Energy "Meeting"—Part Deux

Aright, as S. already mentioned, this "meeting" was treated as more of a presentation than a true meeting. It started several minutes late, and ran considerably beyond the times stated on the agenda. (The agenda, I point out, also had almost half of the speakers' email addresses listed incorrectly.) I truly did not get very much out of the meeting (and halfway through I zoned out so badly that I honestly have little to no memory of an entire 15 minutes of one of the speaker's presentations: my apologies dude, but you were not destined to be a great public speaker...) I did, however, jot down some notes (in the interest of keeping myself, well, interested), which I will share. These notes are not particularly useful to anyone, necessarily, but I found them worth jotting.

Jim Boone (staff counsel of the Public Service Commission—he's the guy that came back, with back-up of Phil Vandeerheyden—Assistant Director of Economics and Policy Analysis of the Md Public Service Commission) was the first to speak. He mostly just restated the stuff he said last time, before turning it over to Phil Vandeerheyden, who didn't have anything terribly new to say either, but did go into a little more detail. I consider the highlight of their presentation the part where an audience member walked out in disgust after not getting his question answered.

I learned about the Maryland Office of the People's Counsel from the second speaker, Paula Carmody (People's Counsel.) You can read more about what they do on their website, but, as a start, they will help people who have complaints against their utility services (gas, electric, phone, water), which is nice to know. Quick note here: I consider this to be the only useful information that I got from this meeting.

Izzy Patoka, Executive Director of Community Initiatives spoke about what the aforementioned office does. I'm really not sure why he was there...

Next up to speak was Senator Rob Garagiola, (who lives in Germantown, although I'm not sure why he mentioned that...) His district covers from Bethesda up to the Frederick County line (he was also, according to Rona Kramer's representative, "Kristen"—who was very quiet, did not introduce herself, and sat in the back— late due to traffic. I'll bet. That's a long way to drive.) He also, apparently, serves on the Senate finance committee, and the only earthly reason I can see for his being at this meeting was his involvement with a bill (Senate Bill 595) that apparently requires the energy companies to purchase a certain percentage solar (umm...wouldn't that be MORE expensive for consumers?). That doesn't really explain why he was there, but there is an energy connection, at least. He was very pro-solar. Oh, and his favorite word is, apparently, incentivize (can also be used--and was--in the form: incentivizing). Now that's a doozie.

The next speaker was Chris Rice, Program Manager for a bunch of things for the MEA, including biomass, and transportation. He actually (and public speaking by the way is not this guy's strength...) contradicted what several other speakers had stated. You see, several people said that by decreasing our energy consumption, we would effectively "force" energy companies to lower their rates. What Chris Rice said actually rang a little more true. He said that while that might lower YOUR bill, he can't really see that it would have the effect of actually lowering cost. He also mentioned that he was sorry the Senator had to leave (he had "another thing" to get to, and rushed off—after taking up quite a bit of meeting time...so he can't have been in too much of a rush...) and proceeded to say nothing but good things about the Senator's energy initiatives. He talked about liquid fuel and transportation (What happened to electricity? Where did cars come into this? Is Citizens Involved trying to take on gas pricing now?) and the need to improve distribution infrastructure. Right. (By this point in the meeting about half of the audience had either left or keeled over) Oh, and he mentioned "cellulosic ethanol" research (that is, research on how much wood waste, etc Maryland has available to turn into ethanol...it seems they're formulating a report of available resources). It gets better, though. Apparently the technology to do that isn't really available yet... but by george, when it is, Maryland will be ready! (My apologies...my notes started getting a little bit sketchy by this point in the meeting...)

Next, Susan Kirby from Montgomery County's Department of Environmental Protection came up to speak to us about "Clean Energy Rewards" which, quite frankly, I wasn't terribly interested in. At least she was a fairly good public speaker and woke me back up. I actually don't seem to have many notes on her presentation, although there was a Price Comparison Worksheet that I picked up. I also recall she explained how Renewable Energy Certificates work by saying that they are like buying a stock or buying into a company.

Ummm, what else? Well, the woman from the Solar energy company (Capital Sun Group) came back to speak and told us how the company offers assessments for $200 a pop (less if you talk your neighbors into getting one, too.) And we finished up with a couple of questions, that I actually don't really remember. We didn't stay through all of the questions and frankly, I think it shows incredible perseverance that we made it through all of the speakers.

