After carefully reading the four high school senior essays submitted to the Grand Marais PUC essay contest, the three Grand Marais Public Utilities Commission (PUC) board members, Karl Hansen, Tim Kennedy and George Wilkes, agreed that Bethany Derscheid’s essay was the best.
Derscheid will receive $500 for her well-crafted piece that explained why the Grand Marais PUC’s service to the public is important to people’s lives. As the winner of the local contest Derscheid will move on to compete in the regional contest.
Lily Gruber-Schulz placed second and will be awarded $300 while Madison Roy placed third and will receive $200.
The PUC met on April 6 to make its decision.
Carbon fee considered again
Wilkes asked the board if he could submit the recent Carbon Fee and Dividend resolution the PUC had passed at its last meeting to the Grand Marais City Council to see if they too, would pass it. Both Hansen and Kennedy thought that would be appropriate, but Kennedy—who serves on the city council—warned that the council might not take immediate action on the resolution, saying they might want to take some time to think it over and to learn more about the topic. Wilkes said he was fine with that and he will request to be on the next city council agenda.
As for the Carbon Fee and Dividend proposal, Wilkes outlined the reasons he thinks it will benefit not only Grand Marais residents, but the nation as well if it passes and is turned into a law by Congress and the Senate.
“The proposal is carefully crafted to be non-partisan. It doesn’t raise taxes, it’s market based, and it would render obsolete a complicated mountain of governmental energy regulation and subsidies—all things that are appealing to a growing number of conservatives who are increasingly taking issue of climate change more seriously.”
On Thursday, April 21st, at 7 p.m. there will be Carbon Fee and Dividend presentation by Cook County Citizen’s Climate Lobby at North House Folk School for those folks who want to learn more about it.
On another topic, Wilkes said he had inquired about using $32,000 granted by Blandin Foundation to help start a municipal solar garden for Grand Marais. The money was initially granted for the proposed biomass initiative that for now has been put on the back burner. Wilkes said the Blandin official he spoke with needed to look into the matter further and then would get back to him in the near future.
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