Seeing the picture spreading on the Internet of a sign at a BP gas station with the company policy “you are responsible for all spills” made me think of something.
Let’s say you are filling your car at a BP gas station, the numbers on the pump steadily ticking. But when you pull out the pump you give it an extra squeeze, spilling oil on the ground. The meter on the pump just keeps rolling. In other words, you spill it, you buy it.
At first glance, the cafeteria at Bonny Eagle Middle School was typical. Students crowded around tables talking excitedly, quickly eating off trays and drinking out of milk cartons. But what made this scene stand out was the dark green swiss chard on their plates, grown by the students in the school's greenhouse. More surprising, though, was that they were eating it-and, by the looks of things, actually enjoying it.
I recently held a forum at the school to ask experts from around the state how we can make this scene the reality for more Maine schools. Now is the time to make the changes we need to get us there as we reauthorize the Child Nutrition Act. Joining me was Kevin Concannon, Under Secretary of Food and Nutrition at the U.S. Department of Agriculture-and a born-and-raised Mainer-who was eager for input on strengthening our country's child nutrition programs.
Video of the forum
What these experts-food service directors, nutritionists, agricultural leaders, child advocates, and more-had to say was clear. Maine is making incredible progress in providing our children healthier alternatives throughout the year, but things need to change so it can go further.
Every day, programs of the Child Nutrition Act help feed over 30 million of the nation's children. They are critical for the health and success of our children, and a lifesaver for low-income families, especially as a tough economy makes it more and more difficult to put a solid meal on the table. These healthy breakfasts, lunches, and snacks are as essential to education as pencils and notebooks. As Darlene French, president of Maine School Food Service Association, said at the forum, "You can't teach a hungry child."
But for too long the system has been geared toward processed food-high in calories, low in nutrition-to the benefit of a few large companies and agriculture producers. To what end? Our children eat food trucked across the country with no connection to where it came from. Childhood obesity is a national epidemic. Today's kids are dealing with health problems that, astonishingly, have made their life expectancy shorter than that of their parents.
The Nutrition Act is doing a good job at making sure children are fed-but we need to make sure it does a better job of what it feeds them.
I'm proud to say Maine is already taking the lead. Schools across the state are producing more nutritious meals that not only feed kids but also local economies. At the forum, nutrition directors recounted that they have been able to get kids to eat vegetables they wouldn't touch before, and, what's more, that students are asking their parents for it at home. The key has been engaging kids in the process, taking them to see the farms where their food grows or, in the case of Bonny Eagle, actually getting their hands dirty.
A local community feeding its own. A hundred years ago it was the norm-it's what my grandfather came to America to do. In today's drive-thru world, it's a foreign concept. But ask yourself the question, why should we truck a can of peas across the country when we can grow them right here? Like a watershed, a "foodshed" describes the food that can be produced in a given area. In Maine, that "foodshed" is rich with local farms looking to gain a foothold in the market. There is incredible potential for economic development if they have major institutions to create the demand.
Many Maine schools are eager to oblige and have been incredibly industrious in stretching their thin resources to make this change happen. But they don't have many of the resources they need. After all, for years, they made lunch from a box; it takes more equipment and more training to turn the raw ingredients into a meal.
Leaders at the forum expressed a number of ways the Nutrition Act could support their efforts. Schools need more access to grants like the one that helped Lewiston schools buy a refrigerator so it could store fresh ingredients. A more streamlined paperwork process would help eligible families sign up for free and reduced lunches as well as other programs. It should be harder for school districts to raid food budgets for other departments. A strong Farms to Schools program would set the groundwork schools need to access more local food.
Leaders also supported strengthening key Nutrition Act programs that subsidize meals at child-care facilities, provide assistance to summer student programs, provide snacks after school, funds grants for schools to provide fruits vegetables, and more.
Concannon was truly impressed with what he heard and, like me, pledged to bring their comments back to Washington as the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act takes shape. If you have an idea to share, please email it to pingree.questions@mail.house.gov. You can find video of the entire forum at http://pingree.house.gov.
Make BP pay royalties on spilled oil and invest them in clean energy
When explosion and fire ripped through the Deepwater Horizon, the first priority was saving the lives of the crew. Sadly, for eleven workers, it was too late.
Then came the challenge of sealing the well with the blowout preventer, a mile below the surface. As we now know all too well, that effort was a complete failure.
Next there was a massive effort to contain the oil before it reached the fragile coastal ecosystem. But this week the first images of dead pelicans and oil coated marshes began to appear.
What comes next will be the assessment of the overwhelming damage to the Gulf Coast economy and environment and the long process of repairing that damage. The size of this spill is almostincomprehensible &emdash; reports of the damage have only just begun. And despite all the rhetoric we've heard, I don't think anyone is really convinced that every last fishing family will be made whole and every wetland retuned to its pre-spill condition any time soon.
Throughout all this, the public outrage has been palpable--in Washington, among the pundits and talking heads, in my own home state of Maine, and truly everywhere in the country. And while politician after politician has been clamoring to be the loudest voice shouting "make BP pay" it's been a challenge to find a clearly articulated progressive way forward--for the Gulf, or our entire nation.
Our response to this disaster--as Americans and progressives--will affect the economic and environmental health of our country and our planet for the rest of our lives. To help the Gulf recover, and to use this disaster to move our nation towards a renewable energy future, I propose that:
BP must be held accountable for this spill, and we should use the full force of government to force them to pay for every dime of the Gulf's recovery.
BP should pay royalties on every barrel of oil they have spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. That's the American people's oil, and we should be compensated for it.