In summary, those are 2 hours of my life that I will never get back. I kind of wish we had gone to the (open to the public) East County Citizens Advisory board meeting (held at the same time...which of course I didn't know until the next day...) instead. At least they encourage questions and comments, unlike some "meetings."

Citizens UNinvolved

As promised my guest blogger, sparow, and I went to the Citizens Involved meeting Wednesday. And, just as I had thought this meeting was utterly pointless. Somehow more pointless than the first meeting we attended. Ms. York was very happy to trot out her little guest speakers. The same guy from the Public Service Commission came back for what I'm sure he thought would be another round of bashing—this time with back up however. It should be noted that one person in attendance attempted to ask a question of the speaker from the PSC. However, no sooner had the gentleman opened his mouth than he was rudely interrupted by Ms. York who stated that all questions will he held till after the speakers had finished. This man then walked out of the meeting in disgust. Ms. York: would you kindly inform me and the readers of this blog how in the hell you expect any citizen to be involved if you do not allow them to question your speakers?

Again, Ms York proved her inability to run a meeting when, instead of informing speakers that they had exceeded the time provided them, she allowed them to go on with their spiels while sitting back and beaming at them like a proud little puppy. (Jesus woman you drafted the damned agenda!) Oh yes and these speakers....why was a State rep that DOES NOT REPRESENT THIS DISTRICT even invited?? Much less allowed to droll on about how great he is for 45 minutes? Ms York was very proud of him though. She was quite the proud little puppy.

In closing, I can only determine that this Citizens Involved group is utterly pointless and will accomplish nothing. This really is too bad as they could be very helpful to East County. They will not be though...at least not with Ms. York at the helm.

With that I turn this post over to my guest blogger , SPAROW for her insight.

Yelling and Screaming and Rate Hikes....OH MY!!

Last night I decided to attend a meeting of a citizens group called Citizens Involved. Have served for three terms on the City of Takoma Park Public Safety Citizens Advisory Committee and one of the founders of the same city's Emergency Preparedness Committee, I was very pleased to hear that this Citizens Involved group was around. In fact, my first impression of them from (credit where it's due and all) Just Up the Pike, led me to believe that these people wanted to change things in the East County area. Hell, I thought they may even like to know my experiences as an appointed member to a public committee that attempted to do what they (so I thought) wished to do. Much to my unpleasant surprise, the meeting last night left me with a bad taste. First, the organizer of this Citizens Involved wished to discuss the BGE rate hike. To facilitate this, she invited some member of the Maryland Public Service Commission, BGE folks, and a host of other peddlers of green energy (it should be noted that the person presenting on solar power was, I'm pretty sure, under the influence of some controlled substance. I hope so at least.) The poor guy from the State got slammed hard by the geriatric residents, as well he should but this was not HIS PERSONAL fault. Ms. York utterly failed to follow her own agenda which itself turned a meeting that may have had some decent outcome into little more than her own infomercial spot. Tempers ran so hot that I was concerned the meeting would end in fisticuffs.

What is the point of this organization? What are they trying to accomplish? No one was invited (or at least showed up) that could do anything to address the concerns of those gathered. Not one elected official. I'm glad to know that Ms. York is so fond of green power. Perhaps she should start a Citizens for Green Power group or at least re-name Citizens Involved because they certainly aren't involved in much more than bitching and moaning. I am going to email Ms. York asking that MY concerns be added to the next meeting agenda. I highly doubt they will be as I'm sure she is already preparing next month's line up.

In short, Citizens Involved is little more than a forum Ms. York uses to show off her own ideas, or leanings. (i.e., the green energy and wholesale power peddlers) She does not bother to invite people that may help or for that matter care. This, coupled with Ms. York's total inability to lead a school of goldfish much less a meeting, left me with the overwhelming feeling that, like the Briggs-Chaney Interchange, Citizens Involved is a disorganized Cluster Fuck.
I'll be at the next meeting. Mainly to see if my concerns are on the agenda. Hell, I may start my own citizens' group.
Stay tuned (those few people that read this) for updates and Ms. York's response to my email.