COUNTDOWNS:
NFIP Expiration (7 days)
Government Shutdown (7 days)
New Congress (20 days)
Congress is racing to the edge of the cliff….again! No, they won’t all fall off. Only part of the federal government (not Congress) will shut down a week from today if the President and Congress can’t agree on money for the border wall. I’m willing to bet that the soccer proclivities of Congress will win out over a deal. That means kicking the can into the next Congress with a Continuing Resolution until sometime in January/February/March. My bet is only hedged by this reality: The President will be in a worse position starting January 3rd when the Democrats take over the House. It’s getting sadly easier to agree with those who say we have a dysfunctional government. The inability to do the basics has become the norm in recent years. Next year looks no different.
Coming in 2019. We’ve got some exciting news will be releasing early in the New Year about our new corporate initiative called Coastal Strategies. Also, there’s be occasional special WaterLog reports, with the first one called THE WAX REPORT, scheduled to be released by mid-January.
It’s not US car manufacturers who are spearheading the effort to relax auto fuel pollution standards. According to an article in the New York Times, Marathon Petroleum led the effort together with other oil industry groups bolstered by conservative groups that simply don’t like government regulating how much smoke cars emit. Take us back to pre-Nixon and H.W. Bush days and you can start seeing white stuff out of tail pipes again. Aside from folks like me who have asthma and want to breathe cleaner air, the increase of greenhouse gas emissions will make climate change worse.
Commercial space travel has taken a big step forward with the flight this week of a craft that looks like an airplane. If it can reach orbit in its next effort, perhaps some of the folks who don’t want cleaner air can climb aboard and head for Mars! Okay, that’s not going to happen for several years, so if you care about clean air, you’ll need to speak up about the proposed relaxation of car emission standards.
Dan and I will be presenting to the Florida Shore and Beach Preservation Association’s 32nd National Conference on BeachPreservation Technology in St. Augustine Beach, Florida. Our talk will be about Improving Beach Nourishment Effectiveness While Reducing Costs Through Regional Collaboration. We’re scheduled up for a 5pm talk on the 6th so we’re thinking about free gift cards to the nearest Starbucks to keep people from nodding off. Click here to get more information about the conference.
