Gas Plant in Denton

Today's DRC top story by Lowell Brown covers the planned CHP power plant near the airport. Two issues are central. 1. Process: A transcript from the state legislative session with City Attorney Anita Burgess suggests that a local vote was bypassed in favor of state legislation in order to appease corporations. 2. Substance: A CHP plant certainly is better than a traditional gas plant (only electricity) or a coal plant. But are those the only options? Seems like a foregone conclusion that what Denton ought to do is attract more industry and to do that we need the energy infrastructure in place. But is this how we should develop? Do we want more industry? Do we want to have a major power plant here? Seems like important questions that - to tie it to the process issue - perhaps a local vote could have generated a discussion about. Instead, it seems as though it is fated: a big power plant is coming and industry will follow. This is one thing Marx got right - most of the really important decisions are classifed as 'economic' rather than 'political' so that democracy is confined to window-dressing around a taken-for-granted techno-economic imperative to grow.