Sacred Trust: Fiction

“The Monkey Wrench Gang Meets the Third Industrial Revolution!”

Sacred Trust is a great book for classes on sustainability, renewable energy and the American tradition of protest. This book, used in conjunction with other texts will stimulate discussion and debate among students. It is both adventure and substance rolled into "one great yarn".

In the coming “Age of Electricity” the principal battleground will be over who controls the production and distribution of power. All across America today the battle lines are being drawn and the two sides are rushing to create advantages for themselves. Already more than 10 trans-national power transmission projects are proposed from Maine to Washington State and the Canadian Electricity Association projects a tripling of that demand in the next ten years. In most instances these transmission projects are being proposed by utility companies or consortiums that include a local utility company.

Utility companies represent one front in this battle over competing visions of our energy future. These utility companies, already in an existential battle for survival, seek to maintain control of the revenues generated by the flow of electricity. With a few rare exceptions, they are pitted against those advocates of a new distributed energy paradigm where small, renewable power production replaces the large electricity generators of today.

Most Americans notice that things are changing with respect to energy production and transmission but they have yet to put together the full picture of what will be a sea change in life for every American this presages.

“Sacred Trust” is intended to tell that story in the context of a novel about a group of citizens that have joined together to stop the construction of one, especially egregious powerline, proposed in the small state of New Hampshire where tourism is the second most important industry and the people deeply cherish their beautiful mountains, clean air and pristine waterways.

The power company behind the transmission line, Polaris Electric, proposes to put most of the line above ground with massive 150 foot towers and intends to export 100% of the power right on through the state - like a giant extension cord - with no benefit to the people of the state. In short, like the oligarchs of a previous age, they intend to reap 100% of the benefits and to pass off a large portion of their costs through the generations-long visual pollution of the public commons, to say nothing of the decline in property values and the unknown scientific consequences of high voltage transmission lines on citizens living in their path.

The citizens of the state who stand to lose most from the destruction of real estate values and cherished viewscape are dead set against the project but the political winds are against them with a Governor in the pocket of the utility company and an approval process that seems to be rigged against them, eight unlikely compatriots from across the political spectrum come together to take on the consortium proposing the “Granite Skyway” Transmission line.

While the compatriots, who call themselves The Trust, engage in creative civil disobedience intending to stop the project, or at the very least to literally drive it underground, a group of writers and activists, presenting themselves in the style of the writers of the Federalist Papers produce a series of essays in opposition to Granite Skyway, making the intellectual case, justifying the actions of The Trust. One business writer, in search of a pulitzer, takes on the task of describing the tableau in which all of this takes place beginning with the 1972 election of Jimmy Carter and the drafting of the National Energy Policy Act and the Public Utilities Regulatory Policy Act into which one lone New Hampshire Senator, John Durkin, inserted two lines that changed history and ushered in the renewable energy revolution.Through the device of a series of articles scattered through the novel, business editor James Kitchen leads his readers through a virtual primer of the battle for a new post-carbon energy paradigm.

"Sacred Trust" is a vicarious, high voltage adventure to stop a private electric transmission powerline that leads the reader through not only the hijinks of The Trust, but also through the series of choices with which we all are currently confronting, or will be, in this new “Age of Electricity”.

Described by one reader as "The Monkey Wrench Gang Meets the Third Industrial Revolution" the book follows these unlikely compatriots as they dodge both the law and a cabal of recruits doing the dirty work of the Consortium.

In part one of the book Sasha Brandt, an Iroquois woman from Canada who travels with her companion, a wolf named Cochise, meets Daniel Roy, a guide and outdoorsman while hiking the Mahoosuc Range on the Appalachian Trail. After a unique first encounter the two - three with Cochise - continue their hike together. A few days later, while paddling on Lake Umbagog, they find themselves unexpectedly camping together with an unusual assortment of people including a former Olympic paddler, a very conservative deer farmer, a real estate broker, a retired spook who was the first US victim of Lyme disease and an iconoclast named Thomas (just Thomas) who is also a former Army Ranger now living as a recluse in multiple backwoods abodes in the Great North Woods area of New Hampshire. Thomas is also unique in that his primary mode of transportation is a moose named Metallak, who pulls a cart when traveling with Thomas’ five dogs or wears a saddle when Thomas rides him solo.

The group quickly discovers that they have one very important thing in common - a deep concern about the Granite Skyway proposal to transport electricity from Canada to the toney suburbs of Boston, New York, Connecticut, Philadelphia and Washington D.C.. Their concerns range from the effect it will have on the habitat of newly re-established Raptor populations; to the clear cutting necessary to construct the line; and, the impact of 150 foot towers on the landscape of their beloved state.

The threat to the environment and the scenic beauty are only the tip of an iceberg that includes the value of homes, farms and businesses built by generations of men and women in this hardscrabble land. Rumors alone are already affecting life for many caught up in whisper campaign around this proposed transmission line. All agree, Granite Skyway poses an existential threat to an entire way of life.

Determined to do more than shuffle papers and employ lawyers, the compatriots form a band of brothers and sisters - along with Cochise and Metallak - calling themselves "The Trust". Armed with only their wits and a lot of heart they embark on a rolicking campaign of civil disobedience that would make Thoreau, Alinsky and Dr. King proud.

While the book is a work of fiction, teachers and professors may find it a book that would add a new dimension to classroom discussions and an interesting touch for classes on sustainability, renewable energy or the American tradition of protest.

Throughout their adventure the members of "The Trust" examine many of the most important questions of our time including how America can continue to make an honored space for free speech and civil disobedience in an era of terror; how social media can help create accountability in an increasingly corporatized mega-media landscape; and, how citizens can challenge the corporate oligarchies that often threaten our planet's future.

"Sacred Trust" is written by Wayne King a former State Senator, Democratic nominee for Governor of NH, and most recently CEO of environmental cleanup company MOP Environmental Solutions. Not coincidentally, King worked his way through college as a Mountain Guide in New Hampshire’s White Mountain which explains his detailed knowledge of the setting for the novel. The book is filled with political and environmental stories that will have you laughing and gasping and wondering what is true and what is fiction.

"Sacred Trust' is a vicarious, high voltage campaign to stop the Granite Skyway power transmission project and its short-sighted and in some cases greedy corporate sponsors, intent on using political muscle and money to lock up the region's energy production and distribution, short circuiting efforts to bring about an energy future based on sustainable, and renewable energy deployed through micro-grids, smart-grids and a competitive environment that makes energy more - not less - affordable.

“Courage is the fire in which all virtues are tempered. No virtue can stand without the flame of courage at its core.” - Wayne D. King

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