The American Spectator

A couple of days ago I explained on the main site how the Southern Governors Association will hear a heavy dose of global warming alarmism this weekend at their annual meeting. Not mentioned in the piece is the fact that Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat environoiac, will step down as SGA chairman while Alabama Gov. Bob Riley, a Republican, takes the helm. The transition presents the opportunity for some climate reality to be injected into the proceedings, as AP notes:

Riley says the governors will also be discussing how federal issues, such as cap-and-trade energy legislation, will affect the region. He says southern companies have relatively cheap energy and cap-and-trade legislation could raise their costs 40 percent.

The way these things usually go, it’s almost always about the costs and there’s little, if any, discussion that the proposed legislation will do nothing to affect global climate. But something is better than nothing — that is, if Riley decides to go there.

Update 11:35 a.m.: The Daily Press in Newport News says Riley is not attending SGA, which makes no sense at all given his impending higher profile with the group. If the newspaper is correct, then only Mississippi’s Haley Barbour and Georgia’s Sonny Perdue provide the only possible anti-cap-and-trade voices at the summit. Unsurprisingly, the Schwarzeneggerish alarmist Charlie Crist of Florida is skipping the meeting, given his new political aspirations.

And to correct/update something I reported at Globalwarming.org last week, Texas Gov. Rick Perry has not been a member of the Southern Governors Association (or the Western Governors Association) since 2002 (even though both orgs like to claim him), according to a staffer I spoke to, who explained, “He quickly realized that all those groups were about is how to make government bigger.”

Cross-posted at Globalwarming.org.