Those royalty payments should be used to create clean energy projects. Let's make the big oil companies help us end our dependence on fossil fuels.
With the possible exception of Senate candidate Rand Paul, it's hard to imagine there is anyone in this country who doesn't think that BP should be made to pay--and pay dearly--for the damage they've done. Not only do we need to hold BP accountable, but we should also throw the book at them for every civil and criminal penalty that applies. But we also should look beyond reparation and retribution and use this crisis as an opportunity to move this country down the path to a clean energy future, and BP should help us get there.
Oil companies pay royalties on oil they sell. But the fact that millions of gallons of oil from the Deepwater Horizon well in the Gulf will never make it to market shouldn't matter. BP should pay royalties on every drop that comes out of that well--whether or not they capture and sell it and whether or not they are proven to be negligent in the spill. By drilling quickly and ignoring what sound to be the warning signs of a blow out, BP caused massive amounts of oil to be spilled and wasted, and they should pay the same royalties on that oil, just as if they sold it.
Once we collect those royalties, we should put them to work helping developers of offshore clean energy to get their projects approved and permitted. For too long the system has been biased in favor of oil and gas developers: sweetheart lease deals, generous subsidies and a regulatory process so slanted in favor of Big Oil that often permit reviews are simply waived.
Incredibly, oil and gas companies don't have to pay certain environmental costs that amount to small change to them, while an offshore wind project start-up is faced with fees that could mean the difference between building a wind farm and packing up and going home. One way to level the playing field is to put the millions of dollars in royalties I believe BP owes on the spilled oil into a special fund to help cover those environmental permitting fees for ocean-based clean energy projects.
There is an incredible renewable energy resource off both coasts of this country--wind and tidal energy that can power our economy, create good paying jobs and reduce greenhouse gas pollution. It's time for us to start using it and if big oil companies like BP make that transition a little easier, then there is some justice in the world.
Maine Congresswoman Chellie Pingree is Vice Co-Chair of the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition
If we want to find a perfect example of why we need comprehensive health-care reform, we need look no further than our own state and the insurance company that dominates its market, Anthem.
Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VA) Togus in Augusta serves thousands of Maine veterans every year. At this facility, men and women who have made great sacrifices for their country and community get the medical care they deserve. But for Anthem this has become an opportunity to cut costs.
Veterans covered by the Anthem Federal Employee Plan go to Togus for medical treatment. The hospital had a year to file claims to the insurance company for payment. That is, until last summer, when officials at Togus were told that a half-million dollars in claims would not be paid. They had not been submitted by the deadline-Anthem's new deadline of 120 days.
How did the insurance company communicate this important policy change? With a short blurb buried in the company newsletter, which, by the way, the hospital has no record of receiving. There were no letters, no calls, and no emails until the hospital had racked up a half-million in claims the company had no intention of paying.
When my office was told of the situation we looked into it and decided to send a letter to Anthem president Daniel Corcoran urging him to reconsider the new policy. Not only did the unexpected and un-communicated change result in a huge shortfall for a facility that already struggles to cover all the needs of our veterans, but the short deadline presented an unreasonable burden going forward.
We were pleased to hear in January that the company had decided to pay those claims and restore the former filing deadline. However, I do remain concerned about how the company arrived at this unfair and inconsiderate policy in the first place. Combined with other recent company decisions I consider questionable, it seems to be par for the course.
We are all dealing with the results of the economic downturn. For Maine families, it has meant working harder, cutting back, and making sacrifices. But for insurance companies, the coping strategy has been cutting coverage, denying claims, and asking customers to pay skyrocketing rates.
The strategy has certainly proved effective for the companies. Wellpoint-Anthem's parent company and the largest insurer in the nation-posted a $4.7 billion profit in 2009 (not to mention $2.5 billion in 2008 and $3 billion in 2007). The company expects to have larger returns in 2010.
What does this mean for us? The company says it's suffering from the bad economy because customers are cancelling policies which have become unaffordable. To make up for the loss of income, the company has dramatically increased the rates on its remaining customers. In California, Anthem is asking for a 39 percent increase on individual policies, sparking an investigation by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, chaired by Henry Waxman.
Maine is also being asked to absorb Anthem's dramatic rate increases. This year it's 22 percent, which will force many customers to drop their policies. The proposal comes as the company sues the State of Maine to overturn its denial of last year's 18 percent increase request.
Along with leaders in the Maine Legislature, I've written a letter to Chairman Waxman asking to expand the committee's investigation into Anthem's skyrocketing rates to include the company's practices in Maine.
Why do insurance companies think they can get away with choosing excessive profits over the very lives and livelihoods of their customers? Well, because right now they can. A handful of large corporations dominate the country's market. In Maine, Anthem's market share is nearly 80 percent. With little or no competition in the market, customers have only two choices: take the hit from an insurance company or go without.
That just isn't acceptable. We need to institute measures that give power back to consumers by holding insurance companies accountable and creating more competition. Insurance companies should not be able to deny coverage and cherry-pick the healthy. Consumers should have measures that protect them from being bankrupted by high out-of-pocket costs, and seniors should have lower prescription drug costs.
And consumers should have choices. Not between going without and an overpriced, under-covering policy, but between a number of options that all offer quality, affordable care.
I think the best way to get there is passing comprehensive health-care reform with a public option-a voluntary, publicly accountable insurance plan. This would expand and improve coverage for millions by insuring some Americans and bringing down costs for others by growing competition in the market.
Think what insurance companies would do if consumers could hold them accountable. They would probably think twice before proposing skyrocketing rates and denying payment owed for veterans. This power-the choice of the consumer-is central to the health-care reform we need.
DIRIGO BLUE is available as an