PUCO chief: greenies a red plot

 


Gov.  Kasich appointee Todd Snitchler, chairman of the Ohio Public Utilities Commission,  has no use for the disciples of climate change.  Indeed, he has tweeted that  people who support renewable energy represent "?? 'green'  religion" that is "taking over from Christian religion."

(I'll pause for a moment to allow sane readers a break to catch their breath.)

Snitchler's hostility to "greeniacs"  was revealed by Columbus Dispatch reporter Darrel Rowland,  who combed more than 1,000 comments from Snitchler's Twitter account.  It  bore his  enemies list  and a mention or two of Pravda, which left no doubt that the whole green scenario is a Communist plot.  Who knew?

His tweets revealed him to be in tune with the works of Ayn Rand, Matt Drudge and Fox News whenever  he's in need of  material or a platform for his nutty views. The Christian thing may be of his own choosing.

As Plunderbund asked:  "Should we be surprised that Kasich is appointing climate change deniers to a position that requires him to determine whether proposed major wind or solar facilities are in the public interest"?  Plunderbund notes that the governor has already appointed two anti-abortionist activists to the state medical board  and an anti-public school tea partier to the Board of Education.

Snitchler found his way down to Columbus from Uniontown, whence  he was launched into the Ohio House of Representatives.  A University of Akron Law school graduate, he will as PUCO chairman have a strong influence on energy issues in the state.  Most recently, the commission  turned down a solar-energy project in Southeastern Ohio that would have created 600 jobs, ignoring PUCO's own staff advisories.

Commission member Lynn Slaby of Akron, told me  that Snitchler was "smart" and "conservative."  But he said he wasn't aware of co-Republican Snitchler's apocalyptic tweets.  Oh, Slaby says the project still could be revived with a different set of conditions. But for further details on a possible revision, as in history, alert me to Snitchler's next visit to Fox News.

P.S.  Does Snitchler fashion all of those tweets on company time?   Well?   

From the mouths of lawmakers who said what?.

Back in my Columbus days, I discovered it was best not to hang out in the Ohio legislature on those days when I showed up without my Tums.  It was asking too much of my digestive system to listen to a backwater lawmaker explain the meaning of his dreadful bill that he had yet to read. Although legislatures have produced some folks who went on to greater deeds, it's also true that you never know what you're getting when you encounter a hominid who insults himself by forever calling attention to his mindless brief moment on earth.

Still, for pure moronic outlook,  none of the low-enders from the 19060s-70s General Assembly could compete with  the strange collection of state lawmakers who earn a living today by saying a lot of things that make no sense.  We've already mentioned Ohio  House Majority Leader Bill Batchelder's defense of pay raises for the representatives by telling us that they deserve more money because they "work hard".  Or Akron Rep. Lynn Slaby (R) excitedly looking forward to his new position on the Public Utilities
Commission of Ohio shortly after winning an uncontested Republican primary for reelection.  How could that be?  He said he didn't find the legislative seat a good fit for what he wanted to do, at age 73,  with the rest of his life.  (As candidate Slaby, his home page said things like "we need his wisdom and leadership in the legislature more than ever...")

Sorry, we'll have to muddle along without him.

None of this however, matches the right-wing noise occurring in other legislatures acorss America.  There was Indiana State Rep. Bob Morris (R),  who unsuccessfully tried to enter a resolution against celebrating the  Girl Scouts' centennial celebration   because the  group is being subverted by Planned Parenthood's agenda to "sexualize young girls."

And how about  South Carolina State  Sen. Jake Knotts' (R) calling President Obama and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley "ragheads"?

 But our clear winner` so far is Missouri State Rep. Dwight Scharnhorst, (R),  co-sponsor of the "Don't say gay bIll'  in the legislature  to ban any mention of homosexuals in public schools.  How can you top his whirling logic that tells us, "There is no need to talk about Billy wanting to marry a goat."


For that one, I will even give him the Grumpy Abe Linguistic Lunacy (GALL) award.  It was easy.

When Republicans rocket to new jobs, etc.

SCANNING THE PAPERS for soggy guidance from worldly philosophers this morning we were impressed by the treasures one discovers, and it doesn't cost that much.

Today, there was a report in the Beacon Journal with state Rep. Lynn Slaby telling us that the Republican state representative , at 73, is "ready to tackle new career." Well,, maybe not that ready for his new $119,000 job as a member of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. As he put it, he doesn't know much about utility operations but assured us that he is fascinated by the challenge. I'll bet.

We learned that (1) Slaby was not "enamored" of his House seat to which he was elected last year. The BJ quoted him as saying, "I wasn't ready to retire and not sure the fit is right for me in the House." (He was age-limited out of his judgeship on the Ninth District Court of Appeals in 2009.) (2) His wife, Marilyn, 72, a former state lawmaker who was defeated at the polls, is interested in returning to the seat that hubby is vacating. Oh, I see.

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Then , there was this whopper in the Plain Dealer via PolitiFact Ohio: In a recent appearance in Cleveland, McMitt Romney accused President Obama of never once - not once! - mentioning deficit or debt in his State of the Union address. The fact checkers, however, counted at least six references to debt and deficit, which means that Romney will not include PolitiFact on the long list of things he loves. Poor McMitt. He should be living in ancient Greece, when the gods changed human beings into any figure that served the needs - a bull, a swan, a river, a tree, whatever. Now, it's simply McMitt being McMitt.

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For all of this, we must still give a belated Grumpy Abe Linguistic Lunacy (GALL) Award to National GOP Chairman Reince Priebus, who, in a desperate strike against some good economic news showing an increase of 225,000 jobs, hissed :

"Today's jobs report is yet another reminder that far too many Americans are out of work, and the situation is clearly not improving."

We know how it could be made better by eliminating one job at National Republican headquarters.