Guest MINDSETTER™ Roselli: Why We Need a Culture of No!
Thursday, May 31, 2018
Trying to prove and/or explain the vitiation of Rhode Island’s ‘culture of NO’ combines fractured reductionism marred with a fair amount of cynicism. No doubt, the result will cause angst and hardship in circles that are subsidized by those who hold tightly on to the past.
But this recent bout of no to solar farms, no to power plants, no to LNG facilities, no to clearcutting forests can be characterized in what I hope is not too a simplistic phrase - we want something different. Moving away from the rigid minds and rigid processes that we have seen of late by those stuck in the past are only part of the solution.
Bigger is not better. Clearcutting forests is a terrible idea. Melting polar caps has life-changing consequences. Massive industrial sized power plants proposed for the middle of the woods, clearcutting 200 to 300 acres of forest, positioning an LNG facility among the neighborhoods, schools and hospitals near Fields Point do nothing for a culture of no who want to get to yes, who want innovation to take the place of the stale, the old and the grey. The culture of no questions the status quo.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTQuestions why we do the same thing over and over again expecting different results. For one who has spent the better part of the past three years defending the environment against a fracked gas fossil fuel power plant and nearly 20 years on land use, wetlands, land preservation, the economy and our sense of place, I know something of the culture of ‘no.’ I have written and helped write press releases, used science to write position papers, appeared before stake-holder groups, presented testimony before RI House and Senate committees, spoken on radio and broadcast media, social media, and worked with elected politicians, non-profits, environmentalists on the control of our natural resources, on energy use, social injustice, the economy, even enrolled in school again at age 63. I am part of that culture of no. But, I am not a proponent of rolling blackouts, or interrupter of mission-critical processes - attributes credited to the naysayers by the fossil fuel folks.
I am part of the culture of no that is trying to reduce risks: risks of climate change due to burning fossil fuels; risks of air and water pollution from the release of tons of nitrogen, sulfur and carbon dioxide coming out of smoke stacks each year; ruining our bays and coastlines from offshore drilling spills; risks of asthma inducing particulates that are increasing in our skies; the risks of creating additional brown fields in a state already burdened from past industrial neglect; risks of runoff in our rivers from blighted landscapes; risks of causing more harm in populations that live near zones of sacrifice; and, the very real deterioration of a sense of place that extinguishes cultural diversity in the name of quarterly profits and corporate greed.
Culture of No is Not Working
The culture of No is saying that we want an end to this immutable mindset that uses fear, scare tactics and hostility to put the rest of us in our place. I can honestly say as a culture of one who regularly disagrees, their tactics are just not working.
Models of a ‘no’ culture exist elsewhere. Businesses continue with great success in a no atmosphere. Saying yes all the time is a prescription to doom. Bryant University Trustee Professor of Management and former Harvard Business School Professor Michael Roberto writes, “the lack of good conflict—constructive conflict—within an organization makes it that much harder to accurately evaluate business ideas and make important decisions.” Businesses and states that prosper all live on the edge of saying no.
For our energy needs and future, our only hope is innovation and concerted efforts to find new strategies that get us to a culture of yes. Armchair politicians boast promises of setting up another state-run bureaucracy to sell surplus electricity from solar and wind back into the grid for a price must think about the length of time this project would take. The fact is that a project of this magnitude, if initiated today, is at least 10 to 12 years in the making with little to no promise of success as the fossil fuel industry will throw a bottomless pit of money towards its demise. As a case in point, just look at the length of time it has taken in the making of the ‘carbon tax’ bill now before the RI legislature. Talk about a culture of no - the fossil fuel industry is the poster child: no to climate change impacts; no to the end of fossil fuel infrastructure; no to the existence of environmental racism.
Rhode Island gas and electric users send $3 billion dollars out of state every year to fossil fuel corporations in this country and countries across the seas. No fossil fuel giant is going to want an end to that. And if the future is anything like the present for state-run institutions, this new one will be raided and ‘scooped’ by politicians bent on balancing a bloated budget by putting money into the dark hole of the general fund. On this one, I’m in the camp of saying no. How then do we go from a culture of no to a culture of yes? We can go from a culture of no to culture of yes overnight with the right political leadership.
