Author: Paul Deaton

Categories
Environment

Distributed Generation

Sunset
Sunset

LAKE MACBRIDE— Between now and Tuesday, the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) is accepting comments on distributed generation, or generating electricity closer to the point of use. This request for comments kicks off their first policy-making. It is common sense that if I can produce some of my own electricity at home, as a citizen, I should have the freedom to do so in compliance with regulations that may be promulgated by the IUB and our government. I made this comment:

NOI-2014-0001: Enable Distributed Generation to Advantage Citizens

Any rules regarding distributed electricity generation should enable individuals, property owners, and businesses to generate some or all of their own electricity and sell excess into the grid. Regulated utilities have made a substantial investment in infrastructure and contracts, and should receive reasonable consideration for them.

Why bother with taking action? Because it matters that we develop ways to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide being dumped into the atmosphere. Distributed generation is a way to take personal control of the decision of how we will generate electricity, and open possibilities to use solar collectors to take advantage of our most abundant energy resource. It’s time to put a price on carbon, and part of the price is taking personal action to mitigate the causes of global warming. Distributed generation is part of an approach to doing so.

Here is the full text of the IUB press release on distributed generation:

Iowa Utilities Board opens inquiry, seeks public comment on distributed generation in Iowa

DES MOINES– The Iowa Utilities Board has opened a notice of inquiry (NOI) proceeding to gather information related to policy and technical issues associated with distributed generation, which is an approach that employs various technologies for power generation closer to the point of consumption.

Information gathered by the inquiry will assist the Board in addressing the potential widespread use of distributed generation, related consumer protections, and interconnection and safety considerations. In its December 2, 2013, and December 16, 2013, Energy Efficiency Plan orders, the Board informed rate-regulated utilities and other relevant parties of its intent to conduct this NOI proceeding.

The Board is asking for comments or information relevant to this inquiry, is accepting responses to its questions related to distributed generation, and could seek additional responses to more specific questions and/or schedule a workshop(s) after all initial comments have been received. For more information, please see the Board’s Order Initiating Docket No. NOI-2014-0001.

The inquiry responses will provide information to the Board and other groups involved in energy, environmental, and economic policy for a more thorough understanding of the technical, financial, regulatory, safety, and policy aspects of distributed generation. In addition to Iowa utilities, the Board invites broad participation from other state agencies, local government and non-governmental organizations, environmental groups, renewable energy trade associations, industrials, and any others with an interest in these issues to contribute in this process.

Anyone may participate, and also respond to the questions posed in the Board’s written order, by submitting comments via its electronic filing system, https://efs.iowa.gov. Questions regarding this inquiry docket may be addressed to Brenda Biddle, Brenda.Biddle@iub.iowa.gov.

The Board is interested in hearing an extensive range of comments. Initial comments are sought by February 25, 2014. The Board has not previously conducted an inquiry related to distributed generation and has not taken any particular positions as it begins to gather information.

Categories
Home Life

In Between

Apple Trees in Winter
Apple Trees in Winter

LAKE MACBRIDE— Tomorrow I’m doing something for me. I’m taking a three hour course in pruning apple trees at the orchard where I worked last fall. The cost is $10, but what is best is the opportunity to learn from people who prune apple trees for a living. There is a lot else that needs doing tomorrow, but the pruning class takes precedence.

There is also more to tell, but that will be later.

Categories
Living in Society

Political Funnel Cake

Funnel Cake
Funnel Cake

LAKE MACBRIDE— The storm let up, the driveway was dug out, and the second session of the 85th Iowa General Assembly began to shape up during its annual funnel week. The funnel means most non-spending bills must be passed out of committee or they are dead for the year. It’s not a firm rule, but it has implications.

The session starts to take shape the way a funnel cake does at the Iowa State Fair. Political funnel cake is nowhere near as tasty, and be ready to apply lots of powdered sugar to sweeten the underlying bitterness of this airy confection.

Some impossible bills have come forward, like the ban on telemedicine abortions, and a bill introduced by a gunsmith allowing silencers. Such extreme measures are unlikely to make it through the bicameral legislature. Senator Joe Bolkcom of Iowa City withdrew his medical marijuana bill the same day he filed it when no bipartisan support could be found. He seems smarter than others.

Legislators are busy with committee work, attempting to advance their priorities. Any analysis of this session seems premature until we at least get past the funnel.

There is an election this year, and political fundraising has been a recent topic at the coffee shop. We receive countless requests for donations in the mail and via the Internet. Funds are limited this year, and people who ask personally or by telephone are more likely to receive financial help.

Thus far, the following five people have asked me personally for a campaign contribution: State Senator Bob Dvorsky, who has represented me for almost 20 years; county supervisor candidates Janelle Rettig and Mike Carberry; Congressman Dave Loebsack; and candidate for the first congressional district seat, Anesa Kajtazovic. These are all busy people, so if they can call, any candidate not in a state-wide race should be dialing for dollars.

