Tag Archives: kansas

LISTEN: Alleged Kansas Gunman Frazier Glenn Miller Discusses the Tea Party, Obama, and Ron Paul

by DorotheaOsulliv Posted on April 14, 2014

Mother Jones

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In a 2010 radio interview, Frazier Glenn Miller, the man suspected of killing three people on Sunday at a Jewish community center and a Jewish retirement center in Kansas, said he was interested in the tea party, voiced support for then-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and spoke approvingly of Ron Paul, the Texas Republican congressman and presidential candidate. In late April 2010, Miller, a former Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon, was a guest on The David Pakman Show, a nationally syndicated left-of-center radio and television program. At the time, Miller was running for US Senate as an independent in his home state of Missouri with the slogan, “It’s the Jews, Stupid,” and Pakman pressed Miller on his extreme views.

During the interview, Miller was unabashed about his anti-Semitic positions. When asked whether he thought the United States would be better off if Hitler had succeeded, Miller responded, “Absolutely, the whole world would… Hitler would have created a paradise on Earth, particularly for white people. But he would have been fair to other people as well.” He added, “Germans are blamed collectively because of the alleged so-called Holocaust.”

Not surprisingly, Miller denigrated most American politicians, but cited one positively: “If I had my way all US Senators would be in jail right now for treason, if not hung from a sturdy oak tree… Ron Paul is the only independent politician, representative in Washington.” He also spoke highly of another conservative: “Patrick Buchanan, he’s a great man, he’s a great historian, he’s one of the very few journalists who has the courage to speak out against Jewish domination in the country.” Miller called Howard Stern “a Jew liar.” When asked whether he supported the tea party, Miller replied, “The school’s still out on them. They’re a new movement. I’m watching them closely. I suspect, however, they’ll be infiltrated by the Jews and therefore led into defeat.”

During the interview, Pakman asked Miller whom he would “elect, deport, and waterboard”—given the choices of President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and former Fed chair Alan Greenspan. Miller answered, “I like Obama more than the other two, by far.” He chose to elect Obama, deport Greenspan, and waterboard Biden. Miller said, “I have a great deal of admiration for Louis Farrakhan,” and he called Ahmadinejad “a great man” because he “has guts and he tells the truth about the Jews.”

“I’m a convicted felon and I’m proud of it,” Miller boasted, noting that he “was convicted of declaring war on the federal government and possession of illegal weapons.” He added that Jews “were responsible for my conviction that prompted me to go underground and declare war… Morris Dees mainly, he’s a Jew that runs the Southern Poverty Law Center.” (The SPLC monitors hate groups.)

In November 2013, Pakman had an exchange of emails with Miller in which Miller noted that he was “close friends” with Craig Cobb, a white supremacist who had attempted to form an all-white town in Leith, North Dakota. According to Miller, the two had worked together “on several White Nationalist projects, including the Aryan Alternative newspaper.” Referring to the recent news that a DNA test indicated that Cobb had African ancestry, Miller told Pakman, “I can’t believe a man as intelligent as you, actually believes Craig Cobb is an octoroon. Surely, you know it’s just another jewsmedia fraud.”

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LISTEN: Alleged Kansas Gunman Frazier Glenn Miller Discusses the Tea Party, Obama, and Ron Paul

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Inside the Conservative Campaign to Launch "Jim Crow-Style" Bills Against Gay Americans

by KeeleyMarryat Posted on February 20, 2014

Mother Jones

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Kansas set off a national firestorm last week when the GOP-controlled House passed a bill that would have allowed anyone to refuse to do business with same-sex couples by citing religious beliefs. The bill, which covered both private businesses and individuals, including government employees, would have barred same-sex couples from suing anyone who denies them food-service, hotel rooms, social services, adoption rights, or employment—as long as the person denying the service said he or she had a religious objection to homosexuality. As of this week, the legislation was dead in the Senate. But the Kansas bill is not a one-off effort.

Republicans lawmakers and a network of conservative religious groups has been pushing similar bills in other states, essentially forging a national campaign that, critics say, would legalize discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Republicans in South Dakota, Idaho, Oregon, and Tennessee recently introduced provisions that mimic the Kansas legislation. And Arizona, Ohio, Oklahoma, Hawaii, and Mississippi have introduced broader “religious freedom” bills with a unique provision that would also allow people to deny services or employment to LGBT Americans, legal experts say.

