Nevada City Advocate - A free news & entertainment Newspaper Serving Nevada City & Greater Nevada County: Nevada City non-profit seeks energy questions for candidates

Nevada City non-profit seeks energy questions for candidates
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Tom Grundy on Mar 09 08:14am
 
These days, we're all becoming aware that there are multiple ways to vote.
You can vote with your pocketbook (even if your name ends with “Inc.”). You
can vote with your fork, three times a day. This June, in addition to various
primaries and county elections, we will hold elections for two City Council
seats here in Nevada City.
It's also becoming clearer that our elected officials have the power to
determine our energy future. Just a few of the thousands of energy programs put
into motion by our elected officials are: cash-for-clunkers; nuclear loan
guarantees; ethanol production mandates; renewable portfolio standards;
continuing oil subsidies in the form of billions in depletion allowances. The
list goes on.
There are plenty of examples at the local level as well: local implementation
of AB811, which allows for property-tax-assessed efficiency and renewable-energy
projects (including Placer County's recently enacted version); the
no-holds-barred fight to enact or suspend or repeal AB32 (California's Global
Warming Solutions Act of 2006); city-scale energy projects that are up and
running.
You get the picture: the elected officials we choose today are affecting our
energy future for decades to come.
As a registered 501c3 nonprofit, APPLE-NC (Alliance for a Post-Petroleum Local
Economy of Nevada County) does not campaign for or against any specific ballot
measures, initiatives, or candidates: APPLE is accountable to taxpayers of all
political tendencies.
But a few years ago, we received a very good piece of advice: we cannot pass up
the opportunity to help educate voters on the questions that are important to
us.
So beginning in 2008, we assembled a set of energy-related questions for local
candidates. The candidates responded and various media outlets offered to
publish their responses. We've posted the questions and responses for the
November 2008 elections online at apple-nc.org under the Projects menu.
Now, we're asking for your input and feedback to help determine our local
energy future: what energy-related questions would you like to hear your local
candidates respond to?
We'd like to send the questions to candidates with plenty of lead time, so we
will finalize the list of questions by early April. There will probably only be
space for eight to 10 questions for the candidates – but we will try to post
all your questions online.
Take control of your own energy future!  Send your energy questions today!
Tom Grundy is the author of Energy Matters and the president of Alliance for a
Post-Petroleum Local Economy of Nevada County. He can be reached at
tom@apple-nc.org.