Blame the greens By Tom Murphy News-Chronicle With natural gas prices going through the roof, and Congress posing, posturing and otherwise wringing its collective hands - regulators continue to approve construction of power plants dedicated to the volatile fuel. The pun definitely was intended. And tree huggers, especially in Wisconsin, continue to battle additions, improvements and upgrades to coal-fired plants and electrical transmission lines. If these people would rechannel their efforts and help find a positive solution to nuclear waste disposal, more than half our headaches would be gone. (And windmills, too?) But no, these negative greens, with blessings of the legislature, continue to force utilities to invest and experiment with inefficient and unproven sources of power. As 2003 wound down, natural gas prices were nearly 50 percent more than at Thanksgiving. In just five weeks, the price went from $4.45 to $6.59 per 1,000 cubic feet. Some blamed the weather on the East Coast. But it was mostly snow. Temperatures, until last week, hovered well above zero. And Wisconsinites know, if anyone does, that when it snows an appreciable amount, the temperature most often is above 15 or 20 degrees. (However, if you're in New Hampshire this week, the snow is really, really deep.) Then there are the commodity brokers. The guys with ice water for blood and Dracula's wife for a mother-in-law. They simply bet that the greens will continue to prevail with legislators too weak to stand on their own two feet. Wisconsin has lost thousands of papermaking and heavy manufacturing jobs because we have an imbedded regulatory bureaucracy. A lot of the liberal bent of the legislature and its attendant bureaus and agencies can be attributed to University of Wisconsin-Madison graduates who hailed from the East Coast and just wouldn't go home. They decided that the buildings on the east end of State Street were the perfect successor to the classrooms, apartments and dormitories at and beyond Bascom Hill. OK FOR ME, NOT FOR YOU The Green Bay City Council, in the throes of deciding how much money to make selling water to the suburbs, said last week it wants to meet in private session to hear the numbers. This is the same council (by and large) that castigated city and Central Brown County Water Authority negotiators for meeting in private for 2 1/2 years. Ach! Ald. Guy Zima, who's more hindrance than help in delicate discussions, told Mayor Jim Schmitt's new commissioners, "I smell a skunk," when the city's override would only be 17 percent. Ald. Ron Antonneau, who is retiring as a council member but running again for county board supervisor, claimed putting numbers in public hurt negotiations. Antonneau, a member of WPS Resources government/community affairs contingent, should know that open government is best government. Right, Ron? And Zima and others said Green Bay should not do Ashwaubenon or Howard any favors. After all, they are the new homes of more than one business that once called the city home. Which brought forth the sanest statement of the evening from Ald. Ken Dax: "I'm beginning to understand why Howard and Ashwaubenon took some of our business." The need for metropolitan thinking was never greater - or more eloquently exposed. Ask Zima about AMS building in Howard or Birds Eye/Dean/Larsen moving its production out of its hometown. COINCIDENCE A couple of weeks ago we noted St. Vincent Hospital moved its Dialysis Center to a remodeled and expanded facility. The center had been housed in an old Sure Way Grocery in the 1300 block of South Webster Avenue. It's new location, in Allouez Central Plaza, once was the site of Jubilee Foods, the successor to Sure Way. Ironically, the last two Jubilee stores went under the auctioneer's gavel earlier this month. The independents fell victim to changes in buying practices and distribution systems. The Sure Way chain was founded some 50 years ago by the late Ray Van Essen. He learned the trade with one of Green Bay's old-line companies, Joannes Brothers wholesale grocers. The coming 150th birthday of the city would do well to include Joannes contributions.