Omaha World-Herald. March 12, 2021.
Editorial: Nebraska should move toward the growing U.S. mainstream on marijuana
Here’s a prediction: Adult recreational use of marijuana will be legal across the United States by the end of this decade. Probably sooner.
It has broad political support, with polling showing that about two-thirds of Americans favor legalization. A majority of every age group, every educational demographic and income level supports it. Among self-identified conservatives, 49% favor legalization.
Politicians will stand on traditional and personal beliefs only so long in the face of such widespread support.
It is one of the few issues in the country that isn’t starkly partisan, as demonstrated by voter approval in November of legal marijuana in generally conservative Montana and South Dakota. Mississippi voters, with 74% approval, in November added medical marijuana to the state constitution.
South Dakota’s approval is in limbo at the moment, after a state court judge last month ruled it unconstitutional. Still, 14 states have legalized adult use of marijuana, 18 others have what the National Conference of State Legislatures terms “comprehensive medical cannabis programs” and others, including Iowa, have “CBD/low THC” programs. Only three states, Nebraska, Kansas and Idaho, have no established public access program.
Quick definitions: THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, is the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. CBD, or cannabidiol, is a THC cousin that doesn’t make people high, but has received widespread testimonials for medical benefits, particularly the ability to reduce or eliminate seizures.
CBD is legal under the 2018 farm bill that approved hemp as an agricultural product, but it is almost completely unregulated and much of what is sold at retail outlets is of untested content or quality. So while it may indeed be a miracle drug for some people with epilepsy or post-traumatic stress syndrome, medical rigor is lacking. What’s the right dose and frequency, for example? In Nebraska, doctors cannot prescribe medically tested compounds.
Medical claims about both CBD and THC are anecdotal - in part because marijuana’s federal classification as a dangerous drug has limited researchers’ ability to study it.
Nebraskans nearly got the chance to vote on medical marijuana in November, after petition organizers collected enough signatures to put it on the ballot, but the State Supreme Court ruled that it violated the single-subject requirement for ballot measures.
So this year, once again, lawmakers are considering a medical marijuana bill, in addition to a bill that would decriminalize pot and allow people convicted of marijuana offenses to clear their record.
It is The World-Herald’s view that recreational marijuana is both inevitable and proper public policy. States that have legalized the drug have realized significant tax revenue, the industry has brought investment and employment, and feared problems have not been greater than when marijuana was illegal.
A lot of people use pot whether it’s legal or not, and while this is an old argument, it is absolutely true that marijuana is vastly less dangerous than alcohol, which kills nearly 100,000 Americans each year - more than are killed by all other drugs combined, including opioids.
In America’s failed drug war, marijuana users, particularly people of color, have been casualties, with many in prison.
While we don’t think Nebraska is ready to go full-on Colorado, we do support both legislative proposals.
Any medical marijuana program must be tightly regulated, requiring that the origin of the drug be known, traced and taxed, and that product potency be tested.
Some states - Colorado and Michigan among them - legalized medical marijuana, but with scant regulation. Both states run much tighter regulatory ships now that they have legalized and taxed recreational sales.
Just as gambling proved to be in Nebraska’s November voting, marijuana is a political winner. The state should move toward the widening mainstream acceptance of that reality, reform its criminal justice approach, and begin setting up a tax and regulatory framework.
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Grand Island Independent. March 10, 2021.
Editorial: UNL study: E30 doesn’t cut fuel efficiency or damage vehicles
A University of Nebraska-Lincoln E30 demonstration project reported great news for the Nebraska ethanol industry this week.
The project found that E30, a fuel blend of 70% gasoline and 30% ethanol, is safe for long-term use in non-flex fuel vehicles.
UNL conducted the project with the support of the Nebraska Department of Administrative Services. Gov. Pete Ricketts announced its results Monday.
Ricketts said the study will be a “great aid as we advocate for growing the volume of E30 in our nation’s fuel supply.”
With 25 ethanol plants in Nebraska, ethanol production is a value-added industry, using 35% of the corn grown in the state. Nebraska is the nation’s second-leading ethanol producing state behind Iowa. State ethanol plants have the annual capacity to produce more than 2.2 billion gallons.
The purpose of the UNL project was to examine the effect of higher ethanol blends on fuel efficiency and vehicle engine performance.
