tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8956282311320489982024-03-05T00:12:14.146-08:00Mass GreensGreen politics in MassachusettsAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01203946302610654952noreply@blogger.comBlogger58125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-895628231132048998.post-4544921688990448692013-05-07T21:46:00.001-07:002013-05-08T06:03:39.501-07:00Caught beneath the landslide: Lessons from the 1983 general election<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">May 8, 2013:</span> <span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It was 30 years ago today that the British general election campaign got under way, the one that produced a landslide for the governing Conservatives, a rout for the Labour Party, and a serious reduction in the ranks of the party that I supported back then: the Social Democratic Party (SDP). Although Britain's political terrain has changed dramatically since 1983, that year's election has a few valuable lessons, some of which apply to the United States. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Card-carrying member</b></span></td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Lesson 1: Leveraging Small Numbers</b></span></div>
<span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">At the start of the 1983 campaign the parliamentary SDP consisted of 27 members. When the House of Commons reassembled after the election, the number had fallen to just six. Losing three-quarters of our MPs did not diminish the enthusiasm of ordinary SDP members in the country. Even with a parliamentary presence so small it could caucus in the back of a black cab, the Social Democrats in the House of Commons managed to project an image of the SDP as an effective political force with more competence and box-office appeal -- though fewer MPs -- than their Liberal allies.</span></span><br />
<span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">David Owen, who became leader after the general election, used Parliament as a device for amplifying the party's voice. Although the Conservative landslide meant the SDP and Liberals had negligible influence inside the Commons, Owen's parliamentary performances and TV interviews made the SDP seem not only relevant but also sometimes more effective at opposing the government than the Labour Party, which enjoyed the title of Her Majesty's Official Opposition. Without a foothold in Parliament -- and with only six MPs it really was no more than a foothold -- this would have been impossible. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Owen also exploited the SDP's minuscule number of seats by relentlessly presenting it as Exhibit 1 in the case for a referendum on proportional representation. After all, a proportional system</span><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> would have awarded seats to the Liberals and Social Democrats roughly corresponding to their share of the national vote, i.e. about 23%, instead of the 4% they ended up with. </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: center;">Perversely, therefore, the 1983 election instilled even greater enthusiasm among some members in that it generated a sense of outrage (or its SDP equivalent) about the first-past-the-post electoral system.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: center;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: center;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Lesson 2: Room for one more</b></span></div>
<span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">That grievance, that feeling of having been cheated, smoldered. Two years after the election SDP members gathered in Torquay for the party's annual conference, where a group of loyal young Social Democrats, myself included, posed for a photo-op with party leader David Owen to launch the SDP's youth campaign (below). <i>Have You Got the Guts, </i>asked the campaign's rhetorical question. My question was "Can I keep the sweatshirt?" to which the answer was an awkward and apologetic "No."</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>We had the guts. But not enough sweatshirts.</b></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Another valid question would have been why the organizers chose to call the campaign, of all things, the Youth Blitz. Distributing fliers next to a large sign announcing the Youth Blitz in my native Swansea, whose downtown the Luftwaffe had so comprehensively and unforgivingly redesigned, I met with some frosty stares, particularly from older passers-by.</span></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Clunky slogans aside, what mattered was that the party had at least survived. In hindsight, more surprising than the party's failure to win a larger number of seats was its ability to retain any at all. What the SDP's experience in the 1983 election proved was that British politics could comfortably accommodate four national parties: Conservatives, Labour, Liberals, and Social Democrats. Of course, after the 1987 election when the SDP managed to hold on to five seats despite Labour's long march back toward the center ground, several leading Social Democrats claimed the exact opposite and successfully worked for a merger with the Liberals.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>3. Minor Party Magnetism</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The SDP's performance in the 1983 general election helped pull the Labour Party away from left-wing extremism back toward the center. When the SDP formed in 1981 it was as a response to Labour's sudden lurch to the left: its commitment to nationalize the major industries and banks, to unilaterally surrender Britain's nuclear deterrent, and to withdraw from the European Community (as the EU was then known). By the time Tony Blair became Labour leader in 1995, the party had already thrown those policies overboard. The party Blair inherited had transformed itself, in large part because of the SDP, which exerted a kind of magnetic force that drew Labour toward it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In alliance with the Liberals, the SDP gave alienated Labour voters a powerful way to express their rejection of Labour's dogmatic socialism. In 1983, Labour polled only two percentage points more than the SDP/Liberal Alliance. Following the election, Labour's new leader, Neil Kinnock, realized that his party's only hope of regaining power was to win back those voters who had fled to the SDP, and that the only way to win them back was to re-morph into a genuinely social democratic party. This effort, which Kinnock's adherents called modernization, continued under John Smith, albeit at a slower pace, and sped up again under Blair, whose coterie dubbed the project New Labour.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Without the willingness of social democrats to defect from Labour to form the SDP and then fight against Labour in the 1983 general election, it seems unlikely that Labour would have detoxified itself so thoroughly and (by the standards of British electoral politics) so quickly. By breaking away and continuing the fight outside the Labour Party, the Social Democrats strengthened the hand of those inside Labour who wanted to return the party to its more traditional, centrist, catch-all position.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Conclusion</b></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>From alliance to merger</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The SDP's policies (e.g. incomes policies and industrial partnership) are now out of date, reminders of the Cold War and the ideological argument over free markets versus the planned economy. But the party's enduring lesson is that fourth parties can have an influence out of proportion to their size. So sometimes, even within the constraints of the plurality voting system, it is worthwhile breaking away if your goal is to force one of the two large parties to change. Progressive Democrats and libertarian Republicans should take note.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Those who pressed for the SDP to merge with the Liberals argued that British politics had room for no more than three national parties. Ironically, they included some who had helped found the SDP in the first place when they could, instead, have simply joined the existing third party, the Liberals. Even more ironically, almost as soon as their argument prevailed and the SDP vanished into a merger, another force emerged as a strong fourth party: the Greens. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In the 1989 European Parliament elections, with the Liberal-SDP merger feud still going strong, the Greens won 15% of the votes. At that stage, a rump party of anti-merger Social Democrats under Owen's leadership was still clinging to life. But when their party came last in a by-election (special election) behind a joke candidate, Owen and his allies opted for swift dissolution rather than protracted humiliation. They thought that with fewer than 20,000 dues-paying members the SDP could no longer hold itself out as a viable national party. If the Internet age had already dawned in 1990, their decision might well have been different.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Perhaps, then, the final lesson from the 1983 election and, more generally, from the short life of the SDP, is this: even in the hostile conditions that plurality voting systems create, small parties can survive, sometimes even long enough to effect lasting change.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01203946302610654952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-895628231132048998.post-11883470799298318462013-04-18T21:06:00.002-07:002013-04-18T21:07:54.182-07:00Margaret Thatcher: Dangerous Progressive<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Margaret Thatcher was a conservative. She saw socialism (even in its democratic, parliamentary form) as a threat to
individual freedom. My stating of the obvious has a purpose, which is to make
clear that, headline notwithstanding, I am not about to diminish the late British prime
minister by treating her as my personal Rorschach test, imputing to her
principles that she did not, in fact, espouse.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But, that said, by contemporary
American standards the Margaret Thatcher of the 1980s was a progressive: on the
environment, on healthcare, and on market regulation she was quite liberal (in
the U.S. sense of the word). Thatcher’s stances on these three issues show how
far to the Right the center of political gravity has shifted. Nowadays, a candidate with her principles and policy positions
would have a hard time winning the Democratic nomination for President, let
alone the Republican one.</span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-N2S8SfwZeHI/UXCz-6wXthI/AAAAAAAAAzU/9yyeKbC5yJE/s1600/MARGARET-THATCHER-640x468.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="146" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-N2S8SfwZeHI/UXCz-6wXthI/AAAAAAAAAzU/9yyeKbC5yJE/s200/MARGARET-THATCHER-640x468.jpg" width="200" /></span></a></div>
</div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Climate Change</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“[F]ree markets are a
means to an end,” Thatcher said in a <a href="http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/107817" target="_blank">speech</a> to the United Nations in 1989, which she commenced with praise for Charles Darwin. “They
would defeat their object if by their output they did more damage to the
quality of life through pollution than the well-being they achieve by the production
of goods and services.” She then
demanded international action on climate change, saying “[i]t is no good
squabbling over who is responsible or who should pay,” adding that while
environmental protection requires economic growth “it must be growth which does
not plunder the planet today and leave our children to deal with the
consequences tomorrow.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The expression "inter-generational responsibility" was not one that likely ever passed her lips, but that is exactly what Thatcher was propounding. Any Republican candidates with the courage to voice to
such sensible thoughts today, with or without a laudatory reference to Charles
Darwin, would have to brace themselves for the Tea Party hordes, torches and
pitchforks in hand.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Healthcare</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Margaret Thatcher
accepted the need for the National Health Service (NHS) and, while ever hopeful
of establishing “internal markets” within the NHS, never questioned the
legitimacy of a publicly-funded healthcare system. In 1982 she told the Conservative
Party conference “[t]he principle that adequate health care should be provided
for all, regardless of ability to pay, must be the foundation of any
arrangements for financing the Health Service.” The following year in Edinburgh
she declared, “I have no more intention of dismantling the National Health
Service than I have of dismantling Britain’s defenses.” And it wasn’t all
talk. Margaret Thatcher’s governments
devoted an <a href="http://www.ifs.org.uk/bns/bn25.pdf" target="_blank">increasing share</a> of public spending to the NHS, rising from
approximately 10% in 1980 to around 12% in 1989, tracking the percentages that
went to defense in the same period.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It is hard to imagine even
a moderate Republican (something that is, in itself, increasingly hard to
imagine) proclaiming fealty to the principle of publicly-funded healthcare for
all. What more flamboyant form of hari kiri could there be than for a contemporary
conservative in the United States to stand before the Republican party faithful
and not only equate healthcare with the national defense, but also to agree
that a civilized society should fund both through taxation? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Markets</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Margaret Thatcher deregulated the financial sector, most famously via the Big Bang reforms of 1986, thereby creating the conditions that gave rise to the subprime debacle and meltdown 20-odd years later. That may be a truism, but is it true? In a recent <a href="http://www.cityam.com/article/thatcher-changed-city-forever-big-bang-isn-t-whole-story" target="_blank">article</a>, <a href="http://www.iea.org.uk/biographies/philip-booth" target="_blank">Philip Booth</a>, program director at the Institute of Economic Affairs, reminds us what really happened during Thatcher's premiership:</span></div>
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</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 115%;">"[I]n general, the 1980s was not a
period of financial deregulation. Insider trading was made illegal in 1980. The
life insurance industry, which had been almost free of regulation for over 100
years from 1870, was re-regulated from 1980 to 1982. Bank deposit insurance was
introduced in 1979. The sale of investment and insurance products came under
statutory regulation from 1986. Further, the first ever regulation of UK bank
capital took place under Basel I, agreed while Thatcher was Prim</span>e
