There’s a piece in The Atlantic about the “my outrage is better than your outrage” or “my outrage is more legitimate than your outrage” challenge going around, and folks, get real, who cares?  People are posting outrage, and then getting worked up about challenges like “what about #(your favorite cause hashtag here)” and reacting defensively about challenges to their outrage de jour.  So what?  Why take objections personally?  Why object to a challenge, rather than think about it?  Why would you regard a challenge to your thoughts as a restriction to your speech?  It’s a conversation, and it’s a conversation that needs to be had.  It a trigger to thinking about whatever we’re ranting about.

Take a look at your expressions of outrage and see what’s there.  Take a look at those you know expressing outrage and see what’s there.  What’s the range of depth and breadth?  What is important to you and yours?

And of course, it’s not binary.  We can care about a lot of things, and can care about many things at the same time.  Just look at people’s many posts to see what they care about!  Multiple issue syndrome?  Ask anyone with ADHD!  Most of the people I know of who are outraged about Cecil are outraged about many, many things, and express that outrage regularly.

I’d guess the reason for someone objecting to the “what about #(your favorite cause hashtag here)?”  and reacting defensively is that those issues raised are ones they’d rather not think about.  Oh well…  Maybe it’s time to get started, continue, or choose otherwise, but there’s no need to get defensive or competitive.

If the issue you’re writing about, if the position you’re advocating, can’t take some challenge, what does that say about your advocacy?  If someone else thinks you should be pushing something else, well, what does it matter what someone else thinks?  Do they make a good point?  Raise an issue you need to consider?  Is it something you should care about?  Maybe it’s something you should at least think about, and it might be a good time to dive in, a time to do some self-examination!  And hey, that’s just their opinion, just like you have your opinion!  That’s what free speech is all about.  Well, partially, because free speech is accompanied by responsibility, an obligation to speak the truth, to care and investigate the truth about what you’re saying, to express opinions with some basis, and to not toss around slanderous nonsense — check things out before you go off on a rant — and if you screw up, correct it, LOUDLY and WIDELY!  That’s pretty basic.  Think!  Speak up!  Stand up! 

From Cecil the Lion to Climate Change: A Perfect Storm of Outrage Oneupmanship

Instead, the people who hadn’t jumped on the Cecil-outrage bandwagon jumped on the superiority-outrage bandwagon. It’s a bandwagon of outrage one-upmanship, and it’s just as rewarding as the original outrage bandwagon.

The bottom line in that piece:

Many people are drawn to defend nature and underdogs (even when they are apex predators) and to hate wealthy, lying, violent dentists. But even more than that they are drawn to feeling superior and appearing wise, and being validated accordingly.

Methinks there’s a little more to it than that.

Here’s the piece that woke me up to this “rightness” thing going around — AAARGH, it’s so all about MEEEE!  From Michelle Krabill, who on many points it seems I agree with, but on this, nope, no way, no how:

Dammit! I care more (about the right things) than you do!

From the start…

It seems lately I am not allowed to care about anything without someone saying I care about the wrong thing or that I must also make it clear that I care about something else more.

Not allowed?  This from a blogger?  Someone with a very public platform accessible to all?  Do tell, how is your speech limited, how are you “not allowed?”  OH PUH-LEEEEZE…  $50 says that she’s been challenged.  And what she’s doing here is just what she objects to!   She’s objecting to other people’s statements and lack of boundaries, and yet the headline is the words “I care MORE” and “about the RIGHT things” and “than YOU,” making a moral/ethical judgment about others, comparative and outward focused. That’s not something someone can claim in relation to others with any validity. We only know ourselves, what we care about… we control what we do, and have every right and obligation to say it, to act on our moral compass, and to stand up for our right to do it. That headline, though, is the type of statement she’s objecting to from others.

Just do your homework, write about it, agitate and advocate.

