I know I’ve blogged about the biomass bill, HB183, several times in the past. The bill in which Government would dictate that we pay higher electric rates to subsidize a marketplace engaged in Crony Capitalism to sustain itself.
Higher rates for us shoveled off to another “protected class” – the biomass generating companies and the forest “companies” supplying them with low-grade wood products.
“There’s no low grade market. And instead of growing trees, I’m going to start growing house lots.”
Nothing but a hidden tax on all of us, and Republicans led the charge once again to distort a marketplace thanks to NH State Senator Jeb Bradley (whose meddling has made NH rates some of the most expensive in the nation?). You, too, NH State Senator Bob Guida!.
As someone who has lived through, struggled economically, survived, and then thrived through market dislocations in my own industry (as technology and business climates have changed) I don’t have a lot of empathy for someone that used to want Government to stay out of his life as honorary Chair of Americans for Prosperity NH Tom Thompson- but has shown a lot of hypocrisy when things went south. First place he ran to? Government (reformatted, emphasis mine):
Now, Thomson and others say Wednesday’s veto result could be the final blow for major parts of the industry. Facing difficulty competing with lowered prices from natural gas and out-of-state energy alternatives four out of six of the biomass plants are already in effective shutdown status, according to industry representatives. Beyond the biomass plants themselves, the low grade wood that fueled them, and the industry that harvests that wood, will all be affected, according to Thomson.
“People are going to lose their jobs, equipment dealers … chipper manufacturers, probably the phone is ringing right now: ‘Cancel that order’,” Thomson said. Thomson, who has been in the forest management business for 63 years, says clearing out the low grade wood is essential to maintaining the health of his forests. The alternative, he said, is development.
“I can’t practice sustainable forestry now,” he said. “There’s no low grade market. And instead of growing trees, I’m going to start growing house lots.”
…Not all are shedding a tear, though.
Creative Destruction, the essence of capitalism. Put money where it is best used as no one is owed a marketplace. No one is owed a job (regardless of what the Socialist Democrats are running on for President about living wage or, as in the Green New Deal that some of them are supporting, a guaranteed job).
As a Free Marketplace guy, Thomson knows that capitalism means that with changing conditions, you have to adapt. It isn’t our fault that his marketplace has changed for the worse. And it isn’t up to us to subsidize his business, his business model, or his land. He has no right to expect that the rest of us should ante up, via a forced hidden tax camouflaged as higher electrical rates, to support him. But that’s what he’s demanding.
No. Just plain no.
No, I’m not shedding tears. He SHOULD adapt and start developing his land – he may well be much better rewarded for it (or, maybe not. Again, just because you’re IN a marketplace doesn’t mean that you’ll automatically be a shining star – that’s not how ANY of this works). Look, he invested in his business and the model in which he runs his woodlots – and so did buggy whip makers back when cars were just starting to roll on muddy strips of land. Each new innovation has changed the marketplace – either you adapt or go out of business. Nat gas is more economical now – why SHOULDN’T we be using it?
Sure, sometimes businesses do come back (after a fashion, anyway). It seems that vinyl records that require the old-style “record players” that Sleepy Joe Biden talked about are making a comeback into the music marketplace, but that’s just one example.