“This is a concerted campaign that the Religious Right has been hinting at for a couple of years now,” says Evan Hurst, associate director of Truth Wins Out, a Chicago-based nonprofit that promotes gay rights. “The fact that they’re doing it Jim Crow-style is remarkable, considering the fact that one would think the GOP would like to be electable among people under 50 sometime in the near future.”

Several of these measures have sprung up within a short period of time. The Kansas bill was introduced by Republican State Rep. Charles Macheers on January 16. On January 28, Idaho state Rep. Lynn Luker (R-Boise) introduced a bill that would prohibit the state from yanking the professional licenses of people who deny service or employment to anyone (including LGBT customers) on the basis of their religious beliefs. (There’s an exception for emergency responders.) Luker has since pulled that bill back into committee, to address concerns about the language being discriminatory.

On January 30, a coalition of Republican senators and representatives in South Dakota introduced a bill that would have allowed a business to refuse to serve or people due to their sexual orientation, or be compelled to hire someone because of their sexual orientation. Under this measure, a gay person who brought a lawsuit charging discrimination based on sexual orientation could have faced punitive damages no less than $2,000. The bill also declared that it is protected speech to tell someone that his or her lifestyle is “wrong or a sin.” The bill was killed this week by the state senate judiciary committee.

On February 5, Republicans introduced legislation in both chambers of the Tennessee legislature allowing a person or company to refuse to provide services such as food, accommodation, counseling, adoption, or employment to people in civil unions or same-sex marriages, or transgender individuals, “if doing so would violate the sincerely held religious beliefsâ&#128;&#139; of the person.” (Government employees are excluded.) State Rep. Bill Dunn (R-Knoxville), tells Mother Jones that he sponsored the bill because “a person shouldn’t get sued for choosing not to participate in a person’s wedding.” But this week, the bill’s lead sponsor in the senate, Sen. Brian Kelsey, (R-Germantown), shelved the measure until next year, after facing heavy criticism. And in Oregon, voters could have the opportunity this year to vote on a ballot initiative that would also allow people to refuse on religious grounds to support same-sex couples.

In addition to these bills, lawmakers in Arizona, Ohio, Oklahoma, Hawaii, and Mississippi have recently introduced Religious Freedom Restoration Acts with a provision that could also allow discrimination against LGBT Americans. These state-sponsored RFRAs, which aim to stop new laws from burdening religious exercise, are nothing new—29 states already have some kind of RFRA in place through legislation or court action. But legal experts say that these particular bills are unique in that they allow individuals and in some states, businesses, to cite religion as a defense in a private lawsuit. In the past, courts have been split on the issue. But in 2012, in New Mexico, a photographer tried to use religion in court as grounds for refusing to photograph a same-sex wedding. Last year, the photographer’s studio lost its discrimination lawsuit. The bills are a direct reaction to that lawsuit, say multiple legal experts. “The Kansas bill is more obvious, but some of these RFRAs will have similar effects…they’re just as bad,” says Maggie Garrett, legislative counsel for Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.

The RFRAs and the bills that target same-sex marriage have been pushed by Republican lawmakers, but in some cases, they were first promoted or drafted by a network of conservative Christian groups. According to the Wichita Eagle, the American Religious Freedom Program (ARFP)—which is part of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative organization founded in 1976—crafted the language for the Kansas bill. Brian Walsh, executive director of the ARFP, which supports religious freedom measures, acknowledges that his group consulted with the legislators on the bill, but he says that lots of other groups did as well: “We gave them suggestions and they took some of them.” Walsh says that ARFP was contacted by legislators who wrote the Tennessee bill and that the group frequently talked to legislators in South Dakota about “religious freedom” but not the state’s specific bill. Julie Lynde, executive director of Cornerstone Family Council in Idaho, one of many state groups that are part of Citizen Link, a branch of Focus on the Family, told Al Jazeera, “We’ve been involved in working on the language” of the Idaho bill. Another member of Citizen Link, the Arizona Policy Center, has been active in supporting the Arizona bill. And the Oregon ballot initiative was proposed by Friends of Religious Freedom, a conservative Oregon nonprofit.

Walsh told Mother Jones he believes these bills, particularly the one in Kansas, have been misunderstood, and the aim is not to facilitate discrimination against the LGBT community. “Our goal—and we suspect the goal of others—has been to try to find the right balance between fully protecting religious freedom and other civil liberties so that both sides of the marriage debate can co-exist harmoniously,” he says. But Eunice Rho, advocacy and policy counsel for the ACLU, takes a different stance: “These bills are discriminatory, pure and simple.”

