George Rebane
Our local response to the Obama stimulus package paints a picture of the new national stupidity that will be repeated in thousands of communities. When the government dangles cash in any form (subsidies, stimulus, rebates, …) to push us in the direction they want, it always turns out not quite as the political blowhards described it in front of a microphone.
Nevada County’s illumination of this boondangle happened this morning at the Economic Resource Council board meeting. My good friend and frère de plume Russ Steele of NC Media Watch fame attended that meeting, and reported to me the relevant goings on in an email from which I will quote –
It appears the Executive Committee (of the ERC) put the current Economic Master Plan in the circular file. It has to be redone with just a goal and related tasks, more of a work plan with costs assigned to them, not a comprehensive plan as requested by the BOS. I guess the BOS person on the Exec Committee concurred. No vision for what we could be in ten years and the steps necessary to get there. Rather focus on more tangible small tasks, with a yearly time line. No vision, no rainbow and no pot of gold. Just more digging in the garden with a bent hoe, looking for the magic wand that a princess dropped long ago.
The ERC has formed a biomass energy task force. Why, because we have lots of biomass in the county, others are doing it, and there is stimulus money for it. Given the past biomass failures in the Sierra, I have my doubts this one will succeed. Biomass energy has to be reliable and sustainable, and we will have a hard time extracting it in the winter. Has anyone noted that Robinson parks his equipment in the winter. I can think of other places to spend time and energy on economic development.
That the BoS would go along with such a change surprises me. I like our Supes and this doesn’t tie with my image of their past workings. I hope that a Supe will shed some light here.
My response to Russ was perhaps a bit crude, but it did capture faithfully the sentiment of the moment. I include it with attendant apologies to the more sensitive readers.
Totally agree. No cohesive vision of the future, just reactionary scrabbling, because that is all that’s required to get the dangled carrot. Now multiply this by several hundred billion dollars across the country, and it gives a whole new meaning to ‘pissing it away’ – and only the govt can come up with this kind of crap. I wish we could use some of the BS that’s floating around here for the biomass project, it’s a year-round commodity.
rebanesruminations.com 
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