corrente

Kansas has become of late the quintessential example of a state that should by all rights and self-interest be voting Democratic, yet remains persistently in the R column. I will leave to other, wiser heads the analysis of how this came to be, but suggest that the following item offers one route to start turning this ship around.

(via Kansas.com)

It's no surprise to anyone who has walked along a ridge in the middle of Kansas that the state ranks near the top nationally in wind strength.

But, while giant wind turbines have been built by the thousands around the country in the past two decades, Kansas lags far behind at least 11 other states in producing wind energy....

Because wind energy developed so slowly in Kansas, millions of dollars that would have helped local economies around the state have been lost, advocates say. And wind could have replaced the state's dwindling oil and gas resources as a leading energy export.

..progress stalled for several reasons.

For one, critics say an energy committee appointed by then-Gov. Bill Graves in 2002 was dominated by members from gas, oil and utility companies, and it failed to push for wind. Supporters of renewable energy, such as Johnson and Snead, say they were relegated to the sidelines...

The main holdup for [one] project and many others is a federal tax credit that wasn't renewed this year. It is expected to pass when Congress returns from recess.

This is one example of how Kerry's energy policy, which is being (sigh, what a surprise) massively misrepresented by the SCLM, could have both a political and a practical impact in places like Kansas along with many others. Throw money, be it tax breaks, R&D grants, homeowner tax credits like they had back in the '80s--and tinker it so the benefits slant to little companies, not Halliburton and ADM. And start enforcing the pollution rules again, dammit, for those who foul the commons, to get some true costs reflected in the pricing structure.

Remember the Last Big Blackout? All the investigations and committee meetings and horrified discoveries of how rickety the electric distribution net is, and how we were going to rush to upgrade it? I'm sure glad you do, because that last part--oopsie!--never got done.