At "war" with ourselves

It seems to me that the battle of "us" vs "them" seems to be escalating.  I think this is the main message that the "occupiers" are trying to talk about - but are having a hard time articulating.

I feels to me that we are about to lose the battle before most of us are even aware that a war is taking place.  Some examples that come to mind are:

- The biggest privately owned utilities in California are currently attempting to convince the State to allow them to charge a "fair" connection surcharge for distributed PV solar systems.  Their idea of a "fair" charge is to make it large enough so that the surcharge will be larger than the cost of electricity would be without installing the solar panels!  They don't want to forbid the installation of solar systems, just make them more expensive than purchasing power from the utility.  That will obviously put an instant stop to any new distributed solar system installations.

- The state government in Wisconsin is currently in the process of redefining the status of Native Americans to no longer be considered to be "minorities" in a move to remove all special treatment for the tribes or tribal members.  The reason for this move seems to be mostly aimed at preventing the local Native Americans from blocking new mining operations for valuable metals on their lands.  There are some very large mining companies that would dearly like to mine Indian lands, but are currently blocked because of the special status of the Natives Americans, and because of the designation of the effected lands as "sacred."  The simplest solution is to change the status of those peoples and then they can go ahead with their mining plans.

- The Federal Government is spending hundreds of billions of dollars to support new wind energy power plants, knowing full well that they are a poor solution to the energy problem given their inability to provide a net increase to the utility power or decrease in CO2 production.  It is all a shell game aimed at moving tax payer and rate payer money to wind developers, manufacturers and land owners.  It is not about making renewable energy, saving the environment or creating jobs.

- My local County has decided that it is a reasonable thing to make one Environmental Impact Study for all new installations of wind turbines within the County covering any work for the next 50 years.  This means that they will be issued "kill" permits by the US Fish and Game to kill endangered species and no longer have to consider any other environmental impacts for siting or installation of any new power plants - regardless of sensitivity of the chosen sites. 

There are dozens of similar stories showing up in the news these days.  We get to hear about the things that are being done, but don't seem to be able to mobilize any force to stop or control the impacts.  It seems that every time we turn around there is yet another atrocity where the 1% are pushing through laws and regulations that the 99% get to pay for but receive no benefit from.  There is a constant push to get rid of regulations (meaning environmental regulations, government oversight or anything that might impede industry's wishes) pretending that big industry is capable of reaching the "best" decisions without regulations.  Somehow the "invisible hand" will guide them to the optimal solutions.

There is a very long history that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that without regulations the free-market model will destroy everything in it path with the stampede toward maximizing short-term profits.  That is just the nature of the system - short term profits and growth are the only force driving the free-market system.  The only solution is to admit that the free-market model has this fatal flaw and can only work in the long run for the maximum benefit for the most people if it is carefully regulated and controlled by "the people" who could negatively impacted by the activities of a few.  That doesn't mean that it won't work, it only means that it needs controls and oversight.   

This is especially the situation when we have granted monopolies to select companies such as we have done with the electrical utilities.  The status of being a monopoly means that very strict regulation is needed to ensure that the company is doing business in support of the average citizen, and not in support of the company owners.  It is of course necessary to cover their reasonable and appropriate costs, but it is not reasonable or necessary for them to maximize their profits by manipulating the governing process.