Coloradan Ron Binz is not suited to be FERC chairman

Senators Mark Udall & Michael Bennet introduce Ron Binz

Tuesday’s Senate confirmation hearing on Colorado’s Ron Binz to be President Barack Obama’s Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission chairman saw electromagnetic shock-waves blast from Alaska to West Virginia.

Senate committee hearings can be dry, dull and draining — perfect events for playing online poker or doodling.

Tuesday’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., was far from boring.

One lobbyist in line commented, “This is the first FERC appointee in my 30-year career which has drawn a crowd.” In fact, there were twice as many spectators as seats. A vast overflow spilled into the halls resembling a queue for a rock concert, rather than a committee meeting.

Energy transmitted over FERC-regulated pipes and wires is worth nearly $400 billion per year. Grand Junction’s Greg Walcher, in his book, “Smoking them out: The theft of the environment and how to take it back,” states that the transmission of power is the most difficult issue facing the environment today.

FERC regulates the transmission and wholesale sales of electricity in interstate commerce, along with licensing of electric production, pipelines and liquid natural gas terminals. FERC does not regulate the source, merely the transmission of electricity on the grid.

So, what is so controversial about Obama’s FERC appointee from Colorado?

Four things:

✔ The Colorado Clean Air, Clean Jobs Act

✔ The “30 percent by 2020” Colorado mandate

✔ Allegations of Binz misleading or lying to the Energy Committee’s ranking member

✔ Binz’s statement that natural gas would be a “dead end” by 2035.

Binz, the former chairman of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission under Gov. Bill Ritter, co-authored Colorado’s controversial, $1.3 billion Clean Air, Clean Jobs Act of 2010, which pitted Colorado coal producers against the natural gas industry.

The act requires Xcel Energy to retire or retrofit 900 megawatts of Front Range coal-fired power plants into facilities fueled by natural gas or other energy sources.

The act received broad bipartisan support. Former Senate Minority Leader Sen. Josh Penry, then of Grand Junction, co-sponsored the legislation. Subsequently, Penry was criticized for accepting employment with an energy consulting firm.

The “30 percent by 2020” mandate was originally co-authored by Binz in 2007. It required Colorado’s energy providers to have 20 percent of their portfolios coming from renewables by 2020. The law was amended in 2010 to increase renewables to 30 percent.

Locally, state Sen. Gail Schwartz, D-Aspen, who co-sponsored the 2020 mandate and represents a district with natural gas wells and coal mines, was criticized for destroying hundreds of western Colorado jobs.

The third controversy stems from the fact Binz told Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska he had not engaged the assistance of lobbyists to secure his nomination. However, open records of White House emails revealed Binz’s nomination was being coordinated by FERC staff, a PR firm and consultants.

The defense: Binz claims he did not pay for or ask for these services.

Finally, in a statement several years ago, Binz described natural gas as being a “dead end” by 2035 without carbon capture and sequestration. Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming directly asked Binz about this quote, to which he replied, “I believe the technology will be perfected by 2035.”

The “dead end” quote and beliefs about carbon capture and sequestration are likely to lump senators from coal and natural gas-producing states in the same camp, opposing Binz.

The Energy Committee has 22 members: 12 Democrats and 10 Republicans. All committee members vote. A tie vote ends the nomination. Simple majority sends the nomination to the full Senate for consideration.

Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat is from a coal-mining state and has threatened to vote “nay.” If Manchin joins the Republicans, then the Binz nomination will fail.

Indications are that Obama suffered significant loss of political prestige from his venture into war mongering with Syria. Last week three Democrats opposed Larry Summers to be chairman of the Federal Reserve and Summers withdrew his name from consideration. And now, one Democrat — Manchin — is holding up the Binz nomination.

To understand the complexities of the controversy, one must understand the dynamics of traditional-versus-renewable energy producing states; power providers versus consuming states; and rich versus poor states.

Americans desire affordable power. However, the energy source is not always conveniently located to power plants, which are usually a long way from cities and our homes.

FERC is important because it regulates the transmission of electricity through power lines or gas through pipelines.

Binz’s history here in Colorado is one of picking winners and losers in the energy sector. FERC needs a chairman who is not gambling and playing politics at the expense of consumers who are paying higher electric rates year after year.

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Soper, Matt.  "Coloradan Ron Binz is not suited to be FERC chairman." Grand Junction Daily Sentinel 22 Sept 2013: B7 <http://www.gjsentinel.com/opinion/articles/coloradan-ron-binz-is-not-suited-to-be-ferc-chairm> accessed 22 Sept 2013

Colorado Primary 2010: Post Election Analysis

Post election analysis are akin to Monday morning quarterbacking, but the opportunity to debrief and objectively look at what were strengths and weaknesses of certain political campaigns in Colorado’s 2010 Republican Primary Election is worthwhile. The majority of the candidates who won were novices to the grand political arena, backed largely by the right-wing movement known collectively as the “Tea Party,” a term conjuring thoughts of the Boston Tea Party of 1773, in which some 342 chest of East India Co. tea were destroyed by protesters, dressed as Mohawk Indians, who were against a series of taxes imposed on the colonists by Great Britain, including a tax on tea.

