Things That Work / The Big Picture

 

Chris Leboutillier

Power Bills to Pop

Eversource and United Illuminating announced eye popping increases starting in January. Connecticut’s two biggest electric utilities requested a massive rate increase Thursday. The proposal could raise the average electric bill for residential customers of Eversource and United Illuminating by about $80 each month and would take effect Jan. 1. (CT Public 11/17/2022)  Then regulators rubbed salt in the wound by stating they can't do much about it.

According to the article, the people who regulate this stuff, the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA), says they can't do anything.  The agency said Connecticut’s decision to deregulate energy markets more than two decades ago made it so “PURA does not have the authority to reject or modify the standard service rates.”

Eversource said in a statement: “As has been widely reported, energy costs continue to rise globally, with regional electric supply prices reaching all-time highs this year due to increased global demand for and the high cost of natural gas, world events, extreme weather, and other issues.” (CT Public 11/17/2022) 

 Immediate Relief?

The gist of the article from CT Public suggests no quick fixes. There are some things that can be done in the short term. They offer temporary relief at best. 

• Release more oil and gas from the reserves.
• Cut taxes on fossil fuels.
• Offer heating assistance.
• Improve oversight of Connecticut's utilities.

These solutions offer no relief from increased demand and dwindling supplies. A situation made worse by the war in Ukraine. 

What works? 

A broader perspective. Dependence on fossil fuels and radical change to our environment caused by carbon emissions will continue to worsen the global crisis. "The UN says, Limited natural resources, such as drinking water, are becoming even scarcer in many parts of the world that host refugees. Crops and livestock struggle to survive where conditions become too hot and dry, or too cold and wet, threatening livelihoods."

An article in Zurich.com offers the grim prediction of 1.2 billion climate refugees by 2050. "Climate change does not just pose a threat by causing immediate harm to people and infrastructure, it is also a long-term danger that can slowly destabilize societies and economies, making them more vulnerable to other threats. Take for instance sea-level rise. Over the past 30 years, the number of people living in coastal areas at high risk of rising sea levels has increased from 160 million to 260 million, 90 percent of whom are from poor developing countries and small island states."

The Big Picture

The Union of Concerned Scientists has come up with Climate Solutions listed below. These are not immediate fixes. We cannot wave a magic wand and make everything better. the changes are incremental, but they offer an improvement on the direction we're headed right now.

Cut Emissions 

Carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases are the main drivers of global warming. While climate change cannot be stopped, it can be slowed.To avoid the worst consequences of climate change, we’ll need to reach “net zero” carbon emissions by 2050 or sooner. Net zero means that, on balance, no more carbon is dumped into the atmosphere than is taken out. The scale of these changes will require significant federal policy that puts a price on carbon. It also requires international cooperation.

Remove Carbon Dioxide

To reach net zero emissions, we need to do more than just reduce our emissions: we need to actively remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or offset its effects.The easiest way to do this is by planting new forests (afforestation) or restoring old ones (reforestation). Other enhanced land management practices can help, as can new technologies that suck CO2 out of the air (“direct air capture”), or prevent it from leaving smokestacks (“carbon capture and storage”).

Fight Disinformation

For years, media pundits, partisan think tanks, and special interest groups funded by fossil fuel companies have raised doubts about the truth of global warming.These contrarians downplay and distort the evidence of climate change, lobby for policies that reward polluters, and attempt to undercut existing pollution standards.

Prepare and Adapt

No matter how quickly we reduce emissions, the reality is that certain climate impacts are inevitable. The seas are rising. Temperatures break records every year. Droughts, floods, and extreme weather are damaging communities today. Cutting carbon is the only long-term solution for avoiding climate impacts. In the short-term, we need to adapt.

Act

Speak up. Organize. Demand change. Promote alternatives to fossil fuels. Hold those who stand in the way accountable. Vote for politicians who understand and are willing to do something to make this a better place. 

Positive News recently posted Seven Solutions to Climate Change That Need to Happen Now. 

Embrace Renewables - The cost is coming down. Way down.

Electrify Transport - Their batteries can play a key role in the renewables revolution by acting as mini power plants, trickling energy to and from the grid when not in use.

Retrofit Houses - Most homes can be warmed by ground- or air-source electric heat pumps.

Reduce Waste - One third of all food produced never gets eaten – either because it spoils between being harvested and hitting the shops, or because it’s thrown away by the purchaser. For farmers in the global south, a combination of agricultural market reforms and provision of refrigerated storage can drastically cut wastage and boost their income.

Restore Carbon Sinks - Plant trees. Beyond trees, we need to farm in a way that locks carbon in the soil, rather than releasing it, using low- and zero-till methods, rewilding land where appropriate, and boosting agroforestry and other sustainably intensive approaches. The seas matter too: we need to adopt fishing methods that conserve marine carbon sinks and encourage habitats like mangroves and seagrass, which captures carbon up to 35 times faster than rainforests.

