[Speed Gibson,
Sunday June 17, 2007 at 5:58pm]
I Still Can't Vote for Pawlenty
The more I read and hear about this big "environmental" push for an 80 percent reduction in "pollutants" by 2050, paired with some mythical rise in "renewable" fuels, the less I like it. Per Mary Lahammer on Almanac this week, this bill was "the crowning achievement of the [2007] Legislative session." No, there's no bias on Public TV!
The guest that segment was Steve Morse with the Minnesota Environmental Partnership. This guy was positively scary. If he has any real scientific or economic credentials that would allow him to truly understand what he was saying, they were not apparent. No, it was a lot of double talk and Pollyanna policy thinking, plus a lot of plain old fashioned B.S.
Hosts Cathy Wurzer and Mary Lahammer did ask a number of good questions, good enough to make Morse uncomfortable a couple of times. But they let Morse dance away from and around them by not asking follow up questions. At the end, Lahammer again chirped, "Minnesota continues to lead the country on this one." No, there's no bias on Public TV!
Worst of all, the Governor is all for it. Once people understand how their lifestyles will be diminished to meet arbitrary goals, their taxes raised to support the required inefficiencies, and their jobs lost to more sensible states and countries, much of this nonsense will have to be repealed. Nuclear power is the only viable option for coming even close to these targets, and Morse's stammering made it pretty clear that this was still off the table. Switchgrass will save us!
Sure the Governor seemed to more than have his way this session, but it would be far more honest to say that his self-appointed nemesis, Senate Larry Pogemiller botched, even butchered his debut as Majority Leader. The Governor lost big in 2005, and his negotiating skills were still suspect this year, throwing his best offer on the table at the start.
I can only conclude that Tim Pawlenty ultimately only serves the perceived interests of Tim Pawlenty. The rights and lives of his subjects are ultimately expendable in his view.
I hope someone like Sue Jeffers or Joe Repya challenges Pawlenty in the primary in 2010. Believe it or not, we can, we must do better.
The guest that segment was Steve Morse with the Minnesota Environmental Partnership. This guy was positively scary. If he has any real scientific or economic credentials that would allow him to truly understand what he was saying, they were not apparent. No, it was a lot of double talk and Pollyanna policy thinking, plus a lot of plain old fashioned B.S.
Hosts Cathy Wurzer and Mary Lahammer did ask a number of good questions, good enough to make Morse uncomfortable a couple of times. But they let Morse dance away from and around them by not asking follow up questions. At the end, Lahammer again chirped, "Minnesota continues to lead the country on this one." No, there's no bias on Public TV!
Worst of all, the Governor is all for it. Once people understand how their lifestyles will be diminished to meet arbitrary goals, their taxes raised to support the required inefficiencies, and their jobs lost to more sensible states and countries, much of this nonsense will have to be repealed. Nuclear power is the only viable option for coming even close to these targets, and Morse's stammering made it pretty clear that this was still off the table. Switchgrass will save us!
Sure the Governor seemed to more than have his way this session, but it would be far more honest to say that his self-appointed nemesis, Senate Larry Pogemiller botched, even butchered his debut as Majority Leader. The Governor lost big in 2005, and his negotiating skills were still suspect this year, throwing his best offer on the table at the start.
I can only conclude that Tim Pawlenty ultimately only serves the perceived interests of Tim Pawlenty. The rights and lives of his subjects are ultimately expendable in his view.
I hope someone like Sue Jeffers or Joe Repya challenges Pawlenty in the primary in 2010. Believe it or not, we can, we must do better.
And the more the rest of us Minnesotans do! Didn't you notice the air quality alert from those last week? I'll be you also didn't see cars and trucks lined 20 deep to buy that "mythical" fuel E85 on Friday in St. James, Minn. I did, and so did many others. You may never understand wisdom of investing in biofuels in Minnesota, but thousands of MN drivers have already made the first step away from oil and toward a better environment.