Stop "Smartmeters" for health and privacy

In this era of Climate Crisis, I loathe to argue against anything that might cut carbon, but the "Smartmeter" project is such a stinker on so many levels that I'm obliged. To summarize the problems: electro-smog pollution, corporate surveillance, propping up for Utility-based electrical distribution, (which by design don't really want to cut usage and therefore profits), undemocratic corporate pushiness, privacy and security for homeowners, and more.

Smartmeters have already been installed in California, creating so many problems that 40 towns to pass resolutions banning them. In Vermont, Central Vermont Power Service (CVPS) is rolling out a project to replace electric meters with so-called "Smartmeters" that essentially have a cellphone inside them communicating to cell-towers and creating an electric + information grid. CVPS says this will cut usage, create the infrastructure to support electric cars, and give the utility tools to manage the grid. The Federal Gov't set aside $69 million in Stimulus money for VT's smartmeter project, if they spend it before April 2013. I love that the government is trying to do big things for the environment and investing in technologies to cut carbon. But... with this project, the devil is in the details.

Smartmeters create security and privacy issues for the homeowner. It will be an easy system for computer hackers to get into, and then have detailed information about when you are home or not. And it will create a data trove that companies can "data mine".

This sounds sci-fi, but this is actually in the primary design of the system. Each electrical appliance emits a unique electronic signature, and the Utilities (+ whoever hacks it eventually) will know if/when you turn on your dishwasher, baby monitor, vibrator, and so forth. This electrical signature surveillance is currently being used against marijuana growers, so this isn't hypothetical. One could argue that Smartmeters are unconstitutional because the Bill of Rights says we have a right to privacy in our homes and in our papers. Why the heck should Utility companies have nearly omniscient knowledge about our private lives?

You may be familiar with the debate about Facebook and data mining. The same issues arise here. Will CVPS sell my data and I'll get ads for blenders or worse? Who will own the information after it's collected, me or CVPS? Will the husband paying the electric bill own the data, or will ex-wife be able to subpoena the electro-data-log into divorce court to prove the husband wasn't really watching football that night in question because the TV clearly wasn't on? Will parents of teenagers be able to surveil their daughters, and be able to say, "your lights turned on at 2 a.m. briefly, did you sneak out and see Johnny?" These are creepy scenarios of Too-Much-Information that will be created by this system.

The Wikileaks case showed that no data is eternally free from being hacked. If the US State Department can't keep emails secure, how is CVPS going to keep records secure? They can't. They'll collect five years of data, some hacker will bust open the file, sell it to criminal elements or dump it on the web and then everybody will know you are always out of the house on Sunday mornings for church and that's the time to steal the silverware. Cybersecurity is now in the Post-Wikileaks Era. Deeply secure data is nearly impossible. One of the best strategies is to NOT gather tons of data will be damaging WHEN it gets out. This has to be the State Department's new cybersecurity strategy: no paper trails people! (Telepathy only.)

Another scenario: hackers will crack the code on the EMF signal coming off the meter, sit outside your house for an hour and know that nobody is home and come in. (There's an App for that! It's called Smartmeter Criminal's X-ray Vision). CVPS says, "oh, well, we'll encrypt the signal." Good luck with that, they're trying to create a 'mesh network' of cellphones that talk to each other, and the last thing that system design wants is an encryption code of hundreds of 1's and 0's bouncing back and forth. But even if they did encrypt it, hackers are resolute. It only takes a day after Apple's new smartphone comes out that computer geeks ripe it apart, crack the codes and brag online about it.

Finally, the biggest concern is cancer from Electro-Magnetic Radiation (EMR). Radio-frequency pollution has been identified as a carcinogen since US servicemen in WW2 got cancer while working the radar stations. The European Union is leading the way in regulating cellphones because this technology is also unsafe. The science is a heavy mix of bio-medical information and physics, and it's hard to get across quickly. I encourage people to visit EMFpolicy.org for detailed scientific reports. I'll summarize some of the studies here. Cellphones cause brain cancer, so use sparingly. Pregnant women should not sleep near the Wi-Fi antenna or risk having an autistic child. Leukemia cases rise when living near cellphone towers, as with high-voltage electric lines and the Vatican's high-powered radio station. The brain's extremely complex, low-voltage electro-chemistry doesn't benefit from lots of additional random electricity. Smartmeters will be adding an intense electro-smog system into a world already going mad with unhealthy wireless devices. CVPS says the Smartmeters could be hard-wired with fiber-optic internet cables to eliminate the radio-frequency pollution, but then it would be too expensive to roll out. They'd rather ignore the health issues and pass the health costs onto the public.

