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I've been hiding from politics chat because I knew too many people who actually thought the Senate was in play to deal with the inevitable recriminations. That said, I work with a local newspaper in Indiana and there was exactly one bright spot I could enjoy before I realized how well Dems were doing outside the Hell Dimension States. Looking at the returns it was obvious that Donnelly was sunk, because the GOP was happily voting against him en masse. He only snuck in because in 2012 the Tea Party replaced "Respectable Republican" with a rape apologist that just barely enough rural voters weren't willing to vote for, but Braun offered exactly the kind of plausible deniability for which these assholes pine. Still, there were a couple local Democrats that remained stubbornly close as precincts reported in. A woman running for sheriff on a platform of fighting nepotism in the sheriff's department and amiable school janitor running against a 24-year veteran of the county council and one of the county GOP big whigs. Both won, barely, but they won. They jumped ahead with the last four precincts and completely ruined the otherwise festive atmosphere of the GOP HQ, forcing one of their heads to give a speech on his legacy due to an unexpected defeat. The thing is, the new County Councilman from District 3 didn't even have yard signs. His only real exposure came from a routine interview I did with him for a candidate profile and everyone knowing him as a volunteer for school events. To hell with re-litigating the sins of the known bad-faith actors, I'm actually kind of inspired right now.
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Nov 7, 2018 20:30
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Haven't seen much about this in the headlines, and the idea of an elected judiciary is iffy in some respects, but apparently Dems did a lot better than expected in State Supreme Court Elections. Liberal, or moderate to the point of conservative distaste, candidates won in Arkansas, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina and Ohio. North Carolina in particular is pretty important given the GOP legislature's constant attempts to overthrow the currently Dem-aligned state court. Don't know enough about Arkansas or Ohio to comment, and I'd love to learn more if anyone has any insight. http://www.governing.com/topics/politics/gov-democrats-2018-state-supreme-court-elections.html
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Nov 9, 2018 03:30
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This is local in the extreme, but my local Board of Zoning Appeals just declined a permit for a proposed coal mine in southern Indiana. This was pretty unexpected, as support for the industry is generally VERY strong for cultural reasons and it was assumed that local objections would be sidelined. Admittedly, the vote hinged a lot more on potential impacts to the local tourism industry than any environmental argument, but it's a pretty dramatic rejection considering the political environment here. Also reduces the chances of Trump visiting to cut the ribbon on a "coal renaissance."
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Apr 19, 2019 02:58
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Scott Pruitt's back, this time in Indiana trying to get the state to ban new energy development, which would be some combination of natural gas and renewables given the market prices, and basically force the state utilities to keep using coal plants. They tried to sneak this in earlier and it died silently because they couldn't paint it as anything other than government intervention. A similar initiative in Montana also failed. However, Pruitt is trying to make the case that once Trump reverses all of Obama's regulations, aging coal plants will totally be viable again. Our utilities continue to argue that even under "favorable regulatory conditions and unexpectedly high natural gas prices" renewables are getting so dirt cheap it makes no sense not to start incorporating them more heavily. There's realistically nothing more the state can give them to make coal desirable, so banning the building of ANY new generation in the near future is the only avenue left. Basically, Pruitt's still trying to kill Obama's energy legacy and is becoming increasingly alarmed that this might not be possible. The Indiana House pretty soundly rejected the last attempt, but Pruitt is trying to flip the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, which holds sway over the GOP caucus. This would, of course, pit the Chamber of Commerce against Natural Gas, not to mention the state's fast-growing industries relating to clean energy development. We may not use much in the way of renewables and electric vehicles, but we certainly cater to states that do. Close to 90,000 jobs are sustained by manufacturing and transportation of those goods and components. Up until now, it's been easy for the Chamber of Commerce to ignore the fight by offering blanket condemnations of all new regulations. It will be interesting to see if they're willing to sacrifice ideology and practicality for a singular industry. Even my Trumpy-rear end corner of the state has a solar farm and is about to get another one in the 50-70 megawatt range now that the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission has approved it. It'll be hilarious if the state legislature literally kills construction jobs and property tax revenue over this. https://www.utilitydive.com/news/indiana-coal-miner-hires-ex-epa-head-scott-pruitt-to-lobby-against-plant-cl/553155/ Grammarchist fucked around with this message at 14:39 on Apr 23, 2019 |
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Apr 23, 2019 00:45
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Ventana posted:I should definitely be more worried about this issue, given how dumb our state can be, but I feel like if the previous motions already died, I'm doubt that Scott Pruit is gonna make any sort of difference. Looks like we can rest easy for now. Reuters is reporting that the Indiana Chamber of Commerce has told Pruitt to go gently caress himself, at least on the idea of a moratorium on new energy. Without their support, Republicans who opposed the attempt to sneak it through on an unrelated bill won't be willing to go to bat for it as a stand-alone. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-coal-idUSKCN1RY1MS
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Apr 23, 2019 22:01
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, but cmon this just sounds ridiculous.
