Basically Governor Tim Pawlenty, pushed the Republican policy of "clean coal" through a coal gasification plant project that has failed to get PUC authority and is now missing interest payments. Normally missed interest payments are an indication of oncoming bankruptcy. The coal gasification project owes Minnesota $11.6 million. Contrast that with a $2 million that is being proposed for St. John's largest solar farm in Minnesota providing up to 20 percent of the campus's electricity on a cloudless day, that is proven technology, that can be built in 6 weeks.
Governor Tim Pawlenty endorses "clean coal", a strongly held Republican policy.
"Next-generation coal is going to need to continue to be part of our energy future for this country," said GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, chairman of the National Governors Association.
"It is abundant, it is available, it is Americanized in the sense that we control the supply," he said Saturday. "We would be incomplete and doing a disservice to the debate and the ultimate policy direction that we're going to take if we don't envision coal being part of that."
Next-generation coal typically refers to capturing and somehow sequestering or storing the carbon that coal produces. It also envisions reducing or eliminating emissions as coal is burned.
Pawlenty has embraced renewable fuels such as corn-based ethanol and conservation, but he also promotes clean-coal technology.
(WCCO)
Senator Bakk explains how the budget proposed by the legislature differs from the unallotment by Republican Governor Pawlenty. The $1.8 billion education payment shift does not have a future budget or a law to pay back that shift. Even if education payment shift can be paid back, it results in $20-$40 interest cost per a pupil. The senate proposed a shared-pain approach that used federal stimulus money to backfill the education cut. The governor basically would not negotiate. $72 million additional funds were lost in federal matching dollars due to the way the unallotment was applied. Most of those funds could been saved in careful negotiation. The next governor starts with a $7.3 budget deficit.
Imagine a job offered where you were payed in company script, not US dollars, that could only buy company housing and could only be spent in company stores. This is the true history of our Minnesota Iron Range. The owners were absentee owners, where the profit went elsewhere, not invested locally. The owners then went bankrupt, abandoning long term health care and pensions to what the government can provide. And in recessions, the employment dries up. I still listen to this story in awe.
