Senator John Thune says we shouldn’t reduce our carbon emissions because other nations won’t reduce their carbon emissions:
Those like U.S. Senator John Thune believe the Obama Administration effort to cap emissions from coal fired power plants is going too far.
“You get very little, minimal if any environmental benefit from the United States doing this when the largest polluters in the world aren’t following suit,” says Thune. “What it’s probably going to do is it’s going export energy production to areas around the world who are a lot less sensitive to and have a lot fewer environmental regulations in place” [Charles Michael Ray, “Thune Decries Carbon Reduction Plan as Arctic Sea Route Opens,” SDPB Radio, 2015.08.05].
It’s hard to find good analogies for our senior Senator’s incredibly bad logic (not to mention mangled syntax—hanging with Rep. Kristi Noem too much?). But let’s try:
- Garbage: John Thune produces lots of garbage, because if he doesn’t, his dirty neighbors will throw all their garbage in his cans.
- Cocktail party: John Thune grabs all three martinis from the waiter’s tray, because the next guy in line is really annoying when he’s drunk.
- Birthday party: John Thune eats five pieces of cake, because the other kids chew with their mouths open.
Senator John Thune’s geopolitical thinking lacks imagination. He pretends to cast American regulatory action in a global context, but he ignores the context of America’s global leadership. If he sees other countries being less sensitive to the environment, the proper response is not to follow suit with our own continued environmental insensitivity. The proper response is to stop trashing our corner of the planet, implement smart energy and environmental policies, then turn to our trashy neighbors and say, “Look at us! We’re using less coal, we’re using more wind and solar, we’re using all energy more efficiently, and we’re in great shape. This is how it’s done. We’ll help you do it.”
We’re America. We’re supposed to lead, not wait for China, India, or Russia to lead us to a cleaner planet. John Thune isn’t showing leadership; he’s making excuses, not just for his corporate fossil-fuel buddies but for all nations to remain locked in a death spiral of unsustainable fuel consumption.
But we all know leadership escapes John Thune.
South Dakota needs a new Senator, one who shows real imagination and leadership, one who believes America can and should solve problems. Let’s reduce carbon emissions, invest in clean energy, and lead the world to a sustainable future.
Thune running out the clock? What a shocker.
Where did Thune’s values go. Maybe where they always were. We will keep doing it because everyone else is, that is not the conservative values that causes gridlock.
When Johnny was young in college he was going to be a pastor. But then he gets himself on a hot body school calendar. That does not happen if the women did not know he had a hot body. So then for some reason he did not finish his track to seminary. So doing what supposedly ‘everyone else was doing did not work out well then’ so why did he not learn from that situation.
Now in this global warming situation it is not the other guys that are going to keep doing it if we stop. There have been efforts at world wide meetings with many countries wanting to have regulations to stop global warming and we and the Chinese are those other people that will not stop doing it. We have been the ones that want to keep causing problems and just for our own money goals. If we and the Chinese would agree to these principles, the world would get better. So blaming the other guys is simply a deceitful trick to blame someone else for what we are the main problem.
Now we see Thune being for only what big business wants. He also has found a way to get eleven million in a campaign war chest. If big business had not contributed, he would not have that much money. So is Thune representing big business or will he remember where South Dakota is?
John Thune comes from good stock. His Norwegian grandparents homesteaded east of Draper in 1905. His father, a carrier based pilot in the Pacific in WW II and an Ace, still lives in Murdo. I would say to John, “straighten up and fly right”. You are better than that.
Roger, Thune on a beefcake calendar? back in his Biola University days? I’d like to see that to I can believe that.
Paul—Thune’s dad was an ace pilot? Heck, Thune should know then that we could take care of polluting power plants in China the same way his friend Senator Cotton wants to take care of nuclear plants in Iran: air strikes! :-D
Remember when John told us six million people risked losing their healthcare subsidies to the Supreme Court, so he thought it would be a good idea for Obama to stop providing them?? John Thune: Critical Thinker.
Cory, good point on the air strikes.
Roger, I believe that John’s sister and two brothers all went to Biola (Bible Institute of Los Angeles). I believe that John’s oldest brother became a minister. In Murdo John’s parents, along with others, broke off with the local Assembly of God church and formed their own church, the Community Bible Church, referred to locally as, “the Community Babble Church”.
Thune’s pop was indeed a pilot – http://ww2fighters.blogspot.com/2011/04/profile-44-28-as-flown-by-harold-thune.html
Thune and his Republican Party won’t be content until they have driven the USA down to third world status. One of the needs of an advanced economy is to not choke to death on your affluence. We learned that pretty quickly when there were actual deaths from air pollution in Pennsylvania, and Lake Erie lit on fie. Republicans used to lead on these issues. Now they try to explain away deaths while they pocket big coal’s money. Cap and trade was a conservative idea. But, like most of Obamacare, if the black guy proposes it, it doesn’t matter what it is. Racism makes you overlook your own long-term interests, and that’s the modern Republican Party.
Donald Pay; Mark Mickelson, who we all know has gubernatorial aspirations, was involved with Bankwest, a few years back, in a project to pay farmers to sequester carbon in return for yearly payments. Was Mark concerned about carbon pollution or was this just part of an effort to better his lot in life.
Speaking of renewable energy,another wind turbine tower just went by on my south gravel road and I can see a crane fitting the top of another tower on about two and a half miles south.
Turbines are popping up all around. Must be hundreds of them by now. Making a mess of standing corn and soybeans and gravel roads with al;l the truck traffic.
Thune’s idea of American Exceptionalism…
george bush and rick perry are/were pilots too. rounds is a pilot who may be using that benefit to the max as our newest millionaire/pilot/congressmember.
WWII pilots certainly have my respect. if his biblically educated kids supported our black president i might respect that.
on today’s weather map, the black hills are isolated ( for hundreds of miles in any direction) as having less than good air quality, no doubt as a result of heavy rally traffic.
thune is all about business profiting regardless of environmental consequences. the rally does nothing positive for the vast majority of citizens, but we pay for its costs in a myriad of similar ways (profound noise pollution) so a few people can fleece the additional million tourists, and sales taxes skyrocket. it looks like a boomtown economy that doesn’t pay its own way.
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Those motorcycles you complain about Leslie all get 40+ mpg. Motorcyclists are just as entitled to use public roads as you are, no? Why do some liberals begrudge others the liberties they choose to exercise? When you stink up the toilet at the courthouse nobody says you shouldn’t be there (-;
How do you get Thune to a public meeting?Get a camera and a basketball.The photo op Express is just begining.
you ever had a million people in sx falls?
Burning coal kills fish and pheasants. Peabody Energy’s (the world’s largest coal conglomerate) largest stockholders are Koch Industries and their subsidiaries. Campaign donations to coal promoting politicians flow like water over the falls. Natural gas produces only half the carbon pollution as coal.
If the GOP 2016 presidential nominee doesn’t pick john thune as a running mate it’s because he’s a crook, infidelitous, or both.