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Spiffster posted:As for Indiana and it’s inroads for green energy most of the fight and education is to be done on the farm and in rural areas. Most of the nastiness I’ve seen have come from counties north and south of Indy just outside of the circle. Wind farms especially seem to be getting it tough around here and I’ve seen massive campaigns against them south from me. Definitely. Big business seems to be pretty firmly on board here, but the rest of the state still only knows what they hear on AM radio. There's actually been another development kinda related to Pruitt's ill-fated coal crusade. The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission has denied a permit for a natural gas power plant that was meant to replace a few coal-powered units for Vectren. Technically this is a temporary win for coal, but the IURC is specifically denying the project because renewables have gotten so cheap that the they are outright encouraging more wind and solar investment and a distributed grid. If this is indicative of the thinking of state regulators as a whole, things could get interesting. Long term, we might get to skip natural gas plants and jump straight to intensifying investment in wind and solar assets, at least at the utility level. So yeah, Indiana's still a red state and most the people who live here support coal for cultural as well as economic reasons. That said, the state government and business leaders seem to be moving in a green direction anyway. It's just going to be irritating to hear about the new 50-megawatt solar farm in my county being "too expensive" when the only reason it's coming is because it's dirt cheap compared to fossil fuels now. Locals can and will fight these things still though, that's for sure. https://www.courierpress.com/story/...own/3553798002/
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Apr 26, 2019 01:41
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I guess I do have some happier kinda-political news from southern Indiana. The Spencer County Circuit Court rejected an appeal from a local coal company trying to get a new zoning hearing for a new coal mine and they seem to have abandoned that project. A 2,000 MW coal plant is set to retire half its capacity way ahead of schedule, most likely by 2028. On top of all that, two major solar farms are set to come online by 2024. All that news kinda came together in the last couple of weeks, and there's a lot of awkward silences from the people who loudly insisted that coal would be king here forever. The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission even rejected a natural gas project from Vectren because the state's starting to recommend renewables based solely on cost savings. That said, a coal-to-diesel refinery is almost certain to go forward here, and the company in charge of that project seems to see that as a way to keep using coal when burning it no longer makes economic sense. It's being fiercely fought by local residents and it'll probably be a huge issue for municipal candidates in the county, so backlash could theoretically kill it after November.
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Aug 21, 2019 02:25
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My Indiana hometown voted out our Republican mayor by two votes. There's one provisional outstanding. Republicans got real used to being dominant here and it's going to be a fun few weeks of hearing about voter fraud. Christmas came early!
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Nov 6, 2019 06:41
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Hyper-local, but there's a minor coal fight being waged in my Indiana county. The board of zoning appeals rejected a coal mine after local residents made a fuss over potential damage to property and business in the area. The board then reversed course later last year and allowed the project to go through. There the matter seemed to rest. Opponents lost, but were at least heard, etc. However, the sheer fact that a coal mine was temporarily rejected in the first place led to an effort to have the county's authority on the matter removed outright via state legislation. The county commissioners introduced a resolution asking the state to do so at one of their meetings, leading to a fight with the only Democratic commissioner over attempting to pass something like that on a first reading with no chance for public input. As it was a resolution and not an ordinance, it eventually passed over his protest asking for another two weeks to consider. Now we've had two meetings with a lot of pissed off local residents angry about the process of all that, especially now that their properties are threatened. This being rural Indiana, the opposition is an eclectic mix, mostly conservatives caught between coal worship and property values, but with a few low-key progressives providing research help. It's a doomed fight, but the Democrat on the board of commissioners is being challenged by a Republican this year and was likely to lose as he's kind of a relic of a bygone era of blue dogs. He usually runs unopposed out of respect for his experience and ties to the community, but would get annihilated by GOP identity voters. However, his stance on this issue seems to have given him some goodwill among a lot of people who would never vote for a Democrat otherwise.
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Feb 6, 2020 16:12
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friendbot2000 posted:Is there anything the activist wing of the Goon Squad can do to help? Thanks, but not really. The only reason the issue has traction is because Trump-supporters (the majority of the area) are the face of it. "Outside agitators" would just let them fall back into familiar battle lines. This is a relatively minor issue, but I thought it was interesting. It's not often you see a MAGA hat complaining about a "swamp" with regard to a coal mine. Basically, we're seeing a tenuous alliance between environmentalists, tourism advocates and affected conservatives that feel hoodwinked. It's a single issue that might help keep some Democratic representation at the county level, and maybe introduce some conservatives to progressive ideals via organic cooperation. Can't hope for more than that, but it's actually something to hope for. There is some organized help from an environmental group in a nearby city, but they're wisely keeping a low profile.
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Feb 6, 2020 16:44
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Ego-bot posted:https://twitter.com/greggiroux/status/1235305270676525060?s=20 Yeah, that's about as good a chance any Dem really has. Maybe he'll get into a fistfight with Greg Gianforte somehow.
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Mar 5, 2020 03:57
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TURGID TOMFOOLERY posted:Wasn’t Bullock thinking fo running for POTUS in ‘16? What happened. He announced, but got lost in the crowd. A bunch of people said he should run for Senate instead and he eventually bowed out of the presidential primary late last year. Admittedly, Bullock seems to have gotten out relatively gracefully without pissing anyone off.
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Mar 10, 2020 16:37
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Grouchio posted:Is Biden about to cripple our downballot this election? Or will the tide of recession and pandemic negate this? Some vulnerable moderate House Democrats who scraped by in conservative areas in 2018 will probably be hard pressed with Trump on the ballot regardless of the nominee, though guys like Conor Lamb are probably in an ok position. The only thing I know is that is that I've spent entirely too much time online to understand the American voter. I'll have to hit up the next local party fish fry.
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Mar 11, 2020 16:49
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I got pretty doom and gloom after Ralph Northam beat the progressive in the Virginia Primary back in 2017, especially when he kept putting his foot in his mouth in the general. Never thought he'd be rubber stamping Lee Carter's legislation a couple years later. Virginia's example keeps me trucking in the hellscape of Indiana.
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Mar 11, 2020 17:54
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Moktaro posted:So did any GoodDems beat BadDems yesterday? Several in New Mexico, apparently. https://nmpoliticalreport.com/2020/06/03/progressive-democrats-defeat-incumbents-with-some-races-still-pending/ My home area of Indiana is showing some Democratic strength coming back, trying to hold onto the Judge, County Clerk and such. The Judge is a good guy facing a "Law and Order" Republican. The Dem Judge is campaigning pretty well, all things considered. He's got "All Rise, Together!" signs up all over, and mustered a good number of votes in a largely uncontested primary. I'm just happy that people are willing to out themselves as Dems to run for office around here.
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Jun 3, 2020 19:04
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| # ¿ May 12, 2024 03:47 |
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My family has old friends in Virginia who are VERY CONCERNED with how things are going over there, so y'all must be doin' somethin' right.
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Feb 27, 2021 17:30
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