KLBJ ran a story this morning about a new health care initiative in the Austin suburb of Round Rock. The story included a sound bite from Charlie Ayers, with the Round Rock Economic Development Partnership. In addition to touting the expected benefits, like improved health care for local residents and more economic activities, he found time to tout another unexpected benefit - the initiative will...
also help the environment as it keeps people off interstate and in their communityNow, I'll freely admit that I'm not a civil engineer. I haven't done the studies. I haven't measured the traffic flows, computed the auto emissions, checked aquifer levels, etc., etc. But I'm willing to make an estimate about the environmental impact of all of the people in Round Rock driving to Austin for medical reasons.
How about....zero.
Look - I know that we're all here in the scenic heart of Berkeley east, and the first reaction of a lot of people is "what would Al Gore do?" But please, there have got to be plenty of good reasons to want to improve health care services in a reason without having to resort to "it's good for Mother Earth", especially when it doesn't actually have any effect on the environment.
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