Business Forum: When it comes to good energy planning, Xcel is in the way By David Morris Originally Published in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, October 13, 2002 Recent revelations about Xcel’s corporate conduct have galvanized a flurry of activism by state agencies. The Attorney General’s office, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) and the Department of Commerce … Read More
For Farmers, a Rare Exercise in Economic Democracy By David Morris September 29, 2002 Originally Published in the Minneapolis Star Tribune A few days ago the shareholders of a large Minnesota company approved the company’s sale to a much larger corporation headquartered in Illinois. In and of itself, this was no big news. Last year some … Read More
With Liberty And Justice For All: A Brief History of the Pledge of Allegiance By David Morris May 1, 2002 Originally Published in the Minneapolis Star Tribune Twenty-six states now require the pledge of allegiance in public schools. Some require schools to reflect on the history and meaning of that pledge. Reflection would be instructive. The … Read More
Business Forum: Regenerating History By David Morris Originally published in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, April 28, 2002 In the beginning, companies didn’t sell electricity. They sold power plants. By 1883, Edison Electric Illuminating Co. had installed 334 generators in cotton mills, manufacturing plants, newspapers and theaters. When central power plants emerged, they were neighborhood affairs. Edison’s … Read More
The Ethanol Enigma By David Morris April 25, 2002 Originally Published on Alternet Ethanol is the homegrown, renewable fuel both conservatives and liberals love to hate. They might change their minds if they better understood its remarkable history. Before the Civil War ethanol, derived from corn or molasses, was one of the nation’s best-selling chemicals. It … Read More
Fashioning Minnesota Energy Policy: The Legislature’s Role By David Morris February 7, 2002 Testimony before the Minnesota Senate Telecommunications, Energy and Utilities Committee On S.F. 2672 – Minnesota Economic, Environmental and Energy Security Act of 2002 My name is David Morris. I am Vice President of the Minneapolis-based Institute for Local Self-Reliance. I have worked on … Read More
This October 2001 paper by David Morris looks at how plant matter must be an important element in a sustainable economy because it is the only renewable resource from which we can fashion physical products. In the next few months and years we will be making decisions at the local, state, national and international level that will channel tens, perhaps hundreds of billions of dollars of money into certain areas and markets. We are changing the rules.
Themedia simply report on California’s shortfall of thousands of megawatts and limit the discussion to President Bush’s energy plan and Gov. Gray Davis’ plea for wholesale rate caps. They’re missing the real story. California may need thousands of megawatts of generating capacity in the long run, but the rolling blackouts hit only a few blocks at a time. This summers’ electricity crisis, therefore, isn’t going to be dealt with in Washington or even Sacramento, but at the local and neighborhood level.
Wedo need new energy supplies, although aggressive efficiency improvements could reduce the amount needed by half or more. What we don’t need is the kind of energy future championed by the Bush Administration. For theirs is a top down, centralized, undemocratic vision, one in which we would become even more dependent on remote energy sources and remote energy decision makers.… Read More
