1.3 Million Americans Sign Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less, Oil Petition

This just in from Americansolutions.com, the number of petitioners asking Congress to open up the U.S. for oil drilling is now over 1,000,000!

UPDATE: New total is 1,330,000!*

Here is Newt Gingrich's email message:

I have some exciting news to share with you. Because of your hard work and support we reached one million signatures on the "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less" petition.

Your voice and the voice of one million Americans is truly making a difference in shaping the national debate.

Just this week, President George Bush, Senator John McCain, and Florida Governor Charlie Crist all called for lifting the federal ban on offshore drilling. And U.S. Representative Lynn Westmoreland has started a pledge in the U.S. House in support of American oil production that has been signed by 126 members of Congress.

Now, we need your help to reach our next goal: 3 million signatures by the Democratic and Republican national conventions this fall. I hope you will go online today and make a special contribution of $10 or more to receive your own "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less" bumper sticker to help us grow the movement.

I also hope you'll forward this message to 5 friends and encourage them to sign the petition.

Thank you for supporting this movement of one million Americans demanding real solutions to our energy challenges.

Your friend,

Newt Gingrich
General Chairman
American Solutions

If you have not signed the petition, go to their web page DRILL HERE. DRILL NOW. PAY LESS. and look into what they are proposing. Their site also has the latest oil related articles and news.

*Thank you reader, who caught my billion error! Guess I am over anxious to hit the goal? :)

Links:
Practically Speaking, Fairly Conservative, Betterbrookfield, Mark Levin, Vicki Mckenna

Fire Station #3 Neighborhood Information Meeting Tonight

Tonight, Wednesday, June 18, there will be a Neighborhood Information Meeting for the proposed new fire station #3.

The City of Brookfield is moving the present #3 station (Moorland Rd. and Hackberry near Brookfield Square) over to Greenfield Ave. and Calhoun Road.

If you would like to find out more about this move, come to the meeting.
City Hall, Multi-Purpose room (Senior Center) from 5 - 7 PM
2000 N. Calhoun Road

Links:
Practically Speaking, Fairly Conservative, Betterbrookfield, Mark Levin, Vicki Mckenna

Brookfield's Road Closures Due to Flooding

I would say if you don't need to go anywhere today, stay put!

Aldermen Lisa Mellone and Renee' Lowerr sent out this list of closed roads today, Monday, June 9th.

1. North Ave - Derrin Ln. to Barker Rd.
2. Barker Rd. - River Rd. to Capitol Dr. Traffic Signals are out at Capitol/Barker
   
3. Barker Rd. - North Ave. to Gebhardt Rd.
4. Hackberry - East of Moorland Rd. Traffic Signals are out at Moorland/Hackberry
   
5. River Rd. - Barker Rd. to Brookfield Rd.
6. Springdale Rd. - Southbound at North Ave. (I'm thinking this should be southbound TO North Ave. This stretch is wetland from Capitol to North and often has standing water near the road after a few days of normal rain.)
   
7. Burlawn Parkway - Cardinal to Old Lantern
8. Barker Rd. - Larkspur to Industry
9. Enterprise Rd - west from Gebhardt, many businesses closed

Pilgrim Park Middle School is closed today too. Bus routes to open schools are running late or not at all, due to flooded streets.

Links:
Practically Speaking, Fairly Conservative, Betterbrookfield, Vicki Mckenna

Aldermen Lisa Mellone and Renee' Lowerr on Brookfield Flooding

Photos are from Kinsey Park Pond today.

The following are 2 email alerts from our District 7 Aldermen and Tom Grisa:

District 7 Residents,

Some of you have called and left messages, and I am now able to catch up. My street has been without power since early this morning until about 3:30 pm today. Renee Lowerr has been accessible and many of you have called her for assistance in reaching the appropriate personnel to help solve these issues and report your various problems. I know many of you have flooded basements including some with sewage back ups. The combination of power outages, 5+ inches of rain in less than 8 hours, and local flash flooding have contributed to these back ups. Copied below is an email from the Director of Public Works, Tom Grisa summarizing the events of the last 2 days. Please note these phone numbers for future reference as the forecast calls for a stormy week: If you have a basement sewage backup emergency, please contact the treatment plant 782-0199, or if it is street flooding or overland flooding call highway at 782-5029.

