[Mpls] Council races - who, and why?

[Dyna]

>"Peak Oil" and "Peak Natural Gas" are like sustainability with 
>teeth.  Mom Nature is about to bite us in the butt pretty hard. 
>We've made about 60 years of serious mistakes regarding energy.  All 
>of these mistakes are going to create an environmental crisis.  Too 
>late to say "I wish we'd listened to Jimmy Carter" and so now we are 
>painted into a tight corner.  The solutions will largely be local 
>and community-based.

	Agreed... Unfortunately our incumbent mayor seems to be 
waiting for the gas pumps to run dry before considering any action. 
In contrast Peter McLaughlin has been bringing us sustainable 
transportation for the over a decade he has served on the Hennepin 
County board. Long before we heard of "E85", over a decade ago, under 
Peter's leadership Hennepin County trucks were testbeds for ethanol. 
As chair of the Regional Railroad Authority Peter helped preserve 
rail right of ways for future use, saving them from greedy land 
speculators. Peter tirelessly fought for our roaringly successful 
light rail line, and the network of transit corridors he has 
assembled will provide us with sustainable transportation for decades 
to come. And thanks to Peter's persistence Hennipen County has built 
an energy efficient new public works building largely from recycled 
materials, and many of the trucks based their run on 20% biodiesel 
fuel. Meanwhile Minneapolis city workers tool around in the same old 
gas guzzlers, while R.T. maintains a green image with a Prius hybrid 
paid for by us taxpayers. Given his forgetfulness in securing said 
vehicle, it might be wiser to give R.T. a Metro Transit pass so he 
can enjoy the Light Rail line Peter brought us.

>The working poor in Minneapolis will suffer disproportionately, but 
>they are kept busy struggling to survive and will be the last to 
>know when the energy bills and food bills double in the next few 
>months.  then how will they continue to make rent or mortgage 
>payments that are already a stretch?

	Agreed- thanks to the Cold Weather Rule most of us will have 
warm homes this winter. But many non profits and small businesses 
exempt from the rule will be forced out of business by soaring gas 
bills this winter. the real crunch comes next spring when many 
homeowners and landlords will have to mortgage their properties to 
pay gas bills or abandon them.

>We need to develop an energy budget based on how much energy we can 
>sustainably havest through wind and solar in our bioregion, and then 
>make this project the economic driver for Minneapolis.

	Agreed. Peter McLaughlin at mid career has already given us a 
legacy of sustainable transportation and development while R.T. has 
left us... a worn out Prius. So the choice is simple- we need to give 
Peter McLaughlin the mayorship, and R.T. the Prius as part of his 
severance package before it needs a $5000 computer, motor, battery, 
etc....

	hangin' in Hawthorne,

		Dyna Sluyter