Watching Government: 2009's reasons to chuckle

Jan. 11, 2010
Before the season to be jolly completely slips away, let's look back at some of 2009's amusing moments in government and issue this column's annual "Watchy" awards.

Before the season to be jolly completely slips away, let's look back at some of 2009's amusing moments in government and issue this column's annual "Watchy" awards. Many of us will return all too soon to tackling several very serious issues, but that doesn't mean we can't take time out for some chuckles now.

From the outset of 2009, it looked as if US Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.) would easily win the year's Apt Comparison Watchy with his frequent references to using "every tool in our energy toolbox" as he chaired actual fact-finding hearings of the House Natural Resources Committee's Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee.

But Costa was edged out of the Apt Comparison Watchy for 2009 on Nov. 10 when Margo Thorning, senior vice-president and chief economist at the American Council for Capital Formation, told the US Senate Finance Committee that having watched the cap-and-trade debate for 15 years, she was reminded of someone trying to lead a horse across a cattle guard.

A vivid image

Thorning observed: "You have the rider pulling on the reins from the other side, and the business community and others digging in their heels to keep from being led across." The image was so vivid that one senator said he planned to start using it himself.

A Very-Well-Put Watchy goes to Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter Jr., who in a July 9 address in Denver disclosed that he asked US Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), the primary sponsor of legislation to federally regulate hydraulic fracturing, to seek a comprehensive study "instead of jumping directly to a new and potentially intrusive regulatory system."

A DeGette spokesman confirmed that the two spoke, that she agreed that a study was needed, and that she didn't plan to back off on her bill. We're betting that Ritter's name won't be on DeGette's dance card when Colorado's Democrats hold their next spring formal.

'Clunkers' complaint

Next is a Sauce-for-the-Gander Watchy for the Renewable Fuels Association after its president, Bob Dineen, complained on July 30 about the House's voting to transfer $2 billion from the US Department of Energy's renewable energy loan guarantee program to keep the "Cash for Clunkers" program going.

Conceding that there are benefits in the federal program paying people to trade in less fuel efficient cars for newer models, Dineen added: "These new cars should also be running on renewable fuels like ethanol in order to benefit both the changing climate and the domestic economy." We didn't need to be reminded, since we knew how far the US fuel ethanol industry would have gotten without government help.

Last but not least, the first-ever Belle of the Ball Watchy goes to natural gas, which became everyone's fuel-of-choice as the potential for abundant domestic supplies from shale formations became obvious. It's a big contrast to other fossil fuels, which some politicians treat like wallflowers.

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