Political coverage takes a lot of work if it’s done right, and my coverage is more on the spotty side. Writing about politics forces me to think about it, something any normal human avoids like the plague. Honestly, I’d rather be at the fair.

Categories
Writing

Beyond the Driveway

Beyond the Driveway
Beyond the Driveway

LAKE MACBRIDE— Falling snow whited out the world beyond our driveway. Isolated, it was hard to avoid wondering what was happening out there. The pipeline of data packets delivered to a screen beckoned us to leave our wonder, and engage with society beyond the driveway. At some point, I turned the computer off and set the mobile phone in another room.

Should a writer write what one knows, or what one wonders or imagines? And who is this writing to be about? If it is narcissistic preening, then why not take the whole endeavor off-line, get a paper journal, and write there— because who cares but the individual? Unless we write what we imagine society could be, and how we fit into the greater aspects of it, there is little reason to post on the Internet.

Apple Trees in a Winter Storm
Apple Trees in a Winter Storm

I believe food is a connection to the rest of society and that’s why I write about it. At once it encompasses personal experience, labor, production, the environment, soil quality, botany, chemistry, biology, consumerism, preservation and packaging, distribution, cooking and eating— the whole enchilada of sustaining a life. Since everyone has to eat, food culture has been and remains a fertile field for the imagination, and a practical way to connect with people. That said, why care about what I cooked in the kitchen last night? One needn’t.

If we develop a sustainable culture where we live, we will be better able to survive in a turbulent world. We would be less distracted by media and outside factors, and empowered to act with authority on what we know. One needs a cultural platform to serve as a fulcrum for change. If we don’t make one, social progress becomes difficult.

As the snowfall slowed and stopped, the sun came out. The new fallen snow resembled a blanket over life’s previous markings— a chance to start again. Soon, I’ll grab a shovel and dig a path out to the street and a society with which I was always connected, but from which I took a retreat to work toward sustaining a life on the Iowa prairie.

Categories
Home Life

On the Mend

Winter Storm
Winter Storm

LAKE MACBRIDE— It has been a day of staying busy indoors. The driveway is loaded with snow, and without any need to leave the property, we didn’t. Tomorrow is the big dig to get ready for work and a trip to the grocery store, but not today.

There was some kitchen work. I brought the last of the fall apples upstairs, setting aside some for baking, and made apple sauce of the rest. The Winecrisp and Gold Rush apples were past their prime, but stored well. I also made a pot of winter soup which is simmering as I type. The malady about which I wrote Saturday is on the mend. What I know is health care is about staying healthy, and I’m working on that.

The good news is I feel well enough to start reading again and picked out a book. By tomorrow I hope to be ready to wield a shovel and dig the way out to the road that leads to town.

Categories
Home Life

These Times

Pickles
Pickles

LAKE MACBRIDE— Newspaper writing and club demonstrations have taken a toll on everything else as I developed a process to incorporate new work and income into this life. Winter is a good time for it.

Seven adult deer were browsing in our yard. With a full girth, they appeared healthy, but were seeking food where there was none. One rose on its rear legs to nibble a pine tree. Others browsed the stubble that is the winter garden. One was favoring its right rear leg, limping along. A herd of scavengers.

The refrigerator light came on as I opened the door. It illuminated heads of cabbage, a drawer full of root vegetables, organic carrots and celery from California, and leftover soup and apple cider. The end of fresh food is near.

There are pickles. Beets, cucumbers, radishes, tomatoes, chard stems, sauerkraut… the makings of zakuski. All one needs is a bottle of vodka and friends stopping over. The former is more available than the latter, as in 21st century Iowa, unexpected guests are mostly youths seeking empty cans and bottles for their deposits, and strangers who want something. Such guests are seldom invited inside. Vodka acquired decades ago evaporates in unopened bottles.

It’s my weekend, with no paid work until Wednesday. It’s time to finish up winter work— taxes, garden planning, vehicle maintenance, house cleaning— and get ready for spring.

Categories
Home Life

A New Encampment

Apple Trees in Winter
Apple Trees in Winter

LAKE MACBRIDE— Exposure to society can bring sickness and disease. After living without significant illness, not even a cold since leaving my life in transportation, I’ve been waylaid by what I’ll call a “bug.” The last two nights found me sleeping under a dense array of blankets and afghans after work until morning, snoring profusely while letting the malady run its course.

In addition to the afghan treatment, I’ve been taking acetaminophen and Saint John’s Wort, the latter presented in a solution of vodka. One hopes the illness will have a short arc of persistence.

Two paychecks into my job as a part time supervisor for a company that does in-store product demonstrations at a warehouse club, it has been a struggle to arrange a process for living that will keep life moving forward. The new job is likely the source of the bug, as I have been exposed to countless people, some 1,500-2,000 per day, learning to supervise a diverse crew of folks demonstrating and selling retail products. I like the work, if not the bug. I wrap up my training this weekend, and will then have a more normal schedule— a new beginning.