Yet Krabill does end on the important point, though with question marks rather than declaratory statements:

What if instead, we mourn every death? Celebrate every act of courage? Call out every injustice? Recognize every act of altruism? What if we actually believed that humanity’s best qualities could multiply with use and worst qualities would necessarily and absolutely atrophy in the presence of love?

What kind of world would that be?

A better one I think.

Yes, I’d guess it would be a better world, though I sure don’t buy into the passive notion that “humanity’s worst qualities would necessarily and absolutely atrophy in the presence of love.”  Each of us here needs to be an active participant in this thing we call life.  “Humanity’s worst qualities” won’t just go away, that we can see in what history we know of, it takes a lot of concerted effort to overcome the ugly side of humanity.   And that’s our job…

They published my LTE in the Alaska Highway News:

That’s the Coal Creek plant, a photo I took on a tour.  If you’re an electric co-op member in Minnesota (elsewhere too?), they offer tours regularly, and it’s something you should do!  Check your co-op’s newsletter for info.

State Register Notice:

MPCA_StateRegister_Pages from 40_05

Just released FEDERAL Clean Power Plan:

Clean Power Plan Final Rule (PDF)(1560 pp, 3.3 MB, About PDF) – August 2015

Look at how the “adjusted” Minnesota’s baseline levels due to Sherco 3 being out for nearly 2 years:

The EPA examined units nationwide with 2012 outages to determine where an individual unit-level outage might yield a significant difference in state goal computation. When applying this test to all of the units informing the computation of the BSER, emission performance rates, and statewide goals, the EPA determined that the only unit with a 2012 outage that 1) decreased its output relative to preceding and subsequent years by 75 percent or more (signifying an outage), and 2) could potentially impact the state’s goal as it constituted more than 10 percent of the state’s generation was the Sherburne County Unit 3 in Minnesota.  The EPA therefore adjusted this state’s baseline coal steam generation upwards to reflect a more representative year for the state in which this 900 MW unit operates.

Clean Power Plan Final Rule (PDF p. 796 of 1560).

And from the state, which acknowledges imminent release of FEDERAL Clean Power Plan Final Rule , also released today, just in from the MPCA (direct quote):

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) has issued a request for comments on possible rule amendments to bring Minnesota into compliance with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Clean Power Plan. You can read the full request in the August 3, 2015, edition of the State Register, available at www.comm.media.state.mn.us/bookstore/mnbookstore.asp?page=register.

The amendments we are considering will help Minnesota meet standards established by the Clean Power Plan, which sets state-specific carbon dioxide emission targets and requires each state to submit a plan detailing its strategy for meeting the targets. As of State Register press time, we have not yet started drafting a plan because the EPA has not yet published the standards that Minnesota’s plan will need to meet, so the MPCA requests public input to help guide our considerations of methods for meeting the EPA’s targets, as well as any other objectives that the state’s plan might include.

Stakeholder meeting agendas, notes, and other related documents are posted on the website for this rulemaking at www.pca.state.mn.us/w9y3awr.

To access information about a particular Minnesota rulemaking, visit the Public Rulemaking Docket.

Photos say it all…

Yes, it’s really this bad.  That’s the sun on a “clear” day.  Air quality is baddest of the bad, “Unhealthy” per the MPCA which isn’t exactly fond of negative declarations like that.  Got a 200 reading at St. Michael, that’s as high as the scale goes, so I’m sure that somewhere it’s off the charts.  It was 193 this afternoon in Prestigious East Phillips, and… well… note how few monitors there are around the state.  We don’t have one in Red Wing.  There probably isn’t one in yours either.

See “current conditions” here.

Keep in mind this is biomass we’re breathing, and the emissions from trees are pretty awful.  Ask Alan Muller about that.

This is the result of all the fires in Canada added to the baseline pollution of the ND and MN coal plants, the turkey shit burner in Benson, all the garbage burners around the state including here in Red Wing.  We have a microclimate here in the Mississippi River valley, but it’s not just here where it gathers, it’s bad everywhere, the whole state, well, almost.