The current Tea Party movement is against the entire Washington establishment, regardless of political party, though ideologically it is more aligned with the Libertarian Party, than with the Republican Party. The mantra of “change” started during the 2008 US Presidential Election has sparked a revolutionary style movement from the grass-roots level and the message seems to be clear: No more individuals who are part of the establishment, no more career politicians, no more candidates with experience in the public sector, along with favouring fewer taxes, a balanced budget, and less government intrusion into the daily lives of citizens. Followers of the movement tend to be highly nationalistic and nostalgic about the good old days. Former 2008 GOP Presidential nominee and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is considered the uniting figure-head of the Tea Party movement.

So what happened in Colorado in August 2010? An election change, while subtle had a major impact on campaign strategy. This election was completely mail-ballot, which meant a campaign had to adjust political marketing tactics accordingly. Voters also tended to vote in three waves (early, middle and near election day), a candidate like Ray Scott managed to capitalize on these voting waves by sending out three mail pieces, one was a get to you letter, the next was a positive/negative comparison with his opponent, Bob Hislop, and the third was a Political Action Committee (PAC) funded mail piece which aggressively attacked Hislop. These mail pieces were very effective and managed to give voters a sense of who he is/was, on his terms, and put his name in front of the voters at the same time they had their ballots.

Bob Hislop on the other had had three times the campaign budget of Scott, but took an entirely different strategy. Hislop invested in radio and television ads and later online and in-print advertising. While effective to raise his name ID in the target market that listens to certain radio stations, watches certain TV programming, or reads certain newspapers, but failed to consider the entire voter-universe, that being all registered voters in Colorado House District 54. This is the same reason why Doug Atchley defeated Vern McCracken for Delta County Commission, district one. Atchley out-raised and out-spent McCracken, but Atchley invested in four direct mail-pieces: one to the county assembly delegates, another inviting folks for a regional meet & greet / coffee, a third the day the ballots were received, and a fourth hitting the middle wave of voters. Vern opted to walk precincts, use robo calls, and radio ads, rather than sending a single direct mail piece. Atchley won with nearly 70% of the vote. This is also the reason why Greenwood Village Mayor, Nancy Sharpe, defeated former 4-term Colorado House Representative Lorry Clapp for Arapahoe County Commissioner. Sharpe had the good fortune of having Clapp’s campaign manager caught on video-tape by the police having her young son steal signs and then bringing them back to her car. Clapp picked up a bizarre sympathy gain on Election Day, which is worthy to note.

Jane Norton, a former Lieutenant Governor of Colorado, lost to Ken Buck, the Weld County District Attorney. Norton became blamed as being part of the establishment, while Buck early on touted himself as the Tea Party candidate. Both Norton and Buck used direct mail pieces, but while Jane’s were clever, Buck’s were hard hitting, liking Norton to tax hikes, failed policies, and wasteful spending. These mail pieces, radio ads, TV ads, online ads, and print ads started early and continued to build. Norton first began attacking US Senator Michael Bennet, whom she assumed she would be facing in November. After State Senator Josh Penry dropped out of the governor’s race, Norton tapped Penry to be her campaign manager, a move which stunned many regional political junkies. The change in strategy occurred too late, the damage was sticking, because the attacks had been used long enough and hard enough that by Election Day, many voters believed the fallacies about Norton to be true. Buck made two off-the-wall comments in the late part of the election, which Norton capitalized on to gain lost ground, but unfortunately there wasn’t enough time in the game to score the needed percentage points in order to squeak out a victory which had been winnable back in January.

Dan Maes, an Evergreen, Colorado businessman, defeated former six term Colorado congressman, Scott McInnis by one percentage point. Maes, who claimed the title of Tea Party favourite was never suppose to win, however McInnis was attacked relentlessly by the media, who alleged he plagiarized multiple documents, including portions of a series of 26 papers he wrote on water policy, a line in a Washington Post editorial and a sentence in a Congressional House speech. Insiders claim the attack was leaked to the media by Maes’ camp and given the Denver media’s affinity towards their mayor, John Hickenlooper (who is the Democrat running for governor), it is no surprise they ran with it. Maes was fined $34,000 for illegal transfer of campaign monies, something which would be called boarder-line money laundering in the business world, but received a plea down $17,500 fine, which is still one of the largest rendered in Colorado history. McInnis defeated himself through the handling of the plagiarism scandal, as he went into hiding, then continued to make it worse for himself by placing the blame on an 82 year old, whom he had hired to do research for the water papers, not to mention failure to communicate with those involved to nip the story, before it could snowball. Maes is being preasured to leave the race by former Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo, who is running for governor on the American Constitutional Party ticket and is polling at a higher level than Maes. Top donors and party officials would also like to see Maes replaced with a much more electable candidate like Josh Penry, Mark Hillman, or the founder of ReMax, though serious talk cannot begin until Maes resigns from running, a move he said he will not take.

