An Open Letter to "Fresh Energy"
From: Alan L. Maki
I find it rather ironic “Fresh Energy” now calls for a complete moratorium on coal-fired electric generating plants in the fight against global warming since your organization did not lift one little finger to bring the Hydro Dam powering the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant under public ownership to save two-thousand jobs and insure that this hydro generating plant would begin being used as a cheap source of energy by people in the Twin Cities...
Why your organization never proposed that instead of the Ford Motor Company being allowed to sell-off excess power generated by the hydro dam to Excel, that this power instead be provided to light the public schools and other public institutions for free, just like Ford received free power for its operations, I do not understand… maybe you can explain? This could have meant a very substantial reduction in property taxes with all the money saved by public schools.
In fact, your organization, and your “coalition partners,” have been no place to be seen in the struggle to save the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant even though it is a model of “green manufacturing.” If every manufacturing facility of this size was as “green” as the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant we would not even be discussing global warming… yet “Fresh Energy” and your coalition partners remain silent through it all... even as the hydro dam is sold to a foreign corporation after being subsidized to the hilt by tax-payers.
I think your organization, Fresh Energy, is bogus.
In fact, it appears to me you raise demands you know are impossible to meet--- a moratorium on new coal fired plants--- as long as the quest for maximum profits is the goal and objective of production.
I also find it very strange, that along with calling for a moratorium on coal fired plants, you do not suggest any solution to rising energy costs for most people. This I find especially interesting since you are well aware that what you are proposing would force our electric bills up even as we are forced to conserve.
There is a solution which the foundations supporting your organization would never go along with:
Public ownership of the entire energy producing and distribution complex; a more feasible and workable solution if you are serious about having a moratorium on building coal fired plants.
I also find it very strange that your organization never mentions the fact that tax-payers are underwriting the costs of a very primitive electric distribution system… from the point of energy production until it arrives to where it will be used as much as thirty percent of the energy is being lost (often more; seldom less)--- energy which is being lost is being wasted and we, as consumers pay for this massive loss in our electric bills and as society in many ways--- including a huge unnecessary carbon footprint.
In this waste, capturing this wasted energy, there is your moratorium and more.
But, what we have is corporations feeding at the public trough as they are wasting our resources--- I guess since these corporations are getting a free lunch they don’t mind making a pig of themselves and throwing most of the food away that they take at the self-serve buffet we so generously, and gratuitously, provide for these profit gouging corporations.
In fact, the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities assembly plant, under public ownership, could be turned to producing inexpensive vertical and horizontal wind generating equipment to power our entire state, and we could be free of coal-burning power plants in a few years. These inexpensive wind generators could replace every farm fence post in Minnesota, and could be placed along our roads and highways and even on bridges without any harm to the environment or the scenery.
Solar units and water equipment could also be produced all in the same plant… yet, "Fresh Energy's" “coalition partners” are proposing the demolition of this plant… do you not have any concept of the “carbon footprint” involved in the construction (and unwarranted destruction) of a huge plant like this?
I would suggest that you have a little discussion with the Ford Site Planning Committee and Task Force… and your coalition partners at the Alliance for Metropolitan Stability and the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party.
It might not hurt to put a halt to the war machine, either, which is creating quite the “carbon footprint.”
I really think your philanthropist funders have you pointed going on the wrong track, the wrong way… but, then again, I notice many of the donors to "Fresh Energy" are Excel CEO’s and run like a Who’s Who of the Minnesota State Chamber of Commerce and the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers--- no doubt looking for a nice fat tax-write-off as they try to derail the movement for real energy reform.
Even the media, including public radio, seems to be beholden to the corporate interests in the energy industry… just take radio station KAXE up here in northern Minnesota… the Blandin foundation and Excel give them a few bucks and it is like the pollution from their coal-burning plant--- one of the worst polluters in the world--- north of Grand Rapids, doesn’t even exist… the mercury and other contaminants just vanishes mysteriously into the clouds… and when the plant manager is asked what is coming out of the smokestacks he will tell you, “Nothing to worry about, just some harmless water vapor.”
Perhaps this entire matter can be discussed by the “Progressives for Obama,” too. No doubt Obama will quickly adopt a program suitable to the likes of Excel.
I find it equally interesting that those who had been talking about holding a “Conference on Dis-Investment” at the University of Minnesota canceled their conference quickly after becoming concerned the issue of saving the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant and the hydro dam along with two-thousand jobs would become the central issue of the conference... doing something by organizing in their own back-yard was just too much... too much for those whose "philanthropy" dictates university decisions.
Really, I find it thoroughly and completely hypocritical that “Fresh Energy” would call for a moratorium on building coal-burning electric generating plants without even considering any of the alternative proposals brought forward here.
I await a response from “Fresh Energy.” I think a lot of people would like to read a response from "Fresh Energy" to my "Open Letter."
Alan L. Maki
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell phone: 651-587-5541
E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net
Check out my blog:
Thoughts From Podunk
http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/
About Me
- Alan Maki
- I have been involved in the peace, labor, civil rights, and environmental movements for over 30 years, and I am a socialist. I would encourage everyone to get involved in promoting the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which came into existence on December 10, 1948; we should strive to use the yearly anniversary of this document to popularize it. We need to struggle to create a more progressive, socially just society where all working people receive real living wages and have a voice at work, and in their communities. I have worked with casino workers across Minnesota who are trying to organize a union. I have worked with people in northern Minnesota struggling to save the Big Bog, the primary freshwater aquifer--- this bog is being mined for peat. In my spare time during the spring and fall you can find me fly fishing on the Dark River, a pristine designated trout stream;in the winter ice fishing on Lake-of-the-Woods. I look forward to hearing from you. Nothing human is alien to me.