Renewable Energy Is ‘Stalinist’ Mandate, Says Ohio Legislator

[kristopher]

Renewable Energy Is ‘Stalinist’ Mandate, Says Ohio Legislator
BY ANDREW BREINER ON JANUARY 24, 2014


Ohio Sen. Bill Seitz speaks to the media in 2005. CREDIT: AP PHOTO/MIKE ELICSON

Ohio State Senator Bill Seitz (R-Cincinnati) compared a policy promoting renewable energy to Soviet Communism on Wednesday, calling it “some Stalinist government mandating, ‘You must buy my stuff.’” And it’s not the first time he’s referred to the brutal 20th-century dictator when talking about a 2008 policy that requires utilities to provide 25 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2025. In March, Seitz said the renewable energy standard reminds him of “Joseph Stalin’s five-year plan.”

Seitz was speaking at a hearing on Senate Bill 34, which would totally repeal the standard that Ohio legislators passed, and then-Governor Ted Strickland signed in 2008. Current Governor John Kasich (R-OH) has not said whether he supports the bill, and did not respond to a request for comment. Senator Kris Jordan (R-Ostrander), the sponsor of the bill, and Seitz are both members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an organization funded by fossil fuel companies, corporate interests, and the ultra-conservative Koch brothers that pushes controversial far-right policies at the local level, including Stand Your Ground laws, attacks on minimum wage laws, and school privatization.

ALEC spent much of 2013 trying to repeal state clean energy laws like Ohio’s, and failed miserably. But they’re still at it. Seitz sponsored a bill that would have only weakened Ohio’s renewable requirement in 2013, but it didn’t get enough support to move forward. So he’s shifted support to full repeal.

Opposition to the renewable standard doesn’t seem to reach much deeper than the Stalin comparisons. Since 2008, Ohio has added 8,000 new jobs in wind and solar, and efficiency programs have saved $1 billion for rate-payers. The standard has resulted in more than 1,000 renewable energy projects across the state, according to the Ohio Public Utilities Commission. A group of 2,000 veterans, military family members, and supporters came together to oppose the last attack on the standard, and a renewable standard is highly popular among Ohio voters.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/01/24/3197321/renewable-energy-stalinism/

[Xipe Totec]

1. He wouldn't know a Stalinist mandate if it put him up against the wall and shot him

and fed his carcass to the hogs at the nearest kolhoz.

[Demeter]

2. Second that notion

but spare the pigs. They will get indigestion.

[Dollface]

3. At least Stalin had a plan

[4dsc]

4. He's aspecial kind of stupid for sure

When idiots speak we should all listen. Never know when you're going to need a good laugh.

[gejohnston]

5. some suggested reading for him

In their ruthless drive to exploit their nation, Soviet leaders gave little thought to the health of their people or the lands that they ruled. No country is free from the scourge of pollution, but the Soviet example is one of horrifying extremes, one that stems from decades of neglect and the abuse of a vast and once beautiful land.

From Vilnius to Vladivostok, a beleaguered environment bears witness to a legacy of irresponsibility: the rivers of the former U.S.S.R. are open sewers of human and chemical waste; the Aral sea is drying up; in many Soviet c cities the air is so polluted that it puts millions at risk of respiratory diseases. Tons of nuclear waste is spread out all over the country and toxic chemicals have poisoned the soil.

http://www.gerdludwig.com/stories/soviet-pollution-a-lethal-legacy/#num=content-308&id=album-37
http://www.multinationalmonitor.org/hyper/issues/1990/09/ridgeway.html
Sounds like to me that he and the Kochs are kind of "Stalinist".
Is he for real or is he just hoping to get his chairmanship back, which he lost for a pro union vote?

My amendment to Goodwin's law: add Stalin to the list.

[pscot]

6. Put him in a fur loincloth

He hasn't had a new idea in 20,000 years.