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Show A6 Wednesday, July 23, 2008 Vernal Express UpiOiOfil 1 1 iii hi ini ma iii iiiimii m nn iirnwi rr inmrtr wwiWMiniit!iiniiii)i'Titir i m n-TrrimiiKirtir m-rr H inwniTinv,TirT-TT'-Tir- Web opinion poll Each week the Vernal Express offers an online poll to its readers. To participate in the poll, visit www.vernal.com and click on the opinion link. Polls are not scientific and represent the opinions of voluntary Internet users. New polls are posted every two weeks and printed results re-sults represent voting as of Tuesday morning. If you have an idea for an opinion poll, e-mail it to editorvernal.com. Question for this week The Uintah Community Center was delayed several months and ran over budget. Was the recreation facility worth the wait and financial cost? a) Yes (53) b) No (47) BERTHA BUTTERBEAN Question for this week The Vernal Express staff recently heard of people who go squirrel hunting in the early fall. They say the meat is quite tasty. Have you ever been squirrel hunting for food? a) Yes b) No YES Oil in our own backyard By Sectors Bob Beiwett and Drrin Hatch Guest contributers Last month, Senate Republicans Repub-licans unveiled the Gas Price Reduction Act of 2008, a common-sense common-sense plan to help lower the price at the pump. We are cosponsors of this bill and support its guiding principle that Americans should "find more and use less" energy. The plan also provides Utah with an opportunity to be a world leader in energy production. Many Utahns have asked us why the price of gasoline is so high and what we can do to fix it. The world's current trend of oil production and consumption is similar to families that spend more than they make each month. They can get by as long as there are resources left in the bank, but the more they draw down the available resources, the less of a cushion they have in the future. For years, we've been using more oil than we've been producing and it's finally caught up with us. The United States needs a course correction to provide stability sta-bility to our oil markets. Congress recently acted on the "use less" side of the equation by increasing increas-ing CAFE mileage standards for vehicles and mandating various efficiency requirements. The Gas Price Reduction Act continues our conservation efforts by promoting plug-in electric vehicles, which on an average driving day would use little or no petroleum. However, efficiency alone cannot can-not stabilize our energy markets because the United States is spending $700 billion per year on foreign oil. We must find more oil in our country. Fortunately, we don't have to look far to find it. Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming have more than 800 billion barrels bar-rels of recoverable oil locked up in oil shale, a rock that produces oil when heated. This is more than three times the amount of Saudi Arabia's oil reserves. Utah also has 14 to 15 billion barrels of oil in tar sands. Developing these resources would help increase the cushion in the supply that we need to stabilize stabi-lize the gasoline market. Oil shale development is not a new idea; other nations have produced pro-duced oil from shale for decades. We have, however, improved the technology to significantly reduce the environmental impacts. A pilot project in Utah is already using us-ing this new technology on state land and could start producing oil later this year. Oil shale on federal land, however, is specifically locked up by the Democratic Congress. It's hypocritical for some members of Congress to prohibit Americans Ameri-cans from developing American resources while simultaneously asking the president to beg Saudi Arabia for more oil. The Gas Price Reduction Act would lift the moratorium that prohibits the government from issuing regulations regula-tions for commercial oil shale leases. Companies will not want to invest billions in an industry where the rules of the game are not defined. We support and welcome 'all ' " forms of energy - renewable an5' non-renewable. We have both voted for solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, nuclear, coal, natural gas, petroleum, and other sources of energy. All sources, along with conservation, are important in the overall goal of reducing our dependence on foreign oil. The Gas Price Reduction Act goes a step further by allowing Utahns to harness the abundant resources resourc-es that are at our fingertips. There is not a simple solution to our multifaceted energy problem. prob-lem. Conservation is critical, but it's only one piece of the puzzle, and we can't conserve our way out of this energy crisis. We must also address the supply side of the energy equation and develop more domestic oil. Americans are looking for long-term solutions to our energy crisis, and it's irresponsible ir-responsible to turn a blind eye to the resources available in Utah's own backyard. m Ml ooKft THAT SHOW I 1W l , ' X - (OS C0rtVeN7ioNj How to waste not your zucchini By Dana Colovich I. J.,. m i - - f Guest Writer Well, we picked our first zucchini zuc-chini of the summer today to-day -just the beginning of many more zucchinis to come, I am sure. I know there is a zucchini zuc-chini tradition - zucchini in summer is the counterpart