“This seems to be a concerted Hail Mary campaign to carve out special rights for religious conservatives so that they don’t have to play by the same rules as everyone else does,” says Hurst, from Truth Wins Out. “In this new up-is-down world, anti-gay religious folks are ‘practicing their faith’ when they’re baking cakes or renting out hotel rooms to travelers. On the ground, these bills hurt real, live LGBT people.”

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Inside the Conservative Campaign to Launch "Jim Crow-Style" Bills Against Gay Americans

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The Abortion Rate Hits a 30-Year Low

by Sheeritwern Posted on February 3, 2014

Mother Jones

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The abortion rate fell by 13 percent between 2008 to 2011, according to a new study.

The study, released by the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion rights think tank, concluded that nearly 1.1 million abortions took place in the United States in 2011, some 700,000 fewer than in 2008. That’s the equivalent of 16.9 abortions per 1,000 women between 15 and 44. During the same time, the number of abortion providers fell by 4 percent and the number of abortion clinics fell by 1 percent.

“The national abortion rate appears to have resumed its long-term decline,” conclude researchers Rachel K. Jones and Jenna Jerman. The rate of abortions in the United State has decreased almost every year since 1981, when, according to Guttmacher spokeswoman Rebecca Wind, there were 29.3 abortions per 1,000 women. The decline halted from 2005 to 2008. As of 2011, the abortion rate not only began to drop again, it also hit its lowest point since 1973.

The authors did not investigate the reasons for the decline. However, since rates of abortion fell consistently across almost all states, and the time period covered by the study predates the surge of state-level antiabortion laws, the overall decline is likely not the product of new restrictions, the study notes. A few states, however, may have experienced declines related to new restrictions. Missouri’s abortion rate dropped 17 percent between 2008 and 2010, the authors note, perhaps reflecting the impact of a 2009 state law requiring women to seek in-person counseling before getting an abortion. Still, Jones and Jerman write, “It is crucial to note that abortion rates decreased by larger-than-average amounts in several states that did not implement any new restrictions between 2008 and 2010, such as Illinois (18%) and Oregon (15%).”

The increased use of contraceptives is thought to have played a role by reducing the number of unintended pregnancies—in particular among women living in poor economic circumstances who may have used birth control more consistently during the recession and the sluggish recovery period that followed.

Declines in abortions were steepest in Midwest and Western states, and all but six states—Alaska, Maryland, Montana, New Hampshire, West Virginia, and Wyoming, some of which had lower-than-average abortion rates to begin with—experienced decreased rates of abortion.

The loss of providers and facilities which performed abortions may have also had something to do with the drop in abortions. Jones and Jerman also surveyed the accessibility of abortion providers, finding that 38 percent of reproductive-aged women lived in a county without an abortion clinic—some 90 percent of all counties. Abortions induced by medication accounted for nearly 25 percent of all non-hospital abortions in 2011, up from 17 percent in 2008.

Jones and Jerman note that while the drop in abortion providers and facilities—4 percent and 1 percent, respectively—may seem negligible, the caseloads of different facilities can vary widely. Abortion clinics, for example, account for only 19 percent of the facilities that offer abortions, but provide 63 percent of abortions.

Nearly 50 abortion clinics closed from 2008 to 2011—and the drop in clinics was more pronounced than that for other types of facilities that offer abortions. Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Vermont each lost one clinic. “While these states lost only one clinic each, they had few to begin with, so the loss of even one may have affected access to services,” the authors write. “The closure of a clinic may have contributed to the larger-than-average declines in abortion incidence in Kansas and Oklahoma.”

As of 2011, North Dakota, Mississippi, and South Dakota had only one abortion clinic.

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The Abortion Rate Hits a 30-Year Low

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These Cities Are Trying to Bully Undocumented Immigrants Out of Town

by EvanGenders Posted on December 5, 2013

Mother Jones

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As House Speaker John Boehner continues to block immigration reform, a couple of US cities are pushing laws that would run immigrants out of town.

Last month, Hazleton, Pennsylvania, and Farmers Branch, Texas, asked the Supreme Court to hear cases challenging city ordinances that make it illegal for landlords to rent to undocumented immigrants. Both cities say that the high court should uphold their local laws, which have been struck down in lower courts, because a US appeals court recently upheld similar legislation passed by the town of Fremont, Nebraska.