Minister."</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Failing as they do to align with the myth, perhaps the facts as Booth presents them are so discomfiting to Left and Right alike that they will remain conveniently out of sight and mind. Margaret Thatcher exercising oversight and setting limits on the financial sector is an image that triggers cognitive dissonance among both her supporters and detractors. Far easier, for current purposes, to remember Thatcher as a cartoon conservative, a free-market buccaneer hacking and slashing at the remains of the welfare state while dancing around a bonfire of regulatory red tape. If we choose to remember her a laissez-faire warrior, the scourge of the public sector, then the cabal that currently controls the congressional Republican Party looks comfortingly normal.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">How much more challenging and chilling to recall the reality of Margaret Thatcher's policies -- her respect for climate science, commitment to universal public healthcare, and refusal to give speculators free rein -- that would mark her out to today's Republicans as an unelectable outcast. For that matter, how well would Thatcher's policy statements play in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary, sounding as they do more like Bernie Sanders than Barack Obama? It is a measure of how narrow the political spectrum has become when we can ponder the Iron Lady's legacy and say, "Margaret Thatcher: dangerous progressive."</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01203946302610654952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-895628231132048998.post-79948046249640327762013-04-08T11:56:00.001-07:002013-04-08T11:56:22.932-07:00Out of the frying pan, etc.<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Goodbye coal, and hello natural gas. Consistent with a nationwide trend, the Pioneer Valley looks set to replace one fossil-fueled power station with another. GDF Suez's coal-burning plant at Mount Tom in Holyoke seems poised to <a href="http://www.valleyadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=16463" target="_blank">close</a> in the next few years, by which point a 400 megawatt natural-gas-fired facility will have come online 15 miles to the southwest in Westfield.</span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qwaeZsmSPUk/UWIKCwEuAcI/AAAAAAAAAyY/FOXfYMZ1OeY/s1600/westfield_tighe+carmody.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="269" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qwaeZsmSPUk/UWIKCwEuAcI/AAAAAAAAAyY/FOXfYMZ1OeY/s320/westfield_tighe+carmody.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">When GDF Suez finally stops burning coal at Mount Tom, we will all breathe more easily (literally). But there are two reasons to hold in that sigh of relief for the time being: water and the climate. A new natural-gas plant would have big implications for drinking water in the area. And it would do nothing to reduce the state's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while increasing our dependence on fracking.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The company proposing the Westfield <a href="http://www.mass.gov/dcr/watersupply/intbasin/docs/PVECdecision.pdf" target="_blank">power station</a> -- Pioneer Valley Energy Center -- expects that the new plant's cooling towers will need up to <b>two million gallons of water per day</b>. Where will it find all that water? From the Tighe-Carmody Reservoir in Southampton, which is owned and operated by the City of Holyoke. How much wastewater will the plant expel? About a quarter of a million gallons per day.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">To put those amounts in context, the average family in the U.S. uses about 300 gallons of water per day, according to the <a href="http://www.epa.gov/WaterSense/our_water/water_use_today.html" target="_blank">Environmental Protection Agency</a>. So every day of the week, the new power station would withdraw as much water as 6,600 families would use and discharge enough to account for about 800 families. In addition to wasting water, building yet another gas-fired plant will exacerbate the climate crisis.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">About half of the electricity we generate in Massachusetts comes from natural gas, and because we don't extract it here (not yet, anyway) the power companies have to pipe it in from other parts of the country and Canada. For an overview of the pipeline network click <a href="http://www.eia.gov/pub/oil_gas/natural_gas/analysis_publications/ngpipeline/northeast.htm" target="_blank">here</a>. Over the next 25 years or so, the Energy Information Administration is projecting that a steadily increasing proportion of our natural gas will come from shale formations. Extracting natural gas from shale requires hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So what is the alternative to the Westfield gas-fired plant? One option is to keep generating energy at Mount Tom: clean energy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Saying goodbye to coal should not mean bidding farewell to GDF Suez. If we can keep the company here, we will have a unique opportunity to transform Mount Tom site into a showcase for renewable-energy innovation. At a recent <a href="http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2013/04/public_involvement_key_to_ensu.html" target="_blank">public meeting</a> in Holyoke, Senator Michael Knapik said his legislative task force would welcome ideas to present to GDF Suez. Spending some of the company's <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">€231 million research-and-innovation <a href="http://www.gdfsuez.com/en/commitments/reasearch-innovation/" target="_blank">budget</a> in the Pioneer Valley would be a good start. Located on the Connecticut River, surrounded by farmland, and in the heart of the Five College Area, the Mount Tom site would make an ideal home for a renewable-energy research facility focusing on hydro power, micro-hydro, and <a href="http://www.epa.gov/agstar/anaerobic/index.html" target="_blank">anaerobic digestion</a>. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Thanks to the current pause in global temperature rises, policymakers in Massachusetts and across the world may have just enough <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21574461-climate-may-be-heating-up-less-response-greenhouse-gas-emissions" target="_blank">time</a> to make the changes necessary to stave off climate catastrophe. But if we replace the coal-burning plant at Mount Tom with a gas-fired plant in Westfield, our regional <a href="http://www.epa.gov/region1/communities/pdf/PioneerValley/FactSheet.pdf" target="_blank">CO<span style="font-size: x-small;">2</span>e emissions</a> will remain constant or even rise while our methane emissions will increase. Electricity users in the Pioneer Valley may no longer feel quite so complicit in the disregard that Colombian mine-owners show for the lives of the miners who dig the coal (see blog post<a href="http://massgreens.blogspot.com/2011/01/colombian-mine-explosion.html" target="_blank"> January 26, 2011</a>); instead we can shoulder more responsibility for the fracking that makes projects like Westfield economically feasible. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A group called <a href="http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/04/westfield_concerned_citizens_c_3.html" target="_blank">Westfield Concerned Citizens</a> has been leading the fight against the new gas-fired plant. On Thursday, May 23, at 7:00 p.m., they and local Greens are hosting a public meeting at the Westfield Athenaeum to rally opposition and present practical, clean-energy alternatives including solar, net-metering, and opting in to the Green Communities Act. So if you live in Western Massachusetts, please mark your calendar and come along.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01203946302610654952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-895628231132048998.post-76584129248416555362013-02-18T12:31:00.002-08:002013-02-18T13:46:08.407-08:00Which company had to pay an EPA fine?Houston, Texas, is home to Cabot Oil & Gas and to Strategic Minerals, Inc. Both of these companies have a connection to Massachusetts. One of them extracts the fossil fuel that generates about half our state's electricity and, according to this <a href="http://ghgdata.epa.gov/ghgp/main.do#/facility/?q=cabot&bs=160A&fid=&sf=11001000&ds=O&yr=2011&tr=current&cyr=2011" target="_blank">search tool</a> run by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), was responsible for emitting about 611,000 metric tons of CO2e in 2011. The other operates a glass recycling facility in the town of Franklin, about 40 miles southeast of Boston. Read on if you want to find out which of these two companies had to pay a big fine to the EPA.<br />
<br />
The company paying the fine was <a href="http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/DE5989FEE587854085257ACC007767C4" target="_blank">Strategic Minerals</a>, which runs the Franklin recycling site. A couple of months ago, it agreed to pay a fine of $159,000 for failing to have an adequate stormwater pollution prevention plan and for other stormwater discharge violations. Why was Strategic Minerals obliged to take care of its stormwater discharges? Because it has a duty to comply with the federal Clean Water Act, including Section 402(p) which requires permits for "discharges associated with industrial activities."<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VguGNH7DNDg/USKJ9J8XzbI/AAAAAAAAAxs/-4n0j0Af5Lg/s1600/pa+flooding.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="210" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VguGNH7DNDg/USKJ9J8XzbI/AAAAAAAAAxs/-4n0j0Af5Lg/s320/pa+flooding.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Flooding in Pennsylvania, 2011 (AP photo)</span></td></tr>
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Not so Cabot Oil & Gas. Whereas oil-and-gas <i>exploration</i> fall under the Clean Water Act, natural gas <i>production</i> does not. Although subject to regulation by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (<a href="http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/marcellus_shale/20296" target="_blank">DEP</a>) the frack pads that dot the state do not have to comply with the provisions of the Clean Drinking Water Act.<br />
<br />
So any stormwater that might flow over any of Cabot's Marcellus Shale fracking sites -- picking up pollutants along the way -- would enter the waterways of Pennsylvania free from EPA meddling. Pennsylvania has experienced devastating floods in recent years, and climate change may increase the intensity of extreme weather events in the state according to this <a href="http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science_and_impacts/impacts/climate-change-pa.html" target="_blank">report</a> from the Union of Concerned Scientists.<br />
<br />
The source of the statutory exemption is the infamous Energy Act of 2005, which exempted hydraulic fracturing from several important environmental laws. As a result, some industrial activities (glass recycling, for example) require permits under the Clean Water Act's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (<a href="http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/" target="_blank">NPDES</a>). But not fracking.<br />
<br />
If you would like to take action to help Massachusetts make the switch away from fracked natural gas toward clean energy, visit <a href="http://beatbackfracking.org/">beatbackfracking.org</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01203946302610654952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-895628231132048998.post-52984449261844695232013-01-31T13:27:00.000-08:002013-01-31T13:30:17.911-08:00Beat Back FrackingAccording to the Office of the State Geologist, fracking is "probably not" coming to Massachusetts. You can read all the FAQs about the Hartford Basin <a href="http://www.geo.umass.edu/stategeologist/frame_shalegas.htm?shalegas.htm" target="_blank">here</a>, but in the meantime, here's the answer to the question "Is hydraulic fracturing for shale gas coming to Massachusetts?":<br />
<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Probably not. Based on a
survey of all available scientific data, the geologic conditions in the
Connecticut Valley in western Massachusetts are not optimum for shale gas
development. Black shale units in the
Hartford Basin are generally too thin, laterally discontinuous, and are cut by
too many pre-existing natural fractures and extinct faults. This makes
extraction of hydrocarbons economically not feasible with today’s technology at
current market prices (see below). However, more data need to be collected to
completely rule out that possibility.</i> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>In addition, oil and gas wells used for
conventional or enhanced hydrocarbon recovery are defined as Class 2 wells
under the Massachusetts Underground Injection Control Regulations (310 CMR 27.00). Class 2 wells are currently prohibited in the
Commonwealth.</i></blockquote>
<div>
This is good news, and I was relieved to read it. But while Massachusetts itself is likely to remain frack-free, we are still complicit in the practice. After all, most of the electricity we generate in Massachusetts comes from natural gas. So every time we switch on the light (or type a blog post, for that matter) we can be sure that it's because somebody somewhere is having their land fracked. Massachusetts could use its market power to require that any company selling natural-gas based electricity in Massachusetts has to certify that the extraction process did not pollute anyone's drinking water.<br />
<br />
That was the idea behind a bill the Sierra Club promoted in the last legislative session, and that deserves more support in the next session. The bill won the support of the Massachusetts Democratic Party's <a href="http://www.valleyadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=13691">state convention</a> in 2011. If you'd like to help the bill become law, please let me know.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01203946302610654952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-895628231132048998.post-11987064545004772272013-01-31T12:32:00.000-08:002013-01-31T13:30:28.657-08:003 tips for creating your campaign messageTony Blair taught me a lesson I will never forget. One day toward the end of the 1997 general election campaign he put his hand on my shoulder and looked me in the eye. "The most important thing in politics," he said, "is sincerity." Blair flashed his notorious grin. "Once you can fake that, you've got it made."<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gEEcPtdu4l8/UQcZIvLdsoI/AAAAAAAAAwc/DtbRqbS_BH4/s1600/blair+grin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gEEcPtdu4l8/UQcZIvLdsoI/AAAAAAAAAwc/DtbRqbS_BH4/s200/blair+grin.jpg" width="140" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tony Blair on sincerity</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Admittedly, only one part of the foregoing is truthful. I have never had a deep and meaningful conversation with Tony Blair (although we did meet once, for all of five minutes) and the ability to feign sincerity will not lead ineluctably to political success. Which leaves the assertion that the most important thing in politics is sincerity. That, I believe, is true.<br />
<br />
It is not, however, the first in the promised list of three tips for creating your campaign message (see below). The tips come after my shameless pitch for the upcoming Green Campaign School in Worcester on Saturday, February 23. If you think you might want to run for office, this event is for you.<br />
<br />
If you plan on attending, please take a few minutes to watch these campaign commercials from Greens in other parts of the world. I'll be running two workshops at the conference, <i>Campaign Basics</i> and <i>A Green Electoral Presence. We </i>will draw lessons from the videos in <i>Campaign Basics</i>.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-P3211CUhkNc/UQh3wt84aaI/AAAAAAAAAw8/DucR4FodrjU/s1600/sian+berry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-P3211CUhkNc/UQh3wt84aaI/AAAAAAAAAw8/DucR4FodrjU/s1600/sian+berry.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sian Berry</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The first, called <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Us6LZ75z0A" target="_blank">Make History Melbourne</a>, features Adam Bandt, a Green who is now a Member of Parliament in Australia. Sian Berry, stars in the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKWNqS9BJRE" target="_blank">second video</a>. Sian was the Green candidate for mayor of London in 2008.<br />
<br />
