Dear True,
When I was a kid in the 1950's "Better Living Through Electricity" was a watch word. In class we saw movies made by General Electric about the wonders of dishwashers, refrigerators, washing machines, and even vacuum cleaners that transformed the life of the family.
There's been a lot of water over the dam in the last half-century or so. We've learned about global warming, carbon dioxide emissions, dirty plants that rely on filthy coal, and the terrible risks of nuclear energy. We've been told to decrease our carbon footprint on the earth, and to start by buying new light bulbs. We've done our best but blaming the victims doesn't really solve the problem.
We've been fed a fat lot of fluff about .... for example, the Minnesota Power cutting edge technology to reduce the damage from its Tac Harbor coal plant emissions which does not address the crucial issue of using coal in the first place.
Anyway, to the point. Yesterday the Grand Marais Public Utilities Commission announced a day-long shutdown of power in the west end of its service district.
I am a recipient of power in this district. I am given to understand that power will be shut off during at least 10 hours of the day tomorrow.
Insult to injury? Also yesterday the PUC invaded my land and cut down trees, more trees than we had agreed upon, in order to allow their Bobcat access to my power line. I was still grieving for the loss of my trees, and for the destruction of my footpath to the power line.
When I realized that a path at least double the four feet I agreed to had been cleared, leaving no vegetation or trees between my cabin and the power line, it was too late. My personally owned woods were utterly destroyed.
So. To proceed to tomorrow, when the PUC has announced its intention to cut off my power for at least 10 hours beginning at 9 a.m.
What can possibly justify such a long shutdown?
I am the unfortunate victim of the Better Living lobby; I can't do a single damn thing without electric power. I can't brew a cup of coffee, or give well water to my pets to drink, or cook on my stove, or turn on a fan, or work at my computer, or make a phone call, or check my email, or ensure the safety of the food in my refrigerator, or even tell the time. My friends and clients won't be able to reach me...
Some years back the PUC trashed the residents of Rec Park and demanded fantastic fee increases. They got away with it despite letters to the papers from dozens of long-term summer friends. This in fact was a gambit in a larger play to get rid of Rec Park and replace it with a super-sized marina, which thanks to our new and wise City Council has failed. Cheers to the new City Council!
Still. Today I am only writing to protest the 10-plus hours in which I can neither work nor eat nor drink water nor cook nor wash nor use the accoutrements of my home office business.
Nancye Belding
Grand Marais
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Your letter points out why we, and other Cook County residents, have chosen to live off the grid.
I'd like to think of it as a 10 hour vacation.
Take this 10 hour interruption, and turn it into something positive. Perhaps you could plant native wildflowers in your new wider utility corridor?
Are we truly off the grid if we have internet access? Think of the coal burned to fuel to power the internet. What kind of terrible toxic things are in our computers?
Living off the grid still generates haz waste in the form of smug pollution.
cjl,
I'm not sure why simply noting one of the reasons people have gone off-the-grid is considered 'smug pollution.' Planting native wildflowers is a good idea if you like that wide-open space. If you don't like the space, the native flowers probably won't help.
Granted there are 'toxic things' in the computers as well as in hybrid cars, CFL bulbs, cellphones, etc., and the 'Net is powered by the grid. However, being off-grid is one thing our family has chosen to do to lessen our negative longterm impact on the environment.
Enough said--no lecture and no sarcasm.
Anonymous
Dear anonymous,
Smug pollution, my, er, eye. Bravo to you. How I wish I had chosen off-grid, not only to deal with the amazingly frequent nuisance shutoffs but more important, to do the right thing. At the time it didn't seem like a viable option. I will regret it forever.
And to cjl: Plant native wildflowers? Mother Nature does that for me, in time, but I can't because I live on fractured bedrock. I love my trees and grieve to lose even one. I don't have internet access without electricity except via my laptop battery but do most of my business transactions via email. Speak for yourself about taking vacations. Some of us have to work with deadlines. And it's hard to take a vacation from eating and drinking. Can we agree that everybody doesn't have the same life choices? What if I were on an iron lung?
Nancye
Post a Comment