You will be hard-pressed to find a fairly objective individual who can assert that our American representative, two-party form of government has been effective in energy policy.
From Texas to Tokyo, however, communities have successfully engaged in the kind of intelligent and democratic dialogue that is sorely lacking in our increasingly polarized world.
Our article on Deliberative Democracy and Utility Modernization produced the greatest response, so we follow up with sharing this series of reports from Stanford University's Center for Deliberative Democracy.
In the wake of the Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein's arrest for attempting to merely attend the latest debate, and the fact few people know Gov. Gary Johnson will be on all 50 ballots, we can see that more voices can only enrich a debate and that everyday people can make wise, lasting choices given the right conditions.
Thanks for the eye oopening post. Regarding preaidential debates, TIME posted a damning leaked agreement between dems and reps
ReplyDeletehttp://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2012/10/15/leaked-2012-presidential-debates-contract-few-critical-points-worth-raising/
Romney's energy plan is drill, baby drill - again and peddling for coal votes
ReplyDeletehttp://science.time.com/2012/08/28/the-romney-energy-plan-drill-baby-drill-again/
Sorry to say though that Obama's natural gas push hasn't been ecologically convincing either.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/12/business/energy-environment/12gas.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
I'm afraid I was in the dark about Johnson's ticket, for a person that is supposedly well informed. He'd do very well if he had a TV media budget or a viral internet video. Maybe Psy of Gangdam Style fame can help him -- Gary Style. I'd like to know what hos energy policy would be.
To the previous poster: why do you think you are in the dark about Johnson?
ReplyDeletedid you know the presidential debates have sponsors? corporate sponsors? is that really appropriate? who decides if third party candidates can showing today or not? who selects the rules of the debate? this critical part of our democracy is not democratic at all! this game is rigged against the people in favor of big money.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/09/philips-pulls-presidential-debate-sponsorship-137053.html
this documentary exposes the corruption of the Presidential Debate Commission
ReplyDeletehttp://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zxgC-xn2gs4&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DzxgC-xn2gs4
Thanks for your comments.
ReplyDeleteThe system may well bw rigged but the larger point is that community-led deliberation can produce healthy outcomes, despite lack of it at high institutions of government. how do we produce more consensus in energy policy for better long term forecasting instead of zig zag policy changes?
Great reports. In particular, the Texas case could be a lesson applied to respond to the J D Power & Associates report that you Twitted about today about customer awareness of AMI meters being less than desired. The report itself has some best practices worth studying.
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