The Government regulators are asleep at the switch, brow-beaten into ineffectiveness by corporate propaganda against regulation and so the public is unprotected. Further, the FCC makes money for the gov't selling off slices of the electromagnetic spectrum, and so it's a conflicted party that shouldn't really be in charge of setting the standards of safety. Smartmeter advocates say "they meet FCC standards" as if that should end the discussion of safety. But the FCC standards were created 30 years ago, based only on measuring thermal (heating) ionizing radiation on a 200 pound adult male. Kids have thinner skulls and cellphones cause their brain tissue to heat up much faster. Further, non-ionizing radiation at lower levels is increasingly linked to biological impacts. The neural-nets of the brain, that vast web of wiring where little charges of biochemical electricity jump from synapse to synapse are designed to work in an absence or vacuum of electricity, and increased ambient electricity from these devices is linked to creating blockages that cause cancer. The government is grossly negligent in protecting us against electro-smog pollution, and it's time for the citizenry to stand up and say, "enough already!"

Some Vermonters are opposing the Smartmeter system. A group called STOPSMETERS.ORG has gotten the issue on the agenda at two Town Meetings in March, when we'll ask our towns to "opt-out." We demand the Utilities wait on installation until the citizens have been able to vote on the issue. We encourage lawmakers to create legislation to insist that the Utilities address our concerns about safety, health and security. Indeed, Vermont Senator Bob Hartwell's bill S214 is doing just that! We encourage our national politicians to re-direct that lovely stimulus money that was earmarked for smartmeters, (that $69 million, thanks Rep. Peter Welch, but, how 'bout we put it towards solar panels?) Our efforts to stop the Wi-Fi-ification of our planet feels like being a little Dutch boy with his finger in a dyke, but we have to start somewhere. Let's start with blocking an Orwellian corporate technology that will surveil us and make us sick in our own homes. Join us in opposing Smartmeters, and more broadly, the invisible 21st century plague of electro-smog.

a film I made in DC this fall

Invitation to the Climate Party

Dear Climate Allies,

We are creating a Climate Party to OCCUPY OUR GOVERNMENT to get solutions to the Climate Crisis. We've registered CLIMATEPARTY.ORG to host our activities on-line. As Tim DeChristopher said recently "Our challenge is not a technical one or an economic one: it's a political one."

The Climate Party's first General Assembly is this Sunday Nov. 6th, starting 10 minutes after the end of the upcoming Tar Sands Action, estimated to be 5:40pm. We're meeting to the middle-left side of Lafayette Park, if you were turning away from the White House. We'll reconvene for a 9 pm evening session over pints at Harry's Restaurant (436 11th St NW, http://www.harryssaloon.com/).

From this humble beginning, we'll create a political movement that swears eternal opposition to Tar Sands Oil. Since the Climate Crisis will be with us for the rest of our lives, we can afford to spend time building political infrastructure to help us Win Our Victories. Let us begin the discussion about creating a Political WIng of the Climate Movement.

The Climate Party will take a multi-tracked approach to pushing the political system. We will create a national third party, support candidates in other parties who are Climate Champions, create a Climate Policy data base to push doable Climate Legislation, host Climate Culture events in DC to bring the truth to the political elite, create support networks for Climate Champions, create a DC Climate Activist Hostel to bring more climate voices to the Capitol, create a Congressional Climate Caucus, fundraise and more.

First, we'll create a Climate Citizen & Politician Alliance to be a support network for Climate Champion Politicians, like Rep. Paul Pinsky of Maryland who was arrested at the Tar Sands Action in August. You may never have heard of Paul and that's part of the problem. We need to support our Climate Allies by volunteering for their campaigns, supporting them financially and amplifying their message. The young people who went to Powershift need jobs supporting the campaigns of Climate Champions. We'll create a support network that brings together Climate Politicians and Volunteers.

Second, we'll support you when you run for office. If you were willing to get arrested in front of the White House, you are brave enough to be in the US Senate. We will "storm the bastille" of our oily government and elect 10,000 Climate Champions. Please be one of them. We will encourage a new generation to run for office by DOING POLITICS DIFFERENTLY. We ONE PENNY from FOSSIL FUEL CORPORATIONS. Many people refuse to enter politics because they think it will require them to become corrupt, phony liars. We will not require you to wear a tie or wear your hair slicked back. We will create a party of authentic, down-to-earth, big-hearted humans. We will do politics in a way that doesn't sell our souls, but rather, makes our souls shine.