The victories indicate the Tea Party has clout in the Republican Party and that certain party members want to see completely new faces in politics. While Tea Party candidates were on the whole, terrible fundraisers, they were tremendously helped by PACs and 527s which funnelled millions of dollars into defeating opponents of the Tea Party. The real test will be in November 2010, when the general voting population will be asked to evaluate a Tea Party candidate v. a Democrat one.

Penry signs on as Norton's campaign manager?!?

Rarely to I ever pick up the Denver Post, turn to Mike Littwin’s column and say, “Gee, I agree with this Left-wing, flower snuffer...” However, Friday, 23 April’s edition, Littwin got it spot-on (for once). As shocked as I am to agree with such a liberal, I am even more stunned that State Sen. Josh Penry jumped on board Jane Norton’s US Senate team as her new campaign manager. Like many politicos, I never expect the Republican’s rising star and State Senate Leader to be adding campaign manager to his répertoire.

Jane Norton scored a major bonus by tapping the name recognition, political genius, and conservative clout, along with youth and energy which comes with Josh Penry. Having Penry at the helm of the Norton campaign is tremendous for Jane. What about Josh? It seems very odd that a guy, who has served in the Colorado House of Representative and Senate, along with briefly running for Governor, would take several steps to the side and become a campaign manager for a US Senate campaign – a campaign where he himself had a very real possibility of running and being elected.

Josh Penry has created the biggest test of his political career – the discipline test – if Josh can be regimented enough to keep Jane Norton in the limelight and stay in the shadows, while leading a precisioned team, then Colorado should expect a very powerful Norton campaign which should devastate either one of the clowns who happen to emerge from the Democrat’s primary.

Littwin compared Penry’s new role to the likes of Dick Wadhams during the two victorious Allard Campaigns, however this isn’t a good analogy, as Penry has been an elected official and Wadhams has never served in a public capacity.

Being too much of a ‘frontman’ can be dangerous to a political campaign, as was seen with John Marshall’s mistake in the Walcher congressional and Beauprez gubernatorial campaigns (Marshall was quoted in the media as much as Beauprez during the 2006 cycle).

Traditionally, campaigns emphasize the candidate as presenting the positive message through the party manifesto, whereas the campaign managers’ duty was to be the attack dog as is noted by famous managers, namely Carl Rove, Steve Schmidt, and Dick Waddams. While Josh has been a marvellous quarterback (literally and politically), his new, self-created challenge, what kind of a coach will he be?

My bet, Penry will prove to be as successful a manager (coach) as a candidate (quarterback) in the political arena.

My choice for Colorado Governor has left the race :-(

Today, my good friend Josh Penry bowed out of the race to be Colorado’s next Governor. I am very much disappointed, as what Colorado needs in a Governor is someone who is young, creative, in-tune with the people and someone who is cleaver and thinks outside the box. Here is an excerpt of what Josh emailed to his supporters:

“As you have no doubt heard, I made the difficult choice to leave the race for Governor - a race that me, my family, my team and so many supporters poured our hearts and souls into for nearly 6 months. Politics being what it is, some yahoo got word of my decision and decided to tell the Washington Post before I could tell many of my closest friends -- or even my employer at Home Loan and Investment, Company. Needless to say, I'll be on the phone all day for a couple days saying, with all the sincerity of a grateful heart, thank you to those who stood with us.

Word jumped out quick yesterday; that's politics I guess. And that's OK. Truth is, it is a tough business. I know that. In fact, one of the reasons our campaign was making such fantastic progress is I relish the fight. Maybe it's the old quarterback in me - I live for the fray, for the arena. You don't run for Governor at 33 by being bashful or timid.

But I'm also a person who keeps his eyes wide open - a good pilot is always looking at the instruments. And in the aftermath of last Tuesday's crushing Republican victories in New Jersey and Virginia, this much became certain: Republicans stand poised to make-up much of the ground we've lost, as the American people are being reminded in a profound way of the perils of big government once more.
In Colorado the chances for Republican recovery are real. Quite literally, if Republicans are strong and smart, we can make up the ground we've lost in this State in the last 6 years.”

