04/11/05 Back to court; Higher gas prices?

One thing is certain. No matter how a Superior Court judge in Washington state rules, the case will find itself before that state's Supreme Court. That is the speculation as Chelan County Superior Court Judge John Bridges has set May 23rd as the date he will hear the legal challenge over last year's Washington State Governor's election. Republicans and their candidate Dino Rossi contend counting errors in votes resulted in Democrat Christine Gregoire being elected by 129 votes in a final hand recount after Rossi had been the leader in two previous counts. And now with word that King County election officials have found more uncounted ballots, the Republicans are now calling for a federal investigation into the discrepancies, calling the uncounted ballots "suspicious". Northwest motorists, are you preparing for a possible summer with gas prices higher than what they currently are now? For the record, Oregon and Washington are among the five states with the highest gas prices in the nation. In fact, Northwest prices are currently higher than records set this time last year. But petroleum industry insiders say prices have not reached their peak, with some speculation that prices on average could hit $2.75 for a gallon of self-serve regular unleaded by Memorial Day weekend. And if there is any disruption in supply, gas per gallon could conceivably hit $3 dollars a gallon this summer. Now with today's "Food Forethought", here's Susan Allen. ALLEN: You would think that the environmental community would be delighted over hearing the news that Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns plans to offer incentives for farmers and foresters who actively reduce greenhouses gasses. But no, in a response reeking of sarcasm, David Hawkins director of the Natural Resource Defense Council called the voluntary registry a "charade that is intended to allow the government and the participants to portray that they are doing something about global warming when they are not." Johanns believes that farm and forest landowners can play an active role in helping to reduce greenhouse gasses. For example, farmers that use anaerobic digestion systems, or no till practices will be rewarded for their efforts. At the very least the new guidelines for tracking greenhouse emissions are a step in the right direction, maybe if the vanguards of the environmental movement would put the energy they now spend criticizing all governmental efforts into working to find a solution, attempts to reduce greenhouse gasses won't become just hot air. I'm Susan Allen and this is Food Forethought.