Oregon Senate candidate Jeff Merkley was in Austin for Netroots Nation, where he appeared on a panel about energy issues. Merkley is attempting to unseat Gordon Smith, the sole GOP senator on the West Coast, this November, and he's put climate and environment issues at the top of his campaign agenda.
His plans include calling for a 25 percent renewable energy national standard by 2025, cutting emissions 80 percent by mid-century, and creating incentives for cities to reduce their emissions. He currently serves as speaker of the Oregon House, and before that he was a national security analyst for both the Pentagon and Congress.
His opponent, Gordon Smith, is seen as one of the most vulnerable GOP incumbents in the Senate this year, at least in part because of his environmental record. He maintains only a 32 percent lifetime score [PDF] from the League of Conservation Voters, though he did earn a 73 percent score in the 110th Congress. His environmental transgressions include voting against action on climate change, voting in favor of a Republican budget plan that included drilling in ANWR, and in 2003 claiming that scientists are still "evenly split" on the question of whether humans are causing global warming. Smith, too, seems to know that environmental issues will be big this year. His first campaign ad was on his work with Barack Obama to improve automobile fuel efficiency, touting his "bipartisan leadership for energy independence."
The latest Rasmussen poll puts Merkley ahead of Smith for the first time so far in the election, 43 percent to 41 percent. Grist had an opportunity to talk to Merkley about his plan for the Senate and the accomplishments at home in Oregon that he's most proud of.
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JMG Posted 3:10 am
22 Jul 2008
Biofuelish guy
Merkley has drunk deep from the biofuel kool-aid pitcher. In a state where access to poverty health insurance is being decided by lottery, he helped lead the charge for massive state subsidies for biofuels, along with a state blending mandate. Now there's a proposal for a coal-burning ethanol plant just inside the Oregon/Idaho border, so they can import both corn and coal to the state which has neither.
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greivel Posted 5:44 am
22 Jul 2008
Merkley's approach to biofuels makes sense
I'm not sure what biofuels kool-aid you believe that Merkley has consumed. He's well aware that some technologies are better than others.
A quote from the Daily Astorian:
As for importing biomass to produce ethanol (from The News-Review):
Merkley is much more committed to reducing our nation's dependence on oil than the incumbent, Gordon Smith, and that has got to be a key consideration when evaluating these two candidates.
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JMG Posted 6:33 am
22 Jul 2008
Don't subsidize making A if you want R&D on B
If you entertain cellulosic dreams, why subsidize non-cellulosic -- corn, in other words -- ethanol production? Why, having seen what happens when you subsidize A (you create a lobby that won't let you shift off A), would you create a state level subsidy for A, when claiming that what you really want is B?
It's not enough to say "wants to get off oil" -- oil is a problem that is solving itself. The problem is how much damage do we do to our soil while we keep chasing the substitutionist fantasy (the fantasy that we can keep on trucking as before, only with different fuels), as Merkley and other liberals do.
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JMG Posted 9:35 am
25 Jul 2008
Sobering up in Oregon
Good news! A state senator in Oregon is coming to her senses on the ethanol mandate and vows to change it:
http://news.opb.org/article/2666-oregons-ethanol-mandate- ...
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