Big Sky Cairn

Rep Sonju from Kalispell had this editorial in the Missoulian about energy policy. It’s clear-thinking like this that makes Republicans so much better on energy policy than environmentalist-beholden Democrats - and it’s the main reason I’m so excited about soon-to-be Governor Roy Brown. He’s got a resume in the energy industry and he’s not in the pocket of the tree-hugger lobby that have been fighting for higher energy prices for decades.

Instead of short-sighted tax-policy fixes, Congress should instead be looking to a comprehensive energy policy. That policy absolutely needs to have alternative energy as a major part of the mix. It also needs to encourage ongoing conservation efforts. But the only near-term component of that comprehensive policy that can alleviate the current high energy costs is to increase the supply of readily-available energy n the proposed punitive tax-code changes actually would work against that. The obvious solution to our energy problems is to increase the ability of American companies to produce more energy.

The problem is, a lot of conservatives are acting like spoiled children who didn’t get to play with their favorite toy and so don’t want to play with any toy at all. In 2006, Montana voters foolishly replaced Burns with Tester - and in doing so handed the reigns of the United States Senate to Harry Reid and the drill-nothing Democrats. The Democrat Majority may be around for awhile, and if so, you can count on more of the bad policies that Sonju describes - increasing taxes while decreasing domestic supplies.

On the other hand, I think energy policy is quickly vaulting to the forefront of political relevance - up there with security - and unless the Democrats start separating themselves from the powerful environmental lobby, they could find themselves back in the minority in 2010.

With money tight, and everything costing more these days, I think November might find a lot of people voting on energy prices. And if that’s the case, more solutions is a lot better than the limited solutions approved by tree-huggers. Drill, drill, drill!

If replacing Burns with anyone at all is considered “foolish”, then there are no bounds the the depths of stupidity that we embrace in our politics.

You mean Burns - who was cleared of all charges and whose seniority and experience in the Senate is sorely missed when compared to one-term-Tester’s bumblings? Yeah, I think Montana made a mistake.

To say nothing of the fact that electing Tester gave Democrats a Senate majority…