Reduce Consumption - Cutting resource consumption is key to many climate solutions. The rise of the circular economy, as celebrated by the Green Alley Awards, is helping break the link between quality of life and quantity of stuff.

Shift the System - It means putting a high enough price on carbon that industry is incentivised to move away from it – and reflecting that in fiscal policies that shift the burden from labour to resource use. In other words, tax what we don’t want (planet-warming activities), and not what we do (jobs).

Stepping back and taking the time to look at the broader perspective for increases in utility bills led to a greater understanding of the reasons why and some ideas of what can be done to overcome the problems.

Two Years of Obstruction

Aleksandr Barsukov

But in times of crisis, the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe. 
- King T’Challa, Black Panther (2018)

Obstructionists Control Congress

There's a real possibility of obstructionist behavior from Republicans. We went through eight years of this during the Obama administration. With Republicans now in control of congress, we face two more years of political posturing.

Obstructionism is the practice of deliberately delaying or preventing a process or change, especially in politics.

German Lopez wrote in the New York Times this morning:

Republicans are positioned to trot out an old strategy: When a Democrat has been in the White House over the past few decades, congressional Republicans have embraced calls for reducing government spending, arguing that the debt and deficits were out of control. In the 2010s, Republicans used these threats to block spending bills and make it harder for Barack Obama to carry out his presidential agenda — at times risking government shutdowns and economic calamity.

It is a political play. When Donald Trump was in the White House, Republican lawmakers approved budgets and tax measures that raised the debt and deficits to new highs.

But the approach is nonetheless poised for a comeback once House Republicans can use the threat of shutdowns and economic consequences to restrain President Biden. Trump, who announced his run for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination last night, has pushed the party’s lawmakers to use these tactics to get concessions from Democrats.

Obstructionists Are Passive Aggressive

 Passive-aggressive people act passive but express aggression covertly. They're basically obstructionists who try to block whatever it is you want. 

There are strategies for dealing with passive aggressive people. Mindtools.com came up with eight strategies: 

1. Identify the Behavior.
2. Create a Safe Environment.
3. Use Language Carefully.
4. Stay Calm.
5. Identify the Cause.
6. Provide Training.
7. Set Clear Standards and Consequences.
8. Open up Channels of Communication.

Will any of these work on Republicans. Not without leverage. That leverage comes in two forms, accountability and the vote. Accountability is part of what public radio and public media listeners expect from us. The next two years represent an opportunity for us to meet the expectations of our listeners.

Things that Work / Negative Political Advertising

Brian Worthheim
 

Negative Ads

Not all things that work are good for us

I'm sure you've noticed all the negative ads as we get closer to the election Tuesday. But are they working?

They are in Wisconsin, and some heavy hitters in conservative circles are behind Ron Johnson and his campaign.

Up until recently, Mandela Barnes had a sizeable lead on Ron Johnson. That lead has evaporated as Johnson and an advertising campaign, largely funded by two billionaires who the Democrat’s campaign say are rewarding Johnson for his support of tax cuts that benefited them by hundreds of millions of dollars. The campaign is loaded with false hoods and racists dog whistles.

The Guardian and PBS reports Diane Hendricks, a rightwing billionaire businesswoman and Wisconsin native closely tied to Donald Trump, and Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, founders of the Wisconsin-based Uline packaging company who have a long history of funding far-right candidates, are the main donors to a political action committee, Wisconsin Truth, which until recently was heavily outspending the Barnes campaign.

Their campaign may not be fair, but there's no law against it. NPR reports The federal government does regulate truth in advertising, but that only applies to commercial ads, not political ones. In fact, local broadcast channels - think your local NBC, CBS or ABC news stations - are required to air candidates' ads unfiltered.

After months of flinging mud, Senator Ron Johnson was finally obliged to admit that his Democratic opponent in the upper midwestern state of Wisconsin had never actually made a call to “defund the police”.

But that did not stop the Trumpist senator’s re-election drive from continuing to broadcast racially charged advertisements falsely claiming that Mandela Barnes, the lieutenant governor of Wisconsin, “rationalized violence” against the police and tying him to the most controversial positions of Black Lives Matter. -The Guardian

In a report on PBS NewsHour, Senator Tommy Tuberville in a campaign rally in Nevada with Donald Trump made racist claims. 

Some people say, well, they're soft on crime.

No, they're not soft on crime. They're pro-crime. They want crime. They want crime because they want to take over what you got. They want to control what you have.

They want reparation because they think the people that do the crime are owed that.

Bull (EXPLETIVE DELETED)!

And there's really no getting around the fact that that is a racist statement, the idea that only Black people commit crime or something, which is just patently untrue, and — yes, and just very much untrue.

