Monday, 13 July 2009

Conway Has No Business Being Senator from Kentucky

Kentucky's AG, Jack Conway is running to be Kentucky's Senator in D.C. Kentucky is not an economic powerhouse. It is a state that struggles to keep pace with the national average. One area where Kentucky shines is in cost of living. Kentuckians enjoy some of the cheapest living costs in the country. A big reason for the distinction is that Kentucky has some of the lowest electricity rates in the country. A fact that not only provides cheaper living costs for its residence, but is a major selling point for luring new companies to Kentucky. Cheap energy is vital to Kentucky's viability and even growth as a state.

Why is Kentucky's energy prices so low? Because Kentucky has a massive supply of coal. Coal is burned to create steam. The steam is used to turn turbines which generate electricity. The ready supply of coal makes it a cheap power source for the creation of electricity. In fact nearly 90% of Kentucky's electricity comes from coal.

Enter Cap-n-Trade legislation in D.C. Legislation that Conway favors. The purpose of Cap-n-Tax legislation is to make it very expensive to use carbon based fuels for the manufacturing of energy. That means it would jack up the cost of using coal for electricity generation.

E.On U.S., the parent company of LG&E and Kentucky Utilities, has said that residential customers in Kentucky would see their rates rise about $10.50 a month in three years and about $19 by 2020. Commercial customers could see their rates rise as much as 39 percent by 2020.

Such an increase would be devastating to Kentuckians. The poor would be hardest hit. Not only would it be a greater burden for residence of Kentucky, but it would eliminate the competitive advantage that Kentucky enjoys over other states. The legislation is so bad that West Virginia's liberal Senator, Robert Byrd, came out against it. West Virginia like Kentucky relies heavily on coal for energy production. Even Byrd realizes that the bill would incapacitate his state.

Yet, Conway gladly supports Cap-n-Trade. If he doesn't care about Kentucky enough to speak out against Cap-n-Tax, he has no business serving as a Senator from Kentucky. How can you support a bill that would so adversely effect Kentucky and have voters from Kentucky take you seriously as a candidate?

Posted by brians at 10:35 PM in Kentucky Politics

Responses (0)

Problem With Part Time Legislators

The latest "scandal" in Frankfort is the news that Sen Denton accepted a position for MCNA Dental Plans. She will serve as a link between dentists with Medicaid patients and MCNA which processes and pays Medicaid claims. What makes this a scandal is that Sen Denton serves as
chairwoman of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee. A committee that interacts with MCNA.

The watchdog groups claim this is a direct conflict of interest, but the Legislative Ethics Commission says she is doing nothing wrong. Is this a big story? No, because Sen Denton is not breaking any laws or ethics. Her working for MCNA is not much different from Rep Moberly working on the budget committee in the house and serving as a top administrator at Eastern Kentucky University.

This is the problem with part time legislators. They have jobs in the real world. Is it surprising that they have jobs in the real world that interact with state government. It would be hard not to have such a conflict. There are three solutions to the problem. One is to make legislators full time jobs. Heaven forbid we do that. We don't need busy bodies working full time making new laws.

A second solution would be to pass a law forbiding legislators from surving on committees within the field they work or have influence with their employer. On the surface this would seem like a great idea. It would eliminate the potential for conflicts. But at the same time would eliminate people from serving in an area where they have expertise. As horrible as most legislation that comes out of legislators, do we really want to dumb down the comittees by remove people that have real experience in the field? Seems like a way to introduce even worse laws than we get now.

The best solution in my opinion is to do nothing about it and watch legislators with potential conflicts. If Denton or Moberly favor their employer then they should have ethics charges brought against them and pressured to step down. Until then, I think we should let it go and see what happens.

Posted by brians at 10:03 PM in Kentucky Politics

Responses (0)