Video <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l59ZB7mQ2vk" target="_blank">number three</a> is from <i>Europe Ecologie</i> and it's in French. The Greens in the German state of North Rhine Westphalia (NRW) produced the fourth <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fKgNhI4QIw&list=PL2E763157A7D777C7" target="_blank">video</a>, a 30-second spot in party's package of single-issue ads for the 2010 elections. As the junior partner in NRW's coalition government, the Greens seem to know a thing or two about winning elections and holding on to power. Closer to home, California's Ross D. Frankel's 2010 campaign <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHy4DXL9uJw" target="_blank">video</a> is four minutes long, a painfully long time in politics. Just watch the first 30 seconds and I guarantee that you will agree it's worth discussing in a workshop.<br />
<br />
We will analyze the videos (or at least some of them), focusing mainly on audience, emotion, and imagery. By talking about what works well versus what falls flat we will learn to develop our own messages more carefully and deliberately.<br />
<br />
Why would we cover this in a workshop called <i>Campaign Basics</i>? Because nothing is more basic to a campaign that its purpose, and nothing reveals the purpose -- or purposelessness -- of a campaign like its fundamental message. Constructing the message starts with asking yourself this simple question: "Why am I running?"<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tip #1: Know <i>why</i> you are running</span></b><br />
<br />
Answering this question honestly and thoughtfully will uncover your authentic vision, which will shape your message. It may take a while. But unless and until you have the answer, you should devote your time, energy, and other valuable resources to something other than running for office. I do not mean that you should swear off politics. I merely suggest that you should wait until you can give a sincere answer. After all, if not even <i>you</i> know why you are running how can you expect others to entrust you with their vote?<br />
<br />
For many of us, having to explain why we are running forces us to ponder issues that go to the very heart of who we are. Our passion for politics is like a pilot light, always burning away in the background. Why do you care about politics? "Why do you breathe?" might be easier for us to answer. If you have not wrestled with these matters since Existentialism 101, you should do so before you commit to running. Otherwise you risk not only being stymied in the manner of the late Senator Ted Kennedy in this <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDh2iKzBh4E" target="_blank">1979 interview</a>, but also you rob yourself of the opportunity to develop a genuinely compelling message that connects with the people who matter most, i.e. the voters.<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tip #2: Know <i>where</i> you are running</span></b><br />
<br />
Narrowing that broader question of why you are running, you need to ask yourself why you are seeking this particular office. Remember, you are not running in the abstract: Your goal is to win a specific election in a specific district. Your campaign can certainly educate people about the big subjects, the ones you care about so much that you decided to run (see Tip #1). But as any teacher will tell you: "It's not what you say, it's what they hear." So you need to meet people where they are, and introduce the global and national subjects through local issues.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnjx5Zk0LA2O7J210S3MHZSlVleLcYAm7cvmePM6rYGr7gpXqQ3Hf-BlA2-uQevdvCBaiAnQg9Vr16_Y1SPSo1qsDDFDb7ngzcz3izCoAeWdP4MeFETAApsjDQ2oz2BoNg1kj8_sLVXQU/s1600/where+is+my+green+job-black+and+white+with+man.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="139" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnjx5Zk0LA2O7J210S3MHZSlVleLcYAm7cvmePM6rYGr7gpXqQ3Hf-BlA2-uQevdvCBaiAnQg9Vr16_Y1SPSo1qsDDFDb7ngzcz3izCoAeWdP4MeFETAApsjDQ2oz2BoNg1kj8_sLVXQU/s200/where+is+my+green+job-black+and+white+with+man.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
How? Let's say climate change is the reason you devote yourself to electoral politics and that you are running for state representative in a district where the front-page stories are about job losses. You will be tempted to repeat the phrase "green jobs" over and over again until you ride an electoral tidal wave to Beacon Hill. After all, no progressive campaign seems complete nowadays without that mantra. Resist the temptation.<br />
<br />
What you need to remember is that jobs gains are general, whereas job losses are specific. So start acting like a state representative, or rather like a state representative should act. Do your research and find out what kind of clean-energy businesses might come to your district -- and which local businesses would hire more workers-- if the conditions were right. Then reach out to the people in your district who are already trying to grow green jobs. Learn from them, and show them that you respect the voters enough to have done your homework.<br />
<br />
At that point you can start connecting the dots in a very clear way between climate change and job growth in your district, and you will be better prepared to ask the human beings who live there to trust you with the task of representing them.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Tip #3: Know <i>who</i> to ask</b></span><br />
<br />
So who do you want to vote for you (bearing in mind that "everybody" is not an acceptable response)? To answer the question realistically you should calculate how many votes you will need in order to win. Happily, you will discover that your universe of potential voters is relatively small.<br />
<br />
For example, in 2012, a presidential election year, approximately 20,000 people voted in some House district but in many others the turnout was closer to 15,000 (click <a href="http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/elepdf/rov12.pdf" target="_blank">here</a> for the official results). In <a href="http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/elepdf/rov10.pdf" target="_blank">2010</a>, the numbers were lower. Assuming a two-way race in a district where the likely turnout is 16,000, your target number of votes should be no less than 8,000.<br />
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It is very likely that there are 8,000 people in your district who would vote for you if (a) they knew you were running; and (b) they believed that you would represent them well. Who are they and how do you find them? Start with the most up-to-date list of registered voters, which your town/city clerk will provide. Next create smaller lists arranged by neighborhood so that you can go from door to door in an efficient way (the GRP's NationBuilder capability can help with this). When you have these walk-sheets, start canvassing your district in a systematic way for several hours every day, recording the voting intentions of the voters you meet.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2g2tucP8Syw/UQrSHHzLqKI/AAAAAAAAAxc/E59PvvpCLj0/s1600/Why+Where+Who.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="154" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2g2tucP8Syw/UQrSHHzLqKI/AAAAAAAAAxc/E59PvvpCLj0/s200/Why+Where+Who.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
After a day or two, you will have a reliable sense of how your target voters are responding to your message, which is the subject of next week's more detailed post. If the responses consist mainly of glazed eyes and bemused expressions, you will need to adapt your message, your delivery, or both. But you will be building on a solid foundation, the why, where, and who of your campaign.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01203946302610654952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-895628231132048998.post-55559680882700838492013-01-01T17:46:00.003-08:002013-01-31T13:25:39.643-08:00What's wrong with fracking?<br />
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<img border="0" height="111" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EnEnmF8LKKI/UOORLyHBc9I/AAAAAAAAAvM/I8cYtt_Y6qk/s200/fracking+interview.jpg" width="200" /></div>
<br />
Why am I against fracking? That was the question Benjamin Coleman, a student at Boston University, posed when he interviewed me for his film project. My short answer: climate change. For my slightly longer answer (about two minutes) please check out this <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YlJndNYnBQ" target="_blank">video</a>.<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01203946302610654952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-895628231132048998.post-87548535069676495942012-12-11T17:59:00.000-08:002012-12-11T17:59:36.397-08:00Good News in the Fight to Beat Back Fracking<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Today some very welcome news emerged from the State
Geologist. According to the FAQs posted on the office's website, which you can read in full <a href="http://www.geo.umass.edu/stategeologist/frame_shalegas.htm?shalegas.htm" target="_blank">here</a>, fracking is “probably
not” coming to Massachusetts:</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Based on a survey of all available scientific data, the
geologic conditions in the Connecticut Valley in western Massachusetts are not
optimum for shale gas development. Black
shale units in the Hartford Basin are generally too thin, laterally
discontinuous, and are cut by too many pre-existing natural fractures and
extinct faults. This makes extraction of hydrocarbons economically not feasible
with today’s technology at current market prices... However, more data need to
be collected to completely rule out that possibility. </span></i> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In addition, oil and gas
wells used for conventional or enhanced hydrocarbon recovery are defined as
Class 2 wells under the Massachusetts Underground Injection Control Regulations
(310 CMR 27.00). Class 2 wells are
currently prohibited in the Commonwealth.</span></i></blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HxfcgUJ0cV4/UMfiejPZxkI/AAAAAAAAAu4/FyiKLfa0eqE/s1600/matt-damon-promised-land.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="171" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HxfcgUJ0cV4/UMfiejPZxkI/AAAAAAAAAu4/FyiKLfa0eqE/s320/matt-damon-promised-land.jpeg" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This is certainly worth at least one sigh of relief. But
even if Massachusetts itself stays frack-free, the state is still complicit in
the practice. After all, most of the electricity we use here comes from natural
gas. So every time we turn on a light (or type a blog post) we can be sure it’s
because somebody somewhere in the country is having their land fracked. By the
way, the effect of fracking on one American community is the subject of the new
feature film <i>Promised Land</i>, starring Matt Damon. To see a two-minute trailer,
just click <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHQt1NAkhIo" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As well as ensuring that we stay frack-free, there is
something we can do right here in Massachusetts to stop fracking elsewhere in the
United States. By using our market power, we can force energy companies to
certify that the natural-gas they burned to generate electricity they are selling us did not pollute
anybody’s drinking water. That is the idea behind a <a href="http://www.sierraclubmass.org/issues/legislative/2011/summary%20-%20fracking.pdf" target="_blank">bill</a> the Sierra Club
promoted in the last legislative session, with the support of the Massachusetts
Democratic Party’s <a href="http://www.valleyadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=13691" target="_blank">state convention</a>. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If you would like to learn more about this bill and other legislative
proposals to speed up the switch from fossil fuels to renewables, please come
along to the next meeting of the <a href="http://www.facebook.com/PIoneerValleyGreenRainbowLocal?fref=ts" target="_blank">Pioneer Valley GRP</a>, which is at the forefront
of the fight to Beat Back Fracking. The meeting is scheduled for Monday,
January 21, 7:00 p.m. in <a href="http://www.agawamlibrary.org/about/location.htm" target="_blank">Agawam Public Library</a>.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01203946302610654952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-895628231132048998.post-48395248310106627122012-10-05T08:30:00.000-07:002012-10-05T08:30:19.557-07:00Pioneer Valley GRP October Meeting<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9kuSyIkTFg8/UG77582KxiI/AAAAAAAAAlY/hphDPeEccAs/s1600/FB+image_August+PV+GRP+meeting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9kuSyIkTFg8/UG77582KxiI/AAAAAAAAAlY/hphDPeEccAs/s200/FB+image_August+PV+GRP+meeting.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Here's the agenda for the next meeting of Pioneer Valley Green-Rainbow Party, scheduled for Thursday, October 18, 2012, 7:00 p.m. at <a href="https://maps.google.com/maps?q=tree+house+easthampton&aq=f&ie=UTF-8&hl=en" target="_blank">Treehouse, Easthampton</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">1. Introductions<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">2. Additional agenda items<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">3. Minutes of last meeting<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">4. GRP Fundamental Platform<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> Action:
Suggest ideas to platform committee<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">5. Budget for All ballot question<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> Action: Volunteers <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">6. Organizing a public meeting on fracking<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> Action: Volunteers<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">7. Emergency response committees: update
regarding local vacancies<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">8. GRP Farmers: update from convenors<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">9. Scott Laugenour 4<sup>th</sup>
Berkshire campaign update<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> Action: Volunteers to
canvass and make calls<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">10. Facebook and e-communication update<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">11. Any other business<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">12. Close: 8:30 p.m.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">□ Next meeting 7:20 p.m., <b>Thursday, December 6<sup>th</sup> </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"> Unitarian
Universalist Society, 220 Main Street, Northampton</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01203946302610654952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-895628231132048998.post-52770793369818647642012-07-19T12:52:00.001-07:002012-07-19T12:56:06.710-07:00Guest Book Review: Public Meltdown<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>By Ben Plotzker, Guest Reviewer</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Public Meltdown: The Story of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant</i>, by Richard Watts.</span>
</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj573MKgqxFXOaxw7GgDefTWKO_Iw6wcp54kDrySQ7OK7suQokMcy2r2QtlKpQMTQ5QvS5qyhmOh2zsm03bZ0vJHu18UQMCkm3zO7Ai_Bene4XHOUASy5dPnUr2BZ_olEgx1qmcpwD7yVw/s1600/Public+Meltdown.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj573MKgqxFXOaxw7GgDefTWKO_Iw6wcp54kDrySQ7OK7suQokMcy2r2QtlKpQMTQ5QvS5qyhmOh2zsm03bZ0vJHu18UQMCkm3zO7Ai_Bene4XHOUASy5dPnUr2BZ_olEgx1qmcpwD7yVw/s320/Public+Meltdown.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The science behind nuclear energy is one thing, but the
management of a nuclear plant is another. This book outlines the management of
a nuclear power plant owner in the United States. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">You will learn so much from
this book. It is very important to understand what is allowing my night light
to be on or my laptop to charge. There are usually mixed sources of sources for
electricity, but which sources are more controversial?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In 2010, Vermont