But what I will say is that the Republican effort to tie Democrats to crime, to say that Democrats want crime or our, like, soft on crime, or want lenience on criminals, that is very much on message with the Republican campaigns.

There is a huge amount of spending on crime-related advertising. You mentioned Wisconsin. -Tamara Keith

The sad part is, standing with the facts may not be enough to offset big money and big lies that resonate with people's fears. It's not ethical, but it will continue to work, unless enough people who care, vote. 

Republicans Defend Their Violent Rhetoric

Eye Roll, Please 

Politico reports Republicans are saying their violent rhetoric has nothing to do with the attack on Paul Pelosi.

And National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), who posted a video last week of himself firing a gun with the hashtag #FirePelosi, deflected a question about whether he should have used a weapon along with the hashtag.

Instead, Emmer sought to contrast the media’s treatment of the Pelosi attack with what he argued was a comparable lack of attention to the 2017 politically motivated shooting of House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.).

Seems like the kind of tit-for-tat I used to hear in middle school. An adult needs to step in and tell Mr. Emmer that was over five years ago, and I seem to recall extensive coverage of the shooting of Steve Scalise. 

I Googled the shooting. There are over 750 thousand links to the shooting and reaction well after the event.

And what was Nancy Pelosi's response to the shooting of Mr. Scalise and others at that practice? I found this at FactCheck.org.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — who was the Democratic House minority leader at the time — held a press conference the day after the shooting, in which she referenced the people who “lose their lives to gun violence in America every day.  Within many families and communities across America, the anguish that we are feeling personally in Congress today is altogether too familiar.”

Answering a question about political vitriol, Pelosi at one point referred to inaction on the issue.

“I think our energy should be used in our thoughts and prayers for Steve Scalise and Mr. Mika, and that’s really where our hearts are right now,” she said. “It’s a question of gun safety that, you know, has never happened. Little babies, little children in kindergarten, were massacred and nothing happened.”

There's a huge difference in the responses. Can you see it? Do you understand the difference?

Facing the Truth

Dissent

Is it okay to dissent, to hold an opposing view? Not in some circles. To have a dissenting view in Trump's America is disloyal, even treasonous. In places like China or Russia, a dissenting view leads to a re-education camp. In some countries, you might just disappear. 

To some people in this country, if you speak of systemic racism, or critical race theory, you run up against their views of our republic's history. And today, you become the enemy. Don't believe it. What just happened to Nancy Pelosi's husband? Threats against our political leaders are spiking. 

According to data provided by the United States Capitol Police, a law enforcement agency charged with protecting members of Congress, cases related to "concerning statements and threats" jumped from 3,939 in 2017 to 9,625 in 2021.

But our history isn't just about our successes or our failures. It isn't all this or all that. And to ask questions makes our democracy stronger. To question is not unpatriotic. To question uncovers the facts.

"A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots." -Marcus Garvey

Denial will not protect us from the inevitable when the truth is discovered.

And they'll jerk from their beds and think they're dreamin'
But they'll pinch themselves and squeal
And know that it's for real
The hour when the ship comes in… -Bob Dylan

Things That Work / Change

 

How is a call to change named shame, / named penance, named chastisement? / How does one say / what if / without reproach?

- Claudia Rankine, “what if”

There is no progress without change. Without change, we get mired in the same downward spiral, and isn't it the definition of insanity to keep doing things the same way and expect a different result.

Change gets a bad rap because change is rarely perfect. Perfection isn't the goal. Improvement is! 

Standing in the door to block progress because it's not perfect is an excuse to do nothing. Those who would block change are invested in and profit from the status quo. Making life better for all is not in their self interest.

Things That Work / Lucy Nalpathanchil

 

WNPR’s Lucy Nalpathanchil named to new senior leadership position at Connecticut Public

Lucy is the second host of CT Public's Where We Live. The program was created in 2006, largely through the efforts of John Dankosky and his staff,  as the centerpiece of WNPR's efforts to create content focused on local and regional issues, and put those issues in the context of national and international trends and events. The success of Where We Live is central to the success of Connecticut Public Radio. 

Lucy's ability to connect community with larger issues is moving on up to the C-Suite at Connecticut Public. Nalpathanchil, in the statement, said “We’re a trusted source for news and information because the journalists here are top notch and are committed to their craft. I’m excited to expand the relationships we’ve developed to further connect Connecticut Public with different communities and groups, all working to make where we live a better, more equitable place.”

CT Public CEO Mark Contreras says, Connecticut Public’s Frankie Graziano and Walter Smith Randolph will step in Nov. 7 on an “interim basis to share host duties for Where We Live, as they identify a permanent host.”

More about the change is here.

Things That Work is an occasional series featured on this site.