We are Columbia County residents creating resilient community by informing our neighbors and asking questions:
Why the sudden push to ban the appliances we use to cook and heat our homes?
How feasible and reliable is it to heat our homes and charge vehicles with expensive and vulnerable electricity?
How safe is it to rely solely on electricity to heat our homes in winter?
How is it socially just to subject utility customers to exorbitant electricity cost increases?
Why blanket our best farmland with solar panels?
Who pays for the environmental damage caused by industrial-scale renewable energy farms?
How is it socially just to provide grant money to install EV charging stations in under-served communities when many in those communities cannot afford to own a car let alone purchase an EV?
Why is it ok to enslave people and children in Africa and China to mine rare earth minerals for EV batteries?
How is strip-mining and mountain-top removal “green”?
Where will cobalt come from after 2030 when Africa is projected to run out? Mines in the United States?
How “green” are solar panels, wind turbines, and electric vehicles - from extraction and processing of source materials, to manufacturing, to shipping, to installation, to operation, to decommissioning, disposal and recycling?
How are solar panel fires and EV fires extinguished?
If your house burns down because you parked your EV in the garage, will your home insurance cover it?
Why is New York State overriding home rule?
Why are upstate counties and towns losing property tax revenue for large-scale industrial solar/wind farms?
Why don’t upstate towns and counties get a say in where industrial-scale solar/wind farms are sited?
Why don’t upstate towns and counties get a share of the revenue generated by industrial-scale solar/wind farms?
Who pays for the hazardous waste disposal of solar panels and wind turbines at the end of their useful life?
How will the all-electric mandate affect local, county, and state economies?
How much will it cost to install all of these renewable energy farms and who pays for it?
Why are upstate elected officials going along with this? Why aren’t they asking these questions? Why aren’t they saying NO? Whose “interests” are they representing?
Why does New York State insist there is consensus when there isn’t?
Why does New York State insist there is only one answer to a problem?
Why aren’t we hearing about any of this in the media?
IF: NYS is projected to fall short of the capacity needed to meet the increased demand for the all-electricity mandate; and renewable energy (solar, wind) cannot meet that demand without peaker fossil fuel plants and/or nuclear power plants to pick up the slack; THEN: WHAT DOES AN ALL-ELECTRIC MANDATE SOLVE?
IF: Developers are given waivers to violate environmental protection laws - to clear cut forests, destroy prime farmland, destroy wildlife habitats, backfill marshland, endanger waterways, drinking water, historical sites and migratory pathways, THEN: WHAT DOES AN ALL-ELECTRIC MANDATE SOLVE?
IF: Big Industry and the “Upper Class” can buy waivers (aka Cap and Trade) to continue to use fossil fuels to drive their cars, fly their planes, run their factories, heat their homes, and cook their food - while regular folk don’t have the means or rights to maintain their current lifestyle, THEN: WHAT DOES AN ALL-ELECTRIC MANDATE SOLVE?
Who benefits from this all-electric mandate?
It certainly is not the Environment or We the People.