Chesterton's localism. Xcel helping the marijuana industry on your dime. Roosevelt and polio.
Chesterton's Localism and some encouragement to continue being involved in this state.
I was talking recently with a colleague (philosophy professor) and we got to talking about being involved locally. Not just politically, but involved in any number of things in your local area, e.g. charity, religion, etc.
He mentioned a concept of Chesterton** which now goes by the name of Localism (formerly Distributism which was dropped due to sounding suspiciously non-capitalist, although the concept is not anti-capitalist or anti-capitalism).
The concept is bigger than what I'm about to show you. If you'd like more details, check out the first link below.
The pertinent details I wanted to share are in the following quotes from said link.
"Localism is concerned with human dignity, but also human responsibility. People want to take responsibility for their own lives, and they are increasingly frustrated and alienated by the fact that everything is out of their control and they cannot really say who is in control. They are weary of the complexities and complications brought on by bottomless bureaucracy and endless regulations, everything separated from everything else, and no one being answerable for anything."
"Localism means having a say in what happens to you. It means keeping accountable those who have power that affects you. As Chesterton says, you should be able to keep your politicians close enough to be able to kick them. It means keeping your dollars in your community, buying from your neighbor. It means owning your own piece of the community."
Living in Colorado and being conservative, being a fan of local government can feel lonely of late. I am not sure about you, but when you see values like the above being challenged and erased day by day, it's daunting.
If you've read this page long enough and seen the interactions here, I hope you appreciate that you're not alone in thinking the way you do.
Having seen something from a philosopher and not just me, I hope you are bolstered even more in that belief. The values you hold are not unusual. They are not, by dearth of not being modern or progressive, outside the mainstream.
They're right in it and have been for a while now. Keep speaking up, keep holding to your values.
**GK Chesterton the philosopher, my colleague is something of a devotee of his.
https://www.chesterton.org/localism/
Related:
If Chesterton inspired you to get involved and you wonder how, have I got news for you!
The link below is to the Independence Institute's Citizen Involvement Project. The most recent program offered is on Oct 29th and it's the "Citizen's Guide to Civic Involvement".
Ready to stop complaining and start acting to curtail the overreach of the government? Details are in the link.
https://i2i.org/local-gov/
A huge chunk of money you paid to Xcel went to help subsidize the marijuana industry...
And now Xcel is wanting you to give more.
Among the manifold riders and fees and add-ons to your electric bill from Xcel are charges which help to fund energy upgrades. Things like insulation, rebates on more efficient heating and cooling, and higher-efficiency marijuana grow lights.
According to the Sun article linked below, Xcel has already burned through most of their "demand side management" grant money for the year, has temporarily closed the program, and is wanting more.
As I say, the money was intended for energy efficiency upgrades, but the rebates for businesses went over their budget by 44% with a huge chunk of that going to the "indoor agricultural market" (see the second link below for Xcel's flyer advertising their rebates).
Despite the name and despite the pictures of hydroponic lettuce in Xcel's flyer, it was marijuana; the rebates went mostly to pot.
Quoting the Sun article (including the link):
“'They experienced a gold rush from the cannabis industry and fumbled it in the usual manner and the usual manner is when they do something wrong, they come to the ratepayers for more money,' said Joseph Pereira, deputy director of the Utility Consumer Advocate office. [If you imagine the Public Utilities Commission as a court that hears cases, the UCA is our lawyer, they represent us in hearings.]"
I'm not at all jazzed about subsidizing marijuana grow operations. I don't partake, if you want to cool, live your life. I just don't like paying extra to grease the skids for it. I feel the same (though I will admit to less moral self-righteousness), about subsidizing any business.
Thing is, that's not the only problem here. Take a look at that quote again and see if you can catch it if you've not already.
Don't make your screwup mine to pay for.
I don't know about you, but this principle seems pretty straightforward to me. I bet if I took it to a kindergarten class and asked, most kids would have a basic feel for the fairness involved.
Apparently the folks at the PUC can't wrap their minds around it yet, however. Quoting again,
"It [Xcel's request for more money] has left the utility commission facing 'the tension' of balancing cost-effective programs that support vendors and their employees and the need for cost containment and compliance with budget caps, PUC Chairman Eric Blank said at Sept. 4 commission meeting."
One last thing I think worth mentioning. I have written in the past about how the rabid environmentalists driving policy in this state see nothing outside their thoughts on the environment. This is yet another example.
The Southwest Energy Efficiency Project (SWEEP -- third link below) along with the City of Denver (yes, I know it's a government here but let's be honest, there's little air between rabid environmentalists and those running Denver) are both keen to have you pay more so that the incentives can continue.
I tell you what. If Denver and SWEEP like this so much, why not have them pony up the $34 million instead of obligating families already struggling to do it?
https://coloradosun.com/2024/09/11/xcel-energy-efficiency-budget-marijuana/
https://www.xcelenergy.com/staticfiles/xe-responsive/Programs%20and%20Rebates/Business/23-04-515_CO-IndoorAG_is_P02.pdf
https://www.swenergy.org/
Roosevelt and polio
That time of the week: the last post til Sunday and thus something for fun. Something that is not related to (current) politics.
I was watching the movie "Seargant York" (see the first link below) the other day and the special features on this disk included a period newsreel which mentioned a mid Atlantic meeting between Roosevelt and Churchhill.
The picture that caught my eye is the one at the top of this post. It was in the newsreel.
Roosevelt was partially crippled by polio and took great pains to minimize/hide it. On the rare occasions that you'd find him standing, it was frequent to see him either backed up against a wall (as in the picture) or surrounded by people that provided support (again, as in the picture).
It's one of those things that's there, that you can't unsee as soon as you know it, but which you may not notice if you hadn't had it brought to your attention. It was also (I think) a function of a press which didn't do much digging; i.e. that's why it wasn't brought to many people's attention at the time.
In fact, I think this was a pretty general pattern in the 40's, 50's and early 60's. People trusted the government more back then. The press and the government were a lot friendlier. I was listening to an audiobook about the history of the CIA recently and this was certainly the case for them (despite some misgivings about the creation of a domestic intelligence agency in the first place).
If you want to read up some more on the history of FDR and polio I put a couple links below the Sgt. York link. One is a (Roosevelt) library webpage on the topic and the other is to a short video from the American Experience show about Roosevelt.
That's it for today. Back at it on Sunday. Have a good rest of the day!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergeant_York_(film)
I can't help but wonder if Xcel's going to get swamped by renewables too. I.e. that they'll be unprepared.
Yeah, I thought the cost transfer via subsidies for efficiency was interesting too. Thin end of the wedge on our glorious renewables transition!
Oh, and I thought you might enjoy the Chesterton too. Given your name!
I'm an electric utility designer who cut my teeth doing Xcel design work for a few local contractors. The utility was caught with their pants down by the pot legalization, badly. We were swamped by upgrades, and there was a point when Xcel said they're not replacing any more blown transformers if the growers didn't pay for them. Upgrade or sit in the dark.
But back then those upgrades were all charged to the commercial customer, the full cost. Interesting that at least a portion is being passed on the rate payers now. I wonder what, uh, incentives were given to the PUC and/or Xcel to change.
Love the Chesterton bit! Localism is the way.