The Trump administration spent the last days of 2017 claiming that the tax cuts from their tax legislation were the biggest tax cuts ever legislated in the U.S. They also claimed that their legislative agenda was the most successful in history.
Both claims are false. Making large, obviously false statements, has been a consistently used propaganda tool of the Trump administration.
It is deeply disturbing when our local politicians use similar language. Both Representative Ron Kresha and Representative John Poston have told me that they support renewable energy. But they have consistently voted for legislation that cuts support for it. I have asked them both to provide me with examples of their support for renewable energy. They have not done so.
Poston and Kresha live in an Orwellian reality where support for renewable energy equals opposition to it. Donald Trump would be proud of their double speak.
Below is a lightly edited column recording their legislative attack on renewable energy that I originally wrote for the Long Prairie Leader.
By Tim King
Creating home grown energy as an alternative to imported fossil fuel is a patriotic act. It makes us self reliant and assures our national security. By that standard, two bills that Representatives Ron Kresha and John Poston along with Senator Paul Gazelka voted for in the last legislative session by are unpatriotic. Both bills passed.
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| Roof top solar array - Thanks to Wikipedia |
In 1973 Saudi Arabia, and other oil producing nations, put an embargo on oil exports to the US and other countries that supported Israel in that Octobers Arab-Israel War. Those of us who were buying gas at the time saw prices rocket up by forty percent that year. Some stations ran out of gas and President Nixon asked gas stations to close on Saturday and Sunday. Most of them did and we stayed home. There were other results of the boycott, including ballooning food prices, and we all learned that we were dependent on unfriendly foreign nations for our gasoline and the well being of our entire economy.
Oil eventually began to flow again but food and fuel prices stayed high. Meanwhile, on farms in Todd County, farmer-patriots began to experiment with making their own fuel and with heating water with solar power. In the halls of Congress discussions were being held that connected energy independence with our national security.
Then, in 1979, another Energy Crisis struck. First the Iranian revolution overthrew the Shah and then Iraq and Iran declared war against each other. The two were major oil suppliers to the US and their production ground to a near halt. As a result, the price of oil doubled again and we were slammed by a tsunami of double digit inflation that lasted into the mid-80s.
After foreign oil sucker punched us twice in just a few years, patriotic Americans across the country began to say, Enough Already! President Carter put solar panels on the White House and farmer-inventors began to experiment with electric vehicles.
The State of Minnesota was a leader in the effort to protect the security of this State’s people against foreign oils ravages. Starting in the 1980s and going to today, Minnesota citizens, business leaders, educational institutions, and governmental leaders crafted State policies and programs that encouraged investment in and the adoption of energy efficient and renewable energy. The State, through its policies and programs, encouraged growth in biofuels as well as solar and wind electric technologies. The result has been good for the State, National Security, and business. For example, Minnesota ranked 8th among all states in total clean energy patents in 2013, according to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. All that creativity supported a clean and home grown energy sector with 15,300 jobs in 2014. That number has likely increased substantially since 2014 because employment in clean energy grew by 78% between 2000 and 2014. Total employment growth for Minnesota during the same period was healthy, but only eleven percent. Additionally, clean home grown energy workers earn an average of $71,000 per year. That’s twenty-one percent higher than the average for all jobs. Clean energy jobs are helping create a secure future for young Minnesotans and their families.
But some members of the Minnesota Legislature want to make those futures less secure. It seems that their enchantment with millionaire moguls trumps their allegiance to Minnesota families.
One of the successful renewable energy programs these legislators want to put a cleaver to is the Made in Minnesota Program. The MiM, as it’s called, rewards small scale solar electric projects that use solar panels made in Minnesota with tax breaks. It uses funds from Xcel Energy and not tax dollars.
“Without Made in Minnesota, it’s fair to say we wouldn’t have a rooftop solar market,” Bill Grant, of the Minnesota Department of Commerce, told a legislative committee in January.
Since 2013 Made in Minnesota has approved 1,105 small-scale solar projects for residents, small businesses, and nonprofits, the Department’s data show. The program has created an estimated 495 jobs, according to the Star Tribune’s report of January 28th.
So why does state Rep. Marion O’Neill, a Maple Lake Republican, want to eliminate MiM with his bill HF 235? It’s a failure, he says.
Hmm! Nearly 500 jobs paying an average of $71,000 per year is a failure? That’s an annual, and likely growing, payroll of $35,145,000. That’s more then twice the annual cost of the program. Sounds like a success to me. It looks to me that Rep. O’Neil and his colleagues are out to shut down the small solar installations that have been blossoming across the State. Those bills are downright unpatriotic.
If you doubt that they want to shut down roof top solar take a look at another bill in the Senate known as SF 141. It would allow rural electric cooperatives to set the fees they charge people who want to connect solar panels to the electrical grid. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission sets those fees now. I know people who connected their solar panels to the grid. Their electrical cooperative was hostile. If the co-op had been allowed to set the fees it would have made the project too expensive. SF 141 will shut down small solar operations. I’m sorry to say that Representative’s Kresha and Poston are co-authors of the House version of this bill. But perhaps Senator Gazelka will oppose SF 141. He can be reached at 651-296-4875 or sen.paul.gazelka@senate.mn
Authors note: SF 141 failed when it was openly debated by the Senate. The Republican leadership buried it in a large omnibus bill later in the session and it passed without debate. Senator Gazelka is the leader of the Senate Republicans.
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