As things sort out, 2014 has promise. Hope for financial viability, a hope to write more, with some of it paid. Moving into a new encampment— a staging area for the corps of discovery that is sustaining a life in a turbulent world.

Categories
Living in Society

The Band is Tuning Up

Capitol Dome
Capitol Dome

LAKE MACBRIDE— Grab your partner, the band is tuning up.

In Des Moines, the Iowa House passed two bills today. One favors the tobacco industry in it’s language for controlling e-cigarettes (HF 2109), and another prohibits termination of pregnancy using telecommunications technology (HF 2175). The former got more votes than the latter, although both were equally ill considered. We’ll learn who voted which way in the journal tomorrow, but the final votes were 72-22 for HF 2109 and 55-42 for HF 2175.

This curious explanatory language is part of HF 2175, “the inclusion of this explanation does not constitute agreement with the explanation’s substance by the members of the general assembly.” What the hell? If that’s the case, why not put in language like, “doctors will be smitten by god if they break this law?” Then they would really have something to write to constituents about in the weekly newsletter.

We are back to the good old days when the Republicans pass bills in the House because they can, messaging them exuberantly into the abyss also known as the Senate inbox. All that’s missing is anti-abortion activist Kim Pearson. I haven’t been following the Senate as closely but their six percent allowable growth proposal appears equally dead on arrival in the House. The only caveat here is the e-cigarette bill may have a chance in the Senate because of Democratic support in the House.

Let’s not forget the executive branch. Yesterday the state auditor reported the governor’s budget overspends state revenues by $144 million. Sounds like the governor is planning to pay for things using one-time money in the surplus, something he repeatedly criticized Chet Culver for doing as part of his 2010 campaign.

As a friend wrote this morning, “there is no budget surplus. We are underfunding nearly every category in the budget.” The legislature will have to work through this before leaving Des Moines for the midterm elections— or not. Well, who knows what they might do? There are good people in the Iowa legislature, but one wouldn’t know it by the work they produced this week. And, it’s only Tuesday.

Categories
Home Life

A Regular Winter

Iowa Winter
Iowa Winter

LAKE MACBRIDE— Iowa is having a regular winter. By that I mean the cold temperatures and snow resonate with winter memories from grade school. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, it was nothing to bundle up and walk to school in 20 below zero weather. It was accepted as another part of life in Iowa. Not so much any more.

With the advent of radio, television, the Internet and mobile phone mass messaging, information and opinions about the weather are easy to disseminate. Opinions, like a two hour school delay, or cancellation because of inclement weather, blast forth to citizens with a clear and present danger. Keep the kids safe, it’s too cold outside.

It’s hard to argue with taking precautions so children don’t get frostbitten toes and fingers. At the same time, I don’t believe my parents were any less concerned than today’s parents when they tied a scarf around my face so tightly that my neck got stiff, and sent me through the subzero weather for a several blocks walk to school. Something else has changed.

Tempted to insert comments about the nanny state that regulates behavior so as to mitigate liability should some child be hurt in the cold, that’s not where I’m going. School administrators have a job to do, and one hopes they are doing the best they can.

This cold weather is clear evidence of the effects of global warming, just as the weird winters of recent memory, early springs and droughts have been. Not going there either, although there’s a lot I could say.

On this 14 below zero morning, I’m remembering my college anthropology teacher June Helm, and her lectures about working with indigenous people in the Northwest Territories. How people lived in a climate we recognized, but seemed so different.

They made lives grounded in their environment, and what was available. It was something hard to emulate then, when we were used to availability of a wide variety of goods at the end of nascent global supply chains. Our lives seemed so abundant and protected compared to what we now call the First Nations Helm discussed. Their lives were spare, different, diverse, and resilient. That seems relevant.

The anthropology department at the University of Iowa was just getting started when I was in college. I was an undisciplined student who received a low grade. Nonetheless, I learned we needn’t distance ourselves from the shivering cold, but can embrace it. We can make a life in it. Importantly, if within a circle of family and friends, we are unaware of what others take for granted, and separate from mass culture, it’s okay to build on that.

This knowledge doesn’t make the cold less bitter. It does help one cope, and that is something brilliant on another cold night before sunrise in Iowa.

Categories
Writing

A Byline

First Byline
First Byline

NORTH LIBERTY— On the front page, below the fold, is my first article written for a newspaper— The North Liberty Leader. I have two beats, the Iowa City Community School District Board of Directors, and the Solon City Council. We’ll see how it goes, but the work has been a plus.

Most importantly, I now have an editor who reads what I write and provides feedback. Every writer needs that, although in the era of social media and blogs, few have it. In my evolution as a writer— from high school work in the 1960s, to fledgling efforts in the 1970s, to graduate school, and through today, my writing has gotten better. Now there is a structure for improvement and I like it… a lot.

While life will continue to be busy as a low wage worker, at least part of my time is compensated for doing what I love. That is like Thanksgiving in February.