The "blue badge" servers today were:
Sgt at Arms Bill Price
Paul Harris Desk James Guerrero
Bulletin Ron Adkins (substituting! for Judy Hosea)
Bill Young introduced the visiting Rotarians: Bob Eddington, Clover Park, Don Milton, Fife-Milton, (I suspect there's an error there, so I'd like to squeeze in this meek apology) and, with some prompting from Past President and Past Assistant Governor Dave Covey, John Anderson of the Sumner Club and AG for our area.
Mary Covelli Johnson introduced her guest, Lauren, and Bud Montgomery introduced prospective member, Donya Martin.
Jan Luze in her Sunshine Report noted that Founding Member Bernie Ootkin's granddaughter, Emma, (and past member Greg Ootkin's daughter) successfully completed the surgery to remove a brain tumor and appears headed for home on Saturday, August 1.
Morris Northcutt stood to beg the forgiveness of the Club for his misspoken speaking at the last meeting. The Fellowship Regata will be on August 13th, not whatever date was provided last week. Departure will be at the Tacoma Yacht Club at 12:45PM. Morris offered up $5 as a self-imposed fine for his previous slip of the tongue and another $5 because he was about to slip out the door. (President Greg took advantage of this opportunity to remind us that, yes, the $5 "early leaver" fine continues into his administration.)
Prez Greg announced that the Rotary pins incorporating the new RI logo are in and were piled on the entry tables. If you didn't get one, they are likely to be available next week.
And now to the major forthcoming events.
Courage Classic. Yes, the Courage Classic is this weekend, and you may have already missed one of the truly major service opportunities associated with the event, that being the loading of major equipment. We'll skip the details since that should already be completed at this is written. DaveCovey then asked that all of our riders and worker-bees stand and there were few left to applaud. A huge "thank you" to all participants, whatever your role.
Homebrew Festival. President-elect Mick Johnson built on Pres Greg's remark about the "invitation only" aspect of the event. We cannot, must not and will not advertise this event. We may, however, invite whoever we wish (such as other Rotarians) and they may invite guests. This will be a family event; kids (under 21) are welcome and don't pay the $25 participation fee. The event will, in addition to the homebrew samplings, include music, a car show, a golf event, hand-crafted root beers, and, well, gosh, just tons of stuff to generate fellowship among the several hundred participants expected to roll in some 29 days or so from now. Yeah, yeah, yeah . . . it will be on Saturday, August 29th, at Horn's water ski lake in Orting
Mick started the distribution of the tickets today. The tickets show the hours as noon until 7:00PM and, on the back, detail the directions.
Before you buy your tickets or sell to others, you might want to check out the following website:
http://www.lakewoodrotaryhomebrewfestival.com. There is a wealth of information available here.
Now, about the tickets. Remember, our goal is to sell as many tickets as possible as early as possible. The point here is to do the best job we can in estimating the crowd. The price, which does not show on the tickets, is $25 per ticket.
Fireside alert. On Monday, August 3rd, at 7:00PM, Cal and Kai Kushen will throw open their doors to the five or so prospective members and spouses as well as various Club members to help inform these new members about the world of Rotary generally and the Rotary Club of Lakewood in particular. All new or prospective members who haven't already been to a Fireside should make every effort to attend. The Kushen address is 8206 Amber Drive SW, and the telephone number is 581-1405. This is in Oakbrook, and a Mapquest guide is highly recommended for those of you who are unfamiliar with Oakbrook.
Other announcement and fines.
Gayle Selden related that the Friday night out fellowship was a huge success. Some 61 patrons came to dinner at the Oakbrook Country Club, and 64 went to the play at Lakewood Players. They made up a very substantial portion of the audience. Watch for future fun and frolic opportunities (after the Homebrew Festival, of course).
There are a couple "new"cars in the Club garage. Past President Gary Fulton paid $100 for a Honda, and he noted that he'll not be participating in the Homebrew Festival since it conflicts with a previously planned celebration of his 45th wedding anniversary. Why not combine the activities??? Mick Johnson also ponied up $100, and this was for a Toyota hybrid. Ron Adkins offered $5 (five measly dollars???) for the opportunity to let folks know that his new car was actually a rental, and he offered the following advice:
"Before you back out of your garage, be sure your car doors are closed."
Jane Whitney had some fun trying to skate on her $10 fine for her July birthday. No dice! Fork over the ten-spot, Jane, she did.
The program.
Our speaker today was Bill Gaines, CEO and Director of Tacoma Public Utilities. His remarks were so specific (and, in your scribe's opinion) so important, that I asked for some help to ensure accuracy. He simply gave me his "talking points."
Tacoma Public Utilities (TPU) is moving from a policy regime that emphasized "least cost planning" and minimization of customer rates to one which focuses on renewable resources and minimization of carbon emissions. This is beginning to create pressure on customer rate in addition to other cost pressures such as commodities, labor, and so forth.
Two recent pieces of legislation are interrelated on the matters of Climate and Energy.
