State fair time. The much to short cut off jeans on people who don't have the figure for it and snot nosed crying worn out kids are about to make their annual migration throw and puke junk food off the ferris wheel, in the wind.
This year I will work a couple of days in a booth that promotes wind energy, water and energy conservation. Not really a bunch of hippies, it includes a group of land owners, lots of county officials, power transmission line builders and operators, manufactures, trucking companies, and lots of people who want to see oil and coal pollution reduced and energy rates stabilized and lowered. Only wind and solar can do that, with their long term flat contracts while oil and coal change daily. Year after year the rates for new installations come in lower and competitive. Sustainable energy sources are the fastest growing sector of the economy.
I don't know the ground rules yet for the booth, probably can't say environment or global warming, that is the way to lose your audience here, most likely we will talk about the money it saves consumers and the money it makes all those companies and counties and land owners. Hey it works, you have to do what works.
Darrel,
ReplyDeleteI love your zeal but I fear you are attacking windmills like that Don Quiote dude...
Ron
No Sarge, we are not tilting at windmills we are combating the Kocks and others who hate them for becoming competitive and for threatening a few percent of the profits of their industry. It's all wordsmithing, not spinning, smithing. You hunt for the story and words that work, personalize the effort and make sure you have the facts, with the correct approach you gain partial acceptance now, greater acceptance later to win. You can see it already, there are people now who say "OK there might be global warming but man didn't cause it"....... in that statement there is acceptance that wasn't there a couple years ago, the early skirmish is over, on to the next step, they now have doubts and concerns, easier to work on. Money is the easiest way to change minds who will not hear science, electric bills go up, never down, fossil fuel prices change all the time, wind contracts are flat for years, and new wind farms are lower than coal, right their you got them, they can't do anything but bitch about government subsidies to wind, guess what coal and wind live on, 90% higher subsides than wind and solar. Choose the right words, include facts, win one lose two, keep going, talk about money and jobs, pick up another win, this is the good fight, worth losing often for the few wins and in the end it will prevail, economics are on our side, I met a guy yesterday in a parking lot getting out of a new Prius. "HOw do you like it?" I ask. He said he owns 4, he has a business, 3 work for him and they each drive a Prius. All 4 drive like 3000 miles a month, at 54mpg he said they save over $300 a month each on gas over other cars. These things make me money, the savings almost makes the car payment. See, thats what the Kochs are eventually up against, smart people finding out clean energy products and generation make the nation money. A tipping point is coming, one day it will just sweep in. I'll take a little credit for it when it does.
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