Renee and I will do our best to find you answers and assistance as we all continue with the clean up process. Your patience is appreciated.

Lisa Mellone 780-0805

Renee Lowerr 853-9657

Email from Tom Grisa, Director of Public Works:

First of all, I would like to inform you of what happened and is happening regarding the storm. I am sending this from home as my neighborhood is underwater and the street out of my house is flooded and I cannot get to work.

Obviously, we have had a torrential downpour in Brookfield. We are doing the best we can to deal with the myriad of problems caused by this massive storm. Flooding exists in numerous locations. We have fielded well over 100 phone calls at the treatment plant. I am certain the PD and FD have even more. We expect humdreds more this morning and people awake to messes.

According to our rain gauges at the plant we had 5.8 inches of rain from 4:30 pm to midnight. That is a higher rate of rain than occurred in the 1998 flood (8 inches of rain in 12 hours). Roads are closed in many areas, streets underwater, creeks over their banks, yards flooded, basement flooded, sump pumps not able to keep up, flooded basements draining down the floor drain into the sanitary sewer causing basement backups elsewhere, etc.

Our treatment plant normally handles 7 million gallons per day (MGD). Our treatment plant is designed to treat a maximum of 50 MGD. Last night we peaked at 66 MGD. That is 50% higher than we have ever had before since the plant was upgraded in 1996-1999 (previous record 44 MGD). I don’t know how it compares to the 1998 flows. Our Riverview interceptor (along the Fox River) normally operates at 2 MGD and was flowing at 28 MGD for a time.

We have placed bypass pumps out in several locations, and some have reduced the backups, but others are still pumping.

Power outages also were prevalent in many areas resulting in sump pumps not working and floor drains taking the flow into the sanitary sewer – thus the backups.

We have had crews out yesterday afternoon and throughout the night. We ran out of barricades for closing roads per the Policeman I spoke with this morning. Crews continue to work today to alleviate things as best they can. There just isn’t much we can do with the incredible amount of rain we had. But they are doing what they can. There is just no where for the water to go.

Please know that public works staff are doing whatever we can to address these conditions. But again, there is only so much that can be done. In some cases we can’t even get to sites because of flooded conditions. I drove around until 9 pm last night and already had trouble navigating my way through the roads. Nearly drove into 3 feet of water on Burlawn Parkway as in the dark the water was difficult to see. Now as I said earlier I can’t even get out of our court.

We continue to pump sanitary sewers, clean off inlets, etc. Inlets near my house this morning at 5 am were completely covered with mulch from people’s gardens and from the Lamplighter Park. That obviously prevents the area from draining. I waded into the water a bit (only where I knew it was safe) and cleared some of the inlets and the big one for the pond. But I do not advocate anyone from wading into water as it can be extremely dangerous.

If you have a basement backup emergency, please contact the treatment plant 782-0199, or if it is street flooding or overland flooding call highway at 782-5029. If you have info that would be helpful for us in evaluating the storm which we will do in the coming weeks, please email me at work grisa@ci.brookfield.wi.us

That is all I know for now. I will update you all when we have more information.

[Tom Grisa]

Brookfield's Rainwater Woes and Flooding -DO NOT DRIVE THROUGH DEEP WATER, you can blow your engine!

Links:
Practically Speaking, Fairly Conservative, Betterbrookfield, Vicki Mckenna

Senator's Feingold and Kohl on Lieberman/Warner Climate Security Act (Cap-and-Trade)

My response from Senator Feingold, May 2, 2008 (I don't hold out much hope here of a NO vote.)

Dear Mrs. Prast,

Thank you for contacting me regarding S. 2191, America's Climate Security Act of 2007. I appreciate hearing from you on this important issue. The United States is the largest emitter of
greenhouse gases, and it is time for the federal government to provide leadership on this issue.

As you may know, S. 2191 was introduced by Senators Joseph Lieberman (ID-CT) and John Warner (R-VA) on October 18, 2007. It would direct the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish a maximum greenhouse gas emission allowance for 2012-2050 that would gradually decrease over time. Facilities could participate in a carbon cap-and-trade program, which would allow for selling, exchanging, transferring, submitting, retiring, or borrowing emission allowances. The EPA would establish the Carbon Market Efficiency Board to oversee the carbon cap-and-trade market. S. 2191 has been referred to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. While I am not a member of this committee, I will be sure to keep your thoughts in mind as the Senate debates ways to combat global warming.

You may also be interested to know that I am an original cosponsor of S. 309, the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act. Senator Bernard Sanders (I-VT) introduced S. 309 on January 16, 2007, and it has been referred to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. This bill provides the leadership and the comprehensive, scientific-based approach to addressing global warming that Americans demand and deserve.

The bill recognizes the importance of taking an economy-wide approach to addressing global warming, and not one that targets a single sector. Industry, power, transportation, and building sectors all have a role to play in reducing global warming-causing emissions. As many of my colleagues and I wrote to the President last year, by sending the right market signals and supporting the "development of existing technologies and development of new technologies to reduce emissions," we can keep U.S. businesses competitive in the emerging carbon-conscious global marketplace.

I look forward to the full Senate considering legislation to significantly reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases. As I told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in written
testimony on January 30, 2007:

I think we all agree there is no use in a plan that does little to reduce global warming-causing emissions and makes our economy vulnerable. I do not pretend that the decisions before us are going to be easy. However, with each passing year that we fail to act, the challenge of addressing global warming and reducing emissions becomes increasingly difficult and costly - not only economically but environmentally. The time to act is now.

Thanks again for contacting me. Please feel free to do so in the future on this, or any other issue of concern to you.


Sincerely,

Russell D. Feingold
United States Senator

If you wish to contact me again, please visit
http://feingold.senate.gov/contact.html.

Senator Kohl's response from May 16, 2008 (Not much hope of a NO here either, unless he is feeling the heat of a Paul Ryan for Senate campaign?)

Dear Mrs. Prast:

Thank you for taking the time to contact me. I value the correspondence I get from people in Wisconsin, and I welcome this opportunity to address your concerns about global warming.

Greenhouse gasses and global warming are a real threat to our environment and our way of life. Changes in climate have far-reaching effects on agriculture, forestry, ecosystems, water
resources, and weather patterns. Americans are bearing the costs of rising sea levels and more destructive storms, not to mention the enormous cost to the public health and quality of life. The changes to our environment are real. Our job now is to decide what to do about it.

Senators John Warner (R-VA) and Joe Lieberman (ID-CT) introduced "America's Climate Security Act (ACSA)" on October 18, 2007. ACSA is projected to reduce total U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions by as much as 19% below the 2005 level in 2020 and by as much as 63% below the 2005 level in 2050. This bill would also improve America's energy security by promoting energy efficiency technologies.

Because the U.S. economy is so dependent upon energy, and so much of U.S. energy is derived from fossil fuels, reducing these emissions poses major challenges. However, I believe that ambitious environmental protection laws do not have to be sacrificed for robust economic growth. In the long run, economic growth and environmental protection are fully compatible goals.




On December 5, 2007, the Environment and Public Works Committee passed ACSA. Be assured that I will keep your thoughts in mind as the global warming debate moves forward.
Again, thank you for contacting me. I appreciate your thoughts on this issue.




Sincerely,


Herb Kohl
U.S. Senator



Please do not reply to this message; to make further comments or to find additional information, please
visit my web site at http://kohl.senate.gov/.

Links:
Practically Speaking, Fairly Conservative, Betterbrookfield, Vicki Mckenna