Green Slate 2008
The Green Party of Santa Fe is building a network
of local Greens who are ready to support Green candidate campaigns.
Sign on to help out! We need your help with getting the word
out about campaigns and issues, phone trees, canvassing, data
collection, and data-entry for precinct organizing. To get
more info on helping, or to get started volunteering, send
an email to:
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Energy!!
by David Bacon
The transition to a local, renewable energy economy is happening in
Santa Fe right now in a deep and meaningful way: County commissioner
Paul Campos and City councilor Chris Calvert have drawn up a joint
resolution to fund a study on the feasibility of a municipally owned
electric grid that would be based totally on renewable energy. This
would be a grounbreaking and landmark decision, not only in New Mexico,
but the country in general.
The first challenge will obviously be PNM who will stand to lose
millions of dollars in revenue and will undoudtedly be working all their
angles to derail the deal. (A successful renewable grid will also mean
the end of coal fired power plants, but that's another story.) The second
challenge will be bringing the commissioners and councilors onboard as
they will have to vote to implement and will have to feel confident in
their position. The third challenge will be our dear local media who can
kill an initiative with bad data or bad reporting or both - we all know
that drill. Having said that, I feel we have a lot of positive support
from both the New Mexican and the Reporter and certainly the smaller
papers and public radio. Again, this will be a long haul and letters to
the editor, etc. will be very important. The fourth challenge will be the
business community and here I feel the outreach can be of great benefit
as a locally owned grid, based on renewables, will have a huge positive
impact on the local economy, both immediately and over time. The
educational component with both the business community and the community
at large will be a wonderful opportunity for more organizing and
outreach.
This move away from centralized fossil fuel energy toward local renewable
energy is in a deep sense a political one. This is where the Greens among
us will have an important role to play. Basically this is a transition to
a democratic - small "d" economy. Along with IRV and all the other Green
value based political reforms, this will bring more coherent structure to
our local democracy. As we head into crises of peak fossil fuel, climate
disruption, water shortages, economic melt down, and a corporate assault
on all the last drops of profit within our local communities, survival
will depend on strong, coherent, democratic local structures. I see the
transition to local energy in all its forms as key and the underpinning
of local food production, green building, and the growing local democracy
movement. The coming County elections are critical and we will need to
begin holding indepth candidate forums soon. We have our work cut out for
us and I know the Green Party's participation will be critical. We've won
important battles already, and we can keep right on winning even bigger
battles in these critical times.
Consider this an appetizer. I'll follow up with articles
on the specifics of a renewable
energy based municipal grid - very exciting - and the battle against
oil/gas drilling. It's wonderful to see what a few committed people with
vision have done. It will be more and more wondeful to see what they (we)
can do as our survival becomes literally dependent upon it.
Please join us, and invite others to join! Invite your friends,
family, neighbors, and anyone you know who is concerned about
the future of Santa Fe to attend some of our upcoming
events.
Let us know what interests you!
