Post in Should this clean energy forum continue?

2007 Jun 30 20:54 UTC

Dear fellow forum participants,

As someone who's pretty much just been a Lurker here, I can say that
I've very much appreciated the dynamic and vigorous debate that has
taken place in this forum. I designed http://www.PVSustain.com for
Catherine Miller and the PVPC back several years ago, and have watched
with some dismay as the project essentially became underfunded and
largely abandoned, despite electricity deregulation having pumped
hundreds of millions of our (the state's electric consumers) dollars
into a fund allegedly created to finance such projects.

I'm frankly disgusted that we don't have solar panels on all our flat
roofed buildings by now, considering the vast sums of money sitting in
the bank just waiting to do such a thing, were we to have the political
muscle to force such an effort.

I can understand the vigorous opposition to the whole-tree burning plant
in Russell. What a joke. Please people.... Clean energy? The fact that
this plant is even being debated in this forum, instead of being opposed
like say, a nuclear reactor would be, is evidence itself of the powerful
forces that concentrated economic incentive has on such a debate.

I promote regional eco-friendly tourism in the area through my Hidden
Hills of Western Massachusetts Map and Website -
http://www.Hidden-Hills.com - Vastly increasing heavy truck traffic and
constantly pumping smoke into this tiny valley with steep mountain walls
would be as absolute TRAVESTY. Let there be no mistake. I'll debate
anyone on this issue. Allowing this plant to go forward would be a crime
against man and nature, for the private gain of a few. Just so everyone
knows I'm not a fence-sitter on this issue.

So... I haven't been put off by the sometimes strident and intense
nature of the debate. There is a big disagreement amongst the
participants in this forum about whether or not the Russell plant should
be included in ANY "clean" energy plan. This is a valid debate. I've
made it clear which side I'm on.

The question of continuing this forum because of the "expense"
associated with its continuation points out the absolutely ass-backwards
priorities of our current "clean energy" funding processes. The
Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust has HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of dollars
at its disposal. Why are we wondering where we can scratch up enough
money to pay for an e-democracy forum and a stipend for a moderator?
What's that gonna cost? The equivalent of ONE Massachusetts electric
consumer's bill?

Let's get real, folks. This forum is excellent, for what it is, but we
need to be rattling the gates of the State House and DEMANDING that our
elected representatives use the monies generated by electric
deregulation which were expressly intended to finance our evolution to
cleaner and more renewable energy technologies, to do just that in a way
that has a real and visible impact on the lives of Massachusetts citizens.

This is the real issue to me. There is a huge amount of money out there
relative to the amounts we are debating now. Let's go get it and put it
to good use.

David Caputo
President
Positronic Design
http://www.PositronicDesign.com

Publisher
http://www.Hidden-Hills.com
http://www.TotallyFixed.com

Lynn Benander wrote:

>Good to hear from the people who weighed in on this issue already!
>
>If haven't responded yet, please reply and let us know if you want this forum
to continue and why...what's been useful to you...what's been hard.  I think to
justify the energy it takes to keep this going (and $ in the future), we'll
need to know it's of use to more than just a few of us!
>
>The Pioneer Valley Clean Energy Collaborative decided to host this forum to
give another way for people to participate in the clean energy planning
process. The e-democracy.org website has been generously donated to us. We'll
need to pay for it at some future date.  Some staff time was paid for in
October, but since then it's been all volunteer. It has taken a significant
amount of time from a large number of people, just to keep up with what's being
posted. Is this a good investment of our time?
>
>Here's the feedback on the forum I've received so far...
>
>At it's best this forum is like having a meeting with 165 committed people
available to really dig into important topics. It has been a repository of
documents that people felt were important to the conversation. It's been a
place where people can hear many sides of an issue.
>
>At it's worst this forum has been described as a platform for misinformation,
suspicion, and illwill. Emotions have sometimes been high because we're leaning
into topics that have a direct impact on some of the people participating here.
Some people have left the forum because they have found it hard to even have
the intensity of the messages coming into their email box even though they were
interested in the discussion. Some people have felt the conversation is
dominated by a few experts because of the length and intensity of the postings
and because of the strong responses given when people raise an issue or ask a
general question.
>
>Clearly there are a wide range of opinions about what's been happening here,
but everyone has said so far, that they'd like to see the forum continue, maybe
with more agreements about how to work together more constructively.
>
>So the question is - should this continue and if so, how?
>
>We'll probably need to raise some money to support this on into the future,
so, if you haven't responded yet, please do! Let us know whether this forum is
important to you.
>
>You can reply to my email (<email obscured>) directly if you'd rather not
post your feedback to the forum.
>
>Lynn Benander
>Shelburne Falls
>Info about Lynn  Benander: http://forums.e-democracy.org/contacts/lynnbenander
>
>This topic's messages may be viewed at:
http://forums.e-democracy.org/r/topic/3e0xYa4mpcKuXfRkIvNgJY