The Green Energy RevolutionA well-thought-out piece by the manager of the Yes on H campaign:
By Julian Davis
The United States of America and the Planet are teetering on the edge of economic and environmental collapse. We are now well aware of the threat of global warming and the catastrophic climate change it is causing. We know we have to curtail greenhouse gas emissions to heal the planet and sustain life on Earth. We are also in the midst of a serious financial crisis the depths of which we are coming to understand more and more as the days go by. But the economic instability we are experiencing is not just a result of toxic mortgage backed securities and the credit crunch. It's not just the folly of Wall Street, it's the folly of Big Oil, it's the folly of our energy policy, and it is the folly of war.
We borrow trillions of dollars, mainly from China, to violently secure fossil fuel energy resources in the Middle East. This is not only environmentally unsustainable, it is economically unsustainable. Our current energy consumption and geo-political existence are destroying the planet and the American economy.
We are actually amazingly fortunate that there is one answer to our biggest problems. Clean Energy. We cannot save the planet from environmental disaster without developing clean and renewable sources of energy and we cannot save our economy in the long-term without becoming energy independent. Building a massive renewable energy infrastructure will heal the planet, stabilize the economy, create jobs, lift people out of poverty, and relieve us from war.
Our generation has a responsibility to figure this out now. San Francisco has the immediate opportunity with Proposition H to lead the world in the fight against global warming and lead the nation in the quest for energy independence.
Let's not underestimate what one city can do. San Francisco has been out in front on so many issues in the past, from gay marriage to the most progressive minimum wage in the country. Two years ago a bunch of young workers in San Francisco past a paid sick days measure and now Barack Obama is talking about implementing it nationally. Just a few months ago a rag tag group of San Francisco activists put a 100% Clean Energy initiative on the ballot. A few weeks later, Al Gore issued his now famous energy challenge to America. If San Francisco passes Prop H, other cities and other states and countries around the world will follow.
We now face the biggest economic crisis since the great depression. It has become glaringly apparent that the free market and unregulated rule by private profiteering financial institutions and corporations is not a model that will sustain a healthy economy in this country. Wall Street's greed has been matched only by Big Oil companies that have made windfall profits while moving at a snail's pace towards developing alternative energy sources. In San Francisco, financial mismanagement of the private-investor owned utility PG&E has left us with skyrocketing electric rates for natural gas and a paltry supply of renewable energy. It's time for the public accountability and stewardship of our energy resources and infrastructure that we will get with Proposition H.
At this pivotal moment in history we are faced with profound choices about our place in the world and our future on the planet. We can continue with the folly of national debt, oil profiteering and war or we can create a new clean energy economy, a fearless new 'new deal' that builds the next great public works projects, employs the next generation of workers, and ensures peace and stability in the 21st century. With Proposition H, San Francisco will be ready to work with the next President and the federal government to lead the clean energy revolution and build the renewable energy infrastructure that we need to sustain life on earth.
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Comments (4)
I don't know Julian and I'm not intimately involved with the Yes on H campaign, but it seems to me that he really botched this one. With a campaign that is so vital, nothing should have been left to chance. Someone with more experience running successful campaigns should have been in charge.
Posted by expatriate | November 3, 2008 08:35 PM
I don't know Julian and I'm not intimately involved with the Yes on H campaign, but it seems to me that he really botched this one. With a campaign that is so vital, nothing should have been left to chance. Someone with more experience running successful campaigns should have been in charge.
Posted by expatriate | November 3, 2008 08:42 PM
Whoa there 'expat'! Why don't we wait and see how the actual vote goes down before we start making judgments.
I think the final vote tomorrow night is going to surprise a lot of people, and in a good way. PG&E has sent a sudden major influx of cash into this thing as if it thinks it's in trouble. And I believe PG&E -is- in trouble. This is not 2003. The world is a different place, and the public is fed up with fossil fuel addiction and the wars that go with it.
And by the way, have you yourself been there to help us campaign against PG&E's multi-million dollar onslaught?
Something tells me the answer is no...
Posted by Eric Brooks | November 3, 2008 09:48 PM
This is my third public power campaign. It's going to take some time to garner the momentum to overturn the huge monopoly PG&E has on city government but we are growing into it. Julian Davis did a bang up job with few resources. Ross Mirkarimi was the hero of the public power movement and he has grown up to be a really "big guy!" When we have more power over the Board of Supervisors and the Mayor's office PG&G...the PiGE!...will have to back down. We are growing progressively more independent of their influence.
Ahimsa
Posted by Dr. Ahimsa Sumchai | November 4, 2008 05:35 PM