Imagine, if you will, that you voted for a ballot item about energy-efficient Green apple pie and then found out you are going to get a festering squid with tentacles that will strangle you in its grip.
The City’s “Climate Action Plan” is a classic bait-and-switch.
Thanks to the El Paso Taxpayer Revolt, I learned that City Rep. Chris Canales planned to host our new Climate Czar, Nicole Ferrini, for his District 8 community meeting in the 2nd-floor conference room of City Hall, January 11 at 5:30pm.
I was a little late so I missed the first five minutes of the meeting. I decided to listen to what these people had to say before bellyaching out loud. There were between 40 and 50 people present.
Czar Ferrini spoke about her new Office of Climate & Sustainability and its duties.
Apparently her position and office were created by Tommy Gonzalez, without consulting City Council or receiving public input, shortly before his termination 11 months ago.
Yet Ms. Ferrini claimed that Proposition C, which passed in November 2022, authorized her new position and included implementation of a Climate Action Plan.
I checked the text of the ballot proposition and it states the following: “The issuance of $5,200,000 General Obligation Bonds for renewable energy and resource use efficiency improvements and planning and the imposition of a tax sufficient to pay the principal of and interest on the bonds.”
The proposition talks about energy efficiency and $5.2 million of tax-supported bond money and not much else.
This was red flag number 1.
Somehow a Green Globalist master plan, inspired by United Nations mandates, was belched forth from this so-called “plan of action” for the City of El Paso, to be imposed upon more than 5,000 square miles, across two counties and ten municipalities.
The Czar stated that one of the main reasons for this master plan was to qualify for grant or loan money (unclear which) that will be available to the City from the Federal Government if certain guidelines are met. According to her, we could receive $100 million initially, with the potential to obtain a half-billion dollars in the future.
Gosh, what on earth would the City do with all that money? Of course, no one could say just yet, because the master plan has not yet been finalized.
So I raised my hand and asked a question: “Lets see if I get this right. The US Government, which is $31 trillion in debt, is willing to loan or grant hundreds of millions of dollars to a City that is approaching $3 billion dollars in debt, right?”
The Czar didn’t agree with my numbers.
This was red flag number 2.
I then asked another question: “What impositions would this plan place on the average citizens of El Paso?”
Sure enough, no one could say for sure because the plan hasn’t been fleshed out yet.
However, it was stated that the City plans a “greenhouse gas survey” of the municipality and surrounding areas, for the purpose of identifying who or what the greenhouse gassers are.
Other attendees brought up pollution from Interstate-10 and the Marathon Petroleum Refinery, believing that somehow this climate plan is supposed to fix these and everything else.
There was some debate about using the carrot-stick approach to solve our climate issues: They first offer a carrot so the offending party will do the right thing. If that doesn’t work, they will beat them over the head with the stick until they comply.
Shades of Proposition K anyone?
Red flag number 3.
Now in all this talk no one mentioned the role of Mexico, of which Juárez is a pollution vector, so I brought up the subject of burning tires and plastic in our neighboring city. The Czar replied that the pollution in the Lower Valley was actually coming from El Paso. (Really, are you sure?)
Supposedly some assurances are expected from Juarez, that they are going to improve their pollution standards. (Let us know when that happens.) Many families in Juárez have to burn toxic plastic-laden trash to stay warm in the winter. Anyone who lives near UTEP can smell the plastic smoke from Juarez, especially when it gets cold.
Red flag number 4.
One of the attendees brought up a thorny issue. It turns out that there may be only one operational pollution monitoring site in all of El Paso. Supposedly at one time there were 22.
How do they really know where the pollution is coming from?
There were other people there who brought up the subject of reports that we as businesses may have to file to comply with the new Green World Order. Have you every heard of GSE or DEI reports? Neither have I.
One thing for certain is that none of this has anything to do with Proposition C.
Red flag number 5.
One attendee brought up a previous El Paso “green goal” (I must have missed it) that the City had set some time ago, but the Czar wisely pointed out that the goal had been unrealistic and could not br attained.
But how realistic is a UN-inspired Green Globalist Master Plan for El Paso?
Green Socialist manifesto anyone?
As the slides were presented to the audience, it became very obvious that this Climate Action Plan had nothing to do with Proposition C.
Of course no one in the room had mentioned the city’s water situation, so I made the following comment: “The best idea I have heard so far is to plant more trees. Too bad we won’t be able to afford the water to make them grow.”
The Czar suggested that desert plants don’t need much water.
So much for the local fruit tree industry.
Get the picture?
Then most of us went home. All I saw and heard was a bait-and-switch.
All of this is just a very clever way to obtain government funds through a smoke-and-mirror Green agenda dog-and-pony show that the City climate puppets want us to dance to.
Nope, not me.
And you, the voters reading this, will pay the bill.
Next time a ballot initiative comes up that is vague or short on description, vote NO.
In the meantime, look at the slides and ask yourself, is this what you voted for?
If not, call or write your City representative and tell him/her to stop messing with El Paso and drop this plan.
Private enterprise and innovation can solve our problems better than government, and throwing millions of dollars to fund a Climate Office will do little or nothing to reduce pollution or lower the global temperature.
As for the water problem, pray for more rain!
Malcolm McGregor III, Taxpayer and District 8 resident