Survival, post-CPS

Okay, we sound our guns this week on CPS’s absurd plan for nuclear expansion to the detriment of sustainable development. I, for one, would be more encouraged about finding our way forward without CPS if there had of been more than three of us to greet Greg Pahl when he came to the San Antonio library earlier this month.
Thankfully, the revolution this former U.S. American Military Intelligence officer came to support had nothing to do with do with Hugo Chavez or South American coca. Instead, Pahl brought invigorating examples of communities across the country creating their own energy solutions, what Pahl has termed “community-supported energy.”
Examples included: Hyper-efficient, “co-housing” community outside Ashville, North Carolina; a middle school solar project that inspired solar across Crested Butte; one co-op’s divestment from nuclear and expansion into the renewables market; and an Alaska resort that has made geothermal even more affordable now one step closer to total self-sufficiency.
While the number of listeners at one point approached a strong dozen (thanks to the library serf who circulated floor by floor to let the page-turners know he was in the house!), some of us have seen exponential growth happen in similar movements before. Get his Citizen-Powered Energy Handbook and join the struggle to protect and strengthen our communities — with or without CPS.
Then again, if we all lean enough (this is supposed to be representative government, after all) perhaps CPS can be righted. Get inspired about what a city-owned utility could be: read Silver in the Mine.