“Lawmakers should have the good sense . . .”

by David Safier

Any sentence about the Arizona legislature that begins with this is somewhere between a denial of reality and a cry for help:

Lawmakers should have the good sense to reject ideologically driven legislation . . .

It's from this morning's Republic editorial about the asinine legislation to add nuclear power to the list of renewable energy sources, which would have effectively killed solar energy growth in Arizona. The bill's plug was pulled last week.

Here's more of the quote, which, to my pleasant surprise, points out that the Goldwater Institute was pulling the strings to get the legislation passed.

 After failing to kill the renewable-energy standard in court, the libertarian Goldwater Institute is trying to do the job through the Legislature. Lawmakers should have the good sense to reject ideologically driven legislation that would drive away new business and jobs. But Rep. Steve Montenegro showed we can't count on it. Suntech chose to locate in the Goodyear Republican's district. Yet he voted "yes" on HB2701 in committee and jeopardized the factory. (Goodyear voters, take note.)

It should be noted that Goodyear may have been especially dim on this one, but he was joined by over 50 Republican legislators who signed on to the bill. Like lemmings, these folks.

Kudos to the Republic for spotlighting G.I.'s puppet master role. We hear from G.I. as "experts" in the media all the time, but its super-sized role in directing legislation gets far too little press. (Can you say "The Floridation of Arizona Education," boys and girls?)

And this should serve as a warning to Republican legislators: just because G.I. says it's a great bill that promotes nuclear energy doesn't make it so. But thinking like that would demand legislators have "the good sense to reject ideologically driven legislation." It ain't gonna happen any time soon.