Should have known this was coming (H/T – Helga)

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Once again, SD Legislators get their yearly dose of ridicule for their backwoods thinking;

Recently it was Utah trying to use the political arena to bludgeon climate science using the same old debunked denialist nonsense. Now South Dakota has upped the ante. Besides the expected idiocy as in Utah’s resolution, the South Dakota House passed aresolution that included (presumably, though that may be giving too much credit) basic errors in wording – even simply being wrong they got wrong!

Plenty of people are getting good laughs about the use of “astrological” when “astronomical” may have been meant, and “thermological” when, uh, not sure what they meant. It is funny to see someone who gets the science quite wrong, trumpets errors that are trivial in the big picture, and declares, “[g]lobal warming alarmism is politics, not science” turn around anddefend the SD legislature’s action.

WTF is wrong with our state legislators? (H/T – Helga)

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South Dakota legislators tell schools to teach ‘astrological’ explanation for global warming.

Last week, the South Dakota House of Representatives passed a resolution to “urge” public schools to teach astrology. By a 36-30 vote, the legislators passed House Concurrent Resolution 1009, “Calling for balanced teaching of global warming in the public schools of South Dakota.” After repeating long–debunked denier myths and calling carbon dioxide “the gas of life,” the resolution concludes that public schools should teach that “global warming is a scientific theory rather than a proven fact”:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the House of Representatives of the Eighty-fifth Legislature of the State of South Dakota, the Senate concurring therein, that the South Dakota Legislature urges that instruction in the public schools relating to global warming include the following:

(1) That global warming is a scientific theory rather than a proven fact;
(2) That there are a variety of climatological, meteorological, astrological, thermological, cosmological, and ecological dynamics that can effect [sic] world weather phenomena and that the significance and interrelativity of these factors is largely speculative; and
(3) That the debate on global warming has subsumed political and philosophical viewpoints which have complicated and prejudiced the scientific investigation of global warming phenomena; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Legislature urges that all instruction on the theory of global warming be appropriate to the age and academic development of the student and to the prevailing classroom circumstances.

Yesterday, the South Dakota Senate passed by a vote of 18-17 an amended version of the resolution which eliminates most of the anti-science conspiracy theories, but still asserts that the “global warming debate” has “prejudiced the scientific investigation of global climatic change phenomena.” The amended version now “returns to the House for approval.” (HT: Thoughts From Kansas)

You think Excel Energy is jacking up fees, check this Sh*t out!

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www.rapidcityjournal.com

By Barbara Soderlin Journal staff

Black Hills Power customers pressed the utility at a forum Monday night to invest in renewable energy, cut its reliance on coal-fired power plants and avoid the 26.6 percent rate hike the company has requested from state regulatory officials.

Rapid City is full of working families who make just enough where they don’t qualify for home heating assistance, but will struggle to pay higher heating bills, resident Jenny Robertson told utility officials.

“We’re just on the cusp,” Robertson said. “This is scary for us.”

The meeting on the issue sponsored by the South Dakota Peace and Justice Center drew about three dozen people to the Mother Butler Center and was less formal than the Public Utilities Commission hearing on the same topic Nov. 24 at The Journey Museum.

In a room with a picture of Pope John Paul II on the wall, people passed around paper cups of coffee, slices of cake and a hat to collect donations.

For nearly two hours, they challenged Black Hills Power’s vice president of regulatory and governmental affairs to defend the rate increase request and answer questions about the utility’s stock prices, lobbying costs, charitable donations, conservation programs and commitment to wind power.

Kyle White gamely took questions and engaged the audience in a discussion of the economics of electricity.

He said Black Hills Power needs to increase rates to pay for a new power plant in Wyoming that serves this area, and to add infrastructure to serve a growing population of residents who are using more electricity per capita than ever to heat their bigger homes and power computers, cell phones and flat-screen televisions.

About the new coal-fired plant, White said, “It’s our lowest-cost option for continuing to provide safe and reliable service.”

But several in the group said the decision to rely on fuel that produces greenhouse gases is irresponsible given the link to climate change.

“I truly believe that our earth is at a critical point,” Mary Jo Farrington of Rapid City said, urging the utility to add more renewable resources like wind power to its energy portfolio.

White said that would be possible, but expensive: “We’d need a bigger increase.” The same goes for adding programs that help low-income people with their electric bill. He encouraged residents who want to save to look for ways to better insulate their homes.

White said South Dakota is not one of the states that mandate a renewable energy standard, and people should bring public policy decisions like this to their elected officials.

Jim Petersen, chairman of the Peace and Justice Center’s West River operations, encouraged the group to contact their mayor for advocacy on the rate increase and the state Legislature to push for mandates on renewable energy resources.

“These aren’t the bad guys,” Petersen said. “Our problems by and large rest in Pierre.”