Grover Norquist Plots 2012 Assault On States? Successful Clean Energy Standards
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on December 20th, 2011 5:36 am by HL
Grover Norquist Plots 2012 Assault On States? Successful Clean Energy Standards
Grover Norquist, the anti-government ideologue who runs the powerful right-wing lobbying group Americans for Tax Reform, is preparing an all-out assault on state-level renewable energy standards, one of the shining bipartisan achievements of 21st-century American energy policy. Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia have binding renewable energy standards, helping states end their dependence on […]
Grover Norquist, the anti-government ideologue who runs the powerful right-wing lobbying group Americans for Tax Reform, is preparing an all-out assault on state-level renewable energy standards, one of the shining bipartisan achievements of 21st-century American energy policy. Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia have binding renewable energy standards, helping states end their dependence on dirty, toxic energy and encouraging clean industry. “Legislators in states around the country are now working with Americans for Tax Reform to repeal renewable energy mandates in 2012,” Norquist writes in Politico. “The iron is hottest to strike in states where Republicans recently took control of both the Legislature and the governorship — including Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio and Pennsylvania.” He also names North Carolina and New Hampshire as future targets if Republicans take the governor’s races in 2012.
Update
At Climate Progress, Stephen Lacey and Richard Caperton dismantle Norquist’s lies about the renewable energy standards.
Meet North Korea?s New Boss: Kim Jong Un
With the death of Kim Jong-Il, the eccentric despot who ruled North Korea since the early 1990s, news accounts rely on unreliable reports and broadcasts from state television in the secretive communist country. Early indications point to, as the New York Times reports, the reins of the state being handed to Kim Jong-Il’s youngest son: […]
Kim Jong Un
With the death of Kim Jong-Il, the eccentric despot who ruled North Korea since the early 1990s, news accounts rely on unreliable reports and broadcasts from state television in the secretive communist country. Early indications point to, as the New York Times reports, the reins of the state being handed to Kim Jong-Il’s youngest son:
Within hours of the announcement on Monday of his father’s death, North Korea’s ruling Workers Party released a statement calling on the nation to unite “under the leadership of our comrade Kim Jong-un.”
The younger Mr. Kim was also named head of the committee that will oversee his father’s funeral on Dec. 28 — a move that some analysts interpreted as evidence that the transfer of power to the son was proceeding smoothly, at least in the first days.
But Kim Jong Un, whose rank was officially upgraded from “Brilliant Comrade” to “Great Successor,” remains largely a mystery. Secretive to the core, even Kim Jong Un’s exact age is unknown — he’s thought to be in his late 20s, which would make him the youngest ruler ever of a nuclear-armed nation. He attended boarding school in Switzerland for a few years under an assumed name, and likes basketball, particularly the Chicago Bulls and L.A. Lakers.
The younger Kim only emerged from obscurity in October of last year, when his father, with approval of the ruling Workers’ Party, named him as successor. Since then, Kim Jong Un accompanied his father on tours giving “guidance” to factory workers and other public events like military parades and massive state-organized dance festivals. But some think the short period of public visibility for the younger Kim — he reportedly was only groomed for three years — may indicate a potential weakness in his rule. On Al Jazeera English television, former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill said:
Kim Jong-il was actually groomed by his father to be ruler for more than 20 years. But Kim Jong Un has a long way to go.
One thing pundits seem certain about, however, is that — contra the hopes of politicians for an end to North Korean suffering and regime change — things are unlikely to change that much under Kim Jong Un.
“Surely, one might think, his years spent in the West will have made North Korea’s future ruler painfully aware of just how backward his country is,” wrote Christian Caryl on the New York Review’s website last year. “So does Kim Jong Un’s appointment offer grounds for optimism? Not really.” Caryl explains that the ruling cadre that surrounds the Kims — which is also shrouded in mystery — is unlikely to allow any significant movement in the system. Indeed, Kim Jong Un, according to some analysts, might be overshadowed by his own uncle, Jang Sung Taek, a powerful figure in the Party.
A period of great uncertainty awaits North Korea, and judging by the highly secretive government there, we may never fill in all the blanks about this nuclear-armed mystery youth, Kim Jong Un, and what his leadership will mean.