Don’t deep breathe, don’t do any outside exertion, don’t breathe the air if you can help it.  If you’re like me, you’re probably hacking and wheezing a bit.

Oh… My… DOG!  Imagine Julie Jorgensen, Dennis Egan, and Mark Andrew, all for one, and one for all!  Where does the public fit in?

I love solar, but with these three, their track records, lobbying shenanigans, and their public project and public money magnetism, I’m going to take a very careful and skeptical look.

More solar could be coming

By Danielle Killey on Jun 28, 2015 at 1:00 p.m.

Red Wing could soon have many options for locals interested in solar power.

GreenMark Solar, a Minnesota-based solar energy company, announced Friday it has acquired land in Red Wing for solar garden projects.

The company, which is leasing property from area farmers, will work to have permits completed by the end of the year and plans to start construction next spring, said Dennis Egan, who has been assisting GreenMark.

“We’re looking at the configuration, but it potentially could be three separate sites,” Egan said, producing up to 15 megawatts of solar electricity combined.

Community solar gardens let local residents, businesses and other organizations purchase subscriptions. GreenMark’s projects would offer subscriptions to Xcel Energy customers.

“I am so pleased and proud to be working with GreenMark Solar to offer area businesses, institutions and residents the opportunity to purchase solar electricity at a discount without having to purchase solar panels to install on their own property,” Egan said.

GreenMark currently has a solar project under construction on top of parking ramps at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

“As a state pioneer in creating substantial solar expansion, GreenMark is enthused to be offering subscriptions to our solar gardens in Goodhue County and other counties surrounding Goodhue,” said Julie Jorgensen, GreenMark Solar CEO.

The announcement comes on the heels of another potential solar garden project; earlier this month, Red Wing City Council members directed staff to work with Minnesota Community Solar on a lease for a 1-megawatt garden on city-owned property at Highways 19 and 61.

Julie Jorgensen (Julie Jorgensen CV ) was a Chief co-conspirator in the Excelsior Energy Mesaba Project, thankfully now virtually defunct (discounting its zombie qualities.  For more information go to www.legalectric.org and search “Excelsior Energy” or “Mesaba Project” or “Julie Jorgensen” or “Tom Micheletti” or “boondoggle” or “coal gasification” or “carbon capture” or “sequestration” or “IRRRB” or just “IRR” or “Iron Range Resources” or “Renewable Development Fund” and of course go to the Citizens Against the Mesaba Project www.camp-site.info and settle in for a good read.  And from a little over a year ago — zillow.com says it sold, but who knows the real story:

And this on the money they sucked out of the IRRB… how much has been written off?  And then there’s the state’s “Renewable Development Fund”   Again! Legislative Auditor on IRRRB! April 19th, 2015

And Dennis Egan, he’s front man on solar projects HERE?  In Red Wing???  Well, for sure he’s no longer ED of Minnesota Industrial Sand Council (that’s a google cache, I got a 404, “the site is crashed and should be repaired.”  It might be different by the time you see this, I’ll check tomorrow).

And then there’s garbologist Mark Andrew, champion of the HERC garbage burner in downtown Minneapolis.

Here’s some info about his garbage burner:

The “Burner County” resource page–resources to better understand why Hennepin County owns, and Covanta operates, the “HERC” garbage incinerator in Downtown Minneapolis, MN

At a Mayoral debate, he did an inventive Al Gore:

That didn’t phase Andrew, who reiterated his intention to install solar panels on city, park and school buildings to “set an example” for Minneapolis businesses and residents. Describing his green accomplishments on the county board, he said was the “creator” of the Midtown Greenway transit corridor, a version of history that glosses over the contributions of citizen advocates, and that he “created” the city’s recycling program.

And Mpls. garbage divides mayoral hopefuls – MPR News.  Needless to say he didn’t get the job.

And now, these three are selling solar in the Red Wing area.  What are they cooking up?  Read the fine print very carefully, and keep all the public money tied down.