On FERC and Exhaustion

Some friends of mine were in DC last week to protest FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission). FERC is a farcical institution whose apparent job is to approve every dystopian,  planet-obliterating dirty energy scheme that the Dr. Evils populating the boards of the extraction companies may propose.  Here in Maryland, FERC has waved through a flammable, post-apocalyptic Monument to Despair, known as the Dominion Energy Cove Point LNG Terminal.  A catchy title, admittedly. This facility promises to receive fracked gas from throughout the eastern United States and convert it into liquid form, so that it may be shipped abroad and burned in Europe and Asia.  Sounds like a lot of fun. Unless, of course, you live in a community whose landscape has been masticated by hydraulic fracturing and whose water has become magically incandescent and undrinkable.  And unless you happen to live in or near Lusby, Maryland where the accident-waiting-to-happen Monument to Despair is being built.  Then, the enterprise is decidedly less fun.

 I was unable to make it down to the early-morning rallies in DC last week because I’ve been in a state of acute exhaustion, having just completed my final semester as an adjunct professor of Spanish at a state university.   My condition, and its preventing me from attending the rallies is a story ubiquitous in the USA: The amount of time people must work in energy-depleting environments in order to merely pay the survival bills of food, housing, heat & transportation often renders them too drained to protest against the ever-growing buffet of injustices and destruction being perpetrated by outfits like Dominion Energy and FERC.  It is one of the most effective ways that democracy is thwarted in the US. 

People are seeking to address this problem by living more simply and more communally, by growing our own food and supporting community agriculture, by engaging in barter.  These practices can allow us to work less in our spirit-depleting job environments and they are teaching us how to govern ourselves.  As I recover, I eat healthy food and I spend time with loved ones. I take leisurely walks through the neighborhood streets always ringing with birdsong.  I read books about musicians I admire and books that propose new/old ways of thinking and ways of living that do not lead to the operatic madness and destruction we are witness to presently. And I recover my strength, so that the next time around, I can get on the train to DC and give FERC… or Congress…  or President Obama. a piece of my mind.