TeamFranken Heads North To Promote Renewable Energy Plans
Posted in From the Trail, News Clips on August 19th, 2008
We wrapped up last week with a swing up through northwestern Minnesota (all the way to Roseau, on the Canadian border!) for our “Planting the Seeds for Minnesota’s Energy Economy” Tour.
Al kicked things off with a speech in St. Cloud to the Minnesota Rural Electric Association. The St. Cloud Times covered his remarks in the article “Franken touts energy ideas for future.”
“I believe Minnesota should be powered by Minnesota energy and that Minnesota energy should mean Minnesota jobs,” Franken told the crowd at Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites.
…
“But it doesn’t matter if we get to zero emissions in this country” if other nations continue to build new greenhouse gas-producing energy plants, Franken continued. “So we’d better develop coal sequestration, not just for us but for the world, and wouldn’t it be nice if we had something to sell to China for a change?”
…
Franken received a warm greeting from Mark Glaess, general manager of the Minnesota Rural Electric Association, who compared him to “tough-as-nails, progressive Democrats” such as former U.S. Sen. Sam Rayburn of Texas and former Vice President and U.S. Sen. Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, who helped create and sustain rural electrical associations.
“He has shown great courage, great smarts, and there are some who say Mr. Franken even has a sense of humor,” Glaess said.
In Thief River Falls, we visited the DFL Party in the Park, where Al talked about an Apollo program for renewable energy as well as anything else folks asked him about. Al shared Franni’s story of surviving on Social Security survivor benefits and his belief that while people should pull themselves up by their bootstraps, sometimes the government has to give people the boots.
From the Thief River Falls’ paper Northern Watch:
Franken received a warm and enthusiastic welcome from the 200 to 300 people gathered in Thief River Falls for the event. He talked about his proposals for Social Security and renewable energy, signed autographs and listened to the party faithful…The speech was well received by this crowd. Many admitted later that they had been uncertain about who they would vote for, but now said they would now support him and “liked his politics.”
Many in the crowd sought his autograph, some sought support of specific legislation, such as the mental health parity and chemical dependency bill now in the Senate. Others shared their advice: “Be sure to know the price of corn, wheat, barley and corn while campaigning in northwestern Minnesota.”
Party officials said it was a good speech and a good response. With Sen. Obama’s popularity soaring, enthusiasm of the DFL party faithful is higher than it’s been in awhile.
On Friday morning, Al spoke about renewable energy from in front of an East Grand Forks gas station that sells E85, offering his proposals to make greater Minnesota the epicenter and the engine of the renewable energy economy. The Grand Forks Herald detailed Al’s proposals:
So, what’s Franken’s plan?
He broke it into three parts: Developing alternative energy sources, bringing them to market and helping consumers use less energy.
Some of the incentives needed to develop alternative energy are already in place – the wind energy production tax credit, for instance – but Franken would make it permanent instead of having Congress wrestle with it every few years.
The wind energy developers have complained that the uncertainty of Congress renewing the credits causes chaos in their industry.
…
To bring alternative energy to the market, Franken called for more spending on infrastructure. The national power grid is overstrained and there aren’t pipelines to ship E85 fuel, he said.
Utilities and wind energy advocates are already working on the power grid problem. In Minnesota, for example, CapX 2020, an association of 11 utilities, is working to add more capacity, in part, to bring more wind energy to market.
Conservation is also a key part of Franken’s plan. He said he’d offer incentives to encourage construction of greener buildings and the retrofitting of existing homes to make them more energy efficient. He’d also offer a tax credit of as much as $7,500 for the purchase of each vehicle that runs on alternative fuels. Consumers who retrofit their cars would get a $2,500 tax credit.
…Franken said Coleman is too beholden to the petroleum industry. “He received more money from Big Oil than any other politician in the history of Minnesota.”
A search of databases on OpenSecrets.org found that Coleman received $134,900 from oil and gas industries in 2002 but not this year.
Wondering about our other stops? Check out articles about Al’s energy tour stops in Bemidji and Crookston.