legislators voted to shutter a nuclear power plant, putting the state at odds
with the federal government and the plant’s owner—the Louisiana-based Entergy
Corporation. Public Meltdown explores
the debate that roiled Vermont, including the lawsuits and court action that
followed. The story starts out with the early days of the plant back in the
1970’s and how it developed since then. The intriguing use of more than 1,000
news articles, approaches the highly controversial issue with non-bias towards
nuclear energy. It is hard to find a book out there that does so like Public
Meltdown. As an American citizen that consumes electricity from nuclear means,
every person should read this and understand what is going on with that nuclear
power plant. Energy is a big issue in the future of the U.S. and the rest of
the world, so the question about using nuclear is still in debate.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In rich,
well-researched detail, Dr. Watts tells a story that spotlights the role of
state governments, citizens and activists in decisions about the nation’s aging
nuclear power fleet. A story that continues
today as both Entergy, the nation’s second largest nuclear operator, and the
state of Vermont have appealed the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals.Entergy
owns 10 plants in the U.S., so it should be known by all U.S. citizens how this
controversial energy production is handled in our borders. Nuclear plants are
usually very quietly controlled, but all people should know who is patrolling
and how they are doing so.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The book details a series of missteps by the
Louisiana-based Entergy Corporation which owns Vermont Yankee, from inadequate
follow-up after one of the plant’s cooling towers collapsed to misleading
statements to state regulators about tritium leaks from underground pipes.Each
chapter outlines the important aspects of Entergy’s fight to keep the plant
open, even though many speed bumps arise. This non fiction book has some
cliffhangers of its own because of how history played out. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Anyone interested in
energy issues or state’s rights is highly recommended to read this book.The
noticeable characteristics that put this book aside from any other nuclear
energy book is the absence of pro or anti-nuclear positions, no focus on
scientific aspects of the plant, just the public’s view of Entergy, and that
this is the only book that highlights one nuclear plant’s journey through
history. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The book can be found on Amazon. Look up Public Meltdown: The Story of
the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant. Written by Richard Watts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">More info at
<a href="http://www.publicmeltdown.org/">www.publicmeltdown.org</a>. </span><o:p></o:p></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01203946302610654952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-895628231132048998.post-38042784591776087152012-06-13T17:52:00.002-07:002012-06-13T17:52:18.590-07:00Great response in Great Barrington<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Something is hatching in the 4th Berkshire District, where Scott Laugenour is the GRP candidate for State Representative. <span style="font-size: small; text-align: left;">Scott and I hit the sidewalks earlier today in Great Barrington and met with a response that was, indeed, great</span></span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">.</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv8ZIEs5wB6zoq9OnCAgeT4L_4vErW0-GELKJiHCCvpoQkcjqktL8bQQgaNcBK6RdTJOQ61JYPWO_2_cqkxjfjXnE2fcn_6CTKinN0A2Mh76ms2gWibT7R1z3NqL3LcNqyYKw-5MAK_dI/s1600/whats+hatching.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv8ZIEs5wB6zoq9OnCAgeT4L_4vErW0-GELKJiHCCvpoQkcjqktL8bQQgaNcBK6RdTJOQ61JYPWO_2_cqkxjfjXnE2fcn_6CTKinN0A2Mh76ms2gWibT7R1z3NqL3LcNqyYKw-5MAK_dI/s200/whats+hatching.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ready to hatch?</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As usual, most of the doors I knocked belonged to people who were not home (or simply hiding from me) but of those who <i>were</i> at home <i>and </i>planning to vote for a particular state rep in November most said they were voting for Scott. With more than four months until election day and little media attention, I found the level of name recognition and early commitment very encouraging.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Going door-to-door and focusing on core GRP themes like Medicare for All, green jobs, renewable energy, and transparency in government, Scott is running a strong grassroots campaign.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">When you have a couple of hours to invest in party-building this summer, please spend them campaigning with Scott in the Berkshires. I'm eager to get back out there soon, and hope you can join me. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In the meantime, check out Scott's website </span><a href="http://www.scottlaugenour.org/" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">www.scottlaugenour.org</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">.</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT9_sKgNSx0xvMfCAk3Is6_O0gHVjxAfwIOuOXCCx_r4YvvKTInhdZQTwhRejmYI7WvUN3rNbl7oOr1sYWBtx7rhOCXSE3nBck3Rs0im-JCK7VxroUIFEvxBiQ5PNmcJWgud7orENOyjg/s1600/scott+with+dark+haired+woman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT9_sKgNSx0xvMfCAk3Is6_O0gHVjxAfwIOuOXCCx_r4YvvKTInhdZQTwhRejmYI7WvUN3rNbl7oOr1sYWBtx7rhOCXSE3nBck3Rs0im-JCK7VxroUIFEvxBiQ5PNmcJWgud7orENOyjg/s320/scott+with+dark+haired+woman.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Scott campaigning (photo by Susan Geller)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01203946302610654952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-895628231132048998.post-39697112630329434522012-06-11T12:22:00.002-07:002012-06-11T12:30:09.998-07:00Greening the Law<br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Do you think the time has come for Green lawyers in
Massachusetts to help build the party by forming their own group? If so, please
read on; this post is for you.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Establishing a forum within the GRP for attorneys, law professors, and law students could (1) boost party membership in the legal profession; and (2) help the party develop state-level policies that promote greater environmental, social, and economic justice.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicXdzlZ8DNzrxcCZpauOwZg34D8IUNXBf6Ov5JQsKAe8xYlG4v7UTPr1AdShG_fqVa4hQVxYND9bYSt1S7HBl0pBptmW_IRF7I2Tn0vaf3_FUT-h1jOEek3hcig5-aa15Jd7cieF4Zm24/s1600/abogados+GRP+lawyers+logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="71" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicXdzlZ8DNzrxcCZpauOwZg34D8IUNXBf6Ov5JQsKAe8xYlG4v7UTPr1AdShG_fqVa4hQVxYND9bYSt1S7HBl0pBptmW_IRF7I2Tn0vaf3_FUT-h1jOEek3hcig5-aa15Jd7cieF4Zm24/s320/abogados+GRP+lawyers+logo.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Time to organize?</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We would not be breaking new ground. The Democrats have been organizing lawyers <i>as</i> lawyers for years. Consequently t</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">here are several state chapters of the Democratic Lawyers Council around the country, such as the </span><a href="http://utahdlc.org/about/" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">Utah DLC</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div>
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</div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Political parties in several other jurisdictions also have
organizations specifically for lawyers. For example, in the United Kingdom
legal professionals and law students who support the left-of-center Labour
Party can join the <a href="http://www.societyoflabourlawyers.org.uk/" target="_blank">Society of Labour Lawyers</a>.
Similarly, Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) has the <a href="http://www.spd.de/spd_organisationen/asj/" target="_blank">Associationfor Social Democratic Lawyers</a>. These organizations provide a two-way
conduit, bringing legal issues to the party and representing the party to the
legal community.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So what value would GRP Lawyers/Abogados GRP add? I believe the organization could offer two strong benefits that the GRP currently lacks. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">First, as a form of outreach it would give lawyers a new point of entry into the party. Both academic and practicing lawyers are in short supply in the ranks of the GRP, compared with the Democratic and Republican parties. Of course, some will say that's no bad thing! But putting anti-lawyer prejudices to one side and acknowledging the important role lawyers play in fashioning public policy, it seems wise to recruit more legal professionals. By hosting networking and educational events, GRP Lawyers could help draw sympathetic professionals, professors, and law students into the party.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Second, in the 2014 legislative elections we should be prepared to present the voters with a raft of legislative proposals that our House and Senate candidates would promote if elected. Similarly, our statewide candidates should have a resource to help them explain the powers and duties of the offices they are running for and what they would actually do should they win. Attorneys and law professors could ensure that those proposals are legally and constitutionally watertight.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Legal practitioners and academics enjoy a </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;">unique vantage point for reviewing legislation, and for monitoring and critiquing the <a href="http://www.mass.gov/ago/" target="_blank">Attorney General</a>, the <a href="http://www.sec.state.ma.us/" target="_blank">Secretary of the Commonwealth</a>, and the <a href="http://www.mass.gov/eea/" target="_blank">Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs</a>, the officers of state government responsible for writing many of the regulations that put flesh on statutory bones. By organizing ourselves within the party, we could help generate policy proposals tailor-made for Massachusetts that are both imaginative and practical. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;">From environmental policies and voting rights to banking, corporate law, and consumer affairs, GRP Lawyers could serve as a sounding board and think tank for the party. If the party is serious about achieving greater diversity on the bench as part of our mission to build a more equal, just, and sustainable society, lawyers have an invaluable perspective to share. And through occasional social events and panel discussions the organization could also help like-minded lawyers from different parts of the state connect with one another. We might even have fun.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If you think the time has come to set up Abogados GRP/GRP Lawyers, please add your comment below.</span></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01203946302610654952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-895628231132048998.post-66201134936703523562012-05-30T14:13:00.001-07:002012-05-30T16:14:21.584-07:00Segregation in the Pioneer Valley<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Introduction</span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Greens in the
Pioneer Valley have to acknowledge and address a shameful fact: Our communities
and our schools are segregated. In 2010, the Harvard School of Public Health
issued a <a href="http://diversitydata.sph.harvard.edu/Publications/school_segregation_report.pdf" target="_blank">report</a> that identified the levels of segregation in schools across the
United States. For Hispanic students, Springfield, Massachusetts, ranked
second, meaning it had the second-most segregated schools in the country. For
African-American students, the city ranked ninth. Quite simply, some
of the most racially segregated schools in the United States of America are
here in the Pioneer Valley. As a political party founded on the principles of
social justice and equal opportunity, we have a duty to tackle this
unconscionable state of affairs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Segregation is
unjust, unconstitutional, and morally wrong. It is also unsustainable. If we
are sincere about building a society that is truly sustainable, we have to move
quickly to integrate our communities and schools and undo generations of
inequity. Here in the Pioneer Valley, that will mean developing an approach to
land use, transportation, and education that is regional rather than local. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW4x1OAiEMEAlh17z_OqPUISCTz30t4xl-_3aponU8GCOsc9Sr8_LIYYHVYwhlfv3Dlu8XqUxMzJ7ZOsoG8W7z39vKRZT2A8QxEHDboJX_DcDvxFeyNex17ct_Fo0UBfgemVcjaKbwUPo/s1600/__The_Soiling_Of_Old_Glory___by_Boreddumb92.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW4x1OAiEMEAlh17z_OqPUISCTz30t4xl-_3aponU8GCOsc9Sr8_LIYYHVYwhlfv3Dlu8XqUxMzJ7ZOsoG8W7z39vKRZT2A8QxEHDboJX_DcDvxFeyNex17ct_Fo0UBfgemVcjaKbwUPo/s320/__The_Soiling_Of_Old_Glory___by_Boreddumb92.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>The Soiling of Old Glory</i>, Stanley Forman, 1976</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<h3>
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Segregation in the Pioneer Valley</span></b></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Our commonwealth
has a policy, embodied in Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 76, Section 5, of
basing school assignment on residence. As
a result, where there is residential segregation, there will be racially
segregated schools. One example of this phenomenon is Springfield, the largest
city in the Pioneer Valley, a racially segregated city within a racially
segregated region. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In the United
States as a whole, “residential segregation that exists in metropolitan areas
does not typically occur within the same towns, but rather occurs between
municipalities” James E. Ryan, “Schools, Race, and Money,” 109 Yale L.J. 249,
277 (1999). The pattern of residential
segregation between Springfield and the surrounding communities is consistent
with this trend. The city is 51.8% White
and 22.3% African-American, with 38.8% of the total population identifying as
Hispanic/Latino. In 2000, the US Census
Bureau’s Housing and Household Economics Statistics Division ascribed
Springfield a Gini index value of 0.816 for African-American residents and
0.813 for Hispanic residents, with 1.0 indicating maximum segregation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In contrast, the
eight communities that abut Springfield are overwhelmingly White, with only two
of them having populations that are less than 90% White. For example, East Longmeadow is 94.5% White
with African Americans making up 1.4% of the town’s population, and only 2.3%
identifying as Hispanic/Latino.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As a result of
residential segregation, the public schools in and around Springfield are also
segregated. In the Springfield school
district, 13.7% of the students are White, 20.7% are African-American, and
59.8% are Hispanic. In Springfield Central
High School, only 18% of the students are White, while 25.1% are
African-American, and 46.1% are Hispanic. In East Longmeadow, by way of
contrast, 89.9% of the students are White, 3.1% are African-American, and 3.1%
are Hispanic. Similarly, in Longmeadow,
86.3% of the students are White, 2.8% are African-American, and 2.7% are
Hispanic. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In short, in the
heart of the Pioneer Valley we have some schools for Whites and other schools
for non-Whites. Although litigation – <i>McDuffy
v. Secretary of the Executive Office of Education</i>, 415 Mass. 545, 615
N.E.2d 516 (1993) and <i>Hancock v.
