by: H.R.
March 23, 2023
Darrin Ledford (District 4)
Council Chairman 2022-23
Chattanooga City Council
1000 Lindsay Street
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Dear Darrin Ledford:
As you are my council person for the 4th district, I am writing to let you know more about my specific thoughts regarding Mayor Tim Kelly’s Climate Action Plan. I know this is a lengthy email and you are a busy man, so I appreciate your time. I also very much appreciate you allowing all the attendees at the City Council meeting to speak last Tuesday. It’s extremely important to hear from we the people! I was not impressed with the cheerleading from all the government agencies, Green|Spaces, etc. as we already know they love the plan since they wrote, benefit from, or are paid to promote it. They also took up available seating from we the people whom the city council purported they wanted to hear.
There are some things in the Climate Action Plan that are or could be laudable goals such as improved outage/disaster response time or a reduction in waste. How we achieve those goals are the question.
The premise that “climate change” is an existential threat I reject, not only because it hasn’t been proven (either its existence or our ability to change it), but because I don’t believe in fear mongering as a way to garner support for a cause. Simply put, I prefer facts over fiction.
I believe we should all be good stewards of our land and should not desecrate what has been given us and we should be able to agree on some of these things, depending again on how it is implemented. Everything proposed should be 1) within the purview of the government to address (in other words, consistent with the state and federal constitution), 2) for the general welfare and 3) be the will of the people. That said, there are many action items in this climate plan that do not meet the above-mentioned guidelines.
For example, it is not within the government’s purview to make an equitable society. We are all responsible as individuals and families to provide the life we wish to have. The government should not be choosing winners and losers or taking from one who has two to give to another who has none. Communism has not worked anywhere in the world and all the compassion in the world can’t change history. Implying that the theory of climate change is a greater threat to minorities and poor by extending government overreach to correct that will not change anything. If it did, Lyndon Baines Johnson’s war on poverty would be won by now. Instead, what it created, by encouraging a rapid demise in black families in particular, and any other poor person who married that system for life, by removing the father from the home in order to receive those funds, resulted in the current culture of drugs, gangs, poor education and an erosion of values. Poor people are poor because they make bad decisions, generally have poor education (lack of a high school diploma is huge) and have babies out of wedlock are a few of the biggest ones. I am not against assistance for people who make poor decisions, only in it being provided by the government.
Secondly, I did not see anything in the mayor’s plan that gives the city council or we the people important information on how much it will cost. For example, changing all the city’s vehicles to electric will be very costly. The batteries are very delicate and even a scratch in a minor accident could cause it to not function properly (see article below). As such, insurance costs are likely to increase, if the batteries are even covered, and if they aren’t, represents an even greater expenditure of having to replace the expensive batteries out-of-pocket. Has the strain of charging all the city vehicles on the electrical grid been considered and how much that will cost? Also, will it impact the rest of the electricity available to the citizenry or cause rate increases? Are we expecting wind or solar to fill that gap when we know it doesn’t work? California and Texas come to mind. There is proof that this doesn’t work in many other cities around the country too, the latest example being Washington D.C. whose mayor is proposing to cut half of the city’s bus routes to decrease the budget to manageable levels (see article below). How does that help the poor and minorities? How will they get to work, school and other activities without the bus if they don’t have a car? The flowery language of substantial grants and funding programs found throughout the CAP does not address how much it will cover these and other expenses not raised here and what happens after these funds are exhausted.
Finally, there is a concern that all the “smart” technologies will invade the privacy of individuals. How is data collected for all the smart meters, grids, etc.? Is this data stored with detailed information for each citizen? How do we know that this information will not be used for nefarious or other unwanted marketing purposes? The designation of a S.M.A.R.T. (Surveillance, Monitoring, Analysis, Reporting, Technology) city by the World Economic Forum (WEF) does not instill confidence in the mayor’s plan which appears to be the first step in normalizing and realizing the WEF goals. There are many examples around the world where S.M.A.R.T. Cities have been implemented and it’s frightening, unconstitutional (at least here in America) and unfortunately, not a conspiracy theory.
While this is not a detailed rebuttal to the CAP, the fast turnaround time of the mayor’s introduction of the plan, the public hearing and then the vote has not given the city council or we the people enough opportunity to offer one. This is why I urge you to delay the vote so research can be done, and questions answered for all. I suggest the people need to approve such an ambitious plan with not only a city vote, but a county vote as well since those residents also shop, work, have businesses and play in the beautiful city of Chattanooga.
I appreciate replies to any of the above-listed concerns or questions and please feel free to direct me to sources that detail cost and budgeting for the CAP.
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