It Lives! The Zombie Energy Bill

Last night (or was it this morning?) during the debate in the Minnesota State Senate on forced unionization of child care providers, the adjective "zombie" was thrown out to describe the bill's remarkable ability to keep rising from the dead.

Likewise, the solar power mandate bill keeps coming back, despite all efforts to bury it.  Last night, like a remora, it attached itself to the presumably more popular "jobs" bill (House File 729) and is said to be headed for the House floor tonight (Wednesday).

Sadly, the remnants of the [Sen. John] Marty Manifesto are still there, calling for an end to fossil fuel use and 100 percent renewable energy, "within the next few decades."  The blather about "the economic losses to the Minnesota economy from importation of fossil fuels" and "the economic and environmental costs of continued reliance on fossil fuels" remains.

As part of my day job, today, I attended a speech by Scott Tinker, the state geologist of Texas and a professor at the University of Texas.  Dr. Tinker, as part of an excellent presentation, made the important point that everything that was conventional wisdom regarding energy a decade ago turned out to be wrong.

The world produces more oil today than at any time in its history.  America is poised to resume its historic role as a net oil exporter, after decades as the world's largest oil importer.  America produces more natural gas than at any point in its history, and is poised to start a massive natural gas export business.

As Dr. Tinker demonstrated--even as we develop renewable energy and more nuclear power--American and world production of oil and natural gas will continue rising for the next few decades.  We will not run out of either oil or natural gas within the lifetime of any person now living.

Sen. Marty's bill reflects a worldview based on data no longer valid (if it ever was).  Turning away from fossil fuels--if we were actually to do so--would only harm our state.

Updated: Solar Power in the Dark of Night

[Updated:  I wrote too soon.  Despite media reports that a deal was done and the report signed, the conference committee is scheduled to reconvene and continue deliberations on the solar power bill.]

As clichéd as you can get in these matters, the Minnesota state legislature’s conference committee met in the dark of last night, behind closed doors, and hammered out a “compromise” on imposing a solar power mandate on four of the state’s electric utilities.

Local media, of course, portray the bill as watered-down, from the original demand of 10 percent solar, to a mere 1.5 percent.  The timeline has been moved up a few years, which means that the 18,000 workers who will lose their jobs as a result of the mandate will see their pink slips just that much sooner.

[Sorry, solar mandates don’t create “green” jobs, higher electricity prices will reduce employment across the economy.]

Gone from the bill is the increase in renewable energy requirements from 25 percent to 40 percent.  A ten percent solar “goal” remains.  Still in the bill are big favors for well-connected solar power companies.  Also included are generous payments to non-profits who can use the money to lobby for more expensive energy subsidies.

Most disturbingly, the bill would “make Minnesota the first state in the nation to use only renewable energy.”  Yes, the bill would write into state law a requirement for Minnesota to stop “burning fossil fuels.”  The government study on how the state will implement this goal is due January 14, 2014.

I know that many dismiss such pie in the sky as merely a “goal.”  But all it will take is an activist judge or an ambitious cabinet officer, and we will all be sitting in the dark.

Sen. Franken and Political Charity, Part 1

The Star Tribune's Hot Dish political blog quotes U.S. Senator Al Franken (D-MN) with this howler today on the subject of non-profit political groups,

“These 501(c)(4)’s [non-profits], in order to be tax-exempt, in order for people to give them money and also not be disclosed who they are, the 501(c)(4) has to spend at least 50 percent, plus a dollar, on actual social welfare.

"So, some of these organizations have been, you know, it looks like they have been spending more on just pure politics.  So it’s a legitimate inquiry by the IRS.  What is in no way legitimate is that this be biased in any way.  And the people responsible for this should be held accountable.”

The good Senator must have been much less concerned back in November 2010, when, as MinnPost reported, "Sens. Klobuchar, Franken headlining TakeAction dinner."  Franken had not problem headlining a big event for the controversial 501(c)(4) political charity.  Would he do it again?

O Tempora, O Mores!

Legislating Away Fossil Fuels

Not long after the 2012 election, in which Minnesota’s Democrats secured one-party rule in state government, leading environmental organizations—instrumental in the Democrats’ success—declared 2013 to be the year of solar power.  Specifically, the environmentalists call for the state’s utilities to produce 10 percent of their electricity from expensive solar power.

Earlier this week, the Minnesota House of Representatives did its part, setting a goal of 10 percent solar power, setting a mandate of 4 percent solar, and placing both on top of a renewable energy mandate raised from 25 percent to 40 percent.