Commissioner of Education</i>, 443 Mass. 428 (2005) – and so-called education
reform did much to remedy the inequity of school funding, the last real effort
to tackle educational segregation was in the 1960s and 70s. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<h3>
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">METCO and the Racial Imbalance Act</span></b></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Back in 1966, in
order to reduce racial isolation Massachusetts created the Metropolitan Council
for Educational Opportunity, or <a href="http://www.doe.mass.edu/metco/faq.html?section=d" target="_blank">METCO</a> program, which covers Springfield as well
as Boston. Students travel by bus from their homes in Springfield to
predominantly White schools in neighboring towns, called receiving or host
communities. Approximately 75% of METCO students are African-American and about
17% are Hispanic. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">At present, only
four school districts around Springfield receive METCO students, namely East
Longmeadow, Longmeadow, Hampden-Wilbraham, and Southwick-Tolland. According to
the <a href="http://www.sps.springfield.ma.us/deptsites/grants/PreventionIntervention/content/METCOCoverLetter.pdf" target="_blank">director</a> of the Springfield public schools this is because of “limitations
of the transportation provided by the host communities.” There are approximately 25,000 students in
the Springfield school district. But in 2010-11 the number of students from
Springfield attending schools in neighboring communities via the METCO program
was just 141, or 0.5% of the total number of the city’s students. Clearly,
METCO alone is not going to integrate our schools.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Without question
the situation in and around Springfield violates the state constitution as well
as the applicable state statute. Where more than fifty percent of the pupils attending
a public school are non-White, Massachusetts law defines the situation as one
of “racial imbalance” (M.G.L. c. 71, §37D, the Racial Imbalance Act). Like METCO, this statute dates from the
mid-1960s and its purpose is clear: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“It is hereby
declared to be the policy of the commonwealth to encourage all school
committees to adopt as educational objectives the promotion of racial balance
and the correction of existing racial imbalance in the public schools. The
prevention or elimination of racial imbalance shall be an objective in all
decisions involving the drawing or altering of school attendance lines, establishing
of grade levels, and the selection of new school sites.”</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Despite having
been on the statute books for 47 years, the Racial Imbalance Act has not
produced racially balanced schools. Because Springfield and the surrounding
communities are residentially segregated according to race, Chapter 76, Section
5, has the effect of assigning students of color in Springfield to segregated
schools. This is an outrage. It is also a violation of our state constitution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Article 1 of the
Massachusetts Declaration of Rights provides that “[e]quality under the law
shall not be denied or abridged because of sex, race, color, creed or national
origin.” The Supreme Judicial Court
considered this provision in the context of efforts to desegregate the public
schools in Boston and Springfield during the early 1970s. As a result of those decisions, there is no
doubt that in Massachusetts it unconstitutional to use “[s]tate power to
promote and entrench racial separation in all those schools whose communities
have segregated residential patterns,” <i>Opinion
of the Justices</i>, 363 Mass. 899, 906 (1973). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">By continuing to operate an education system that both reflects and
perpetuates residential segregation, the Commonwealth is violating Article 1. Enforcing
the local-schools policy but not the Racial Imbalance Act means that we are
denying students of color in and around Springfield their right to equality
under the law.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The
Commonwealth’s practice of confining students of color to schools in their
racially segregated neighborhoods – unless those students successfully opt en
masse into the inter-district school choice program – entrenches both
educational and residential segregation.
The fact that Springfield Central High School, for example, remains
racially imbalanced demonstrates that the Racial Imbalance Act, METCO, and the
school choice program are inadequate responses to the ongoing violation of constitutional rights.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<h3>
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Regional Approach</span></b></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Segregation
becomes self-perpetuating. As the Supreme Court of the United States observed
in a landmark desegregation case: “People gravitate toward school facilities,
just as schools are located in response to the needs of people. The location of
schools may thus influence the patterns of residential development of a
metropolitan area and have important impact on composition of inner-city
neighborhood,” <i>Swann v.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education</i>, 402 U.S. 1, 20-21 (1971). The
Pioneer Valley’s experience demonstrates how, over the years, patterns of
residential and educational segregation in and around metropolitan Springfield have
become mutually reinforcing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">How do we open
the padlock of segregation? I believe that the key is identifying those
decisions that have a regional impact, and putting power over those decisions
into the hands of a democratic, accountable regional body. Ceding power upward from
the municipal to regional level may strike some Greens as counter-intuitive, to
say the least, and inconsistent with our goal of greater decentralization. But
I believe that it is completely consistent with our commitment to grassroots
democracy, the first of our party’s <a href="http://www.gp.org/tenkey.shtml" target="_blank">Ten Key Values</a>, ensuring that people have a
say in the decisions that affect their lives and creating political forms that
directly include people in the decision-making process.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Here in
Massachusetts, where “local” has often served as codeword for White, local
control and local schools have worked together to perpetuate racial inequality.
We need to break with the past, and design policies that promote regional
equity. Here is a <a href="http://www.breakthroughcommunities.info/videoaudio/john_powell/beyond_the_post_industrial_city.htm" target="_blank">link</a> to a video featuring Professor john a. powell (he uses
lower-case only in his name) of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and
Ethnicity, Moritz College of Law, Ohio State University. Professor powell
explains that racial and economic segregation segregates people of color not
just from White people but from opportunity. He argues that we need to address
the “opportunity structure at the regional level” rather than trying to tackle
segregation at the local level.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If we are to follow this advice and ensure that the opportunity structure in the Pioneer Valley is accessible, inclusive, and equitable, we will have to design a new governmental structure with the authority to make decisions about fair and affordable housing, public transportation, commercial development, and school assignments. In a state that effectively abolished county government, relishes local control over zoning, and amended its constitution to prevent "forced busing" there will be plenty of resistance. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">On the other hand, Massachusetts also created the <a href="http://www.capecodcommission.org/home" target="_blank">Cape Cod Commission</a>, a regional authority which manages growth and promotes environmental protection on Cape Cod. Fifteen towns in Barnstable County ceded zoning power to the commission in order to protect the scenic value, water supply, and quality of life on the Cape. Clearly, Bay Staters are quite capable of surrendering some local control to a supra-municipal body when we realize that the stakes are high. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<h3>
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Conclusion</span></b></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Although
policymakers in Massachusetts have devised a variety of programs over the past 50 years, our
society remains a segregated one. Programs such as METCO and school choice are still alive and produce
positive results for the participants, but do little to bring about genuine
integration. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Racial
Imbalance Act and the law enshrining local assignment work against each other,
and display the inadequacy of an exclusively local – as opposed to regional –
approach to building social cohesion. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As the site of some of the most racially segregated schools in the country we have to change the way we distribute decision-making power and other resources, and we have to do so urgently and effectively. In order to achieve an increasingly just, equal, sustainable, and democratic society, Greens in the Pioneer Valley should put regional equity at the top of our list of policy priorities.</span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01203946302610654952noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-895628231132048998.post-87711027466365777862012-03-21T10:06:00.000-07:002012-03-21T10:06:08.603-07:00A new approach to phasing out fossil fuels<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">In November and December of last year, coal’s share of US electricity generation fell below 40% for the first time
since 1978, according to the <a href="http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=5331" target="_blank">Energy Information Administration</a> (EIA). While that sounds like good news, coal's relative decline is not so much about the rise of renewable energy but rather about the boom in shale gas. Advances in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) are making it much easier for drillers to extract gas from deep underground, so that by 2035 almost half of the natural gas we use in the United States will be shale gas.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIlBI_61SFx5ckXxRLUjX-gDESpmxXUrXAVWdQ4K3DZ-p85Kd1sX-etChnwsaHbRaqNCsql5R5VqBLM58rzshgXBdPx71jSlX87x92QXJIMYXI4T2vvL54l1lsIFSBZPFk24dvZTzTNqw/s1600/nat_gas_production_1990-2035-(medium).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIlBI_61SFx5ckXxRLUjX-gDESpmxXUrXAVWdQ4K3DZ-p85Kd1sX-etChnwsaHbRaqNCsql5R5VqBLM58rzshgXBdPx71jSlX87x92QXJIMYXI4T2vvL54l1lsIFSBZPFk24dvZTzTNqw/s320/nat_gas_production_1990-2035-(medium).jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Natural gas emits less </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">CO</span><sub style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%;">2 </sub><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%;">than coal, but one of its components is methane. Emissions of methane from the extraction and distribution of natural gas are a potent driver of climate change. Why? Because in terms of heat-trapping potential, methane is 21 times more effective than carbon dioxide.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If we are going to tackle climate change, we need a realistic, integrated approach to coal and natural gas. And, as you will have noticed, we do not have much time.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The year 2010 was the warmest year on record, says the <a href="http://www.wmo.int/pages/themes/climate/index_en.php" target="_blank">World Meteorological Organization</a>. Last year, 2011, was the warmest for a
year that experienced a La Niña event, which is supposed to cool the
atmosphere. In the US, only six states had a near-normal December. Arctic sea
ice extent for 2011 was the fifth lowest on record opening up the Northwest
Passage for the second consecutive year, according to the <a href="http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/reportcard/index.html" target="_blank">National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration</a>. The pressing, global nature of the problem is why we have a UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">At Cancun, our government pledged to reduce GHG emissions significantly,
so that by 2020 they would be 17% below 2005 levels. But in fact our GHG emissions have gone up, and they continue
to rise. In 1990 we emitted approximately 6,000 million tons. In
2006, the figure was about 7,075 million tons. This year, we will probably
reach 7,700 million tons, i.e. 25% more than in 1990. That should put the good news about coal in context.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Power companies are using less coal and more natural gas because the latter is cheaper than the former. Why is natural gas cheaper? Because of advances in fracking technology. But h</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">ow can fossil-fuel companies afford to invest in fracking technology when the price is dropping? The <a href="http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/aeo/er/pdf/0383er(2012).pdf" target="_blank">EIA</a> explains: "</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px;">high crude oil prices... significantly improve the economics of natural gas plays that have high concentrations of crude oil, condensates, or natural gas liquids." This interplay of oil, coal, and natural gas prices is an important factor that we need to take into account as we devise policies for reducing fossil-fuel use.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As we fashion those policies, we need to understand the scale and urgency of the problem. Together, coal and natural gas make up 50% of the country’s energy consumption. This year they will account for about 3,000 million tons of CO</span><sub style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">2</sub><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> equivalents. Last year, the federal government projected that 23 years from now that figure will have climbed to 3,738 million tons. This year, the <a href="http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/aeo/er/pdf/0383er(2012).pdf" target="_blank">projection</a> for 2035 is lower but still predicts that our country's total electricity-related carbon dioxide output will grow by 4.9% from 2012 to 2035.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We cannot slow down climate change if our CO<sub>2 </sub>and
other GHG emissions increase. Yes, natural gas is supplanting coal in the
electricity sector and, arguably, natural gas produces less CO<sub>2</sub> than
