This may shock you, but Polis' appointees are political cronies. How “just” is NW Colorado’s promised “Just Transition”? And, because it's Friday, a new verb I learned.
You know how children will find something new and act like their discovery of it was the first time anyone knew of it?
I attached a picture of a random tweet to give you a sense if you've never had the pleasure.
I thought about this with the Sun article below.
Yeah, it was a complete surprise to me that Jared Polis is stuffing boards in this state with political cronies and that said cronies do as he'd have them do.
A. Complete. Surprise.
One silver lining of the essentially irrelevant role of the Republican party in this state is the fact that there will be (I hope--the jury's still out and the left-leaning media continue to do yeoman's work at focusing attention on the crazier elements of the Republican party in CO) more attention and time given to the way that the Democrats have, and continue, to pursue single-party rule in this state.
I.e. that there will be more attention paid to the moves made by the Democrat machine here because truly everything that happens in this state happens by their hand.
They control everything at the state level.
Thus, when you see things happening here that are a result of policy, it is a result of their policy.
Let's hope that the left-leaning media in this state, humorous though it may be, continue to "discover" what the Democrats are doing and publicize it.
Maybe they could turn to some of the more conservative outlets for tips seeing as how they've been doing it for a while now.
https://coloradosun.com/2023/08/29/colorado-judicial-nominating-commission-jared-polis/
How “just” is NW Colorado’s promised “Just Transition”?
Let me ask you this: is it a "just transition" if you get a talking head on a Zoom link up? Is it a just transition if the state takes your livelihood and offers the equivalent of about $5000 (at most) a head?
When the Democrats decided that we needed (absolutely needed) to close coal-fired baseline electrical generation and that it needed to happen now (right now) they told those with concerns over the communities and workers that there would be a "just transition".
I can't help but wonder, after reading things like the article below, whether those words mean anything real to the same politicians that would take jobs and leave communities in the balance at the stroke of a pen to please their environmentalist base.
They've certainly made their political capital after all and now that it's out of the news, the media and those along the Front Range can move along from the story.
After all ...
--when the state official involved in such a transition (quoting here) " ... attended via Zoom ... "
--and says things like, when called out on being out of touch with the reality of the situation by meeting (again, quoting from the article), "'I get it. I totally understand,' Siman said. 'I’ve been through having my job cut as well by the state. It was not a pleasant experience … I understand the fear and crisis of losing your job. Our office is doing what it can to get some of these things up in place and make it be useful.'”
how could this be categorized as "just"?
Perhaps it's me, but a few things occur.
"Just" means you are in the room, physically, with the people who will lose their job.**
"Just" means you don't try to equate being laid off from the state when you live and work in a metro area with multiple other opportunities with losing your job in a small community where there are few large employers.
"Just" means you don't try to equate being laid off from a state job with losing a skilled job that you've done most of your life and transitioning might not really be feasible (or wise) at your age.
Oh, and "just" means that when the state rips your livelihood and community from you, they offer more than the rough maximum of about $5000 a head (currently the state is funding the effort at $15 million which, when divided over the more than 3000 expected workers that will be effected equates to $5000 a head).
Again, these are things that didn't happen organically. If the government took, the government should make whole and then face the angry taxpayers who get to fund the transition you forced. The government should do better than having some talking head functionary on Zoom discussing how to make this right.
Alternatively, maybe our government should have made a more considered decision and not sped up the transition (with its attendant difficulties) in the first place.
**To be fair to the state official here, she did say that one goal was to hire someone local to help be able to work directly there. Quoting: "Siman [Shelley Siman of the Colorado Office of Just Transitions] shared that her office is also looking to hire someone in the Moffat County community to provide 'a little bit more of that real-time on the ground information. To plan out where is the greatest need and what are people saying at that moment in time that they need access to.'”
https://www.craigdailypress.com/news/coal-transition-sparks-lively-discussion-at-economic-development-meeting/
Related:
And while the right hand of our state government is taking jobs and power, the left hand is taking away more opportunity.
The state continues its work of imposing yet more regulations on businesses, this one applying to large businesses and limiting emissions.
I wanted to highlight something important about these regulations: they are hurting some of the very same people that the shuttering of coal plants is.
Let me explain: a company that is in the area where they are shuttering coal mines and power plants (see the map for a relative distance--Craig in blue is roughly where the mining is) could expand and hire more people to meet a growing market for its baking soda.
I say "could" because the newer regulations on larger businesses are going to strangle that company's ability to grow. See the screenshot from the article below.
This is despite this owner's willingness to buy more efficient equipment.
As I say above, you get punched by the right hand and then look up to see the left one coming.
https://tsscolorado.com/colorado-to-impose-new-emissions-regulations-on-manufacturers/
"A bag of apples deliquescing away ..."
Well, we've finally hit that point in the week again where it's the last post of the day. That means something for fun.
It'll also be the last one til Sunday. I'll be away from my computer.
I heard a new (well, new to me) word while listening to an audiobook about a cleaning firm that specialized in cleaning up hoarder's houses and death/crime scenes.
It was in the quote above and described a bag of apples the cleaner found while mucking out a hoarder's bathroom.
Deliquesce is the word and it's defined in the screenshot.
Hadn't ever heard it before, but after looking it up and thinking back to the context of the audiobook, it didn't paint a pretty picture. If I live to be 100 I don't think I'll understand how it is that someone could live like that.
At any rate, have a good Friday!
Back at it Sunday.