Bright and early yesterday morning, US Representative Lloyd Doggett, State Senator Rodney Ellis, State Representative Mark Strama, and environmental and civil rights advocate Van Jones stood together to tout the Alliance for a Clean Texas' Texas Energy Future: Clean Jobs, Green Power Conference.
Rodney Ellis opened up the press conference, stating that this year's legislative session looks to be a very green session. He also mentioned, as he has before, that the legislature is at a crucial moment in terms of climate change action. If the legislature doesn't act this year, the federal government will likely pass and begin implementing comprehensive global warming legislation before the state legislature will have a chance to meet again. If Texas is not prepared for this kind of drastic policy change, we may not have a chance to address these issues again until 2011.
Senator Ellis then gave the mic over to the group he termed the "Dapper Three" (swoon!).
T. Boone Pickens, the conservative tycoon whose money comes from oil and gas and other investments, has always been part of the anti-government Right. He helped fund the Swift Boaters. He contributes to anti-democratic groups like Texans for Lawsuit Reform. He is the enemy of progressive government. So it is a bit head-turning to see Pickens make Texas government his investment partner in his wind power plans.
Equally disturbing are signs that Democrats in Congress and elsewhere appear willing to forget Pickens' attacks on them if he blows enough wind up their skirts.
Pickens will build a billion dollars worth of wind-driven generators in West Texas. The Texas Public Utility Commission has approved a plan calling for spending more than $4 billion in taxpayer money for transmission lines that will get the electricity from those windmills to consumers. Without government's extraordinary help, Pickens can't sell his electricity. He can't earn a profit.
Our governments should be investing in clean sources of energy. That is not the issue. And private investors who have awakened to the opportunities in alternative energy sources should also be encouraged.
The issue is hypocrisy. For too long the Right has bashed government as a destructive barrier to private enterprise and individual initiative. That broad-brush message has appealed to individualistic voters -- especially in the South where some voters have long resented such laws as the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. The wealthy have long used the message to drive their anti-tax agenda.
Over at his website, Leaders Listen, State Rep. Mike Villarreal (D-San Antonio) is encouraging Texans to sign a petition to the Public Utility Commission to encourage them to select a plan that maximizes the renewable energy transmission grid:
