Am I just jaded or is every political discussion these days fraught with an underlying tension of ideological dare-you-to-disagree with me mentality that just stops meaningful discussion in its tracks?
It’s even infecting the usually even-tempered and respectful Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors. We can thank the Sunrise Movement Santa Barbara—a band of very bellowy (possibly well-intentioned) environmental activists who loudly and proudly dare people to disagree with them—for bringing its own brand of drama to the Santa Barbara County dais. It’s very mature.
At the May 21 meeting, the Sunrise Screamers were begging the Board of Supervisors to pass a resolution supporting the Green New Deal, a climate change focused piece of legislation proposed at the national level to help stem the tide of global warming. In the midst of the discussion that followed, 3rd District Supervisor Joan “The Mean Green Hyperbole Queen” Hartmann decided it was appropriate to compare the climate crisis to the Nazis.
Really, Joan?
You can’t just shift to Nazis and think that it will change people’s minds about global warming, which your colleague 4th District Supervisor Peter “Climate Change is Fake News” Adam has been very clear he doesn’t believe in.
You could have illustrated your point in a much more real way. Pick a hurricane, any hurricane. Or you could take an example straight out of the Santa Barbara County playbook. The county’s been accused of not building the debris basins that it should have to prevent the deaths and destruction that took place during the Montecito mudslides.
Meanwhile, in Santa Maria, Andy “I Also Call Fake News on the Climate Stuff” Caldwell with the Coalition of Labor, Agriculture, and Business argued against the city joining the public electricity provider Monterey Bay Community Power. The community choice energy provider services about 10 million customers with 100 percent carbon free energy at a cheaper cost than PG&E, using the state’s existing power grid (which is basically owned by PG&E).
PG&E is actually a member of COLAB—no surprises there—but don’t worry, guys, Caldwell’s still out there fighting for ratepayers!
“These guys are leeches on the end of PG&E’s transmission lines,” Caldwell yammered, leaving out the fact that the public utility/corporation’s (yeah, it’s confusing) fire-causing transmission lines landed PG&E into a bankruptcy that yours truly and every other customer in California will be paying for through increased rates.
Do we really need more power lines in California, Andy? Or should we just make PG&E fix the ones the company has continually been neglecting for decades? Thanks a lot, California Public Utility Commission, for doing a shitty job of oversight.
Maybe the commission could use a visit from the Santa Barbara County grand jury, which is really good at telling people what they already know. Thank goodness it’s on the case in the Cuyama Joint Unified School District, which had money “mysteriously disappear” from its business office in 2018. Without the report released on May 20, the school district might not have known that its oversight also sucks.
The Canary is really good at oversight with no teeth. Send your thoughts to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in May 30 – Jun 6, 2019.