Third, the Climate Party will be creative to put the Climate Crisis at the forefront of the national political conversation. We must break the unholy silence on the Climate Crisis in DC. We must stop letting the Political Class get away with "shuffling the deck chairs of the Titanic" with their delusional arguments about budgets while the sky is being broken. First and foremost, DC politicians will take the Climate Crisis seriously when we start winning 50 seats in Congress. Additionally, the Climate Party aspires to host a series of awesome Climate Culture events in DC, such as Grizzly Bear rock show with Dr. James Hansen speaking at the set break. We'll give away tickets to congressional staffers until everybody on Capitol Hill understands the dire seriousness of Runaway Climate Change.

Fourth, the Climate Party will stake out advanced positions on Climate, far ahead of what is "conventional wisdom" in DC. We will push serious, realistic Climate Public Policy. We will compile a database of doable Climate Policy options to give good politicians something to work with, like "Complete Street" legislation, carbon taxes, enforcing existing EPA standards, writing new standards commensurate to the problem, signing the Kyoto Protocol, banning Tar Sands oil like the E.U., and ending fossil fuel subsidies. We will advocate for Public Policy based on Ecological Intelligence and the Precautionary Principle, and so we'll oppose "green-washing" non-solutions like the so-called "Smart-meters" based on radio-frequency pollution.

The author Terry Tempest Williams was debating war with a conservative senator. He asked her "which of your beliefs would you be willing to die for?" and the question caused her a lot of contemplation. Eventually she decided that the real question was "what would I live for?" Going to jail in protest is like a minor dying. But what can we dedicate our lives to that will make even more change? We can occupy our government with good people who know about the Climate Crisis so we can get human civilization on track to survival.

Please join us. Support this new action by donating online, helping us compile a library of articles on Climate&Politics and on Climate Policy, running for office, signing our email list and offering your service to the Climate Party. The Climate Party starts out as a shoe-string, ragtag crew, but we are right to obsessively focus on the Climate Crisis, and in ten years, our Climate-centric approach will seem prescient, and we'll be a force in national politics. We have a long row to hoe. We invite good allies to join us as we go the distance. We join together in this endeavor not knowing how it will go, but knowing that it needs to be done.

We invite the Divine Source to bless our endeavors with success, fun and victory. May we be the human species coming into Ecological Balance with Mother Earth so Humanity continues gracefully into the future.

Onward and upward!

My Public Comment to State Dept. on the XL Pipeline

The Keystone XL project is wicked for many reasons: an ecological gash across North America, a commitment to dirty carbon energy for 100 years, displacing Indigenous peoples, allowing ahistorical industrial madness by dissociative corporations, and insuring the destruction of Mother Earth and human civilization by a Runaway Climate Crisis.

I accuse the XL Pipeline project of being "AHISTORICAL". It is outside the sweep of history, it is disconnected from the ecological realities of 2011, it is disconnected from current science, history and rationality. The XL Pipeline would go thru the Ogalla Aquifer, at a time when fresh water is becoming scarce. We are living during a Climate Apocolpyse, when the newspaper everyday reports evidence of the rapid change of our planetary ecosystem due to carbon pollution, and yet the XL Pipeline would produce 3 times more CO2 than regular crude oil.

I accuse the State Department and the US Government more broadly of negligence of duty to protect the citizenry from Climate Collapse.

I bear witness to the "revolving door" between government and business, and encourage the State Department to stop allowing former employees to be employed by Big Business in endeavors that undermine our country's safety and sovereignty. The State Department should investigate the corrupt relationship documented here at Democracy Now:

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/10/6/naomi_klein_keystone_xl_oil_pipeline .

The XL Pipeline is like a mad fantasy of 19th century industrialists, with 21st century technology, but without the 21st century's understanding of Ecology, Climate Science, and Indigenous History.

The XL Pipeline will endanger our country by being a terrorist target atop our largest aquifer. It will endanger our country by creating a strip of ecological damage down the center of the North American continent.

