Category: Reporting

Energy, From New Hampshire to Forida

Between today and yesterday I talked to people at the PUC, PSNH, Laidlaw, CPD and more. I made phone calls all the way to Florida, and I’ve been waiting for calls and missing calls from people at almost every agency. I’ve got reports from Massachusetts and New York universities about biomass sitting on my desktop, and I’ve been immersed in them to better understand the issues and factors involved in power.
I was talking to a biomass plant in Florida when PSNH called. I was talking to PSNH when Laidlaw called. I’ve got letters and responses from everyone around the region with an interest in electricity, and I have facts and figures from independent resources on how every aspect of a biomass affects communities and what the costs are.
I was talking to my editor today about electricity in the North Country and how prominent a feature it will be in the region’s future. I wonder if the Reporter should hire an engineer, not a reporter.

But I stumbled on something cool, and I don’t know how much of it will be in the paper. Here it is:

In Florida is one of the few biomass plants bigger than the proposed Laidlaw plant. It is 140 megawatts, and it goes through 2 million tons of fuel each year.
Big, huh?
But here’s the crazy thing: electricity generation is a side business for Florida Crystals. Their main product is sugar.
“We’re able to offer a product no one else can offer with carbon free sugar,” said Gaston Cantens, vice president of corporate relations for Florida Crystals.
Their plant sits in the center of a 150,000 acre sugar plantation, and half their biomass, or 1 million tons, is waste sugar cane fiber.
The rest they get from local municipalities. They burn wood of any kind, including hurricane debris.
The plant has three boilers, and they are working to build a fourth. It is a cogeneration facility; they produce steam to run the sugar mill and the refinery. The excess they use for electricity, and it powers 60,000 homes.
“We’re the largest biomass fuel power plant in North America, as far as we can tell,” Mr. Cantens said.

I looked at their business model and was just blown away. They are pairing two industries, utilizing an existing resource, and diverting 2 million tons of material that otherwise would make it into a landfill. Great stuff!

I’m going to try to pitch this to some national news outlets, see if they’re interested in telling the story more in depth. I thought it was cool.

Fail Harder

Someone told me the secret to success: fail harder.
I work for the Berlin Reporter, which, as I’ve been told, used to cover bake sales from Errol to Shelburne. It wasn’t particularly interested in getting into the complex subjects facing Berlin. I have not followed the same approach.
I read an article in the Columbia Journalism Review about how newspapers need to stop just covering events and start covering issues. Berlin is lucky to have two papers, because they can each cover what they’re good at. I am trying to be proficient at covering issues, and I leave many of the events to someone else.
But issues are tough. PSNH, Laidlaw, Clean Power Development, CDBG grants, the Northern Loop, wood studies, revolving loan funds, wind farms, overlay zones, TIGER grants, federal prisons, state retirement benefit programs, and section eight housing are each distinct areas of expertise. Some might argue they are more than one person can hope to handle. Not true; that person just has to be willing to fail harder. And I do. I work for unattainable goals, and, while I haven’t achieved them, I’m gaining.

People are always telling me how to do my job. Not people at the paper, but random people who want a story about their business or me to look into their issue. They aren’t giving me tips, mind you, but telling me what I should cover and how to do it. It makes me wonder how people perceive the paper—do people look at it as a tool for the community, or as their personal dagger to wield?
I walk through Berlin more than many residents. One city councilor said I knew more about many of the city’s issues than he does, and he’s lived there almost his entire life. That isn’t true, because my understanding of Berlin is on a short time-line, but I have done my best to steep myself in the city’s issues. Sometimes at city council or other meetings I want to point out the obvious point everyone seems to be ignoring, but I can’t. I’m the fly on the wall with a bullhorn to sound once a week.

Fail harder—what a great idea. I’m proud of what it’s done for my reporting. What would Berlin look like if everyone gave it their all, without a thought of the consequences? Where would that take the city? The city makes tentative steps toward rebirth, weighed down by people dreading change. What if the city made a leap in one direction, any direction, with all the naysayers silent?
It is easy to fail harder alone. I can report as hard as I want, with reckless abandon for TRUTH, and no one holds me back. People have complimented me for what fail harder has done for the Reporter; I wonder what it would do for Berlin.

