The New York Times “Greenwire” notes that the 2012 US Senate race between Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) and Congressman Denny Rehberg (R-MT) will come down to energy and natural resource issues.
That being said, Senator Tester offered some interesting remarks regarding the Environmental Protection Agency.
He (Tester) stood out last month as the only swing-state Democrat up for re-election next year to vote against four different attempts to limit U.S. EPA’s power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
But the senator said he has met several times with EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to discuss EPA’s greenhouse gas plans, and he believes that the agency is crafting rules that are generally practical and would not put undue pressure on his state’s industries.
“I don’t want to give her too much credit — we may disagree at some point in time — but she seems to approach things from a pretty well-founded perspective,” he said. Tester said he had made the administration aware of some of his concerns, including that other countries should share in the responsibility of limiting greenhouse gas emissions.
Tester said his desire to allow EPA to move forward — if cautiously — on climate change is part of his overall desire to protect the Montanan way of life and landscape.
Tester then cited the the pine beetle infestation that has taken hold in many of Montana forests and blamed climate change for his support of new carbon dioxide regulations. (You may recall that the pine beetle surfaced near Libby back in the 1980’s. They stopped the spread through an ancient practice known as logging.)
That’s right folks. He is supporting regulations that will raise the price of energy even higher. He does so by blaming it all on climate change and the pine beetle, all the while ignoring the history of the pine beetle devastating forests long before his theory of climate change even began. So I guess if you’re gas prices go up even higher- don’t blame him. Blame the pine beetle.