The American Spectator

So, retiring Republican Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas wants to use Congress to make other Americans buy his state’s expensive, unreliable stuff.

A story in today’s Climate Wire trade press outlet opens:

Pressure for a renewable electricity standard is strengthening, with one Republican now promising to offer an amendment to the modest energy bill being introduced today by the Senate majority leader.

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) will seek to include a national requirement on utilities that makes them buy or generate 15 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2020, according to his office.

“He will be offering that amendment,” said Brian Hart, a spokesman for Brownback. “Kansas is a big wind state.”

It’s not the first time. And yes, senators tend to “grow in office”, as in becoming much more statist with each term, sometimes with each year, of service. But since that stuff in this case is energy, necessitating higher energy prices in parts of the country that have elected to not pursue such fashionable folly, there are slightly more considerations at play.

Also, with Sen. Brownback inescapably proposing a national energy tax, so much for the moral high ground. Gosh, we’ll miss him.

UPDATE: From the life-is-timing file, this stunt comes just as the reliability watchdog North American Electric Reliability Corp. issues an assessment that this and related moves will pose grave challenges, urging us to ensure that the incorporation of intermittent renewable energy is feasible before Congress mandates it. Think before you act: What an idea! Let’s all think before we vote, and possibly ask questions, like without using the term “do ‘something’” in your answer — although so using the term surely answers the question — will you end up being reckless like this, too?