of fruitcake at Christmas. And I will probably write about fruitcake in December if I haven't already. But I am herewith climbing on the annual an-nual zucchini jokewagon in an effort to outdo all of the other zukesters. Just so you know, my mother tried to teach me not to waste anything. Along with a houseful of kids, she was the mother of recycling. My mom was waste-free when waste-free wasn't cool. And speaking of zucchini, we ate them for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the whole month of August when I was growing up. Granted, there are a lot of ways to disguise zucchini. That is because they don't really have any taste and can therefore be made to taste like anything - apple pie, spice cake, chicken casserole. If someone has a zucchini ( chocolate recipe, I would like to have it please. I say that the most serious waste of all is unused zucchini. zuc-chini. Having a seven-year supply of them squirreled away is no excuse for wasting the rabbit of the vegetable kingdom. Did I mix my metaphors meta-phors again? I looked it up - the word "zucchini" is diminutive of zucca squash. In other words, around here we grow the small variety. Aren't you glad we don't grow the large one? So to help you be more green, (no pun intended), here is the Butterbean suggestion sug-gestion list of ways to use all that superfluous zucchini. zuc-chini. Warning:, this list is not mother-approved. 1 . These are dog days. Use one for a doorstop. 2. Give them to your kids to make canoes to float in the bathtub. With a little imagination, they may be able to make other toys out of them. 3. Dry them and make kitchen witches. The color is perfect. 4. Use them for shoe trees. This will use up two at a time. 5. Let the kids play war with them. They make great grenades. My kids used to play a game called "bazooc-chini." "bazooc-chini." 6. Slice the overgrown .f i ' DOM J EXCESS . "V DONT LET EUROPE'S i-ATAwnniirin J TTm p........... i "o"9v , J : -O ... SJja.Jg.ilriTilly) 7l i . fiPFPTIWfiS. ..U 1 ft PROSPFrmFMOMOREilr l. kvivi nvi" ones 34 of an inch thick and load them into your clay pigeon thrower. 7. Collect a representative sampling of them and take them to the county fair. You could "stuff the ballot box" by submitting courtesy entries for your friends and relatives. That one that tripled in size overnight could be entered into the largest vegetable contest. If it is a pumpkin contest, play dumb. 8. Box some up and send them to the IRS. 9. Tryjugglingsome. They should substitute well for bowling pins. This method is most effective if you are a novice juggler. But novice or not, start out with several. 10. I think they might make good fish bait. Try a small one whole when fishing for bass. 11. Leave them lying around in the back yard. Maybe the dog will bury them. 12. Conduct scientific experiments ex-periments with them: I should think that zucchini could be used to make something really re-ally useful like bio-fuel and with a little encouragement, which noonehasbeen willing to give them before now, (no one fertilizes zucchini plants) could be made to out-produce corn as a crop. And unlike corn, if they disappeared from the food chain, no one would ever notice. Whatever use you find for your extra zucchinis, remember remem-ber two things: keep your car locked from now until first frost and never, never throw zucchini in the garbage, no matter what. Public Forum - Letters to the Editor What is your opinion? The Vernal Express welcomes letters from its readers concerning any subject pertinent to the Uintah Basin. There are no restrictions on contents, if in good taste and not libelous or vindictive. Letters may be edited for grammar and style, length and content. All letters must be submitted exclusively to the Vernal Express and bear the full name, signature, phone number and address of the writer or writers. Letters for the sole purpose of expressing thanks to individuals or groups will not be printed in this forum. Submissions may be mailed to 54 N. Vernal Ave., Vernal, UT 84078; faxed to 435-789-8690 or sent by e-mail to editorvernal.com The name or names of the persons submitting letters must appear on all published letters. Lettersexpressjthe opinion of the writer or writers and are not necessarily the opioion ,of the Vernal Express. High Uinta Scout Camp among best Dear editor, My 12-year-old son and I attended High Uinta Scout Camp last week. We were visitors to your area from Arizona. We attended camp with a scout troop from Cedar Hills. In talking with the camp staff and counselors, it was apparent that the camp was run by the people of Vernal and its surrounding communities. com-munities. The camp was well organized and offered abroad variety of merit badges. The staff members were helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, and cheerful. They readily demonstrated these great qualities of scouting. They were also very encouraging with our young scouts. We wanted to thank the people ofVernal involved with the camp for such a great experience. We appreciate all that was done for us, often going beyond the call of duty. Thank you all. Keep up the good work! Mark Jorgensen Arizona These are not Reagan Republicans To the editor, A few months ago all the Republican presidential candidates can-didates were claiming to be the reincarnation of Ronald Reagan! Ronald Reagan must be tossing and turning in his grave. From a speech given by Reagan Nov. 14, 1974. "Continual "Con-tinual deficit financing, year in and year out, is not the path to prosperity. It is the road to national bankruptcy. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy because the more the government govern-ment goes into debt, the more it must borrow." And that is exactly where we find ourselves today after years of Bush and Republican deficit spending. Ron Lowe Nevada City, Culif. Family appreciates community help Dear editor, Everything was going great, We spent a wonderful wonder-ful afternoon in the yard, barbecuing and playing with our labs. Then our daughter returned from a friend's house as I stepped out the front door of our home, she started yelling "Our house is on fire, our house is on fire!" I couldn't believe my eyes. Smoke was billowing from the roof of the garage. My husband, Bill, wasn't in the front yard. What should I do? Well, we did what was necessary neces-sary moving vehicles and getting get-ting the dogs from the back yard. Bill was around the corner visiting at the Chevron station, the fire department was called by a friend. Then, the miracles began. We wish to express our deep appreciation to the firefighters firefight-ers for the brave and excellent job they did in putting out the fire and making sure everyone every-one was safe. The policemen were on the scene directing traffic and making sure no one was harmed. The EMTs and ambulance personnel were also on hand. Thanks to all of you for what you did for us and for the community on the evening of May 25. The story doesn't end there however. Within moments mo-ments people from the neighborhood, neigh-borhood, our church and our family and friends were gathered around offering help in the form of a place to stay, food, and more. We appreciate all of you so very much. Then, Cathy Allen, Joni Crane and others started pulling things together and within one week of the fire had a wonderful apartment apart-ment ready for our family to move into. All we had to do was bring a toothbrush and clothes. Everything we needed to live was provided. We have tried to send thank you's out to all those we know of who so graciously gave of their time, talents, food, clothes, and more. We don't want to miss anyone in telling you how much you have helped our family. Many businesses also provided items for our family and we are very grateful to you as well. To Wal-Mart, Western Living, Lowes, Peterson Medical, Valley Home Medical, True Value, Basin Sports, Turning Point Shelter, Marellas, West End Cleaners, Channel X94, thank you big time! We are appreciative of the young people who gave their time to help prepare the apartment for painting, for planting flowers, helping with the furniture and many other things. A burden was lifted from our shoulders by all of your willingness to share and we will always be grateful to you. From the moment we walked through the door of the apartment, we have felt at home. It is because of the love, caring, concern, and gracious gra-cious givingthat the feeling of love abounds around us and we so want you all to know how much we appreciate everything. Thank you again. We love and appreciate all of you. Bill, Pat & McKenley Yadon David & JaNelYadon Eric & Audra Yadon Response to McCain calling public schools 'broken' Dear editor, I listened today with great interest as the presumptive nominee for the Republican Party, John McCain, told the NAACP that the public school system is broken and that because of teacher unions and ineffective administration administra-tion that we need to fund charter schools, vouchers for private education and virtual schools. As a member of the Utah State Board of Education and a public educator for over a quarter of a century, I am continually concerned the our Republican politicians believe that public education educa-tion is broken because of the governance structure of the public schools, but disavow their role in funding public education in away that allows ' that governance structure to determine how to fund necessary neces-sary programs. I hope as you go to the polls this fall that as the public in public education that you attempt at-tempt to hold all politicians, including our State Board of Education, to task for providing provid-ing a quality education for all students - but especially holding the federal and state legislative bodies that fund education to the mark for funding education without all the strings attached. NCLB has done much to improve education, especially in some states that were not evaluating evaluat-ing their progress. However, it seems questionable to decrease de-crease funding to schools that are failing, instead of funding to improve the areas where these schools fall short. Ultimately, many in our state of Utah and other states throughout the nation, there are not other choices for educating edu-cating our children - so why not fund public education and support reform and the existing ex-isting governance structure - especially teachers? Dixie Allen State Board of Education District 14 "Suro, It's priced right nnd good for my bock . . . but how will my MONEY do undor It?" |