But immigrant advocates say that the two cities’ laws are doomed because they are very similar to Arizona’s draconian immigration law, passed in 2010, which also criminalized being an immigrant. The Supreme Court invalidated most of the provisions of Arizona’s statute in June 2012 because they interfered with the federal government’s authority over immigration. Both the Hazleton and Farmers Branch laws were struck down by lower courts for this precise reason.

“The Supreme Court spoke clearly in the Arizona decision about overriding the federal role of immigration enforcement,” says Sam Brooks of the Souther Poverty Law Center’s Immigrant Justice Project. Not only are these types of laws likely unconstitutional, he adds, they encourage racial profiling by community members worried about giving leases to the wrong people.

Other towns have proposed laws that would stop landlords from renting to undocumented immigrants. San Bernardino, California, was the first to consider such a law in 2006. It was eventually voted down. Valley Park, Missouri, enacted this type of ordinance in 2006. It was challenged twice but upheld by a federal court in 2008. Scores of other municipalities and states have considered legislation that mimics the city housing ordinances and Arizona’s law.

Most of the anti-immigrant statutes can be traced back to one man: Kris Kobach, the secretary of state of Kansas and chief counsel at the conservative Immigration Law Reform Institute (ILRI). Kobach helped craft the laws in Arizona, Hazleton, Farmers Branch, Fremont, and Valley Park, and has defended them in court.

ILRI is the legal arm of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which was founded by John Tanton, an English-only advocate who has ties to white supremacists.

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These Cities Are Trying to Bully Undocumented Immigrants Out of Town

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Nebraska is a loser in the wind-energy boom

by LucasHarbin Posted on October 29, 2013

Nebraska is a loser in the wind-energy boom

By

Ben Carlisle

It’s hard to find anywhere in America that’s windier than Nebraska, where sweeping flat lands offer little to break up the gusts. So why isn’t the state dotted with turbines?

The AP reports that the Cornhusker State is the nation’s third windiest state, yet it ranks 26th in wind-energy generation. It trails neighboring Iowa, South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, and Kansas in producing wind power.

But some state lawmakers and officials are trying to do something about that. From the AP article:

Sen. Heath Mello of Omaha said he’s considering wind-energy legislation next year that would provide a tax credit to wind farms, similar to one offered by the federal government and other states.

“The state still has a considerable way to go to become a truly wind-friendly state,” Mello said. “I’m trying to work now to see what can be done with my existing bill to help make Nebraska more competitive.” …

Earlier this month, the Omaha Public Power District said it would buy 400 megawatts of power from a wind farm being built near O’Neill, in northeast Nebraska. The utility’s board voted to approve a 20-year contract for the electricity, which is enough to supply power to 118,000 customers. The utility currently serves about 350,000 customers in and around Omaha.

Lawmakers approved a bill last year that extended new sales-tax exemptions to wind-energy companies, and shelved another bill that would have made it easier for firms to qualify through an existing state program.

Here’s hoping the talk from Mello and his colleagues amounts to more than just hot air.


Source
Nebraska lawmakers look again at wind energy, Associated Press

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Report: 38,600 Green Jobs Announced in Second Quarter

by Ludmillamet Posted on September 9, 2013

Fifty-eight clean energy and clean transportation projects were announced in the second quarter of 2013, including a wind power transmission project in Missouri and Kansas.

The clean energy and clean transportation sectors continued to create jobs during the second quarter of this year, according to a recent report published by Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2), a community of business leaders who promote environmental policies that also benefit the economy. The report states that across the country, 58 clean energy and clean transportation projects were announced, which could lead to as many as 38,600 new jobs, a number slightly higher than that reported during the second quarter of last year.

These new jobs come from a variety of areas, including renewable energy, public transportation, electricity grid improvements and energy efficiency. Renewable energy jobs make up the greatest number with more than 13,300, and these projects include solar, wind, biomass and other energy sources.

“Clean energy jobs are alive, well and growing,” said Judith Albert, executive director of E2, in a press release. “Smart policies like renewable energy standards at the state level, coupled with federal policies like President Obama’s climate change initiative, promise to keep that growth going.”

Some states made notable achievements with their project announcements, including Missouri and Kansas, which made the top 10 list of states to announce clean energy projects for the first time. These two states will be involved in a transmission upgrade project that will transmit more than 3,500 megawatts of wind energy east to other states. For the first time, Hawaii and Alaska were also included in the top 10 states to announce clean energy projects.

