About this user
Richard D. Seifert Professor, University of Alaska Fairbanks July 11, 2002
Open Letter to Alaskans, and Board Members of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation www.apfc.org
Fellow Alaskans:
- - The United States Capitalist system, particularly many of its corporations, are now clearly in the midst of a huge corporate crime wave. Enron, Halliburton, Worldcomm, and many others have used irregular and dubious accounting schemes in collusion with their accounting partners, to defraud, corrupt and devalue the investments of millions of Americans, all Alaskans, most pension fund participants, and private foundations and citizens. Of course this includes Alaskas great public treasure, the Alaska Permanent Fund. My profound concern about the shattering of public confidence and the huge loss of wealth represented by these crimes and their eventual exposure and emergence, is that it puts all Alaskans at risk, and in a crisis of confidence. This is of course due to the huge connection we have to corporate America through investment of billions of our dollars in the Alaska Permanent Fund. It is my contention that this situation will worsen, and that the Alaska Permanent Fund should take aggressive and serious steps to protect our future and its major resource through concerted demands for justice, legal protection and fiscal action.
- - First, the Permanent Fund Board should demand doubling of the enforcement divisions staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with the finest competent people available. Next you should consider massive divestiture of stock investments in corporations which refuse to allow stockholder control of the company. Ownership should mean control. In todays corporate system, corporations control the assets and stockholders are largely powerless to make necessary changes. As a carpenter in Connecticut was recently quoted, I won't invest one penny more in any stocks unless I know that brokers or corporate leaders who lie or defraud me will go to jail, AND pay back their fraudulently obtained wealth. That is the plainest statement of the justice I urge you to seek.
- - Be aware that the lost confidence in the stock market, and the declining prices and indices have already cost more than six trillion dollars!! The Permanent Fund Board is in a unique position to demand action, protection of our public assets, and to apply huge pressure on the federal government to ensure the well-being and safety of our Permanent Fund. We deserve this and will accept nothing less. You simply cannot allow this theft of our public wealth and the security it provides. If ever there was a time for action it is now.
- - - Particularly, you must demand these two actions immediately:
- 1. The federal government must defend and strengthen the civil justice system, apply criminal laws against corporate crime, and fully prosecute corporate fraud and abuses.
- 2. You must ensure that investor-shareholder rights are strengthened, as well as authority over officers and boards of directors (yes this means you too!!!) so that those who own companies also control them.
- - End the massive corporate welfare schemes that distort and misallocate public budgets. Reintroduce the historic function of corporate chartering as an instrument of ensuring corporate accountability and the sovereignty of the people. Most important of all, seek reversal of the supreme court decision which gave corporations the same legal status as human beings. This distortion of the commonweal is a huge corruption and a root cause of much of the present criminal abuse. We find ourselves in the situation we do precisely because corporations are NOT people.
I could not be more strident nor serious in this urgent call to action. The more you delay, the more will be lost. - July 11, 2002
Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation
http://www.apfc.org
- - Most urgently submitted, Richard D. Seifert Professor, University of Alaska Fairbanks
$
Schools
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Interests
Reducing fuel costs with our new oil revenue
By Rich Seifert
Published January 6, 2008
Recently, the governor asked for suggestions on how to use the new oil revenue surplus. Some suggestions, on first hearing, seem just and helpful, but when thought through don't pan out as the best options.
Some people want the state to subsidize the cost of heating fuel until the gas line is built, saying that will "stabilize" prices of fuel oil. I know that Alaskans are struggling to keep their homes heated. The day this was written, I received a gas delivery, and the price was $3.20 per gallon. Here's a better way to solve this problem:
The solution is to retrofit with insulation and energy conservation efforts as many existing homes as we can with proven methods in use by weatherization contractors. Often 30 percent to 50 percent or more of home energy use can be saved with just a few thousand dollars of wise investment in energy-efficient improvements. At the Sustainable Northern Shelter Conference here in Fairbanks in October, local Interior weatherization expert James Lee showed many examples of amazing savings and paybacks with investments of $4,000 to $8,000. He was one of the most popular and credible presenters at the conference. His examples were all real numbers from experience. Keep in mind that $4,000 to $8,000 is one to two years of fuel costs at today's rates for many houses in the Interior. And these prices will likely rise.
