The Governor's Twitch Toward Home Rule

Simon does better than I could on laying out the problems with the governor's not-a-plan, just-an-idea. The partitioning of a state based on "economic desperation" has often determined where coal is mined, oil is drilled, etc. Economic segregation was one of the issues that kept me from being virulently anti-fracking in the past. (Now that we do heat geothermally, the hypocrisy issue is minimized, but the unfairness issue still exists.)

After dealing with the NIMBY neighbors who clamored against our broadband tower, I have exactly zero faith in our town's ever endorsing, for example, a wind farm or a shared bank of solar panels. (It's worth pointing out that the neighbors were right about seeing the tower—it is higher than promised and can be seen from Midline Road and from certain vantage points near Irish Settlement.)

We used to heat with fuel oil that was trucked in after being piped in from I don't know where. Even the local purveyors of fuel oil could never tell me with any degree of specificity where the oil began its trip. Now we heat with the ground beneath our back yard and with wood from our forest. But our electricity is still coal-induced, so we are still not guilt free. And I don't begin to know the correct answer for the rest of the town, the county, or the state. Home rule is great. Now what?

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