Waxman/Markey Climate and Energy Bill, a "cap and trade" program which puts a limit on carbon emissions that declines over time. It prohibits the construction of or power purchase from a generator that emits more than a natural-gas fired plant. This effectively makes it impossible for a Washington State utility to be involved in a coal-fired power plant.
I-937. A WA State citizen initiative passed in 2006. This is the controlling legislation affecting Tacoma Power. It requires acquisition of "renewable" resources in steps up to 15% of the portfolio by 2020. It also required acquisition of all cost-effective conservation. [These things work against one another.] The obligation is without regard to need, and hydro does not count as renewable.
Senate bill SB 5840 attempted in the 2009 legislature to make improvements in I-937 but did not pass.
The effects on Tacoma Power centers around the following considerations. Tacoma Power will not need new resources for at least ten years, and essentially all of Tacoma's power comes from low-cost hydro. Tacoma Power has embarked on an aggressive energy conservation program. Positive results should mean lower costs for customers, especially compared to renewable resources, and this would further delay the need for the resources.
The State level I-937 law will require Tacoma Power to collect $16,000,000 per year from its customers for resources that they do not need. {In the Q&A section, Bill explained this along these lines: Tacoma Power produces power at about $25/K watt using hydro. Coal-fired plants produce power at about $70, and wind-power produces at about $90. Tacoma Power already produces more than customers demand, so we are in a position to sell the surplus to other areas (California, for example). Why is not a good thing? Well, remember that I-937 requires the production of power from renewables, and the costs of that are above the market rate for our surplus.}
The Renewable Energy Standard does not include hydroelectricity but, for these purposes, focuses on wind and solar that are significantly more costly. Remember, Tacoma Power must be producing 15-20% of its power from renewables by 2020. All this is required without regard to our need for resources (and this is a fundamental departure from historical utility planning), but it can be offset partially with conservation which is more cost effective.
There are two regional policy programs. The Western Climate Initiative (WCI) includes seven western states working to establish a regional "cap and trade" system, one objective being to prod the federal government into action, but this has not received support in most State legislatures. The NWPPC 6th Power Plan is the region's Power Planning Council's product. The NWPPC was formed in 1980 and produces a revised plan every five years.
Work continues such as SB 6001 in which the utility community to make consumer-friendly improvements to Initiative 937.
(NOTE: Any errors or misrepresentations are the fault of the Bulletin writer in his effort to make the skeletal "talking points" read more as a narrative.)
Also, in the Q&A a number of questions came up, especially about the role of nuclear powered generation. A key advantage is much lower carbon emissions. "Nuclear" is no silver bullet, but, for those seriously concerned about carbon emissions, this is a desirable option.
FYI, Bill started almost ten minutes early and pushed up against the 1:30 cutoff. He praised the group for the quality of questions it posed.
Ralph Johnson had the lucky ticket today and went home with $5.
We adjourned at 1:30PM.
Un-classified ad: Ward Fletcher's hand truck is missing. It is a lovely tool, what with its balloon tires and all, and Ward sure would like to get back together with it. The circumstances of its departure are vague, but the hand truck was placed in the Rotary storage locker just a few months ago (Sportsman's Dinner time frame). We know that strange things can happen, especially in those dark storage lockers, but there's some long money on the proposition that it didn't transform itself. If you've got the hand truck (or know someone who might), talk to Ward. That will save us a lot of trouble in terms of questioning everyone.
Our outgoing exchange student is Hunter Larsen, and he's having an incredible time in India. Please remember that the exchange program is open to family members of Rotarians. New outgoing interviews are in the fall. Contact Greg Rediske with interest or questions.
Hunter Larsen
Left July 8; 32 hours of travel (23 in the air)
City of Jalgoan, central India, birthplace of the current President
½ million people
Temperature to 115+ degrees in summer (average 86 now); gets as cold as 50 degrees in the dead of winter.
30 inches of rain per year, almost all of it between June and Sept (monsoons)
Hunter has a servant to wash his clothes. (His mother said to this, that she believes "Rotary covers that servant topic in Rotary's rebound meetings, in a session titled 'Your mother will not be doing your laundry upon your return'")
Starts school July 16 at St. Teresa's Convent Higher Secondary School (www.stteresajalgaon.edu.in/home.htm)
Juhi from Jalgoan will be going to a Rotary Club in Poulsbo: she is currently still in India, and will introduce Hunter around to the high school.
Another exchange student from Vermont just arrived as well, and he is helping her along. They recently had some street food: lassi (sweet yogurt) and Bhel (unexplainable).
"I went to a Rotary meeting yesterday. Although instead of the presentation including a meeting of all foreign exchange students, it was about high adventure scouting. I did meet one student who is leaving India and traveling to North Dakota. I told him to bring lots of warm clothes. Later I talked to the man who gave the presentation on scouting and told him I was an Eagle. He offered to have me as a volunteer at one of his many camps."
Hunter became an Eagle Scout 3 days before leaving for India. His final project was a wheelchair ramp at the Lakewood Playhouse. Sponsors included Korsmo Construction, among others.
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