How would you react if you turned on the news on Tuesday morning to only find out your house and entire neighborhood had been condemned under the state’s quick take eminent domain law, for a large renewable energy project by a private developer?
The state would compensate you for fair market value and moving expenses but you would have to moved out of your home within 30 days. By filing a quick take deed with the county clerk, the state had already taken title to your property, your only choice is to take the check the government is sending you or sue in the court of claims for additional compensation based on what you believe the fair market value is to be.
In theory, homeowners and other property owners could band together and sue the state under Article 78 arguing that the project was arbitrary and capricious under the law but you could not challenge the individual eminent domain as quick take can not challenged in court. But even there, everything was stacked up against you as the state had decided building renewable energy projects was their priority, and the state with its millions in resources had no interest in defending homeowners and farms against big solar.
Solar and wind energy in many ways is the next interstate highway system. The climate crisis is already unlocking the next generation of Robert Moses and the master builders. The solar or wind farm must be built, the hell with the environment or community. A crisis affords no time to consider such impacts, the outcome has been predetermined by government officials. The bulldozers must come, the cement laid, steel I beams set and the thousand of acres of silicon and glass panels set into place.
I have a friend who visited a CalTrans office during the 1960s, and said the experience was like visiting a war room filled with enormous maps that filled the walls detailing the planned superhighways. The walls were certainly backed by stacks of files that contained detail survey data and rooms of super computers and reels of magnetic tape that would be used to crank out letters and prefilled out checks to owners of condemned property for compensation without much human intervention. Cold hard, statistics and FHWA regulations basically predetermined the route after all.
With massive government subsidies and the climate crisis the renewable energy projects must go ahead without question or significant evaluation of environmental impacts. The future has been predetermined by the planners, there is no turning back, we are told. Historic buildings must be hauled off to the landfills, forests stripped of their timber, farm fields stripped of their soils and concreted, open space industrialized. There are good union jobs, tax revenue, campaign contributions and patronage jobs after all to fill.
At least I’m glad to hear that local governments are asking solar developers about decommissioning plans, requiring some kind of bonding and calculations on landfill space to dispose of the panels when their time is done, not imagine they will be recycled into pixie dust. But no time to focus on that, the tax revenue and campaign contributions are more important than community character in a fucking climate crisis.
While I’m sure it won’t be popular, I sure hope people do rise up and ask before it’s to late:
At least it’s not snowing today, and the sky is quite blue. But tomorrow afternoon the snow returns into Friday. I normally go shopping on Thursday at lunch time, so I don’t know how that will work out. I still need to get down to the library to get the two other books I have on reserve before the reservations expire. 
Usually that’s pretty good and easy with a well greased cast iron skillet and it only requires and egg or two. 
Wild blueberries, maple syrup and butter make pretty good French toast and I should have a ton of energy from all that sugar, until I start to crash mid-day. Well then I can go to the freezer and chomp on the remaining blueberries.
and I think I’ll definately want to bundle up for my morning walk in about 15 minutes. The sun is nice but the wind looks nippy. 
It will be fine when I’m moving and the sun will help. No excuse to miss my walk today. 
With only one regular scheduled walk so far since Sunday, I’ve been incredibly lazy, although in the day time I’ve been doing laps up and down the stairs in my apartment, when my neighbor is gone, to burn off some calories and energy. Yesterday, I also did a lot of shoveling of the driveway.
I think they are going to do a take out dinner in April, which I will probably participate in. By then I may be working downtown, 
although I kind of have my doubts. 
It seems like things are going pretty slow at this point with vaccinations, and I don’t think it will be an option for most people until summer or later. Maybe remote work will mean I can work from the Adirondacks or Green Mountains for part of this summer again.
as I am starting to run low on groceries a bit. The big thing I want to also get is bed sheets, as my bottom bed sheet has worn out 
and while I rotated it, I’ve been putting off washing them and they are getting a bit dirty. They are 12 or 13 years old now. I have those flannel sheets, but I’m not sure where they are in the attic. Thursday might be bad with snow coming but that’s when I normally like to shop — followed by WiFi time at the library. 
The thing is I’m running out of room in the outside trash cans with all the recycables being stuffed out there — especially all the paper now that they don’t have the free paper recycling anymore. Almost time for the big trip to the transfer station — but I like to do that come March year, kind of a spring cleaning. Return all the accumulated bottles and cans. Maybe if I clean out my truck, then I can start loading up the truck for that big run. 
As before you know it will be camping time, and I should clean the truck up for that.
