Kinky Friedman: "Energy program key for Texas"

[Blake]

Independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman is emphatic in his belief as to why the state of Texas has moved slowly in pursuing renewable energy options such as biodiesel, wind and solar.

“The governor (Rick Perry) is married to the power lobby,” Friedman said. “It’s very simple. All these legislators will tell you that when they’re doing anything involving power or energy that the lobbyists are in the gallery.

“The lobbyists are writing the legislation and giving the legislators their marching orders. In fact, the legislators call the gallery the owners’ box,” Friedman said. “They’re all bought and paid for, and that’s the problem. That’s why we’re not getting anything going with an energy program.”

Staying busy on the campaign trail, Friedman said people are telling him they’re upset about their electric bills going up 80 percent in the last six years and that they’d like to see a clean energy program put into place.

“I can sell Texas a renewable energy program that will work,” Friedman said, stating again his intention to appoint singer Willie Nelson as the head of the energy department Friedman would establish to centralize energy regulation and policy.

“You get everyone excited about renewable energy and you make it available,” Friedman said. “And Willie is uniquely equipped to run this with his long years of working with Farm Aid.”

Working with farmers’ cooperatives would be easy for Nelson, who Friedman said would happily leave the concert road to take on the state’s energy program.

“He’s ready to go. He’s rarin’ to go,” said Friedman, whose energy policy calls for working with farmers groups, the Texas Department of Agriculture and the Agriculture Extension Services, in particular those of Texas A&M University and Texas Tech University, to encourage the growth of crops that can be refined for use as biofuels.

Energy diversity

Friedman recently announced details of his energy policy, which would diversify the state’s energy sources by including renewable energy options.

“This doesn’t mean we can’t have oil and drilling, but that can be side by side with renewable fuels. We need to diversify the energy picture,” he said, saying that diversity and increased supply would not only lead to lower prices - think about the principle of supply and demand, he said - but it would also create additional jobs.

“Why the hell not?” he said of looking at additional sources of energy.

Those additional sources do not, however, include 16 coal-fueled power plants that are being proposed.

“Coal-fired plants are the worst thing for the environment,” Friedman said. “They are the best, though, for the politicians.”

Friedman is interested in seeing the development of renewable sources such as wind and solar.

He recently spoke with his friend, TV actor Larry Hagman of “Dallas” fame, who told him he put in solar power on his ranch in California and saw his electrical bill drop from $2,800 to $18 per month.

“This is real,” Friedman said of the potential with other energy sources.

He’s most familiar with biodiesel, but says he’s “very impressed” with wind power and with what Hagman said about solar energy.

“Clean energy for Texas is not impossible,” Friedman said. “It’s a reachable star. It’s something we can do.”

Put Texas back

at the top

Friedman wants to see Texas as an energy leader and exporter again, not an energy importer.

“It was Texas ingenuity that got the Saudi oil out of the Arabian sand and for what? So we can pay top price at the pumps? That’s not common sense,” he said.

It bothers him that Texas is no longer at the top in the energy field.

“For the first time we are importing energy and that ain’t right,” he said. “It just ain’t right. It’s never happened before.

“Texas has the very best potential of any state to be an exporter of energy,” Friedman said. “It’s time to be No. 1 in something else besides executions, dropouts, toll roads and property taxes.”

Encouraging

renewable power

Friedman’s energy policy would utilize existing funds and other resources, such as the $295 million Texas Enterprise Fund to encourage companies creating new renewable energy technology to locate to Texas and the $100 million Emerging Technology Fund to work with companies doing research into improving renewable energy generation technology.

He would spend a portion of the state’s $8.2 billion budget surplus to create transmission infrastructure to bring more wind and solar power from West Texas to large population centers.

People who work with wind power have told Friedman they’ve tried to talk to Perry’s office about the need for transmission infrastructure and have never received a return phone call.

“Meanwhile the governor of Pennsylvania calls back and there are wind farms all over that state,” Friedman said. “We want to take the lead, and I don’t think there are any limits here. If we used wind, solar and renewable fuels, we’d have 400 times more energy than we need.”

Friedman wants to see state buildings and renovations constructed according to U.S. Green Building Council LEED standards for maximum energy efficiency. Under his energy policy, state vehicle purchases would prioritize those using alternative or hybrid power supplies - and he would put the state’s 35,000 school buses on biodiesel.

The Public Utilities Commission would be directed to give transmission priority to electricity generated through renewable means and Texas counties and municipalities would be encouraged to prioritize renewable fuels, electricity and vehicles, according to his energy policy.

The energy policy supports legislation that would offer economic incentives for the development of renewable energy, including the further development of offshore wind power facilities such as the ones in Galveston and South Padre Island. Legislation providing tax incentives to encourage the further development of inland wind, biofuels, solar and other renewable facilities also would be encouraged.