coal. At the point of use (i.e. excluding the carbon cost of extracting it) natural gas is cleaner than coal. Another supposedly</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> redeeming feature of natural-gas power stations is the possibility of re-powering them to run on </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">hydrogen</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. After all, hydrogen is not a climate change culprit. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">However, the </span><a href="http://www.powermag.com/coal/Enels-Fusina-Hydrogen-Fueled-Plant-Goes-Online_2200.html" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">Fusina</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> hydrogen plant in Italy currently relies on fossil fuels from a neighboring petrochemical facility for feedstock. The petrochemical facility captures the carbon dioxide but, to make the whole process cost-effective, the owners then pump it underground to help extract more oil. A power plant that not only requires fossil fuels to operate but also facilitates the extraction of even more fossil fuels is hardly a model of sustainability.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The current trend from coal to natural gas is not reducing our CO<sub>2</sub>
emissions in any meaningful way. In the past, subsidies may have encouraged the renewable energy industry to come up with new products, but as <a href="http://energy.gov/articles/clean-energy-markets-weve-got-innovation-and-deployment-cart-and-horse-backwards" target="_blank">Richard Kauffman</a>, Senior Adviser to the Secretary of Energy, points out: "Without financial mechanisms to encourage creation of a
domestic market, there’s no domestic demand for developing these products in
the United States." This is a market failure that we need to fix, and fix fast.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As a nation we need a coherent, integrated policy that encourages the market for renewables. A starting point could be the<a href="http://www.mass.gov/eea/energy-utilities-clean-tech/renewable-energy/rps-aps/" target="_blank"> Massachusetts Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard</a>, which requires electricity providers to increase the proportion of renewable energy they use by one per cent every year. Scaling this policy up to the national level -- and upping the annual increase from one per cent to five percent -- would help renewables take the place of fossil fuels over the course of ten years. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Given the political complexion of Congress, we are not likely to see a national renewable-energy mandate in the next few years. But we cannot wait in the hope that the Republicans lose their majority at the next congressional elections. And a state-by-state approach has not borne fruit so far. Instead I believe that we need to look at regional, multi-state responses. Again, Massachusetts helps point the way.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Massachusetts is a member of the <a href="http://www.rggi.org/" target="_blank">Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative</a>, which in 2005 established a market for carbon trading. Despite the fact that it comprises nine different states RGGI is not an interstate compact, which would require congressional approval, but simply an agreement between the signatories. Whatever the merits of RGGI in terms of actually reducing emissions, it provides a precedent for an interstate agreement that bypasses Congress entirely.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Based on the renewable energy portfolio standard and RGGI, I believe that it is both necessary and feasible to set up a multi-state renewable energy agreement. Using their combined market power, a dozen or so states could require all power utilities in their jurisdiction to provide an increasing percentage of electricity from non-fossil, non-nuclear sources so that by, say, 2035, at least 50% of the electricity in the region would come from renewables. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">With the economic and political power of the fossil-fuel industry, a collective approach makes sense. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If Vermont, for example, tried to adopt a 50%-by-2035 rule, the big utilities might well be able to push the state into changing its mind (although Vermont's determination to adopt single-payer healthcare despite heavy lobbying by the insurance industry might give them pause). By joining together with the others, each state would be punching above its weight. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">If you agree that it is time for an interstate agreement requiring 50% of our electricity to come from renewables by 2035, please let me know.</span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01203946302610654952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-895628231132048998.post-27747344332880092932012-03-19T19:35:00.001-07:002012-03-19T19:35:54.605-07:00Greens battle fossil foolery in AustraliaAs Greens in the United States wrangle with fracking, we can learn a thing or two from our counterparts in Australia. Greens like Senator Larissa Waters are trying to put the brakes on the rush to extract coal seam gas (CSG), the latest fossil foolery to hit New South Wales and Queensland. CSG is not the same as shale gas exactly, as this <a href="http://theconversation.edu.au/explainer-coal-seam-gas-shale-gas-and-fracking-in-australia-2585" target="_blank">article</a> explains, but both are forms of natural gas that exacerbate climate change.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_579759700"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDI_mflfZ_xSsqXZtD8jonRFzhFdDknon0PDsPfycDNE8DgWvNdnaLgYK2FRRmOvOdyEmi5saAT5aXXIS4pLTL_0YqreaB0DkeqM-jbvweZpqz2DmO6j1lGbkh53wBqnq97rVIQLrJFjk/s320/larissa-waters.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rkYjrgucks&feature=related" target="_blank">Senator Larissa Waters (Green)</a></span></td></tr>
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Waters, a Canadian-born environmental lawyer, won her seat in 2010. Since then she has been pressing for a Senate inquiry into the impacts of CSG but so far the state government has refused, despite the fact that two-thirds of Queenslanders agree with putting CSG extraction on hold.<br />
<br />
Here's a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rkYjrgucks&feature=related" target="_blank">video</a> of Senator Waters explaining why Greens are standing with farmers in their struggle with the mining companies.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01203946302610654952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-895628231132048998.post-40862726086886550862012-03-16T16:47:00.004-07:002012-03-16T18:00:51.208-07:00No Fracking says Northern Ireland Assembly<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Mixed news from both jurisdictions of Ireland this St. Patrick's Day. First the good news. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYMm4RAqCJA" target="_blank">Steven Agnew</a>, the sole Green member of the Northern Ireland Assembly, successfully pushed for a moratorium on fracking. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">His motion (which he filed jointly with the Alliance party) won 49 votes in the Assembly last December, with 30 members voting against. </span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirIti7L4pQDsRJVg7Avne-2gq5bVWejHici4JGU88P2-N_oL1MkF7Ga0Y3zwV8myBUZXuq3NewHP8uhm5UupUaQnGTIy3MgcBvwnrQVV1uvDhs0xCSpIir2SpCKcHCNh7W9Rjv_Q3l-og/s320/young+greens+fees+protest.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Steven Agnew (r)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This success shows what even </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">one</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Green legislator can achieve with a few allies on the inside and strong grassroots support on the outside. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Now the not-so-good news from Ireland's other jurisdiction. The fossil-fuel extractor <a href="http://www.tamboran.com/" target="_blank">Tamboran</a> is pushing ahead with its plans to drill in Ireland's Bundoran shale and the Minister for Communications, Energy & Natural Resources, Pat Rabbitte, has issued the company a licensing option. Rabbitte is a Labor member of the coalition government and his <a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2011/0818/1224302638286.html" target="_blank">letter</a> to the Irish Times last year suggests that the government is focusing more on short-term revenue concerns than on long-term climate impacts.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Let's hope for better news next St. Patrick's Day.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01203946302610654952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-895628231132048998.post-20378222006465787622011-10-20T13:58:00.000-07:002011-10-20T13:58:22.706-07:00Three Lessons from the Third Berkshire<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We lost the special election in the Third Berkshire District, albeit narrowly (one percentage point). But within the defeat, to misquote Winston Churchill*, there were several successes. By learning from these successes – and from the overall defeat – we can build stronger Green campaigns that will turn our candidates into legislators and our policies into law. What follows is not a complete post mortem, but a brief overview of three lessons we can learn about electoral communication.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>1. Communication is an Exchange</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">An experienced professor once explained to me, in a nutshell, one of the reasons his service-learning program was so successful: “We meet our students where they are,” he said. Over the years he went on to show me what he meant by that phrase, and his praxis now informs my approach to electoral communication. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So how do we go about meeting voters where they are? Many GRP members care passionately about combating climate change, democracy, eradicating inequality and injustice, and transforming capitalism. Understandably, those are the issues we want to talk about. But those are not the issues most voters want to hear about. Or rather, those are not the issues they want to hear about from people running for State Representative. Even if their understanding of the role of a legislator is somewhat inchoate, regular voters know that State Representatives deal with state-level issues, such as the amount of money the state dedicates to their kids’ schools.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Does that mean we should ignore the big issues like climate change, poverty, and the iniquities and inequities of one-party domination? No. Should we talk down to people? Again, no. It simply means that we have to present our message in such a way that voters can perceive it through their pre-existing lenses. We can only learn about those pre-existing lenses by conversing with voters and really listening to what they have to say; not by commissioning phone polls, but by engaging in authentic one-to-one conversations and then reflecting on them.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">From our conversations on the doorsteps and front porches, we learned that our target voters cared deeply about bringing jobs to the district and resented the fact that the last two state reps walked away from the task of representing them and straight into something more lucrative. So that is where our conversation with the voters went next. Here is the front of a postcard we sent to those target voters to let them know we were listening and shared their priorities.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie_qw6KTDxVlvcBoRtGQB5keI7JkN7GS7E62FuC1uVHhPetbBVVEgY4sGOa_e5FMKJsgogPxdgUX3lyQmf3_IuPS_c2rcjL3dQmydvZcZlRbd97j0-t2TetpQZpgFKYiEwtnxmCMpTT5Y/s1600/Are+the+Democrats+taking+you+for+granted.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie_qw6KTDxVlvcBoRtGQB5keI7JkN7GS7E62FuC1uVHhPetbBVVEgY4sGOa_e5FMKJsgogPxdgUX3lyQmf3_IuPS_c2rcjL3dQmydvZcZlRbd97j0-t2TetpQZpgFKYiEwtnxmCMpTT5Y/s400/Are+the+Democrats+taking+you+for+granted.jpg" width="400" /></a></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>2. Teach Republicans to Vote Tactically</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A few days before the special election, we sent a mailing to 1,100 households with registered Republicans who had voted in the November 2010 election. Its message was simple (see the front of the postcard below) and it may have helped sway some Republicans. Nevertheless, on election day the Republican candidate received about 900 votes. If just one hundred or so of those votes had come our way, we would have won.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7DgtNUcd4cVjZbx0eygzhifgrJtLtgEguOoNezuK5GXNK_Cy36Sw9UDI3l6ygDOSjibuN-X8WvfbBAvzxNJ8Ba4wsdDcgtC0_flMNapB4UE3ifs9-d3z4CCt2VH5PwT5qp-ag3MkBNVU/s1600/R+mailing_revised.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7DgtNUcd4cVjZbx0eygzhifgrJtLtgEguOoNezuK5GXNK_Cy36Sw9UDI3l6ygDOSjibuN-X8WvfbBAvzxNJ8Ba4wsdDcgtC0_flMNapB4UE3ifs9-d3z4CCt2VH5PwT5qp-ag3MkBNVU/s400/R+mailing_revised.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It was obvious from the outset that the Republican candidate was not going to win. So, from a rational-choice perspective, it is unfathomable that 900 people would give him their votes. After all, these were individuals who did not want to see a Democrat win, but acted in a way that they should have known would increase the risk of a Democratic victory. For at least some of them, lack of information may have played a role in the decision. They may have perceived our bald assertion that the Republican could not win as self-serving propaganda. Presenting them with independent verification might have made a difference and encouraged them to vote tactically.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In future races where the Green has a better chance of beating the Democrat, we need to persuade Republicans to vote tactically. We need to learn how to deliver the two-horse-race message more effectively.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>3. Known Unknowns</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But among a few Republican voters, our message may have backfired and so enraged them that it redoubled their resolve to go out and vote Republican (a vote-and-be-damned attitude). How do I know this? I don’t, and I know that I don’t. It is, in the words of Donald Rumsfeld, a known unknown. This brings me to my final point: We need well-designed campaign evaluations. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Our party needs to invest in the kind of surveys and focus groups that will enable us to learn from our mistakes in a more rigorous, fact-based manner. Our analysis has to become less anecdotal and more analytical. Analyzing the effect of our campaigns on voting behavior is much more difficult than program evaluation in some other areas. For example, determining whether an advertising campaign aimed at reducing cigarette use among teenagers did, in fact, help reduce teenage smoking is relatively straightforward compared with learning what it was, in particular, that persuaded un-enrolled women voters aged 30-50 to vote for a particular candidate. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Voting certainly sends a message, but the message it sends is blunt, ambiguous, and inarticulate. Teasing out the intent of the voter presents a challenge, but the growing discipline of program evaluation offers us a choice of tools for doing just that. As a party, we need to use those tools so that we can learn what it is that voters are telling us when they engage in the act of voting.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">*</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><i>“We must be very careful not to assign to this deliverance the attributes of a victory. Wars are not won by evacuations. But there was a victory inside this deliverance, which should be noted.” Winston Churchill, 1940, regarding Dunkirk.</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01203946302610654952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-895628231132048998.post-37744635710426143062011-07-22T08:34:00.000-07:002011-07-22T08:34:27.719-07:00The Commonwealth's first Green legislator?<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSke0S9eJoCJP_m0wXQ4ik2Qi4FZdyQWIbMrbQLsR3EFBb7syWSe1eZK2RaA_wa58JrrjoRZjOBoKKrnfTRHRGOGFSH39XGIMkkVhsdZciVqd6VU3LDy0Bc476yGI7yZPRgaU4qJBiaD0/s1600/family+photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSke0S9eJoCJP_m0wXQ4ik2Qi4FZdyQWIbMrbQLsR3EFBb7syWSe1eZK2RaA_wa58JrrjoRZjOBoKKrnfTRHRGOGFSH39XGIMkkVhsdZciVqd6VU3LDy0Bc476yGI7yZPRgaU4qJBiaD0/s320/family+photo.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Mark Miller and family</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Disclosure: I am Mark Miller's campaign manager.</span><br />
