… an energy plan that I find far more comprehensive and thoughtful than anything the think tanks have produced. It’s been read and reshaped by thousands of readers; it will serve as a useful model should the Democrats retake Congress and have the ability to move legislation.
Bill McKibben, the New York Review of Books
It’s been almost two years since the Energize America experiment got underway and today, just coming back from the YearlyKos panel that described the new perspectives ahead of us, I wanted to retrace the history of this unprecedented attempt at netroots-run policy-making.
Bill McKibben, who participated to another YearlyKos panel on global warming, was kind enough to write the words above more than a year ago. He is himself involved in another amazing netroots-born effort, Step It Up, to call for concrete policy measures to fight global warming. Coordinating our efforts, linking our communities and building on one another’s collective energies will be a big part of what we hope to do in the coming months. Adam Siegel, who chaired the Energize America in Chicago last week, will put up some diaries over the coming days summarising the presentation we made, summarizing our achievements up to date (up to and including advanced discussions with Congresspersons on proposed legislation) and highlighting the opportunities and challenges we have ahead of us. But it’s worth looking back on how we got there.
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People often ask me why I write on an American blog (let alone in English), and there is an element of blind luck to it. An avid reader of news, I discovered via a friend the US blogosphere back in early 2003, in the run up to the Iraq War, and found it an amazing source of information and commentary on current affairs. The first blog I visited was Andrew Sullivan’s, but, looking around, I quickly found places like Calpundit (now Political Animal over at the Washington Monthly) and Billmon. There was, of course, a lot of discussion and speculation about the underlying energy-related motives of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and, as I work in the sector (having financed oil&gas projects around the world for a number of years and, more recently, wind power projects), I found that I had more information on these topics than the bloggers. And, these being blogs, I could actually contribute my tidbits to the discussion.
So far, so banal. I’ll never know if there was a link, but, as I look back, I see that I started writing in earnest (some might say obsessively) soon after my son was diagnosed with a brain tumor and had to undergo delicate surgery, which left him partly handicapped, and long chemiotherapy. I started crossposting my texts on DailyKos – often twice a day, as was still possible in 2005, and a lot of it was energy-related stories – many about the emerging reality of peak oil and the need to change our wasteful ways.
I garnered a small following, and my diaries became a meeting place of sorts for energy-minded kossacks, given how they were so frequent and regular. From the comments in my diaries, I began to learn more about energy than I ever knew about, and to recycle all that input in further diaries, building on ideas, links or connection brought up by others.
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As a note here for would-be diarists who wonder how to ever get on a reclist hogged by big names, please note that for about 6 months, writing one or two diaries a day, I was pleased when I got the 10 recommends then needed to make into jotter‘s lists. Recognition is not instantaneous – you need people to know you’re around, to get used to your writing, to become interested in the issues you write about, and you need to interact with your readers, participate in threads and encourage them as well. I started from nothing, as did all other now-well-known diarists. And, of course, being on the recommended list is not a goal per se. For Energize America, it was a wonderful tool, as I describe below, but being a DailyKos diarist can take you almost anywhere. Look how Advisor Jim turned his experience into a recognised book. Look how ilona has now become the person-to-go on PTSD, and her blog, the continuation of her earlier diaries here on DailyKos, is now read by specialists at Walter Reed and bureaucrats in the Pentagon because it is the most comprehensive around on the topic she chose. And of course, today’s front pagers all started as diarists as well, and were recognised – by the community – for their expertise and/or writing talent. You can do it to, if you put your heart and energy in it.
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Which brings us back to the summer of 2005, when I started writing the first diaries of my Countdown to $100 oil series (now up to opus 44, with the target still in sight!), and when Katrina struck. The vulnerability of the oil industry in the Gulf of Mexico and the subsequent increase in gas prices (at a time when the mess in Iraq and the corresponding geopolitical uncertainty were becoming increasingly obvious) brought energy issues to the fore, and my diaries became the place where this was hashed out on a daily basis.
As I said, I was learning a lot more than I was contributing to these threads, and felt that all that incredible quantity of information, advice, suggestions should not be lost. So I took it to myself to sift through it all to build up some kind of constructive proposal – what should we do to improve things, if we were in a position to? I put up a first thread with requests for specific proposals, and put up my own ideas for discussion. And boy was it discussed.
The great thing about DailyKos is that you have people from all ways of life, with extremely different experiences, competences and views. It’s very easy to get ideas commented upon, put in perspective and improved if they are read critically – and that’s where the reclist came into play, by allowing enough people in the community to take a look and participate – including those not necessarily familiar with the energy industry, but bringing their views as consumers, tax payers, car users and, above all, as politically aware people able to evaluate the viability of any idea in today’s America.
Thus ideas were brought up, explicited, debated, approved, rejected, amended, vetted, both from the perspective of what would be good in absolute terms and what would be good politically for Democrats.