There are Indigenous People's living amidst the Tar Sands project. They get run over by big trucks, get cancer from poisoned water, watch their lives erode amidst ecological devastation. The First Peoples have suffered so much. Our Planet's very survival depends on learning their wisdom about respecting Mother Earth. During the Tar Sands Action this summer, I made this short film that brings forward their voices:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOYU9IF-mVE

If the XL Pipeline is approved, we will mobilize to support a candidate for President that is a true Climate Champion. The Obama Administration's lack of action on the Climate Crisis is unacceptable. We don't have four more years to wait for action. If the Obama Administration is at all serious about addressing the Climate Crisis, the XL Pipelines should be cancelled right away.

I was arrested at the White House protesting the XL Pipeline because I understand the Climate Science. If we don't mobilize to stop this problem, we are NO PLACE. Everything valuable and beautiful in this small planet will be ruined because we will have ruined our sky. If you feel I'm being poetic or rash, I encourage you to study the climate science much more closely. The Climate Science is very clear: more carbon, more heat = disrupting a tightly wound atmospheric system = floods, hurricanes, ecocide.

Please, people, get on board. Provide some leadership and help save the planet before it's too late.

sincerely,

Theo Talcott

Manchester, Vermont

Last day for public comment is Oct 7th: at http://www.keystonepipeline-xl.state.gov/clientsite/keystonexl.nsf/CommentFset?OpenFrameSet

Advancing VT Climate Legislation and Climate Leaders

Vermont has a historic opportunity to lead America in responding to the Climate Crisis. Governor Peter Shumlin spoke as a true Climate Champion during the 350.org's Moving Planet rally in Montpellier on Sept. 24th. How can Vermont's vibrant Climate Movement support legislators in creating aggressive and effective Climate legislation?

We need to start playing "The Inside Game". Climate activists have gotten used to being "voices in the wilderness" and lonely Cassandras. That was before "The Wakeup Call" of Hurricane Irene swept away covered bridges and excuses for inaction. Our political leaders are agreeing with us now, and so the Climate Movement enters a new phase. We can make ourselves useful and help 'getter dun' in the legislatures.

After Shumlin's speech, I found myself asking "by what miracle did we wind up with a Climate Champion governor?" And then I asked, "what does the governor do again? How much power does he actually have? What could the Vermont state legislature really do?"

This are the right questions because State Government is smaller and has less tricks it could pull off. Like Washington DC, Montpellier is a place where people talk about budgets and we shouldn't delude ourselves with magical thinking that somehow our elected leaders can flip a switch and Solve the Climate Crisis. The problem is REALLY BIG. Probably bigger than the Federal Government could deal with, even if it wasn't being run by oil companies. Bigger than the United Nations, whose best effort so far, the Kyoto Protocol, hasn't even caused the overall levels of Carbon going into the atmosphere to decrease.

Still... State Governments are useful as "Labratories of Democracy". We can work up solutions in the tiny state lab, and then scale them up for the nation and planet. So let's imagine Vermont passing aggressive climate legislation that helps governments of the world begin to effectively and legitimately respond to the Climate Crisis.

Like...

1. Developing methods for collecting Carbon Taxes. We need to put a price on Carbon. Taxes on Carbon should drive down the amount emitted. Think of it as Sin Taxes for the 21st Century. The political climate in Washington is so knee-jerk anti-tax in rhetoric that leadership on Carbon Taxes needs to come from the states. We could do a real service to the nation by getting the ball rolling and figuring out how to do it. We don't' have to reinvent the wheel. Other countries are already experimenting with carbon taxes, especially those smart northern european ones. Carbon Taxes might replace income taxes. How about a penny per gallon gasoline tax and the money raised buys solar panels to go on the schools?

2. Vermont should "sign the Kyoto Protocol." The United States has not signed the only meaningful international treaty on Climate created by the United Nations. Instead, every year the US goes to the 'Conference of Parties" (who actually have signed the treaty), and roadblock progress. In Copenhagen and then Cancun, the US has a track record of self-absorbed obstructionism. The Climate Movement should force the US to sign the Kyoto Protocol, and take up a LEGALLY-BINDING commitment to cut national levels of Carbon.

This isn't to say that Kyoto is perfect. (Overall, carbon levels have continued to go up since it was begun.) But it's the start. We need even stronger, fiercer globally concerted laws and action to avert the worst that the Climate Crisis could bring us. The US should at least get on-board with the relatively weak Kyoto "Commitments to reduce carbon levels."