<br />
On October 18 voters in Pittsfield, Western Massachusetts, will choose a new State Representative. The candidate who came in a close second in November 2010, <a href="http://www.marmiller2011.org/">Mark Miller</a>, was gearing up to run again even before the news broke that the <a href="http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/07/massachusetts_governors_counci_1.html">incumbent</a> was stepping down to take a lifetime position in the court system. Now Mark Miller could be just 88 days away from becoming the state's first Green legislator.<br />
<br />
At the last election Mark ran as a Green and won 45% of the votes, a solid foundation for building a successful special-election campaign. He's a Green who knows that enacting Green policies requires winning power and that winning power involves more than vision and passion; it demands dogged determination and effective communication. Mark happens to have been a newspaper editor, so he knows a thing or two about communicating. Add to that the fact that he's lived in Pittsfield his whole life and has great name recognition and we have most of the ingredients that constitute a recipe for electoral success.<br />
<br />
Even just one Green legislator would be a game-changer in Massachusetts politics. Although Massachusetts has had independent state representatives in the recent past (e.g. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Lantigua">William Lantigua</a>) we have not had legislators from so-called third parties since the 1850s. So when Mark asked me to manage his campaign I jumped at the opportunity.<br />
<br />
At least two Democrats are seeking their party's nomination, and after September 20 (primary day) we'll know which one will be running against Mark. There may be a Republican and an unenrolled candidate as well. We'll know for sure in the next few weeks. In the meantime, we're gathering signatures, canvassing door-to-door, and pumping out direct mail. In that sense -- and that sense only -- we're engaged in politics as usual: the retail variety.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Questions/comments: peter@petervickery.com</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01203946302610654952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-895628231132048998.post-6773448600869896752011-06-05T17:44:00.000-07:002011-06-05T17:44:32.996-07:00Democrats and Greens vote for coal phase-out and beat-back-fracking bills<div style="font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 16px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmaekYSRWYojIfpGykmP1Y5N09AMMC9myumP3PLoiWXlPhQJOaVSie44-Mg-EW76Apapl31u1e86H-wzHM0exFOiFYNqVCxgzz8WMOSn2Jkixx6WbugRqY-tgCMevoadxskVXi5Ekscxk/s1600/jumper+green+background.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmaekYSRWYojIfpGykmP1Y5N09AMMC9myumP3PLoiWXlPhQJOaVSie44-Mg-EW76Apapl31u1e86H-wzHM0exFOiFYNqVCxgzz8WMOSn2Jkixx6WbugRqY-tgCMevoadxskVXi5Ekscxk/s200/jumper+green+background.jpg" width="165" /></a></div>The Massachusetts Democratic Party has voted in favor of two measures that would move Massachusetts beyond coal toward a clean-energy, green-jobs economy.</div><div style="font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 16px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 16px;">At their annual convention in Lowell, on Saturday, June 4, the Democrats agreed to add a commitment to phasing out coal-burning and to regulate hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to the party's official Action Agenda. The nationwide organization <a href="http://www.pdamerica.org/">Progressive Democrats of America (PDA)</a> led the effort.</div><div style="font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 16px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 16px;">Tim Carpenter, PDA's director, said he was delighted at the result. "Today the Massachusetts Democratic Party showed its determination to combat global warming and to building a post-carbon economy for Massachusetts," said Carpenter. "One step forward on the jobs front and another step forward in the struggle against climate change."<br />
<br />
The following day, Sunday, June 5, Greens in Western Massachusetts also voted to endorse the bills. By a unanimous vote, the Pioneer Valley <a href="http://www.green-rainbow.org/">Green Rainbow Party</a> declared its support for the coal phase-out and fracking proposals.</div><div style="font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 16px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 16px;">The bill to phase out coal burning in Massachusetts, HB 2612, filed by<a href="http://www.malegislature.gov/People/Profile/LAE1"> Representative Lori Ehrlich</a> (D: Marblehead) would set 2020 as the deadline for the state's remaining coal plants to either repower to cleaner energy or retire. If a power company chooses to retire a facility instead of converting it, a Community Repowering Fund would help the affected workers and their communities in the transition.</div><div style="font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 16px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 16px;">Peter Vickery, a volunteer with the Massachusetts Sierra Club, which sponsored the bills, said that the proposal would help Massachusetts prepare for the inevitable: "This bill offers a clear, step-by-step approach to transitioning away from coal to clean energy. Coal's days are numbered and coal-plants are closing down across the country." Referring to the leaked news of plans to close the coal-fired power station in Salem he added, "We don't want any more communities blindsided. So let's start planning now."</div><div style="font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 16px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 16px;">The second measure that the Massachusetts Democrats added to their Action Agenda was HB 3055, the bill <a href="http://www.malegislature.gov/People/Profile/S_G1">State Representative Sean Garballey</a> (D: Arlington) filed to regulate fracking, the process energy companies use for extracting natural gas from shale formations. It involves pumping chemical-laced water underground at high pressure. Recent news reports disclosed that thousands of internal documents from the EPA, state regulators and drillers showed that the fracking process creates dangers to the environment and health that are greater than previously understood.</div><div style="font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 16px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 16px;">"Most of the electricity we generate in Massachusetts comes from natural gas," said Tim Carpenter. "We just want to be able to switch on our lights without poisoning someone's drinking water. Is that asking too much?"</div><div style="font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 16px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 16px;">The so-called Beat Back Fracking Bill would require energy utilities that generate electricity from natural gas in Massachusetts to disclose the chemicals their suppliers used during the natural-gas extraction process. It would also require them to certify that the process did not contaminate drinking water.</div><div style="font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 16px;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 16px;">"In 2005, Congress decided to exempt fracking from the federal Safe Drinking Water Act," said Peter Vickery. "Why? Because industry lobbyists persuaded Congress that fracking should be a matter for the states not the federal government. If Congress and the energy companies already agree that the states should step in, what are we waiting for?"</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01203946302610654952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-895628231132048998.post-87020958408665084972011-05-20T06:39:00.000-07:002011-05-20T06:39:03.502-07:00Green jobs? Oh, right...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7I6Kmhe9d195dTVctLv5yJZnbBmI9gOcqxk4Obw8ewk61q74MbD_XjYlR9twatUofeSLT1xTSzcqnxBrl4oY5fS7R7Ws0l1r0OHNCIThT3omi-9PfogSgHR6Pwb7pefH4ZYq-1hBEVOQ/s1600/where+is+my+green+job-black+and+white+with+man.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7I6Kmhe9d195dTVctLv5yJZnbBmI9gOcqxk4Obw8ewk61q74MbD_XjYlR9twatUofeSLT1xTSzcqnxBrl4oY5fS7R7Ws0l1r0OHNCIThT3omi-9PfogSgHR6Pwb7pefH4ZYq-1hBEVOQ/s400/where+is+my+green+job-black+and+white+with+man.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Mount Tom's owner, GDF Suez, has more <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-18/areva-gdf-suez-vinci-team-up-to-develop-wind-farms-in-france.html">good news</a> for renewable-energy workers. So long as those renewable-energy workers are in Europe, of course. The company is investing in three new wind farms in the English Channel in partnership with the nuclear-power company <a href="http://www.istockanalyst.com/business/news/5151787/nuclear-giants-eying-up-much-greater-slice-of-wind-market">Areva</a>. I don't begrudge Europeans their economic recovery, but I have to ask: How do we bring some of those green jobs to Western Massachusetts?<br />
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Part of the answer is public policy. Just as renewable-energy action plans in the member states of the European Union are spurring job creation across the Atlantic, more action on the part of our state government would help. To that end, on Wednesday, May 18, a committee of the Massachusetts Legislature heard testimony about two <a href="http://www.sierraclubmass.org/index.html">Sierra Club</a>-sponsored bills that would (1) move Massachusetts beyond coal toward a clean-energy economy and (2) regulate hydraulic fracturing (fracking). Later that day I spoke with Steve Hoeschele on his new TV show, <a href="http://www.metacafe.com/watch/6424213/mass_political_action_may_18_2011/">Mass Political Action</a>, about why we need to phase out coal, beat back fracking, and generate jobs. If you follow the <a href="http://www.metacafe.com/watch/6424213/mass_political_action_may_18_2011/">link</a> to watch the show, don't let the 10 seconds or so of black screen at the start put you off!<br />
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My testimony to the<a href="http://www.malegislature.gov/Committees/Joint/J37"> Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy</a> explained the link between HB 2612 (the <a href="http://www.malegislature.gov/Bills/187/House/H02612">coal phase-out bill</a>) and HB 3055 (the <a href="http://www.malegislature.gov/Bills/187/House/H03055">beat-back-fracking bill</a>) which is this: Under 2612, power companies have until the year 2020 to either retire their coal-burning facilities or repower them to renewable energy or to natural gas. If they choose natural gas, perhaps as a step toward generating electricity from <a href="http://www.powermag.com/coal/Enels-Fusina-Hydrogen-Fueled-Plant-Goes-Online_2200.html">hydrogen</a>, they have to meet HB 3055's new public-health standards. Under 3055, the companies would have to publicly disclose the chemicals used in the natural gas extraction process and certify that the process didn't poison people's drinking water.<br />
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Right now we get about half of our electricity from natural gas. It emits less CO2 than coal, but the natural-gas extraction process (fracking) has serious public health impacts. So HB 3055 requires power companies to certify that they didn't pollute drinking water while bringing their natural gas to the surface. If you'd like to know more about the dangers of fracking, you can skim this recent <a href="http://democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Hydraulic%20Fracturing%20Report%204.18.11.pdf">congressional report</a>. Be sure you're sitting down, by the way.<br />
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Generating green jobs in Massachusetts means leveling the playing field between renewables and fossil fuels. That involves forcing power companies to internalize more of the costs society as a whole has been paying for dirty air and polluted water. When the new EPA regulations come into effect they should do just that -- stimulate green jobs -- as this <a href="http://www.peri.umass.edu/green_recovery/">report</a> from the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, explains. Disclosure: I'm working at PERI but had no part in writing the report.<br />
