Scott McMillion has a report coming out in the new edition of Montana Quarterly titled “Green in the Middle, The Surprising Conservation Legacy of Senator Conrad Burns.”
Here’s an excerpt from the piece posted at Scribd.com: (h/t The Western Word)
Burns left another legacy that won’t fade: tens of thousands of acres purchased for the public use and more than a million acres under conservation management. Using his seat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, which dips buckets and buckets of cash from the biggest money pond in the world—the federal budget—Burns directed tens of millions of dollars to conservation projects in Montana, despite his frequent battles and lasting rancor with many in the environmental community.
“Not very many environmentalists like me,” he said in a recent interview in his Billings home. “And that makes us about even. Most of those environmental people aren’t worth piss on a snowdrift.”
If you got a laugh out of that line, there’s a great list of “Conradisms” as part of the piece as well. Here’s just one:
On responding to an interview request- “I will tell you one thing before you get here.That is [I’m] just as ugly as I ever have been and I would guess you’re no better either.”
Speaking of environmentalist hilarity…I take it the left doesn’t want kids burning all that carbon by driving to Missoula for school from towns across the state, or flying in from across the country…
Here’s the University of Montana Kaimin’s headline- “Carbon crisis: Campus not on track to meet environmental goals“
In 2011 and 2012 emissions dropped 2 percent, at that rate the reduction goal of 10 percent by 2015 won’t be completed.
“Currently, we are not on track to meet our goals,” said Cherie Peacock, the UM sustainability coordinator.
Now- back to tuition and parking…