Thanks to the 25 (or so) people who came out for the CSCC meeting last Thursday (9/6/07). Thanks also to John Showers (incumbent running for Union County Commissioner), Jim Buck (candidate for East Buffalo Township Supervisor), and Fred Greenawalt (candidate for Kelly Township Supervisor)--who came and took our questions. Special thanks to Eric Epstein who came from Harrisburg to talk about the politics of energy deregulation and what to do next.
Among the lessons learned, from my perspective: don't assume there's no need for air conditioning in September in Pennsylvania. The room at the Baptist church in Lewisburg (more people to thank!) worked fine for our group, but air conditioning or a few fans would have been a good idea. Eric Epstein said that he's been in some hot churches, but none hotter than that room.
There was also a big lesson to be learned the kind of presentation we heard. In the Q&A several people asked a variation on the question, "What should we do?" For Eric Epstein, the answer seems to do everything right now starting with calling your legislators and asking them to extend the rate caps. Though he acknowledged that much of what he shared was "Inside Baseball"--the stuff that the insiders know about public hearings, legislative process, etc.--he didn't seem to appreciate how far removed from our experience his experience is. We as a group are still talking about incremental steps to try to build a coalition and reframe big issues; he's focused on trying to do the small and the big things all at once, from keeping poor people from having their electricity or gas cut off in the middle winter to influencing big policy decisions. For someone who's been extremely active in politics for 30 years, it's probably hard to imagine not being well-informed on public issues of all sorts.
I thought the most far-reaching insight was his observation that the environmentalists and alternative fuels advocates have lost interest in protecting the poor from the whims of the large power companies now that they have funding for what they want to do ($100 million split five ways, I believe he said.). In effect, a coalition has started to split, and it plays to the advantage of the already powerful energy companies (who got a lot of what they wanted).
In short, I learned that I have a lot to learn, from learning the definition of "stranded costs" and the diffference between PPL and PP&L to understanding the way the regulatory commissions work (and their names and acronyms).
Loren
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The kind of work Stacy Richards at Seda-Cog could help fill this gap. As progressives, we can have damning analysis. But we better have damn good solutions too.
My perception is that there is a tendency among some on the left (those with comfortable incomes) to look favorably on higher energy prices for both liquid fuels and electricity because this will tend to encourage people to adopt the conservation measures they have long advocated and to put more serious effort into the alternative energy sources (particularly renewables) they have long favored. Maybe I'm wrong about this. But other than Epstein's voice, all I'm hearing from the left about the consequences this will have for folks of limited means is a deafening silence. Yet there is constant talk about the need to extend health care to the uninsured. Since electricity deregulation was enacted over objections from the left, I'm not saying the left is to blame for this mess. Clearly not. But there are an awful lot of people out there who are going to be squeezed very very hard when the rates go up next year. I don't know what the net political effect will be, but I'm guessing that one consequence is that opposition to new nuclear reactors will dim. With more people feeling physically starved for cheaper power, it will be easier to paint anti-nuke groups as elitists out of touch with the masses. This weeks articles in the DI are already planting the seed of the idea that nuclear power is the answer to the coming energy crisis both in terms of quantity and quality (ie no greenhouse gases). My guess is that there will be a third reactor under construction at Berwick within a few years.
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