THE ANDERSON FILES LETTERS

meet climate targets. In spite of that, Wang notes, the version of BPRA that ultimate passed “requires the NYPA to consult stakeholders like unions, community organizations, and climate and resiliency experts in a strategic planning process to determine where, when and how it builds new renewables, which it will then formalize into official plans.” Public hearings and public comment periods are required for each plan.

The victory was the result of a fouryear battle by a coalition called Public Power NY. It began in 2019 with a campaign organized by the ecosocialist working group of the NYC Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) against a rate hike request by the private utility ConEd.

Ashley Dawson reports in The Nation that the coalition’s research into ConEd revealed a history of corruption and irresponsibility. ConEd was making a billion dollars per year in profits, charging the second-highest residential rates of any major utility in the nation.

“ConEd had received $350 million earlier in the decade to upgrade New York City’s ‘relay protection systems’ — networks of circuit breakers that contain electrical problems before they cause full-blown blackouts,” Dawson writes. “They failed to make these upgrades.” Then, in the summer of 2019, the city was hit with a series of blackouts and shutoffs. The chickens had come home to roost.

Dawson says the NYC DSA coalition succeeded against a powerful “toxic alliance of private energy companies, lobbyists, fossil fuel interests and machine politics.”

They fought establishment Democrats — the governor and leadership — as well as Republicans. Governor Hochul tried to water down BPRA.

“Elements from the original BPRA proposal rescued in negotiations include labor protections written by New York’s AFL-CIO that preserve existing collective bargaining agreements for NYPA workers, and prevailing wage provisions for all projects that apply to contractors and subcontractors,” Kate Arnoff reports in The New Republic. “Under the bill, as well, NYPA will dispense $25 million to the Department of Labor for training programs for the renewable energy workforce via a newly established Office of Just Transition.”

The coalition made public power an election issue. “DSA in particular led the charge to primary Democrats over their positions on it,” Arnoff writes. Activists also enlisted national elected officials — like DSA members Jamaal Bowman and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — to pressure Hochul and others.

Arnoff says the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed by the U.S. Congress was also a “key factor” in BPRA’s victory: “Thanks to the IRA’s changes in how investment and production tax credits are structured, NYPA and other public power providers can now take advantage of expanded incentives for wind and solar development.”

Hopefully New York can be a model for other states.

This opinion does not necessarily reflect the views of Boulder Weekly.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The news story “Turf war,” published on July 13, included an inaccurate account of lethal prairie dog mitigation allegedly used by Boulder County. A quote suggested that ongoing efforts to control the spread of prairie dog colonies included poisoning via pellets, a method the county hasn’t used in more than a decade. The online version of the story has been updated to reflect this.

RE: ‘TURF WAR’

Deanna Meyer of Prairie Protection Colorado used the term “war on wildlife” referring to Boulder County Parks & Open Space and its actions toward prairie dogs (News, “Turf war,” July 13, 2023). “War on wildlife” is not hyperbole, and goes well beyond prairie dogs. The starkest examples regarding what I choose to call “free-living” or “free-roaming” animals are hunting, fishing and trapping, whose legality and euphemism as “sport” is unconscionable — an atrocity — clearly a war on innocent, living, feeling individuals.

Regardless of what words one uses to describe it, the human species has perpetuated a war — exploiting, harming and killing — on virtually all other-thanhuman animals, be it for food, clothing, experimentation, “entertainment” and in virtually any area of life.

The root cause of this issue may be best termed “speciesism,” which Joan Dunayer (author of the books Speciesism and Animal Equality: Language and Liberation) defines as “a failure, on the basis of species membership or species-typical characteristics, to accord any sentient being equal consideration and respect.”

Our attitudes and actions toward nonhuman animals, who are legally defined as property with no legal rights, clearly exemplifies speciesism.

May we, individually and collectively, look deeply into our hearts, consider all the living entities with whom we share the Earth, and make choices that cause the least harm to any individual, nonhuman or human. Only then will we move toward a kinder, gentler, more just world for All.

— Mark Wiesenfeld / Boulder

RE: ‘HEARING HISTORY’ — CHAUTAUQUA’S 125TH BIRTHDAY

Growing up, I lived just a few blocks from Chautauqua. Going to the movies there in the ’60s were some of the highlights of my childhood. The concessionaire sold little bags of popcorn for 10 cents. I believe the movies were 50 cents and they were always family friendly — there were a lot of Doris Day movies, and Disney movies like Pollyanna, The Absent Minded Professor or Son of Flubber Nights were cool; occasionally a skunk would wander down the aisles or under the seats and a few bats would flutter under the lights. My favorite memory was one night when Paint Your Wagon was playing. There was a scene in the movie with a busty “woman of the night.” A man jumped up, yelling it was filth and we should all be ashamed of ourselves as he dragged his little boy out of the auditorium. The man had his hand over his child’s eyes while he himself couldn’t take his eyes off the screen. Movie nights at Chautauqua were wonderful!

— Lise Cordsen / Boulder