Comments on: Bootlegging Black Liquor
By redhawk on 12-09-09
Don’t you just love how items are buried in a bill that has nothing to do with the item? Title 18 USC 2252A is one such law that was passed using that technique. Basically, it says that every one of our teenagers that has sent a suggestive picture to anyone is guilty and the mandatory minimum is 5 years in federal prison. No matter what the circumstances. The law is so broad and all encompassing that it is frequently misused. One prosecutor is actually charging two teens. The girl is charged with manufacturing and distributing child pornography, and her boyfriend is charged with receipt.
The title of a bill usually has nothing to do with the hidden agendas, so the public is frequently unaware of what the law states in actuality. I find that frightening.
By Fair Row on 12-10-09
I’m not so sure Mr. Skinner is accurate when he states pulp mills have been recycling ‘black liquor’ since the 1930s. I was born and raised in an International Paper Co. mill town in Maine and I seem to recall they were dumping this foul and environmentally hazardous by-product into the river. The river water ran brown from a number of mills up river doing the same. I could be wrong, but that’s my recollection. In the late 70s/early 80s, he mills were forced to dispose of the black liquor by clean water legislation that made it very expensive to not comply with the law. It took until 1990 before compliance suits ran out and IP lost the battle.
By Matthew Koehler on 12-11-09
Dave, Thanks so much for your excellent article about the black liquor tax-credit boondoggle. This past summer I wrote a few articles about this on my blog…so I pasted those links below, as well as a couple of other articles and info about this.
One important point I didn’t see in your article is the fact that, in their exploiting of this tax loophole which is costing US taxpayers over $10 billion, these paper produces are actually using upwards of an additional 20 billion gallons of diesel fuel. My understanding is that they only get the tax credit if some fossil fuel is added to the mixture.
Is that the proverbial “double whammy” or what? Taxpayers get hosed for $10 billion, while these folks just essentially dump 20 billion gallons of diesel fuel down the drain!
I tried for months to get the Missoulian to do a story on this, especially since Smurfit has gotten over $540 million to burn an extra 1 billion gallons of diesel (while in bankruptcy, no less), but I guess that’s just not newsworthy!
Thanks again for writing about this important issue, Dave.
http://cleangreensustainable.wordpress.com/2009/06/02/pulp-paper-industrys-boondoggle-could-cost-taxpayers-10-billion/
http://cleangreensustainable.wordpress.com/2009/07/08/more-on-pulp-industrys-billion-dollar-taxpayer-boondoggle/
http://missoulanews.bigskypress.com/missoula/tipping-point/Content?oid=1148001
http://www.environmentalpaper.org/Baucus.Grassley.Letter.htm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/08/AR2009050803776.html
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