Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Posturing Pawlenty

The liberalizing of Tim Pawlenty continues. This time, it is calling for renewable energy. He wants a quarter of all energy used in the state to come from renewable sources by 2025. He wants more E85, more money for research into producing ethanol from crops other than corn, and a reduction in fossil fuel use. He supports fining energy companies that don't comply, and tosses aside conservative concerns about regulation.

Once again, these are all great ideas that I support (with the possible exception of ethanol). But isn't this a little freaky? Pawlenty is definitely changing his tune. An earlier version of the story online had Pawlenty sounding like a far-left liberal, saying "look at all of the tax credits and subsidies the oil industry gets" when questioned about just how conservative it is to subsidize renewables. Definitely not old-time Pawlenty-speak.

What's his motivation? I have no idea. If it is higher office, this isn't the way to go about it: running as a Rockefeller Republican won't get you any Republican endorsements nationally in this day and age. So what can it be?

5 comments:

  1. What can it be? Simple... he believes it. I know that's hard for some folks to believe, but it's true. Today's announcement was bigger and bolder than anything you've seen from T-Paw before on energy issues, but entirely consistent with where the Governor has been on these issues for his entire administration.

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  2. This is political posturing. He wants to be veep and he sees the pendulum of public opinion swinging to the left. He's positioning himself to balance a ticket - let the headliner draw the base & he'll convince moderates that he'll keep the party from going too far right. I hope I'm wrong, but I think he'll make sufficient motions to give some credibility to his pledges, but not a bit more.

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  3. A thought. If the job gets done, and Minnesota expands its leadership in renewable energy, does it really matter what motivates the policy?

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