Vermont could symbolically sign Kyoto (it's really a treaty that the US has to sign) and agree to take on the Commitments to reduce carbon levels. Vermont can start abiding by the Kyoto Protocol and hopefully US will someday do the same. Vermont can befriend the international Climate Negotiations and introduce our country to this useful ally. Vermont should send delegates to next round of international negotiations, in Decemeber, in Durbin, South Africa, with the intention to getting Vermont to abide by the Kyoto Protocol.

3. Vermont could get serious about creating 'complete streets' and promote bike lanes and public transportation. "Green Island" in Bellows Falls could get start support. And so on.

What Climate Legislation do you want to see?

I'd like to propose a few actions to help the Climate Movement to get political.

A) Let's have forum/symposium soon that brings together legislators and Climate Activists to discuss what is possible. Let's host a "Forum on Potential Climate Legislation for Vermont" will chew on our real options.

B) Let's create a Citizen & Politician Climate Alliance. Citizens and Public Servants can work together for Climate Justice. Citizens offer: work on campaigns, funding, advice, education to politicians, etc. Politicians get dedicated volunteers, some street cred, and help promoting legislation to the general public. "Cooperation and reciprocal good will are necessary for any important work" said spiritual teacher Mirra Alfassa. How can we cooperate with good will with the Climate Champions who are in power? We don't want to be "precious" about our outsider activism. Perhaps hipper to be in the streets with signs and slogans, but more truly useful to engage with the political process and really affect meaningful change.

C) Encourage Climate Activists to run for public office. We try to move from beseeching those in power to BEING THOSE IN POWER. We need to elect 10,o00 Climate Champions. Will you run for Senator?

The goal of the Climate Movement is to save the planet from Runaway Climate Change. We need to start using the tool of Government for this purpose. The Political Class is waking up to the Climate Crisis, at least the smart ones, like Clinton, Bloomberg, and Shumlin. Let us find ways to be in support of our elected allies who understand the "fierce urgency of now" of the Climate Crisis.

Climate of Private Obsession

I spent much of the winter thinking and writing about the Climate Crisis. I organized with climate activists who all agreed it was a major problem. Then Spring came like flicking on a light switch and I dropped back into my body to work like a horse on a friend's farm. Suddenly, I'm back in a world where people don't know or aren't concerned about the Climate Crisis.

It's a relief. Who wants to always be thinking about 'The End of the World'? Not me. I want to think about Girlwalk videos, Further shows at SPAC and growing garlic. Caring about Climate feels like a private madness, a pet peeve, a dark private vision of planet death, especially when surround by people who are blithely unconcerned.

On April 7th, I attended a meeting for the State of Vermont's effort to create a Comprehensive Energy Plan. I was surprised to find very little talk of the Climate Crisis. It was an energy conversation that could have happened in another era on another planet. And these were smart gov't people.

So, clearly, the Climate Movement is still in the movement-building phase of "raising awareness" and "creating mass consciousness" and "making sure the public knows there is a problem".

The Climate Movement hasn't achieved mass consciousness because the science is so complicated that it's easy to refute. Like 5th graders, Climate Deniers have just said "Nah-uunuhh" and Climate Scientists are forced to mumble back "No really, arctic ice samples gives us a very clear record of the relationship between carbon in the atmosphere and temperature. More carbon, more temperature." Climate Deniers say "Oh, yeah?!!" And around it goes, a stuck debate between PhDs and tweens about the proper atmospheric composition if we want to preserve life on earth as we know it.

The Climate Movement must get better at explaining the science. It's not enough that Bill McKibben and James Hansen understand the mechanics of the problem. We need 8th graders who can explain the carbon/temperature connection to their Senators. Someday I’d like to make videos of citizens explaining the Climate Crisis to legislators.

It took me about two years to eat, digest and understand the Climate Science. In total, it's complicated: planetary chemistry, geological records. But in summary, it's not too complicated: more soot in the sky, more heat held in by the greenhouse effect. We need to get millions more people understanding the Climate Science so that creating a Zero-Carbon society becomes a priority.

The Climate Crisis has a time-lag. The Biggest Effects are still far-off in the future. The planet is taking some time to adjust to the new atmospheric composition of (currently) 390 PPM (parts per million) carbon. Already we are experiencing big changes, but the changes haven't deeply settled in. If it was 390 PPM for 100 years, we'd probably have no ice-caps. In Cancun, the last time it was two degrees warmer, the sea level was two feet higher. The changes are happening now in miniature, but in a few years, they'll flesh out. Already we are seeing big changes: hottest year on record, record snowfalls and rainfalls, Pakistani floods and Russian fires. I mean, damn, we're in the middle of it now.