Maryland announced an expansion to the existing light-rail system in Baltimore, which will create many new construction jobs. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Maryland, which placed third on the list, announced a $2.6 billion expansion to Baltimore’s light-rail system. The improvements will include 20 new stations, reduce carbon emissions over time and create more than 4,200 construction jobs.

California announced 12 clean energy and transportation projects, the most of any state, which could lead to as many as 9,000 jobs.

To learn more about these and other clean energy projects, as well as to see a state-by-state breakdown of projects, visit cleanenergyworksforus.org.

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Report: 38,600 Green Jobs Announced in Second Quarter

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Federal officials hampering Texas fertilizer explosion investigation

by vserko45 Posted on May 23, 2013

Federal officials hampering Texas fertilizer explosion investigation

By John Upton

Reuters / Mike StoneThe aftermath of the April 17 explosion and fire in West, Texas.

It would sure be nice to know what exactly caused a fertilizer plant to explode in Texas last month, killing 14 people — especially given that 800,000 Americans live near similar facilities. But federal investigators are complaining to Congress that their work has been stymied by other government agencies, meaning the mystery might never be solved.

From The Dallas Morning News:

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board, in a letter released Tuesday, accused the Texas state fire marshal and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives of hampering its work by blocking access to key witnesses for three weeks after the massive blast — “an unprecedented and harmful delay.”

Board chairman Rafael Moure-Eraso wrote that the “incident site was massively and irreversibly altered under the direction of ATF personnel, who used cranes, bulldozers and other excavation apparatus in an ultimately unsuccessful quest to find a single ignition source for the original fire.” …

The chairman’s letter, dated May 17 and written in response to a request from [Sen. Barbara] Boxer [D-Calif.], is laced with frustration. Moure-Eraso pleads with the senator to intervene to help him and his team gain access to debris and other evidence removed by ATF and the fire marshal, along with West Fertilizer Co. records covering training of employees, chemical inventories and safety records.

“All indications are that the event was an industrial accident” rather than the result of arson, he wrote, questioning the rationale cited by ATF and the fire marshal for tightly controlling access to witnesses and evidence.

He described company documents “blowing around the site and exposed to rain and the elements. The ATF had no apparent interest in the documents.” Yet, he wrote Boxer, ATF agents refused to allow members of the safety board’s 18-person team in West to collect those documents.

Meanwhile, Reuters is reporting that at least 800,000 Americans live near one of hundreds of sites that store large amounts of ammonium nitrate, which investigators believe was the source of last month’s blast:

Reuters’ analysis of hazardous chemical inventories found schools, hospitals and churches within short distances of facilities storing ammonium nitrate, such as an elementary school in Athens, Texas, that is next door to a fertilizer plant. The Hiawatha Community Hospital in Padonia, Kansas, is less than a quarter-mile from one site and three-quarters of a mile from another. …

Some sites are in heavily urbanized areas. Acid Products Co. in Chicago, which reported storing between 10,000 and 99,999 pounds of ammonium nitrate in 2012, is surrounded by about 24,000 people.

The Chemical Safety Board’s report, expected in 12 to 18 months, could provide some answers about the causes of the West explosion — if the ATF folks get out of the way.

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Federal officials hampering Texas fertilizer explosion investigation

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F.A.A.’s Concerns Hold Up Use of Wildfire Drones

by Myrna Posted on May 21, 2013

While federal firefighters explore the use of drones to map a wildfire’s size and speed, safety requirements of the F.A.A. is holding up testing and implementation. Continue at source: F.A.A.’s Concerns Hold Up Use of Wildfire Drones ; ;Related ArticlesCrews Search for Survivors in Oklahoma After TornadoLack of Water Has Lasting Effects in Kansas and TexasHigh Plains Aquifer Dwindles, Hurting Farmers ;

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F.A.A.’s Concerns Hold Up Use of Wildfire Drones

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Ag-gag bill chokes in Tennessee

by gt67dx1 Posted on May 17, 2013

Ag-gag bill chokes in Tennessee

By John Upton

Shutterstock

It appears ag-gag bills can’t even hoof it in farm country: Tennessee joins a roster of states who are strangling ag-gag bills before they can reach the killing floor.

