… toadying for utilitites!

In the inbox today, from a cohort near Northfield, a link to an article, and the succinct comment:

Is he some kind of boob?

Well put, and from this article, it appears he is that and more:

Walz acknowledges transmission controversy

4/16/2009 10:35:02 AM

By Sarah Doty
Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN

As federal economic stimulus funds trickle down and make their way toward renewable energy initiatives like wind and solar power, 1st District Rep. Tim Walz says transmission of that power remains a “political hot potato.”

Walz, a second-term Democrat from Mankato, spoke Wednesday in Rochester to the Midwest chapter of the Association of Energy Services Professionals about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The event was at Rochester Community and Technical College’s Heintz Center.

“If we are going to have wind energy, we are going to have to move it somehow,” he said. “We are going to have to build some of these things (transmission lines). Let’s build them, though, so that they last a lifetime.”

Calling it a “political hot potato,” Walz said it still needs to be addressed.

Most of the people at the meeting, representatives of power companies, were interested in transmission, the use of power lines to deliver the power to the markets.

“A big chunk (of the recovery package) was aimed at tax cuts, a chunk was aimed at infrastructure and development, but a big chunk of it was aimed right at you,” Walz said.

He said there is funding for transmission in the federal legislation.

“As I have always said, we can pass the best renewable portfolio standard, we can pass mandates and all that, but the fact of the matter is the actual doing it and the delivery of power is easier said than done,” Walz said. “The group that is sitting here, you understand that as well as anyone. With that being said, there is no doubt we are going to heavily incentivize some of the renewables.”

It will take time, though, he said for much of this to take place.

Walz also joked about the opposition he receives through e-mail about adding transmission lines.

“I am very empathetic to all sides on this, but I also have to put some reality back into it when opponents of any transmission line send me e-mails,” Walz said. “I have asked my staff to get back to them, and send it by regular mail, because the power lines sent the e-mail to me, so if you are absolutely opposed to that power line, you aren’t going to send that e-mail. You need to start from that position.”

He said he recognizes the concern most people have, with the environment and wetlands, but said that “we are going to have to do this” and do it right.

“I think it is very difficult when I hear people saying that we are going to become the Saudi Arabia of wind and then say, we aren’t going to build any power lines,” he said. “Well, where is it going to go?”