So, why the indolent indifference, people? What is it going to take to get on with the business end of creating a carbon-neutral society?

Probably more folks like Tim.

The story of Tim DeChristopher is encouraging because he has challenged the prevailing societal indolence with Gandhi-like ethical sturdiness. He punked an illegal Bush-era sell-off of public land to oil companies and effectively blocked the auction. Follow the story of this brave prankster Earth Protector at bidder70.org. We need more people able to act on what their heart's know to be true.

May humanity bravely face the Truth and save the sky, the Earth and ourselves.

Vermonters Asked to Help Remake State’s Energy Plan

Got ideas about Vermont’s future? The State wants your input on the revision of the Comprehensive Energy Plan. This public process is an excellent opportunity to

environmentalists to ‘speak truth to power’ and help Vermont get on-track to a sustainable zero-carbon economy.

The State of Vermont’s Department of Public Service has begun a yearlong public engagement process to ask “what do you want?” This listening process is designed to find good ideas and policy. Next year, the Legislature will create actual laws based on the findings.

Like the excellent Farm-to-Plate process, this is government at it’s best: starting in low-gear by listening to people and crowd-sourcing best practices.

The second stake holder meeting on April 7th will focus on Transportation and Land-use, giving environmental advocates the chance to ask for bike lanes, carbon taxes, sustainable farming, legal hemp, and so forth.

Or you can also submit your comments on line to: ed.delhagen@state.vt.us

Both meetings will happen at Union University on a hilltop above Montpellier. The first stake holder meeting on March 23rd focused on Energy Supply and Renewable Energy. The crowd was a mix of energy company lobbyists, environmentalists and gov’t people. The discussion had a strong ‘hive-mind’ feeling, created by smart people talking a mutual language of energy and environment. And humanity’s energy plan will decide the fate of our collective survival, so there’s an electrostatic charge that comes from discussing the Most Important Thing.

The meeting was well-organized. Speakers gave brief presentations to introduce the subjects. A Green Mountain Power guy spoke from industry perspective. Joanna Miller from Vermont Natural Resource Council (VNRC) brought the environmental perspective.

Then we broke out into some fairly dynamic small-group discussion. The topic was interesting and there were a lot of smart people in the room. The discussion went well, partly because meeting organizers took time to present a powerpoint slide on “Working Agreements for the Day”: mutual respect, keep it brief, stay on topic. Good conversational council doesn’t happen automatically, it needs to be coaxed into existence by ‘rules of engagement.” Organizers need to tell people, “we invite all voices, but keep it brief!”

I encourage more environmentally minded folks come to the next meeting on April 7th. Joan Knight and I were the lone voices talking about the Climate Crisis. The day’s discussion reminded me that most people haven’t understood the seriousness of Climate Crisis. The conversation could have happened on different planet that wasn’t amidst a traumatic disturbance of planetary equilibrium. There was little talk of cutting carbon and of aiming for a zero-carbon society.

I was shocked to hear people talk politely about “natural gas from Shale.” To properly describe “natural gas”, we need dusty Old Testament language, so we can say “HYDRO-FRACKING IS AN ABOMINATION.” Hydro-fracking is deeply decadent, immoral, sinful and a crime against Creation. Hydrofracking makes oil companies rich and externalizes the costs on poor people in Pennsylvania whose water supply gets ruined. Hydrofracking is amoral Nazi-like technological prowess in service to the inhuman dissociative demon-logic of sociopathic corporations.

Hydro-fracking is a great environmental crime against the Earth and people. Hydro-fracking works by the explosion of the earth’s inner layers to release gas. The details are ugly and polluted. They pump water and chemicals into wells at great pressure. This cracks the rock and releases gas that gets siphoned off. Afterwards, the water rises up again after the pressure is released and brings up water filled with chemicals and radioactivity. Bad news. I hope Vermont passes laws that make “natural Shale gas” illegal. I intend to say this at the next meeting on April 7th.

Speaking of radioactivity, another thing I like about this process is that Governor Shumlin has made clear that the process will not include yes/no discussion of Vermont Yankee because the legislature has already decided to shut it down.

On April 7th, you come too and let’s get Vermont on the right track for energy. Or send your comments to: ed.delhagen@state.vt.us