Those companies could then have turned around and sold their emissions allocations domestically for a windfall profit, he said. Rasmussen also noted that Utah, which is ranked as the ninth highest state for household house-hold carbon dioxide emissions in a Heritage Center for Data Analysis study, would have borne a heavy burden had the bill passed because of its reliance on coal-fired plants for electricity. The state gets 85 to 90 percent of its power from facilities like Deseret's Bonanza plant. "A lot of the states that are clamoring for action - that have alot of political influence-won't see the impact that we'll see in Utah," Rasmussen said. "We're not opposed to protecting the environment, but make sure we know what the impacts are so we don't hurt the country. "It's not our goal to attack Oil Shale agreement signed with Petrobas and Mitsui Oil Shale Exploration Company Com-pany announced an agreement on June 9 with the Brazilian firm of Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) and the Japanese investment firm of Mitsui Co. The Bloomberg financial Web site cites the agreement among OSEC, Petrobras and Mitsui as established for the purpose of researching oil shale extraction in Vernal. Petrobras has been actively n, f We offer famous name brands such as: Ralph Lauren REVO JaicgCouto Coack D&G Offering a 15 discount on prescription and non-prescription sunglasses from May28-Junel3 No other discounts or insurance apply 185 N. Vernal Ave. . Vernal, Ut . 435 - Wednesday, the science," Rasmussen added. "It's our goal to be very good environmental stewards. But at the same time we are a not for profit enterprise that is working painstakingly hard to control the cost that our members pay for our product." Power companies that rely on coal-fired generation weren't the only ones who opposed S. 2191. An analysis performed by ICF International In-ternational at the request of the American Petroleum Institute showed that had the bill passed it would have led to a cut in the production of natural gas and oil in the U.S. API policy analyst Lou Hayden said the study found that there would have been a 12 percent decrease in natural gas production by the year 2030 had Lieberman-Warner passed. Hayden added that the decrease would have come despite acceptance accep-tance that demand for natural gas will go up because of its low greenhouse gas emissions. "If you have supply going one way and demand going the other, we don't think that's a healthy way to do this," he said. "It's disturbing on the supply side." The API study also found that had the bill passed, by the year 2020 roughly 17 percent of U.S. fuel production - about 3 million barrels per day - would extracting oil from shale for commercial com-mercial production in Brazil for the past 30 years. It has done so using "its patented Petrosix processing pro-cessing technology to diversify the sources of oil," according to the Bloomberg website. Proposed for exploration are 30,000 acres of lease lands thought to contain 3 to 4 billion barrels of shale oil. OSEC's lease in east central 'fill!' Invites you to come see the latest in SUNGLASS technology and fashion. '&'9" im A5 in Senate have moved overseas because it would become cheaper to operat e a refinery there. "Unfortunately you have that money and those jobs going go-ing overseas and you still have the emissions going up into the global atmosphere," Hayden said. "There wouldn't be an environmental benefit. All you 'd really see is an increased cost and it would hurt energy security." Hayden noted that oil and gas firms are interested in developing develop-ing environmentally friendly technology and have proven that interest by taking money out of their own bottom lines for research and development. "Since the year 2000 they've invested $42 billion in greenhouse green-house gas reduction technologies," technolo-gies," he said. "That is 45 percent per-cent of all spending on climate technology and that includes all U.S. companies and the federal government combined." Both of Utah's senators voiced strident opposition to S. 2191; however, Uintah Basin residents are still being encouraged to contact con-tact their representatives at the state and federal level with their opinion on any future legislation. One easy way to make those opinions heard is to visit www. ourenergy.coop and click on the "Contact Ejected Officials" link on the left side of the page. Utah on Bureau of Land Management Man-agement lands is for oil shale research and development. Included In-cluded are an additional 22,000 acres of private oil shale property for a total of 30,000 acres. Petrobas has been recovering recover-ing oil in the Sao Mateus do Sul district of Brazil "under strict environmental regulatory legislation, legis-lation, averaging 4,600 barrels per day in 2007." Options available include prescription, non-prescription, polarized, driving and fashion tinted lenses. x I- 4 . ; Se Habla't -espaftol 789 - 1552 June 11, 2008 |