A Call for Critical Examination

There’s a tiredness in me. It’s not like a few January’s ago when I wrote about our long winter’s nap in soft tones from a place of restoration.

The tiredness wants to watch the world burn.

Which is a thoughtless and insensitive analogy when half my state is.

But I am tired. I’m tired of everything being an existential crisis and a new chunk of the sky falling every other day.

I’m tired of things being taken. I’m tired of subpar people doing subpar work. I’m tired of bending to make difficult people comfortable, so maybe, hopefully, fingers crossed, they don’t make things more difficult for the easy people. I am so damn tired of the coddling, the flattering, the massaging, the messaging, the amount of effort that goes into managing impressions and opinions and perceptions.

I am exhausted.

And to my complete and utter despair, I care.

I care about my Valley. I care about the rural spaces that are always expected to get what's left over and be thankful for it. I care about the people doing incredible work but who don’t have time for self-promotion, so they go overlooked. I care about programs that could make a difference, but because subpar people don’t know how to talk or write about them, those programs get hauled out onto the chopping block and AGAIN! the people and communities that would benefit most are told to go without.

Maybe because I’m tired, I no longer have the energy to be the change. But I do have a platform. And perhaps instead of spending the year ahead on self-promotion, the SJVCEO can shine a light on what is.

It would be a lie to say we’re a neutral party, an independent observer. Because we’re not. We are deeply in this mess of energy efficiency. We bid into programs; we’re implementers; we are not neutral. But for a while, we can come close. We can say, “Hey! Did y’all know…” and bring the information and facts to the front and let you all form your own opinions. We can flex our collective critical thinking muscles--just because we care about something doesn’t mean we can’t be critical of it.

Is energy efficiency dead?

Do programs make a difference?

Have we gone too far into equity?

I can have opinions on these questions. The SJVCEO can address these questions. But we don’t have to make that our focus. So, by and large, we’ve decided not to.

Instead, this year, we will present the what’s what. We’re not here to sway you, to market to you, or to convince you.

In the year ahead, we will look at energy efficiency across the sectors and examine the programs intended to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions and transform technology markets. We’ll bring you interviews with the stakeholders that make this industry move and the realities of the people the programs support. We will carefully yet critically examine our industry and encourage your own exploration. Because nothing is all good or all bad, but everything must evolve.

Look to us for the story; look to us for the history. Form your own opinion.