From: Steve Schoettmer
Columbus
As of this writing, Hurricane Harvey has made landfall in Texas. One of the biggest hurricanes to have ever hit the United States, it damaged or destroyed close to 50,000 homes. As of this writing, Hurricane Irma is due to hit Florida. It is projected to walk right up the middle of the state and to literally span from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.
However, even though global warming is becoming more obvious to most of us and its effect on the strength and intensity of our weather patterns is becoming more extreme, state Rep. Milo Smith, R-Columbus, and state Sen. Greg Walker, R-Columbus, can revel in the knowledge that they took a sledgehammer to our solar panel industry in Indiana, by effectively legislating away net metering for homeowners.
I am sure the state’s energy monopolies are pleased that these two men sold their constituents out, just so they could deliver to them what little control electrical consumers in our state had gained.
Bully for them. They were elected to be the stewards of the state’s land and its citizens. At what exact moment did it become only the monopolies and large outside interests that mattered? At what point did the rest of us stop to matter at all?
Oh, I would also like to thank them for deciding to fine individuals with a $150 annual fee when they buy a hybrid automobile. Now I realize that they consider it just a tax to make up for the reduced fuel taxes people would pay, but doesn’t that seem counterproductive? I mean someone buys a car to help the environment and they punish that impulse by fining them?
They actively discourage citizens, who put out thousands of dollars up front, from installing solar panel arrays to provide partial energy for their homes and curb carbon emissions. And then they fine our citizens who buy hybrids for presumably the same reason.
Their logic, focus and loyalty do not seem to be with the residents of this great state. Maybe it’s like the tag line from that movie: “They’re just not that much into us.”