After carefully going through the comments, I tried to synthetise it all. It gave this: Building together an effective Dem energy policy (I) which brought another deluge of comments and ideas. At that point, I felt a bit overwhelmed to be doing this on my own, and asked for help from two of the most respected members of the community, who had long been writing as well on energy issues: Devilstower and Meteor Blades. They kindly agreed to help improve the initial draft, by adding their own views and their own understanding of what the community had provided in earlier threads. We discussed ideas, proposals, wording, invited other active commenters to join in our dialogue, and brought the results to the community each time for further analysis and approval or rejection. We used the ability to rate comments to make various proposals for the title, for slogans, and for the core objectives of the plan. The name itself, "Energize America", was chosen in such an interactive way amongst many proposals put forward. We used separate diaries to discuss specific issues (such as the role of coal, the need for a gas tax, what to do with nuclear). We asked identified in-house experts to write more detailed proposals on the topic they knew.
Several iterations of the plan followed, each more comprehensive, more realistic, better drafted and budgeted than the previous one:
Reenergize America – A Democratic Blueprint (Second Draft)
Energize America – A Democratic Blueprint (Third Draft)
Energize America – A Blueprint for U.S. Energy Security (Fourth Draft)
DailyKos in Action: the example of ‘Energize America’
Energize America – Achieving U.S. Energy Security by 2020 – Executive Summary
Energize America – Achieving U.S. Energy Security by 2020 (Draft Five)
The fifth iteration (which you can download on the Energize America website (PDF) was presented publicly at the first YearlyKos convention in Las Vegas in the presence of Bill Richardson, the governor of New Mexico, former Secretary of Energy of Bill Clinton and current presidential candidate, who was kind enough to say kind words about the plan and to encourage us to continue in our efforts.
left to right: Devilstower, Jerome a Paris, Bill Richardson, Doolittle Sothere, A Siegel
The following diaries include a rewriting of what we said then. A lot of it covers the same ground as this diary, focusing on the importance of the process that allowed us to build this plan:
YK – Energize America presentation (part 1 – the energy situation)
YK – Energize America presentation (part 2 – how Kossacks built EA)
YK – Energize America presentation (part 3 – main goals)
YK – Energize America presentation (part 4 – principles and exemplary Acts)
YK – Energize America presentation (part 5 – how you can help)
After that momentous event, it is fair to say that the Energize America team suffered from burnout – too many hours working on this (usually late at night), too many sacrifices made to get there (up to and including delaying employment opportunities by several months in Doolittle Sothere’s case) and, quite simply, fatigue. In my case, I left for a long summer holiday with my family after the end of my son’s chemiotherapy – only to learn upon coming back home that his tumor had reappeared and that new treatments (radiotherapy) would be needed. Autumn was a bittersweet period. The project was supported by many of the netroots candidates (see the diary below about Nancy Skinner, which lists other Democrats that endorsed the plan), was acknowledged in various places, and inspired efforts by others like teacherken (for education) or OrangeClouds115 (for food) to launch similar efforts.
I am Citizen Kos
DailyKos as a tool to draft policy
LiveBlogging: Nancy Skinner (MI-9) endorses Energize America
Things started moving again in January, but this is Adam Siegel’s tale to tell, and he will do so in the very near future. The following diaries, which I wrote earlier this year, will give you a hint of what happened: Energize America crashed the gates of Congress, and we got an opportunity to directly inspire actual legislation.
Energize America coming to Congress. You can help
First Energize America draft Act brought to Congress
Energize America, DailyKos and Congress
Again, this effort was driven by A Siegel and Doolittle Sothere, and it is their story – which was brought to those of you that were lucky to be with us in Chicago last week, and which will be presented n detail in forthcoming diaries under Adam Siegel‘s byline.
I hope you will subscribe to his diaries if you have not done so yet, and catch these diaries in the coming days. Do not hesitate to contact any of us if you want to be on our email lists if you want to be kept updated more frequently on what’s going on with Energize America.
As he will tell you, we have some extraordinary opportunities in front of us in the near future – to actually influence policy in a real way. But to do so, we need your help – not just to comment in Energize America diaries, rate comments by others and recommend diaries (all useful and needed) – but by bringing your skills to the table. You don’t need to be an energy specialist to help. Just a bit of time can make this process go just a bit further, and show to all that DailyKos can also be a meaningful force in policy making.
We count on you. The community has built something that has never been done before – transparent, lobby-free and poek-free, community-reviewed and expert-vetted, policy proposals. We are trying to gear up to make this a long lasting effort, able to interact with other grassroot-driven efforts like Bill McKibben’s, and with other organisations focused on energy reform, but this will require sustained effort, which we hope can be shared amongst the community.
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YearlyKos amazed me in the display of so much talent revealed, so many competences put to good use – citizens taking the initiative and making a difference. Energize America is a small part of that, inventing new processes and, hopefully, new ways to make policy – and politics – for the future.
