WHAT
DID THE CAMPAIGN DO AFTER THE PUBLIC HEARING?
Following the public hearing, there was an impression among many
supporters that Minneapolis Energy Options had lost and that all we had worked
for only resulted in a framework resolution.
Now out of the media spotlight and relieved from the task of
campaigning for a ballot initiative, there was a lot of internal soul searching
within the campaign. It took until October for the campaign to come back
together on behalf of a long-term strategy. We put matters in perspective that
this was a long game and there would be some setbacks along the way.
For comparison, Boulder Colorado was also in a long game. Boulder negotiated
with Xcel for 5 years to collaborate on clean energy goals and get a smartgrid without
making much headway before choosing to pursue to take the municipalization
option.
In October 2013, Minneapolis Energy Options did an internal poll
chose a new name for itself to fit in with the long-game strategy. The new name
chosen was "Community Power" which would become an umbrella
organization to house the work Minneapolis Energy Options had started. We would
continue to use the project name "Minneapolis Energy Options" for our
local efforts in Minneapolis. Because the name Minneapolis Energy Options
implies being a Minneapolis only campaign, we needed the broader organizational
identity of Community Power to enable us to start working with and supporting
communities across the state undertaking similar efforts.
THE POWERFUL CONVERSATIONS
TOUR
On November 21st,
2013 and on December 1st, 2013 Community Power held the first two deep
community education events in what is called the Powerful Conversations Tour. The
idea for the Powerful Conversations Tour originated as a way to do campaign
fundraisers at house parties.
But following the demise of the ballot
initiative campaign, the idea of the Powerful Conversations Tour still had a
key purpose. It was adapted to address an overall pattern Minneapolis Energy
Options and MPIRG noticed while talking with thousands of people about
supporting the ballot initiative.
A great number of
Minneapolis residents expressed excitement upon hearing that we have an
opportunity to participate in shaping our energy future. However most people we talked to felt like they did not know enough about
our energy utility system to make an informed decision on what actions to take. They felt they needed to better understand how our energy
system works in order to articulate a vision on exactly they could do to
address energy concerns.
We thus realized a need
for greater community education on the basics of how our energy utility system
works. The more people who lack understanding of how
our energy utility system works, the more people who could be easily persuaded
by the well-moneyed PR campaigns from Xcel and the utility powers that be. That
lack of widespread public knowledge would have been a big stumbling block for
the ballot initiative campaign if it had materialized.
Regardless of whether a
ballot initiative is happening or not, knowledge is power as we shape our
energy future. And so the Powerful Conversations Tour gave me something to
organize for in the absence of an all hands-on-deck campaign.
Recruiting hosts and
attendees to the series of energy education events replaced phone banking at
MPIRG and canvassing with a clipboard as the main campaign tactic for
Minneapolis Energy Options. Through the Powerful Conversations Tour series of
energy education events, we commenced the work of building a base of informed
community leaders we would need to grow the campaign in the months and years to
come.
By the end of 2014, we had done close to 40 Powerful
Conversations Events with hundreds of attendees.
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