In many ways, Rhode Island is already on its way to providing its residents with a socialist style “Alaska Permanent Fund” when homeowners are subsidized for placing solar panels on their rooftops. The dollars returned to the electricity producer are derived from all of us. It feels good to keep the money in our state from energy created by our own citizens. The economy grows because of it. But this program is really the second step in reducing our energy costs and getting us to a culture of saying yes. Energy efficiency programs coupled with a renewed effort to reduce energy use is the first step in any dividend program that gets us to a culture of yes.
Eliminating the average monthly kW demand of 200 kW or less cap in National Grid’s Small Business Services Program is another step. Many businesses are just over the cap preventing them from taking part in programs that they themselves have paid into.
Saying Yes
Massachusetts’ cap is 300 kW. Their economy is booming while RI languishes woefully behind even though MA electricity prices are comparable to our own. Promoting and creating microgrids from rooftop solar and wind turbines, using virtual net metering more and providing additional incentives to developers to build solar farms on brownfields, capped landfills and in constructing solar canopies over parking lots. These projects won’t clear-cut forests or diminish our agricultural lands and won’t change the character of our special places.
These projects will put thousands of people to work continuously over decades. Not the few hundred over 16 months as predicted by the power plant folks in northwestern Rhode Island. And when energy saving projects start, as the first of many canopies are placed over parking lots, as our air is cleaner, and we save money in energy costs, we can thank those who belonged to that culture of no.
I’ll say yes to that.
Paul A. Roselli is the president of the Burrillville Land Trust, a graduate student at Bryant University in a Master of Science Program on Global Environmental Studies, and is a Democratic candidate for Governor in Rhode Island.
Editor's note: A previous version cited Roberto as a Harvard Business School Professor; he is also now a Professor at Bryant University in Rhode Island.
Related Slideshow: 2018 Governor’s Race Playbook - May 28, 2018
Related Articles
- Guest MINDSETTERS™ Sheehan & Craven: Outlaw Possession of Bump Stocks
- School-Sanctioned Walkouts Dupe Students: Guest MINDSETTER™ Daryl Gould
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Block: Nobody Wins a Trade War
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Nardolillo: RI Deserves a Comprehensive Fix for the Opioid Epidemic
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Sen. Sheehan: Time to End Nondisclosure Agreements
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Gardiner: Craft Beer, Libel, and GOP Politics - Will the Russians Stop at Nothing?
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Gardiner: School Shootings - Time to Talk About Practical Solutions
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Gubernatorial Candidate Dr. Muñoz: Single-Out
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Gubernatorial Candidate Dr. Muñoz: A Better Education System for Rhode Islanders
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Gardiner: Teaching Moment for RI Young Republicans
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Deckman: Time for Sullivan to Resign
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Bento: Keeping Watch on New PawSox Legislation
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Ruggiero: Home Sweet Home as we Age in The Community
- Firing Back on Charter Schools: Guest MINDSETTER™ Senator Sheehan
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Clifford: From “Little Rocket Man” to “Honorable” Man. How Come?
- Physician Burnout Needs to Be Addressed: Guest MINDSETTER™ McInteer
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Block: Important Line-Item Veto Hearing - We Need Your Help
- Rethinking Kristin’s Law, Guest MINDSETTER™ Dr. Fine
- Guest MINDSETTER™Lapisky: Don’t Take Sheehan’s Misunderstandings as Facts
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Oliveira: Sen. Sheehan’s False Assertions
- The Clash of The Titans, Guest MINDSETTER™ Dr. Michael Fine
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Sheehan: Public Oversight is a Necessity for RI Charter Schools
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Clifford: Trump Must be Impeached, But Not for What You Think
- Guest MINDSETTER™ Casimiro: RI National Guard is Crucial to Our Economy
- Why RI Needs Immunization Database: Guest MINDSETTER™ Dr. Ejnes
