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Articles by Randy Simmons
Stories of Hope: TeenZone a place to learn, laugh for siblings
Hello, our names are Shyanna and Randy Simmons, and we’re both 9th graders at Atlantic High School in Port Orange. Starting high school has been a big change, but being part of Ms. Lang’s TeenZone three days per week has helped positively jumpstart our experience. We’ve also met some pretty cool people! During TeenZone meetings, we do our homework — especially reading and writing — and it’s become a supportive place where we can learn, ask questions, and feel comfortable as new students.
Germany shows how shifting to renewable energy can backfire
Christmas Eve in Germany brought an extra bit of joy to some — utilities paid customers to use electricity rather than the other way around. When there is too much supply, those producing the power will pay others to use it. This phenomenon of negative electricity pricing isn’t unheard of in the United States — both Texas and California experience it as well. Why though, don’t suppliers simply respond to negative prices by turning off their generators?
Environment suffers as union diverts funds to clean deserted mine sites
The Abandoned Mine Land fund (AML) is America’s source of funding for reclaiming abandoned coal mines, especially those causing environmental damage. Financed through a tax on coal production, the AML was set up by Congress to serve that goal alone. Since its 1977 passage, however, numerous interest groups have managed to jockey for a piece of the fund.
Clean Power Plan leaves businesses and families stuck with the bill
This week, arguments for and against what has been called the "most aggressively litigated environmental regulation in U.S. history" — the Clean Power Plan — were presented to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. The rule, issued last year by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), sets carbon dioxide emissions limits for fossil-fuel fired power plants, and is so controversial that 10 judges, rather than the usual three, will hear oral arguments.
My view: Adding national monument status to Bears Ears would likely restrict access
This spring, officials representing the Navajo Nation sent a letter to President Barack Obama calling for the designation of the Bears Ears Buttes as a national monument, sparking a debate that has reached a national level during the past few months, with no signs of letting up. The proposed Bears Ears National Monument would encompass 1.9 million acres in southeastern Utah, large parts of which are in San Juan County.
Yellowstone is both a manufactured place and a wilderness
This year, during the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service (NPS), millions of Americans will travel to Yellowstone to experience the grandeur of the world's first national park. Geysers, waterfalls and wildlife dazzle visitors, but not everybody sees Yellowstone the same way. Ask a visitor from New York City, and she might say that Yellowstone is the epitome of wilderness, with its wide-open valleys and its snowcapped peaks.
National view: Management, not tourists, hurting national parks
This year the National Park Service celebrates its centennial. Despite the celebrations, not everything is well in our national parks. Just this year in Yellowstone, popular media covered stories of a bison calf that was euthanized after tourists put it in their car and a tourist who died when he fell in an acidic hot spring.The number of visitors and the list of accidents in our national parks continues to grow each year. Many people now wonder whether we are loving our national parks to death.
What do we have to show for government subsidies of wind power?
For the past 23 years, the federal government has subsidized wind power with tens of billions of taxpayer dollars through the Production Tax Credit (PTC). What do we have to show for it? Wind energy only supplied 1.6 percent of total U.S. energy in 2014. Now the Department of Energy wants to reach a ridiculous goal of 20 percent wind energy by 2030.
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