The Power of One

A Lesson for the Powerless

How one person operating at the local level can have a national impact!

Several years ago, we discovered that our state's pollution ranked very high, that there were toxins in the air and water that were affecting our health; moreover the burning of fossil fuels to create power and the effluents of upstream manufacturing plants were turning our "paradise" into a living hell.

To make matters worse, the County officials in our State decided policy virtually on their own without checks and balances.

Several years ago, a few of us who felt that we needed to do something to precipitate change started an organization. We have all been letter writers and we have talked to our friends. Although many of the State newspapers are conservative and follow a 'don't rock the boat' tradition, we started getting some coverage for our point of view and began generating feedback.

In the last year, we discovered that the State needs more energy capability to accommodate a spiraling need. The State invited various energy sources to make a presentation to government and in late February, four affected agencies of the State will make a decision. Prior to our involvement, it was clear that the government didn’t intend to change the status quo.

Mind you, this is no minor decision.

It will affect how we generate power for years to come. However, there has been one problem: Very few of the people in the State know anything about it and our coal lobby is extraordinarily strong providing support for various politicians in the State..

About six months ago, we had heard about a professor at the University of Delaware who apparently had gathered a great deal of information about wind energy.

And we invited him to speak at one of our environmental meetings which was originally designed to show homeowners how they could use energy-saving light bulbs to lessen the use of energy and reduce the effects of global warming.

At the tail end of the film, we introduced our guest speaker to educate us as to wind power’s attributes. It did not take long for those at that meeting to become converts to wind power.

That led to additional presentations and more meetings to figure out how we might get the message to the public. Several members of the group agreed to do some letter writing. Our president had also become a lobbyist in Dover.

We now felt that with the election less than a month and a half away, we needed to hype wind power as an energy alternative.

The danger was that we were going to miss an opportunity, an opportunity that might never come to us again should the various perpetuate the status quo and vote coal. We knew, too, that the degree of air and water pollution could only get worse. For example, our local energy source burns an entire railroad car of coal every day just to meet current demand. It is expected that this will double in the weeks and months ahead.

Sadly, there was no referendum, no attempt to educate the public as to the options available. The public needed to know that coal was one of the worst sources of pollution and no matter what the industry claims about gasification, it still would generate toxic pollutants that would be funneled into the water or the air.

In Delaware, the new gasification methods proposed would spew their effluents into the sea. And our politicians seem to think that the industry has arrived at a solution but on deeper analysis, it was clear that the industry’s view was hardly more than smoke and mirrors. Gasification would not resolve the pollution problem only exacerbate other problems. In effect, the method discharges the emissions into the ocean, thereby adding to temperature increases and acidification of the waterways. . Tests have demonstrated where carbon dioxide is directed into the oean, it contributes to changing the fundamental structure of all life beginning with the food chain. Imagine the Chesapeake without fish!

Moreover, rising temperatures produced by carbon dioxide contribute to the melting of the Greenland cap so what happens in Delaware ultimately affects the world. As of now, if we don’t convert to other sources of energy, global warming will continue and if not checked may cause an increase of water levels by up to five feet in the next four or five decades.

However, with wind energy, we have a chance to shed our image of conservatism and perpetuation of the status quo, we can produce enough energy via wind power to power the entire east coast, sell it at a profit and save money for the average consumer here at home. Wind power created electricity does not require anything to be burned or consumed; it is a natural and free resource available to the people and we are being irresponsible if we don’t use it..

Well, to test the waters, our president, Joan Deaver, arranged for fifteen minutes to speak to the local power structure at the legislative hall in Dover. A number of us traveled more than an hour to get there changing our plans to accommodate the late meeting.

When we got there, we shuttled into a tiny office and were told that our meeting was “cancelled” by the Chair although all of the members there were interested in hearing our reports and none of us had been notified in advance.

It seemed like an arbitrary decision designed to throw a monkey wrench into our plans to do nothing more than share information that our policy makers needed in order to make a well reasoned decision..

This has ignited a minor firestorm. The members of our group have all written powerful letters to the local government and to the State and the media infuriated because we were treated so cavalierly. Word is now getting out. A second meeting with the other official branch of government in Dover was attended by 75 people in government eager for more information. And we expect to have our meeting with the other house shortly.

The point is here we have a chance to make a real difference and without the intervention of our group and others, the government might have simply rubber stamped their decision to stay with coal. People have become mobilized over this and there’s a real good opportunity that a strong case for the real benefits of alternative energy will be made and the decision influenced by the interests of the people.

As I pointed out, our group was originally a phantom idea with no money and no support. Three or four of us decided that something needed to be done and we gathered strength through the Internet, word of mouth and letter writing.

Any and all of you can make a real difference and become a force multiplier to get things done; you only need the will.

I am sending this along to other grass-roots organizations that might feel powerless to let them know that one person can make a difference. Good luck with your great group, We Democrats, Ron…

Best wishes to you and the group.

Les Aaron
The Committee for Positive Change