Last Call For Lights Out, Ohio

Gov. John Kasich and the GOP-controlled state legislature are about to kill green energy in Ohio.

Senate Bill 310 is a two-year freeze on standards that apply to electricity utilities for renewable energy and energy efficiency.

It also makes major changes to the rules when they resume in 2017, ending a requirement that utilities purchase half of their renewable energy from within the state and expanding the types of projects that count as energy efficiency.

The standards needed to be changed because they “are simply not achievable or sustainable,” said Rep. Peter Stautberg, R-Anderson Township.

Ohio is the first state of the 29 with renewable-energy standards to pass a reduction of the standards in both legislative chambers. Similar proposals have been made in more than a dozen other states and were all beaten back by some of the same concerns that were expressed in Ohio.

In light of this distinction, the bill makes Ohio the “laughingstock of these United States,” said Rep. Robert Hagan, D-Youngstown.

Rep. Mike Foley, D-Cleveland, said the bill is the worst proposal he has seen in eight years as a legislator. Supporters of the bill are “bound and determined to drag Ohio backward,” he said.

Two Democrats voted for the bill. Six Republicans voted against it, including Rep. Mike Duffey, R-Worthington.

Asked about the disagreements among Republicans, House Speaker William G. Batchelder, R-Medina, said there had been a healthy debate.

“I think some people really believe in this green stuff,” he said. “That’s fine. But somebody’s going to have to answer to the public as this additional expense gets added on.”

The funny part is that the "additional expense" is going to be higher for Ohio taxpayers without the efficiency standards, and of course, this was yet another piece of ALEC legislation from the Tea Party lunatics.

So good job with that, Ohio.  Better hope in two years there's Democrats in charge of the state, because if it's still Kasich and his clowns, Ohio's future in green jobs is over.  It'll go to other states who really do want jobs.

More Naked (GOP) Lunch

Big Agra and Big Sugar are huge contributors to the GOP, so it's no surprise that they want to roll back 2010 school lunch standards and federal nutrition programs in general.  Turns out the First Lady has something to say about that.

Michelle Obama lashed out in a newspaper opinion piece Thursday against Republican plans to roll back recently improved nutrition standards in American schools, one of her cherished causes as US first lady.

Obama wrote in the New York Times that revamped school nutrition standards requiring less salt, sugar and fat in meals served at school have helped reverse the obesity trend among US school children.

But she said those inroads have been put at risk by members of the Republican-dominated House of Representatives, who, for budgetary reasons, have proposed exempting some school districts from the tougher food standards.

“Unfortunately, we’re now seeing attempts in Congress to undo so much of what we’ve accomplished on behalf of our children,” Obama wrote in the Times.

In 2010, President Barack Obama signed a law boosting school lunch standards on the regulations, following recommendations from the National Academy of Sciences.

The effect of rolling back the standards, the first lady wrote, would be to “lower the quality of food our kids get in school.”

“They want to make it optional, not mandatory, for schools to serve fruits and vegetables to our kids. They also want to allow more sodium and fewer whole grains than recommended into school lunches,” said Obama, who also slammed proposed relaxed standards for a federal nutrition program for low-income women and their young children.

I know I know, wanting kids to eat healthy and exercise more and having schools serving healthy food is intolerable statist tyranny or something, just like wanting kids to read more like Laura Bush did, or wanting kids to stay off drugs like Nancy Reagan campaigned for.

Only the insults are hurled at just Michelle Obama.  Funny how that works.

A Way To Shut That Down

Oklahoma and Louisiana are seeing the success of using anti-choice hospital admitting privileges restrictions on abortion clinics in Texas and are adopting similar laws in order to eliminate as many clinics as possible.

Legislation in the two states require physicians who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at an adequately equipped hospital within 30 miles (50 kms) of the place where the abortion is performed. Supporters say the measures are aimed at protecting women’s health.

Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin, a Republican, signed into law the new restrictions on Wednesday and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, also a Republican, will sign a similar bill this week, representatives for the two said on Wednesday.

Abortion rights groups maintain the privileges provision is unnecessary because abortion complications are rare and tend to be similar to those of a miscarriage, which often are treated by emergency room physicians.

Admitting privileges generally allow a doctor who is approved by a hospital to admit a patient for treatment at the hospital.

Melissa Flournoy, Louisiana director for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, has predicted that at least three of the state’s five clinics could close once the abortion bill becomes law.

“It’s clear the intent of this legislation is to shut down health centers, which would have devastating consequences for women across Louisiana,” Flournoy said in a statement.

But then, that's the point.  Safety was never an issue, just regulating abortion clinics out of existence.  That of course will totally make the need for abortions vanish.

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