Tennessee lawmakers had narrowly approved a bill that would have required anybody who filmed animal abuses to turn over the footage to law enforcement within 48 hours or risk being fined. That would have prevented undercover animal activists from documenting systematic animal abuse by agricultural workers, helping factory farms get away with cruelty.

But Gov. Bill Haslam (R) called BS on the bill and said that he plans to veto it. From a statement issued by the governor on Monday:

First, the Attorney General says the law is constitutionally suspect. Second, it appears to repeal parts of Tennessee’s Shield Law [which protects journalism] without saying so. If that is the case, it should say so. Third, there are concerns from some district attorneys that the act actually makes it more difficult to prosecute animal cruelty cases, which would be an unintended consequence.

For these reasons, I am vetoing HB1191/SB1248, and I respectfully encourage the General Assembly to reconsider this issue.

Ag-gag bills have been spreading through the U.S. faster than mystery disease at a Chinese swine farm. Some have become law, but others are being withdrawn, defeated, or vetoed. Grist’s Susie Cagle produced this interactive map last month to provide an overview.

Food Safety News reports that Haslam’s veto might make it less likely that other states will adopt such questionable bills:

Six states have adopted “ag-gag” laws. Iowa, Utah, and Missouri passed such legislation last year. Kansas, Montana and North Dakota did so back in 1990-91. No one can find much in the way of prosecutions under these laws, but that could be because animal welfare groups might be less active in those six states.

This year, “ag-gag” bills have fallen short. Wyoming adjourned before there could be a vote in the second house. Indiana’s chambers could not agree after passing differing versions. The bill’s California sponsor dropped it in that state. And now Tennessee’s bill died in a gubernatorial veto.

State legislatures are quickly shutting down for the year. Of the 50, 20 have already adjourned sine die. Many others will do so before June. A couple that meet into the summer, such as Nebraska and Pennsylvania, could still pass another “ag-gag” this year.

But the Tennessee veto makes that less likely than it was before the Haslam veto.

Baaahhh-eautiful.

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Kansas may mandate unsustainable development

by o99hjkd Posted on April 12, 2013

Kansas may mandate unsustainable development

By John Upton

Shutterstock

/ Katherine WellesThe Kansas statehouse in Topeka, where the magic happens.

Legislation introduced in Kansas would ban the promotion or practice by state agencies of sustainable development.

Don’t they know that when sustainable development is outlawed, only outlaws develop sustainably?

House Bill 2366, introduced into the House Energy and Environment Committee, would prevent any state funds from being “used, either directly or indirectly, to promote, support, mandate, require, order, incentivize, advocate, plan for, participate in or implement sustainable development.”

Weird. Maybe the numskulls behind the bill don’t grasp the actual meaning of “sustainable development.” Perhaps they think the term refers specifically to Agenda 21, which Glenn Beck and other right-wingers claim is a diabolical United Nations plot to force Americans to live in cities and ride public transit. The horror!

Checking the bill … nope … no misinterpretation here. The legislation’s definition of sustainable development is surprisingly clear and positive sounding: “[A] mode of human development in which resource use aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come.”

The legislation was introduced in February and hasn’t yet had a committee hearing. But if it does somehow become law, the government of Kansas will be legislatively required to pursue unsustainable development — that is, development that, by its legal definition, degrades the environment so that needs cannot be met for generations to come.

The Energy and Environment Committee is chaired by Rep. Dennis Hedke (R), a geophysicist who the Kansas City Star says “counts at least 18 energy companies as clients.” From a March article in the Star:

Hedke is a decided nonbeliever of man-made global warming. He thinks those claims have been used to impose strict environmental regulations, such as renewable-energy standards, that ultimately dig into consumers’ wallets.

“This is costly,” Hedke said. “It’s already hurt people around the world.”

The notion that carbon dioxide should be regulated as a dangerous gas that’s wreaking havoc on the environment, he said, is a “flat-out lie.” …

Hedke said the [anti-sustainable-development] measure was motivated by complaints from constituents who think there is an insidious attempt to create new layers of government through groups like the Regional Economic Area Partnership in Wichita.

Two years ago, the group received a $1.5 million federal grant for planning sustainable communities. The grant became a sore spot for critics who believed it would open the door for the federal government to impose its will on local officials.

Well, Hedke, so long as your needs and the needs of your clients are met, screw the kids — and their kids!

John Upton is a science aficionado and green news junkie who

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Kansas may mandate unsustainable development

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