Open Question About Matt Brown's Op-Ed Today
Matt Brown, the Independent candidate for Governor made an interesting play today. Rather than weigh in on the dominant issue of the day -- UHIP, the the state government's favorite 500 million technical glitch. Instead of commenting on what is by every estimation an issue of the utmost interest in the 2018 Governor's race took an opportunity to write about the proposed natural gas plant in Burrillville. I don't want to diminish the Invenergy issue, but the timing was strange to to us here at Reframous.com.
While it is really mild by RI political standards Brown, notably, started making his case against Gov Raimondo in his op-ed for the first time:
"Since August 2015, when Gov. Gina Raimondo stood beside Invenergy CEO Michael Polski and announced her support for the plant, it has been sold to Rhode Islanders as necessary to avoid electricity shortfalls in the coming years. That myth was laid to rest last year, when ISO-NE, our regional grid operator, determined there was no foreseeable need for the plant’s power."
The Cynic says that this is just a simple coalition play. There are a group of voters that are highly motivated by this issue, Matt Brown is trying to make a clear distinction to those voters between himself. That's fine as far as political strategy goes but the timing seemed way off.
Let me offer a reframe:
There are many "easy" environmental reasons to be against any specific energy project. Brown could have stopped at opposing the plant whereas the Governor supported it, but Brown went in a very different direction than that. What is more interesting to me is this line:
"I also believe Rhode Islanders should have a financial stake in this new energy system so they can benefit from the profits of our shared natural resources. Under my plan, Rhode Islanders would receive dividend checks every year from the profits generated by the energy system, just as all residents of Alaska do."
Finding a way to make all of our natural resources a public good and source of income to the whole population, rich and poor is a much bigger suggestion than some simple political positioning. We don't yet know if he has any in-depth plans to make this happen, or how to put the genie back in the bottle of private companies already occupying this space. We at Reframous.com applaud the desire to have a big thought, but think this idea deserves much greater scrutiny.
While it is really mild by RI political standards Brown, notably, started making his case against Gov Raimondo in his op-ed for the first time:
"Since August 2015, when Gov. Gina Raimondo stood beside Invenergy CEO Michael Polski and announced her support for the plant, it has been sold to Rhode Islanders as necessary to avoid electricity shortfalls in the coming years. That myth was laid to rest last year, when ISO-NE, our regional grid operator, determined there was no foreseeable need for the plant’s power."
The Cynic says that this is just a simple coalition play. There are a group of voters that are highly motivated by this issue, Matt Brown is trying to make a clear distinction to those voters between himself. That's fine as far as political strategy goes but the timing seemed way off.
Let me offer a reframe:
There are many "easy" environmental reasons to be against any specific energy project. Brown could have stopped at opposing the plant whereas the Governor supported it, but Brown went in a very different direction than that. What is more interesting to me is this line:
"I also believe Rhode Islanders should have a financial stake in this new energy system so they can benefit from the profits of our shared natural resources. Under my plan, Rhode Islanders would receive dividend checks every year from the profits generated by the energy system, just as all residents of Alaska do."
Finding a way to make all of our natural resources a public good and source of income to the whole population, rich and poor is a much bigger suggestion than some simple political positioning. We don't yet know if he has any in-depth plans to make this happen, or how to put the genie back in the bottle of private companies already occupying this space. We at Reframous.com applaud the desire to have a big thought, but think this idea deserves much greater scrutiny.
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