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While the EPA regulations will help, we shouldn't expect much more from Washington, D.C., in the near future (see previous Mass Greens blog posts). But in the absence of federal legislation, there are steps we can take here in Massachusetts to accelerate the shift from fossil fuels to clean energy, e.g. enacting HB 2612 and HB 3055. That's what Steve Hoeschele and I discuss on the show, so please check out the interview on <a href="http://www.metacafe.com/watch/6424213/mass_political_action_may_18_2011/">Mass Political Action</a> -- or selected highlights -- and let me know what you think.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01203946302610654952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-895628231132048998.post-36902701938585720752011-05-16T16:56:00.000-07:002011-05-16T16:56:12.357-07:00Credit where it's due<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZlKAaJGqzf4/TdG3CweDHgI/AAAAAAAAAaM/mDoy4A4CbbM/s1600/mitt+browney.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="285" j8="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZlKAaJGqzf4/TdG3CweDHgI/AAAAAAAAAaM/mDoy4A4CbbM/s320/mitt+browney.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Readers of a nervous disposition should steel themselves: I am about to pay the Republicans a compliment, and not the back-handed variety. The following compliment in no way absolves the Republicans of responsibility for denying both the patriotism of their opponents and the reality of climate change; for their attempts at disabling the EPA while enabling the deranged, delusional birthers; for denying public funding to public broadcasting; for subpoenaing labor-studies professors for studying labor; for toadying to oil moguls while stripping seniors of medical insurance; and for likening anything that looks even vaguely like universal healthcare to incipient communism, blatant fascism, or both. With that caveat, I now proffer my compliment. Well done, Republicans, for fielding more than 80 candidates for the Massachusetts House of Representatives in last year’s legislative elections. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">For about ten years I have been complaining about the opposition-shaped gap in Massachusetts politics, pointing to the paucity of Republican legislative candidates as evidence of the party’s pusillanimity. Over the course of a decade I grew fond of telling audiences that in the national league of contested elections, Massachusetts ranked 49th out of 50, just one up from North Carolina or sometimes Alabama. It was one of my favorite lines, suitable for almost any occasion. Whatever solution I was hawking – proportional representation, public campaign financing, voting Green – I could always count on the Massachusetts GOP for the problem. But now the Republicans are back in the active-opposition business, and I shall have to come up with new material.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">During the 1990s and early 2000s, the number of districts with more than one name on the ballot dwindled to around 30%. That really was quite anemic, I think you’ll agree. Things picked up a little in 2004, when John Kerry ran for President and then-Governor Mitt Romney – in an effort to keep Massachusetts Democrats busy in their home state and out of swinging (in the electoral sense) New Hampshire – persuaded a host of Republican legislative candidates to offer themselves up in a mass martyrdom mission. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">With his money, good looks, and box-office appeal Mitt Romney inspired local Republicans. Or he begged, berated, and bludgeoned them, depending on who you talk to. Either way, in 2004 he helped put more Republican names on the ballot than the electorate had seen for years. Then Romney moved on to a bigger stage, leaving the GOP crowd bereft. The role of square-jawed leading man did not lie vacant for long, however. </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qz7pTOpAbkA/TdG3RL8PHfI/AAAAAAAAAaQ/2fY3oxfHCPM/s1600/superman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="276" j8="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qz7pTOpAbkA/TdG3RL8PHfI/AAAAAAAAAaQ/2fY3oxfHCPM/s320/superman.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Like Dean Cain succeeding George Reeves as Superman, Scott Brown took over from Mitt Romney as the man who could inspire relatively large numbers of Republicans to run for seats in the General Court (a feat no less impressive than seeing through solid objects and bending steel bars). Scott Brown’s special election victory at the beginning of the year reminded them that in a state where 50% of the voters are unenrolled, Republicans actually can win, even though 90% of the state legislators and 100% of their federal counterparts are Democrats. Of course, it helps when 45% of the voters stay home on election day, as they did on January 19, 2010. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Scott Brown has worked wonders for democracy in Massachusetts. Yes, he is a climate-change denialist who voted to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from protecting the environment. And yes, he wailed like a baby when the League of Women Voters pointed this out (judging by his ads you’d think they’d waylaid him in a dark alley, mussed his hair, and given him noogies). But it is Scott Brown we can thank for the novel sight of the letter R on ballots in half the state’s House districts last fall.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Having praised the Republicans, I now have no qualms about congratulating my own party – the Green Rainbow Party (GRP) – for its performance in the 2010 legislative elections. Scott Laugenour in the Fourth Berkshire District, facing a popular and diligent Democratic incumbent, walked away with 18%, a more than respectable basis for his next effort. Meanwhile, in the neighboring Third Berkshire District, the Green-Rainbow Party’s Mark Miller took an astonishing 45% of the votes. This is worth restating for emphasis: The Green candidate won 45% of the votes. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">These results from the Berkshires are impressive, but they are not victories, and I am not going to blow them out of proportion. However, “proportion” is a word that comes to mind in this situation, together with the word “representation.” Countries with proportional representation reward political parties with seats in the legislature in return for much less than 18% of the votes, let alone 45%. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">When they appear on the ballot, Greens in Massachusetts win a higher proportion of the votes than Greens in most European countries, even countries where Greens are not simply opposition backbenchers but partners in coalition governments. What the GRP results in the Berkshires suggest is that if Massachusetts had a fairer electoral system, the Greens would have no difficulty winning seats in the Legislature. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">But, of course, Massachusetts has the same voting system it has had since 1855, namely plurality voting in single-member districts, and Greens have to play by the rules as they are, not as we would like them to be. Yet even within the constraints of the current voting system, Greens can win. For example, in 2002, John Eder of the Maine Green Party won a seat in the state legislature and held on to it for two terms. Yes, the voters of Portland, Maine, using the same voting system we use in Massachusetts, elected a Green. It happened, and it can happen again.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Now the Republicans are running and winning, it may only be a couple of cycles until they erode the Democratic supermajority, leaving the two major parties with a roughly equal number of seats in the House. In that situation, just one or two seats would put the GRP in a pivotal position, holding the balance of power. In other words, an ongoing Republican resurgence in Massachusetts could be good news for Greens. Hence the compliment.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01203946302610654952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-895628231132048998.post-60646567001841298332011-04-07T18:19:00.000-07:002011-04-07T18:52:30.933-07:00Write your Senator<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--OL4MF2IFWg/TZ5b-mb-edI/AAAAAAAAAZQ/2j80O-rFANs/s1600/Scott+Brown+reading.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" r6="true" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--OL4MF2IFWg/TZ5b-mb-edI/AAAAAAAAAZQ/2j80O-rFANs/s640/Scott+Brown+reading.jpg" width="545" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Earlier this week Senator Scott Brown voted to block the EPA from combating climate change. The EPA wants to move ahead and cut the amount of carbon dioxide that power companies pump into the atmosphere, but Senator Brown voted for two amendments that would have stopped the EPA in its tracks. While Massachusetts citizens are demanding action for clean energy and green jobs, their senator is aligning himself with the faction of his party that wants to just stand idly by. We need to change the way Senator Brown votes in future.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">So let's each and every one of us write him a letter. Yes, I'm suggesting that you write him an authentic, personal letter. I'm not talking about a mass-produced form letter. I mean an old-fashioned, pen-and-ink, this-is-what-I-think letter.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Why? Because one of the dirty little secrets of mobilization and advocacy campaigns is that the generic letters and emails have relatively little impact on politicians. All they prove to elected officials and their aides is that the sponsoring organization has a big mailing list and staff that are adept at writing persuasive emails; persuasive enough to prompt members to spend a minute or two online filling in the name and address fields and clicking "send." </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">But a genuine, individual piece of correspondence containing the original, unique thoughts and feelings of a committed and passionate human being -- a human being who votes -- explaining why the senator should support the EPA? That would be different.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">I'll be writing my letter shortly. And on <b>Thursday, May 5, 7:00 p.m.</b>, I'll be sitting down with a group of Sierra Club volunteers at the Media Education Foundation, 60 Masonic Street, Northampton to write another one. If you would like to join us, please bring the following: a pen, paper, envelope, postage stamp, and your passion for clean air.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">In the meantime, here's the address of the man who voted to prevent the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Senator Scott Brown, 2400 JFK Federal Building, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia;">15 New Sudbury Street, Boston MA 02203</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Please write him and let him know why his votes were just plain wrong, and why you expect him to vote the right way in future.</span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01203946302610654952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-895628231132048998.post-63197101612798171142011-03-27T16:49:00.000-07:002011-03-27T16:49:59.312-07:00Greens poised to lead state government<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IHGE4aDexhE/TY_J7s-IlAI/AAAAAAAAAZM/4c1RSJ-i0XQ/s1600/Greens+in+Stuttgart.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="112" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IHGE4aDexhE/TY_J7s-IlAI/AAAAAAAAAZM/4c1RSJ-i0XQ/s200/Greens+in+Stuttgart.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Young Greens celebrate in Stuttgart</span></b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">After an election campaign that tackled the nuclear issue head-on, <a href="http://www.gruene-bw.de/wahl/spots.html">Winfried Kretschmann</a> looks set to become the first Green premier in the European Union.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">With almost a quarter of the votes, the Greens in the German state of Baden-Wuerttember not only out-polled their Social Democrat allies but also helped defeat the conservative Christian Democrats. </div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">To check out the party's YouTube channel, which includes some of its election ads, click <a href="http://www.youtube.com/gruenebw">here</a>.</div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01203946302610654952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-895628231132048998.post-56596775820198965982011-03-13T20:29:00.000-07:002011-03-14T14:07:48.715-07:00GDF Suez: Green in Europe<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LOvGAdgQ33Q/TX2L2VbSm2I/AAAAAAAAAY0/eQ-xS2-ZkYg/s1600/gdf%2Bsuez%2Bgreen.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 262px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LOvGAdgQ33Q/TX2L2VbSm2I/AAAAAAAAAY0/eQ-xS2-ZkYg/s320/gdf%2Bsuez%2Bgreen.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5583772878590090082" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:100%;">GDF Suez, the energy giant that owns the coal-burning power station at Mount Tom, Holyoke, is getting greener.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;">In addition to winning the Gigaton Award last year from the <a href="http://www.carbonwarroom.com/">Carbon War Room</a>, GDF Suez has picked up the <a href="http://www.environmental-expert.com/resultEachPressRelease.aspx?cid=36822&codi=226529">World Carbon Finance Market</a> award in the category for renewable energy project developers. Gerard Mestrallet (pictured) and his team deserve credit for taking strides in the right direction by building up the proportion of electricity they generate from renewables.<br /><br />The steady greening of GDF Suez means more than plaudits in the press. It spells good news for workers in the clean-energy sector.<br /></span><br />But only if they happen to live in Europe.<br /><br />For example, GDF Suez has just entered into a deal for photovoltaic modules. The winner of the multi-million dollar contract? <a href="http://www.pv-tech.org/news/bisol_signs_module_supply_contract_with_gdf_suez">Bisol</a>, a Slovenian company.<br /><br />The agreement complements the pholovoltaics research GDF Suez has been undertaking through a subsidiary. The subsidiary is called <a href="http://www.photovoltech.com/">Photovoltech</a> and you'll find it in the town of Tienen, which is in Belgium.<br /><br />In addition to solar energy, GDF Suez invests heavily in wind. The company is spending approximately 10 billion (yes, billion) Euros to build an offshore windfarm. Where? Near Saint-Nazaire, in northern France.<br /><br />Later this year GDF Suez will unveil another wind farm. In the words of the <a href="http://www.gdfsuez.com/en/commitments/case-studies/erelia/erelia/">GDF Suez website</a>, this one will be big enough to "spare 145,000 tons of CO2 per year from being spewed into the atmosphere!" The location? Haute-Pays, France.<br /><br />One of the GDF Suez's sources of renewable energy on this side of the Atlantic is its cluster of windfarms in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, Canada, which together generate over 700 megawatts of electricity. As a result of ordinary wear and tear, the turbines need an upgrade.<br /><br />A quick glance at a map reveals that Prince Edward Island is not all that far from Massachusetts. But workers in Massachusetts, home to the pioneers of wind-energy, didn't stand a chance. Instead, GDF Suez awarded the retrofit contract to <a href="http://www.newenergyworldnetwork.com/renewable-energy-news/by-technology/wind/moventas-secures-gdf-suez-wind-turbine-retrofit-deal.html">Moventas</a>, a Finnish company.<br /><br />If any clean-energy workers in Belgium, France, Finland, and Slovenia happen to be reading this, please accept my sincere congratulations. I'm glad that your elected officials, unions, and entrepreneurs had the foresight to work together so effectively, investing in green-skills education and training over many years. We in Massachusetts don't want to take your jobs and livelihoods away from you.<br /><br />But surely there's <span>something</span> in the realm of renewable-energy that GDF Suez can do in Holyoke, Massachusetts. As we ponder a post-coal future for Mount Tom, let's look at leveraging both Holyoke's <span style="font-style: italic;">and </span>GDF Suez's green credentials in ways that bring in new jobs and tax dollars.<br /><br />For example, wouldn't Mount Tom be the perfect place to build a <a href="http://www.gov.pe.ca/envengfor/index.php3?number=1007450&lang=E">wind-hydrogen village</a> like the one in Prince Edward Island, perhaps in partnership with municipally-owned Holyoke Gas & Electric?<br /><br />After all, why should all the good green jobs go to Europe?<br /><br />Click <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggjosj5j10g">here</a> for YouTube version.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01203946302610654952noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-895628231132048998.post-15272471522081566442011-03-03T20:14:00.000-08:002011-03-03T20:14:53.535-08:00Activists call Mt. Tom power plant's future into question - News<a href="http://media.www.smithsophian.com/media/storage/paper587/news/2011/03/03/News/Activists.Call.Mt.Tom.Power.Plants.Future.Into.Question-3982552.shtml">Activists call Mt. Tom power plant's future into question - News</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01203946302610654952noreply@blogger.com0