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Groton Daily Independent
Saturday, Nov. 114, 2017 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 125 ~ 28 of 66
Incoming CEO Jimmy Addison of SCANA, SCE&G’s parent company, said making the utility pay its share of the project would scare off investors and lenders, making it harder to nance day-to-day operations, including purchasing fuel, hiring contractors for repairs and paying employees. Already, SCANA stock has dropped 25 percent, reducing the company’s market capitalization to $6.3 billion, since the project was abandoned.
Conservationists push for stricter poaching laws in Missouri
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Conservationists and lawmakers dissatis ed with Missouri’s anti-poaching laws believe the current nes and penalties do little to prevent the act.
Missouri’s nes cover a range of wildlife code violations, from importing a live prohibited species into the state to taking a deer from a public roadway. No ne exceeds $300 plus court costs, a factor that supporters of stiffer penalties believe leads to a large number of poaching cases, the Columbia Missourian reported .
Conservation agents have detected a total of nearly 74,000 wildlife code violations over the last three years while on patrol. Of those violations, they’ve taken action on less than 22,000, said Larry Yamnitz, chief of the Conservation Department’s Protection Division.
Protection Division Regional Supervisor Tom Strother said some people simply don’t care about the penalties.
“I think the low nes can contribute to some people saying, ‘Well, I’ll just give you a small amount for the ne,’” Strother said. “If I’m going to get caught one out of 100 times, I’ll just give you the small amount.” Former Republican Rep. Linda Black proposed a bill to increase poaching nes after a poacher killed a bull elk in 2015. The bill would have required those convicted of certain poaching violations to pay restitu- tion to the state of $750 for a wild turkey, $1,500 for a white-tailed deer and $3,500 for a black bear or
elk. The bill failed to make it to the House oor for debate.
Republican Reps. Donna Lichtenegger and Jered Taylor introduced bills in late 2016 and early 2017 nearly
identical to Black’s, but those never made it out of committee.
“The bill died as of May 15 when our last day of session was,” Taylor said. “There are some people with
concerns. There is a lot of support for it out there as well.”
Taylor said he plans to re- le the bill in January.
“This should be a bipartisan issue,” said Brandon Butler, executive director of the Conservation Federa-
tion of Missouri. “It shouldn’t matter if it’s urban or rural. This should be something we all want to move forward on: protecting our wildlife.”
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Information from: Columbia Missourian, http://www.columbiamissourian.com
Residents protest Detroit re nery over pollution concerns
DETROIT (AP) — Demonstrators are urging a Detroit oil re nery to relocate nearby residents over con- cerns about pollution.
Dozens of protesters gathered Thursday at the Marathon Petroleum re nery to voice concerns about the company’s lack of action. The demonstration came weeks after a federal appeals court ruled against a district court’s decision that residents’ claims of injury due to harmful air pollution from the oil giant fell past the statute of limitations, the Detroit News reported.
Marathon of cials said they created a buyout program allowing some residents to sell their homes dur- ing the re nery’s expansion, which was completed in 2012. But protesters said Marathon ignored some polluted areas.
“They are our personal polluters,” said Wendy Kyles, who attributed her late relatives’ health issues to emissions from the site. “So they should do us a personal favor and get us out of here.”
Marathon offered the buyout program because the expansion “moved its fence line closer to that neigh- borhood (Oakwood Heights), which was a residential island surrounded on all sides by industry and the