“There has been inconsistent messaging that using higher blends of ethanol reduces the fuel efficiency or wears down parts,” said Adil Alsiyabi, the primary UNL researcher of the E30 demonstration.
Alsiyabi said the project’s results show that is not true.
Under current Environmental Protection Agency guidelines, only flex-fuel vehicles can use ethanol blends higher than E15. Auto manufacturers typically advise against use of more than 10% ethanol in their non-flex-fuel vehicles. The ethanol industry’s hope is that the UNL research project and similar projects can convince the federal government and auto manufacturers to change their guidelines.
Most ethanol in Nebraska is sold in a 10% blend, though stations, such as Bosselman’s Pump & Pantry, sell several different ethanol blends to consumers, including E15 and E85. Gasoline with ethanol is usually 20 cents to 30 cents cheaper per gallon than a straight blend of gasoline.
“I am encouraged that we now have hard facts that show E30 can safely be used in vehicles other than flex fuels,” said Roger Berry, Nebraska Ethanol Board administrator.
According to Growth Energy, a national ethanol organization, if the U.S. transitioned from E10 to E15, greenhouse gas emissions would be lowered by 17.62 million tons per year, which is the equivalent of removing approximately 3.85 million vehicles from the road.
The more the amount of ethanol in the blend is increased, the more its use will decrease harmful emissions.
It took a long time for the ethanol industry to convince the EPA to allow use of E15 in non-flex-fuel vehicles, but that finally happened in May 2019. Then it took some time for gas stations to adapt their pumps to be able to sell E15. It is taking more time to get the driving public to use E15 because of the misinformation campaign supported by the oil industry.
The EPA’s name says its purpose is to protect the environment. So it should be seeking out ways to do that. Ethanol has been proven to be a major part of protecting our environment.
The Biden administration should now take the next step to approve E30 for general use. That will be good news for our nation’s corn growers, the ethanol industry and the environment.
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Lincoln Journal Star. March 12, 2021.
Editorial: Environmental Trust board is straying from group’s roots
The Nebraska Environmental Trust’s legacy of important habitat restoration is not at all in doubt. However, its path forward very much is, based on decisions made by its board of directors.
Several recent actions – including appointments to the 14-member board, puzzling grant awards and representation of this large and diverse state, to name a few – have generated controversy and at least one lawsuit, to be heard later this month, filed by former board members and elected officials who helped found the Trust.
And those claims have shed light on an apparent paradigm shift by the organization that is departing from its traditional role of safeguarding and improving Nebraska’s natural treasures.
Created in 1992, the Trust has awarded hundreds of millions of dollars, generated from lottery revenues, as grants to fund conservation projects in all 93 counties. Up until last year, the scoring of grant applications and awarding of millions in grants went off as it had for nearly three decades.
Then came the decision to eschew projects recommended by the trust’s grant committee in favor of providing $1.8 million to a large Nebraska ethanol producer to pay half of the purchase price and expense of buying ethanol pumps and storage tanks and installing them in privately owned retail service stations.
Ethanol’s positive impact on Nebraska’s air quality can’t be discounted, nor can its benefits to Nebraska’s economy be overlooked. But ethanol producers can lobby and raise the money to invest in their own operations in a way Lancaster County’s serene saline wetlands – a project that lost some $900,000 to the ethanol project – cannot.
Justification from board members and Gov. Pete Ricketts aside, the ethanol vote – the subject of the aforementioned lawsuit – indicates a break from tradition.
So, too, does the board’s membership.
With the recent resignation of Sherry Vinton of Whitman, the Environmental Trust board lost both its only female member and its lone representative of western Nebraska. In a state with as diverse landscapes, geography and people as Nebraska, a board composed entirely of white men from the eastern third of the state doesn’t reflect that.
Much of this owes to the sprawling 3rd Congressional District – each of the three districts is allotted three nominees made by the governor and approved by the Legislature – which touches all four corners of the state. But with topography and land use changing as one moves west across Nebraska, voices west of Hastings must also be heard.
In yet another break from tradition, multiple senators on the Natural Resources Committee voted against Ricketts’ appointees – including some reappointments – before their names were forwarded to the full Legislature for confirmation, likely because of these shifts.
Even as the politics around and actions of its board are reoriented, the Environmental Trust’s mission remains unchanged. So, too, should its role of preserving the state’s ecological wonders.
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