Political Analysis - 11/29/11

This week Sandy LeonVest talks about the UN climate conference in Durban, South Africa, which most human rights and climate activists believe is destined for failure. The show features audio segments from Samson Malesi, human rights activist and coordinator of South Africa’s "Caravan of Hope" and Bongani Mthembu, campaigner with the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance. Bongani Mthembu is among those who believe the UN climate talks may have outgrown their usefulness, and that a new protocol needs to be established. He argues for closer examination of corporate influence and institutions like the World Bank in undermining meaningful efforts to mitigate climate change.

During the second half of the program, author and activist Harvey Wasserman talks to Sandy about decentralized energy, distributed generation of renewables and community ownership of clean energy sources or "energy democracy." In an odd twist of events, Harvey ends up interviewing Sandy about the takeover in Marin and San Francisco of those counties' clean energy programs (aka "Community Choice Aggregation" or CCA), which theoretically allows consumers to get out from under the thumb of corporate-controlled energy and choose their own sources of energy. Sandy explains to Harvey how, in Marin and San Francisco, the CCA movement -- and even "energy democracy" terminology has been all but co-opted by Shell Energy North America.

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