There are many additional reasons why this approach is far superior to simply subsidizing fuel costs. Subsidizing fuel is just throwing good money after bad. If you just subsidize fuel use, the problem never gets smaller and is almost guaranteed to get bigger. But if you use the money to subsidize loans for weatherizing (insulating) homes, many very positive things happen.
First, you make access to the money and the solution available to those who need it. And a subsidy here is worthy because it actually pays back.
Second, you employ local people to use local materials to solve local problems to keep the money in the local economy. None of these benefits are realized if you simply subsidize fuel use.
Third, you build local skills and lower living costs. An additional need is the improved availability of energy ratings, which can serve as quality control on the work done. These techniques and skilled people can do "before and after" performance tests on homes to ensure that the real savings will accrue because the work was done correctly.
Fourth, regardless of which fuel source is available in the future, the saving goes on as long as the house lasts. The less heat you need for comfort and health, the less you'll ever have to buy, whatever the price. You are no longer held hostage to increasing prices, at least not to the same degree. Insulation and weatherization retrofits are a real insurance policy against future utility costs. There is no better insurance you can buy because you won't ever have to make a claim, and the savings are as certain as fuel cost increases.
So if the state really decided to help us, here's what should be done: 1. Make energy-efficiency loans available at a subsidized rate to Alaskans everywhere, payable in some measure against savings.
2. Train more local workers to do retrofits of housing. The shelter industry is the obvious place to start, as are vocational schools.
3. Train energy raters and subsidize the rating process so that we know we've actually done good work and can guarantee the savings.
4. Build on this idea with vast information outreach and good advice.
Finally, consider what will happen if we don't do something like this. Fuel prices will continue to make us poorer. Fossil fuel emissions will continue unabated, and we'll continue to be held hostage to fuel needs. The cheapest and easiest energy you'll ever buy is that which you never needed in the first place. This is one of the best ways I can imagine we could ever use our one-time oil revenue. Oh, and your house might actually be more comfortable, too.
Rich Seifert is the UAF Cooperative Extension Energy and Housing Specialist. He retrofitted his own home in 2005 and is developing a new course on retrofitting.
University of Alaska Professor Richard Seifert - Alaska Fund
AlaskaSunDotOrg
2,210 views
Open Letter to Alaskans, and Board Members of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation Fellow Alaskans:
The United States Capitalist system, particularly many of its corpora...
SONG I have seen the others, take a shower and shine shoes
AlaskaSunDotOrg
7,051 views
FORGIVEN Fairbanks Alaska Peace Saturday girls singing peace song for ending war. you got no time to lose
If there ever was a time when we need to take a stand
AlaskaSunDotOrg
150 views
Richard Seifert - Civil Liberty - Alaska Peace Vigil and March
SONG Say no to war, say no, war is not the only choice - AK
AlaskaSunDotOrg
122 views
Song of peace. President Bush Why? Alaskans for peace.
Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend for all Alaskan's to share
AlaskaSunDotOrg
1,607 views
The mineral wealth of Alaska for all Alaskan's into the future
SONG - If I can't dance I'm not part of your revolution AK
AlaskaSunDotOrg
588 views
halfway -drops snowplow- because everybody's got to make a little noise. Driver in bluegreen pickup protests the protesters by draging his snowplow as he goes around the co...
Fairbanks Alaska 2 15 2003 end rush to war - Peace March 911
AlaskaSunDotOrg
960 views
Peace March Downtown Fairbanks Alaska to end war. Courage of women men children seniors and pets to speak out against stupid foolish war.
War timing for political reasons to "legitimize" prez BUSH
AlaskaSunDotOrg
85 views
Niilo Koponen politics of going to war
song I AM A SOLDIER I AM ALSO A CHILD OF GOD
AlaskaSunDotOrg
909 views
angry driver yells at peace advocates at end of video. Alaska Peace Saturday
Conserve Renewables Solar Wind Hydrogen - Jim Sykes Alaskan
AlaskaSunDotOrg
518 views
Jim Sykes for renewable energy, conservation solar wind power hydrogen
Play all(11)