Up next comes the state Senate, which is expected to take up its version of the bill later this week.  The Senate’s version is portrayed as less aggressive.  True, it is missing the 40 percent provision for the “wind” standard, omits the 10 percent solar “goal,” and has the solar mandate topping out at a mere one (1) percent.

Also dropped from the current Senate version was its previous Article 1, a long, rambling diatribe that read more like a newspaper editorial than it did serious law.  I’ve heard the old Article 1 described as “Marty’s Manifesto” after the bill’s chief author, Sen. John Marty (DFL-Roseville).  If it read like an Op-Ed commentary, it’s because it was this commentary, appearing in the left-leaning news website MinnPost.

The current Article 1 is not much of an improvement, as it calls for Minnesota to be “the first state in the nation to use only renewable energy.”  A 100 percent renewable energy standard may be Sen. Marty’s vision, but I doubt that a majority of Minnesota’s voters (or even its legislators) support that goal.  Nonetheless, a 100 percent renewable energy standard is now only a few steps from state law.

How would Sen. Marty accomplish his dream?  As it turns out, central planning.  State agencies would collaborate on

a framework for the state of Minnesota to transition to a renewable energy economy that ends Minnesota's contribution to greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels within the next few decades.

In developing his framework, Sen. Marty would have state agencies consult with a range of stakeholders—with the notable omission of anyone having anything to do with paying for his pipe dream.  Ratepayers are to be excluded from giving input into this grand “transition framework.”

Utopia by decree is almost at hand.  All it will take is the agreement of 34 state senators.

Liberalism Explained in One Paragraph

UK blogger Russell Taylor wrote this piece to explain current British politics.  However, this paragraph explains the liberal mindset the world over,

"[C]ontinuous economic growth was taken for granted.  Once you’ve been hoodwinked into believing that prosperity and social order are facts of nature or the product of enlightened government, conservative values don’t make much sense, they just appear mean and petty.  Politics becomes about lowering the criteria of success and removing the obstacles that stand between people and their rightful share of life’s bounty–things like objective values and codes of behaviour."

Be Very, Very Quiet, We’re Making Energy Policy

The Minnesota House of Representatives made history last night, passing a nation-leading 40 percent renewable electricity requirement (tied with Hawaii).  Added on top is a 10 percent solar-power-only goal, including a 4 percent solar mandate.  All told, Minnesota is requiring its biggest utilities to produce fully half of their power from renewable sources.

You didn’t hear about it?  Don’t worry, you weren’t supposed to.  The debate ran for hours, but was blacked out on public television.  Taxpayer funded radio is all but silent.

Time was, a big new renewable power requirement would make national news.  Last night, I was predicting that the House vote would get no more than a paragraph in our state’s leading newspaper.  I overestimated its newsworthiness.  Not one word of the vote appeared in today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune paper edition.

The Post-Modern Prude

As writer Victor Davis Hanson points out in this column, our elites sure have funny ideas about what is and isn't acceptable behavior.

Churchill Quote of the Day

Churchill wrote this about British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, but it applies much more widely,

"Occasionally he stumbled over the truth, but hastily picked himself up and hurried on as if nothing had happened."

Minnesota Department of Wishful Thinking

This morning (May 2^nd) I attended an event held in the southeast metro at a conference center with floor-to-ceiling windows on three sides.  After last night’s freak, early-May snowstorm, the windows offered an excellent, 270° view of the several inches of climate change blanketing the Minnesota countryside.

In the midst of a sea of white, one speaker gamely tried to make the case for global warming. 

About 20 miles north, a subcommittee of the Minnesota State Senate was passing a bill to eliminate the use of fossil fuels within Minnesota’s borders.  Not reduce, eliminate.  I’m not kidding.

The Ungrateful Peasants

About a month ago, I praised Minnesota Democrat Governor Mark Dayton for holding town hall meetings around the state.  Perhaps I was too hasty.

Lately, Gov. Dayton’s encounters with the hoi polloi have not gone well.  On Monday, the Governor held one of his “Meetings With Mark” in the southwest metro suburb of Shakopee.  At the event, the Governor declared of his audience, “Never seen a group this rude.”

By Tuesday morning, he had doubled down, adding the word “juvenile” to his description of the crowd.  There seems to be a genuine disagreement among those actually on the scene regarding just how rude, if at all, the crowd was on Monday night.

There can be no mistake about the Governor’s demeanor when in front of a “hostile crowd.”  Although I was not on hand Monday night in Shakopee, I did attend what had to have been one of Governor Dayton’s first speeches after taking office back in 2011, a January 2011 appearance before the state Chamber of Commerce.  As this account of the event implies, when faced with a skeptical crowd, the Governor reverts to full lecture mode.  At least that’s the way it seemed to me from the cheap seats.