The line-up of candidates running for Colorado offices on the Republican side has gotten very interesting:

Governor: Scott McInnis, however another former congressman, Tom Tancredo, will be announcing his bid for governor very soon. With Penry’s exit the fear from the far right is that McInnis won’t be tough in opposing gay rights, abortion, and illegal immigration. Tancredo will more than likely divide the Republican vote and help Ritter win re-election, but at least the Tancredo supporters will feel good about sticking to a principled candidate, while Ritter continues to error our principles, morals, life style, and net worth. I wonder if Ritter will use George Harrison’s song, the Tax Man, as his re-election theme song. He should, as it completely fits him. Watch out, his next tax will be against the feel of every Coloradoan.

US Senate: Jane Norton (former Lt. Governor of Colo.)

US Rep. Dist. 3: Scott Tipton (Colo. Rep. from HD 58) and Martin Beeson (District Attorney from Glenwood Springs)

US Rep. Dist. 4: Corry Gardner (GOP leader in the Colorado House of Representatives).

US Rep. Dist. 7: Ryan Frazier (African American and Aurora City Councilman)

State Treasurer: W.R. Stapleton and J.J. Ament

Secretary of State: Scott Gessler (attorney specializing in campaign and election law)

Attorney General: John Suthers

Colo. Senate Dist. 7: Steve King (Colo. Rep. from HD 54)

Colo. Senate Dist. 5: Bob Rankin and Wayne Wolf

Colo. House Dist. 54: Bob Hislop, Duncan McArthur and Ray Scott

Colo. House Dist. 58: Don Coram

Where does this leave Josh Penry? Josh needs to get back into the fight and be in a position to capitalize on the momentum which he was gaining during his bid for governor. A good position would be for him to run for either US Congress against John Salazar or against Steve King to regain his seat in the Colorado State Senate. If Josh does nothing, he will be out of the political limelight for a minimum of 2 to 4 years and could be a major setback in his career as a politician.

Colorado politics: The GOP is lining up a royal flush, will the Dems bluff or fold?

Duncan McArthur, the Treasurer of the Mesa County Republican Party has joined the race to replace Colorado State Representative Steve King (R-HD 54). I have been sought out to give advice to several potential candidates and took the approach of saying: Don't ignore Delta County and remember we are part of HD 54 and have a weight which is a significant element to the race.

Bob Hislop and Ray Scott are the other two candidates running for HD 54. Bob is retired from the secret service and from being a VP at Paul Mitchell. Ray owns a local gas products company. Bob is fairly new to Grand Junction and Ray is a long time resident, neither have much name recognition in the party at a local or state level. Rep. Steve King is staying neutral. Rep. Laura Bradford (R-HD 55) will more than likely endorse Duncan McArthur. Hislop and Scott both have excellent opportunities for capitalizing on a message of change and being novices to the political game.

Wanye Wolf running is noble, but he should recognize that hell will freeze over before he would defeat Sen. Gail Schwartz (D-SD 5). I was offered the opportunity to manage Bob Rankin's campaign against Gail Schwartz, as he has an arsenal which quite possibly could sink the Schwartz re-election ship. All I can say on this point is stay tuned and keep your fingers crossed.

Scott Tipon running against John Salazar again is also a noble ambition, but one which if he loses could more than likely end his political career, though if successful, he would be powerful player in Washington's freshman class based on the anecdote alone. I see what Scott is thinking. Ritter is very much dead in the water come Nov. 2010, the Dems are going to be fighting major Republican challengers at many levels, so the logic is that the Dems will fund the most important races and let John Salazar go if need be. My thought is that a congressman with a brother in the Federal Cabinet is not going to be hung out to dry.

This is a very exciting season for Colorado politics: Josh Penry and Scott McInnis running to challenge Gov. Ritter. Jane Norton running to challenge US Sen. Mike Bennet (Bennett has his own challenger in Andrew Romanoff - do I dare say Go Andy!). The awesome Scott Gessler taking on Sec. of State Bernie Buescher. J.J. Ament and Walker Stapleton are challenging each other to then run against State Treas. Cary Kennedy. Ryan Frazier is now challenging US Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-7th CD - Bob Beauprez's fmr seat) - Frazier has a really good chance to beat Perlmutter, especially since Perlmutter is going through a nasty divorce. I would love to see Scott Tipton replace John Salazar and to have Don Coram as the State Representative from HD 58. With all of these terrific candidates we can expect to see Obama visit Colorado often during the campaign season, as the worst thing for him would be to have major losses for the Dems out of Colorado - the state that coronated Obama - the world's messiah - grr.. Hopefully Josh or Scott will have long coat tails and will help fellow Republicans down the ticket.

My day will come to run for public office, but for now finishing my law degree, passing the bar exam and establishing my professional qualifications for running are very important to me. By the way, I won my first moot court trial today!!! The preparation alone took about 60 hours last week and my notes look like a mini book, but defeating the girl from Harvard - priceless!!!