A timetable and the right people

Friedman has incorporated the Texas Renewable Energy Industries Association’s recommended “20 percent by 2020” plan into his overall energy policy. The plan pushes for the state of Texas to have 20 percent of its energy supplied by renewable energy sources by the year 2020.

If Friedman has his way, the goals for the year 2020 will be reached sooner.

“Of course, we’ll work to accelerate the timeline. That’s called leading the parade instead of following it. That’s the way of the future. We’re either going to lead or follow, it’s entirely up to us,” he said.

Along with Nelson, Friedman said he intends to put the right people into the right positions.

“The fact is you have to point the right people in the right direction and not put in people wanting to feather their nest and use their political knowledge as a hammer to hurt people.

“I want to use knowledge as a key to open bureaucracy,” he said, emphasizing again his focus will be to “put the right people into place.”

“If you had a Willie Nelson, a Lance Armstrong and a Kinky, none will have a hand in Texas’ pockets. We’re not Democrats, we’re not Republicans, we’re not patronage appointments,” he said. “We just want to do the right thing for Texas.”

It’s been a long time, Friedman said, since agencies such as the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Railroad Commission have done the right thing for Texans.

“That’s why big-time polluters get a slap and keep on going,” he said. “The TCEQ takes their cue from the governor. They could throw the book at (polluters) and throw them in jail. We’ve got the resources, the technology and the laws. What we don’t have is leadership because they know the governor wants them to go easy.”

Staying in touch with Texans

Friedman said he intends to stay in touch with Texans, saying that Perry has lost contact with them.

Categorizing the governor’s office as a bully pulpit (defined as a public office of sufficiently high rank that it provides the holder with an opportunity to speak out and be listened to on any matter) Friedman said he would use the position to keep Texans informed and to communicate with them about issues such as energy.

Perry, he said, has lost that ability.

“He’s forfeited it. People look right through him. He’s forfeited any chance to get close,” Friedman said. “It’s tragic and sad, and we cannot afford to have him in there for 10 years. It’s really a time for a change, whether it’s me, Grandma or Bell, or the Libertarian. It’s time for somebody to answer the phone.

“We need a good shepherd and not a politician in the governor’s office,” Friedman said.

A lack of trust

“It really doesn’t matter what Rick Perry says anymore,” Friedman said. “I think people don’t trust the government.”

Friedman cited several examples about which Texans feel they have been lied to, including the Texas Lottery.

“Everybody knows it’s a lie (about lottery monies funding education),” he said. “Everybody knows that not one teacher’s salary has gone up and not one kid has been able to go to college with his tuition paid.

“In Georgia, every kid with a ‘B’ average in high school can go to college free,” Friedman said. “How is it possible that in a state as rich as Texas and with the population that we have that we can’t send one kid to college for free?”

[Blake]

The state’s general fund and surplus are being “frivolously spent by the Legislature and the career politicians,” Friedman said, saying the money “never gets anywhere except to politicians and lobbyists.”

He noted recent news reports of how monies for specialized license plates aren’t going where Texans believed they were going.

“People who bought those ‘dog friendly’ license plates, thinking they were helping four-legged animals, have found out that the money is going to help two-legged animals, two-legged party animals,” Friedman said. “They got a rude awakening.”

The Trans-Texas Corridor is yet another example of a project that has drawn the public’s mistrust, according to Friedman.

“It’s another bad idea, like Dubai guarding our ports,” Friedman said. “I’ve yet to meet a real Texan who thinks it’s a good idea. There are so many flaws in it I don’t know where to start, but I will say this, I will stop the ‘big road.’ ”

Ninety-five percent of Texans are against the Trans-Texas Corridor and 80 percent are against toll roads, he said, saying that roads should be free for any motorist to drive on.

Ready for a change

Friedman believes Texans are ready for a change in their top leadership.

“People are fed up with it. The voters are smarter, the electorate is more alert,” he said. “That’s why we’re going to have a huge turnout in November and that’s what’s going to bring Perry down. He’s praying for a small turnout.”

On the Internet:

Kinky Friedman campaign site: http://www.kinkyfriedman.com

Kinky Friedman energy policy: http://www.waxahachiedailylight.com/...dmanEnergy.pdf



Story from:

http://www.waxahachiedailylight.com/...-friedman1.txt

[Ender]

What are his actuall odds of winning?

[Dionysos]

Originally Posted by Ender

What are his actuall odds of winning?

Not bad, considering. The poll I saw last night on TV had him at 22%, just behind the Dem candidate and about 12 points behind Perry.

[Blake]

Originally Posted by Dionysos

Not bad, considering. The poll I saw last night on TV had him at 22%, just behind the Dem candidate and about 12 points behind Perry.

Not to mention those polls are from "likely voters." Kinky's main deal is getting people who don't normally vote to do so.