In Medias Res

So I haven’t posted in the last several days because I spent most the week chasing down stories more complicated than I understand. I spent so much time at conversations with people that didn’t result in stories that I wound up scraping for stories by the end of the week. Whenever I write a story I usually only put 25 percent of what I’ve learned into the paper. The rest is background and information to make sure I can explain it effectively. With what I’m looking at now, that isn’t the case. It is so vast and complex I’m treading water trying to comprehend it all.
Laidlaw and Clean Power — two companies the city has been fighting over since long before I arrived. What does each one represent? How many jobs would each bring, and what kind of jobs would they be? Can the forest sustain both? What sort of neighbors will they make? These are big issue to some people, and so they have to be to me too. The Reporter is the residents’ paper first and my paper second; if an issue is important to them it is important to me. It’s just up to me to explain it.
But this issue is different than explaining the city’s marketing problem, or its blue collar mindset. It’s different than recounting a city council meeting, or explaining the RSA 155B process, or profiling a restaurant. It’s about power purchase agreements, and PUC rules, and least cost options. It’s about Ellicottville, NY, and Portsmouth, and Concord, and Berlin. It’s about power, and it’s about power.
I don’t care about debates; I care about facts. Will a biomass plant look like hell in the center of town? Sure, if your priority is scenery and a tourism economy, but not if your priority is industrial jobs. I’m not looking for scenery, and I’m not looking to cover fluff. That discussion belongs in an article about marketing, not in one about power. The real questions I’ve got involve substance.
I find myself in the middle of a debate I don’t know the history of, expected to get to the root of it to explain to the people who were around for it. This is a blog, and not the place where I actually report; that’s in the paper, where more people actually care what I write and it affects people’s lives. People in Berlin seem to have already made up their minds about this issue, and I’m not sure they’ve done so on evidence. More often it seems they decided on gut feelings. I’m going to find evidence to prove whether those gut feelings are right or whether they’re crap. Love Laidlaw? I want to show you it’s evil. Hate Laidlaw? I want to prove their perfect. My goal is to test every hypothesis from every side, to tap it and poke it until the actual facts fall to the floor screaming, “Here I am! Here I am! Just leave me alone!”
Berlin’s economic future it tenuous, but the sun is rising after years of black. The residents deserve to know how their actions (or inaction) will affect them. I’ve heard that my stories have brought new customers to businesses struggling to survive. They have breathed life into things formerly dormant. The city of Berlin needs something to believe in, I hear. I can’t deliver something to believe in, but they’ll be able to believe the Berlin Reporter.
I’m not sure if this is a threat, or who it goes out to. To a reporter, truth is thicker than water. If you live in Berlin I wouldn’t expect to stop hearing about this issue anytime soon. And expect to hear from some voices you haven’t heard before. This is why I chose this profession. Now I get to see what I can do.

Dropping the Shade — Part II

Sometimes I don’t like being right: yesterday’s attack on Twitter was to silence a Blogger from Georgia who opposed Russian influence in the region.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/attack-on-twitter-came-in-two-waves/?hp

As print disappears as a viable medium, what are the weaknesses of the alternative? It’s awful hard to burn every book; is it easier to burn down a website? I hope people don’t throw away all their printing presses.

Mr. Anonymous

To Anyone and Everyone:

I left the comment moderation on this blog open to anonymous comments because I am an advocate of free speech. It’s hard to work for a newspaper and not be. Anyone can add any viewpoint they want here without concern of censorship (clean language and pertinence to the conversation please). But I’m also in favor of learning to the Truth, as much as there is a truth with a capital “T.”
I urge anyone with a criticism about Berlin, its government, businesses, public servants or otherwise, to speak their mind here. It is valueable criticism, and I want to hear it. I use that background to generate stories for the Berlin Reporter. But please, if you are willing to leave a comment, be willing to leave enough information for people to make up their minds. If you aren’t, contact me. I will investigate your allegations and find out the merit of the story. That’s what I’m here for. That’s what I’m paid to do. Is the fire chief too strict, or the code enforcement officer making up rules? If so, contact me. But simply saying they do, with out offering any names, instances, or evidence, doesn’t add to the conversation, and I can’t follow such vague allegations up.

Berlin Reporter telephone – 603 752 1200
Or Email – berlinreporter (at) salmonpress.com

I’m not uncomfortable delving into challenging issues. If they are true, I’d like to expose them. But I can’t do anything with the anonymous comment left after Long Conversations. Who should I talk to? What evidence can I find? How am I supposed to use this information? There is nothing here I can use to make the system change. Please, if you’re serious, tell me more. Help me out. I WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THIS.
The community newspaper is supposed to be the community advocate. It’s not for city government, or the police, or the fire department. I work for the best interest of the residents. Journalism is society’s watchdog, and I take that role seriously.
It is in the best interest of the residents that Berlin get back on its feet. If there is something standing in its way I would LOVE to get the tip that would help me expose it. But random bitching doesn’t help. Email me. Tell me who to talk to. Address the issues in your community and make it a better place.

I am in Berlin because I feel strongly that reporting can change communities, expose corruption, celebrate success and challenge injustice. I am here to be the people’s advocate. Help me. I can’t do it alone.

Thank you.

Dropping the Shade

Twitter went down for a few hours earlier today. Even now I can’t post anything, although my feed is still going. It makes you wonder: what would we have learned about Iran had there been a cyber-attack at the same time? I don’t think Twitter will replace journalism, but it certainly aids in the practice of it. What happens when regimes learn to wield technology on par with demonstrators? Or will they always be just a bit behind?
In February, 1982, Syrian soldiers murdered between 10,000 and 40,000 Sunnis after an uprising in the city of Hama, without the dominate media of the time illuminating the massacre. Thomas Friedman, in Beruit to Jerusalem, said the president’s brother boasted he’d killed 38,000. Imagine that — 38,000 people dead, with no world wide coverage. That’s more than half the Americans that died in the Vietnam War, killed in a day.
It’s nice to think that couldn’t happen now. It’s nice to think interconnectivity makes it impossible for people to hide such abuses. But imagine if another cyber-attack were to occur just before China decided to rid itself of Uighurs. Or Mexico decided to rid itself of Zapatistas. Or Egypt decided to rid itself of the Muslim Brotherhood. Or Russia decided to rid itself of Chechens. The Iranian example proved the power of social media, much in the same way Tienanmen Square proved the power of traditional media. But what happens in the vacuum? Who is watching then? What happens if a country learns how to drop the shade?

Twitty Hall

Another new project I’m considering — live Twittering from city council meetings. It could serve as my notes for the story due the next day, and if anyone wanted to see what goes on in at a council meeting, with little more range than makes it into the paper, real time, they’ll have that option. It would also be a way for tech savvy people interested in Berlin to stay in the loop. Playing with the idea.
It may be that I find these meetings way more exciting than most people, being a political science fan. I follow their every word, which some might find boring, but it would open up access to Berlin for its residents both home and away. Worth considering.