Pro'Green' Tea in Politics?

Energy policy is at the core of astro-turfed Tea Party groups, funded by fossil fuel money like that of the Koch Brothers.  We see the effects of that big money puppeteering in conservative energy policy in Congress, but the real grass roots people of the Tea Party are cutting the strings and turning on their originators, primarily on the east coast, by supporting green energy. 

As conservatives in Congress obstruct job creating policy and promote subsidizing wealthy fossil fuel, the conservatives at the grass roots level is starting to object, a schism that could be significant in both the 2014 and the 2016 election cycles.  It offers hope that the ordinary people on the right might finally start voting their interests and the country's interests, and stop voting the interests of the conservative 1%.

There is no such thing as clean coal, and as we are exhausting the finite resource of coal, to get it out of the ground is requiring increasingly dangerous and destructive methods. Blowing the tops off of mountains ruins the ecology of an area, especially in the way it affects local water sources.

We continue to have deadly accidents to coal miners because our system of inspections and penalties has been rigged so as to give coal companies a free pass to operate unsafe mines. Even in safe mines, there continues to be risks from black lung from inhalation of coal dust by miners, above and beyond the more obvious news-worthy catastrophic losses that occur when mines collapse, explode or catch on fire.

Coal is dirty and dangerous on the mining end, and dirty and dangerous on the user end. We have the opportunity to move out of the 18th and 19th century into the present and future. Just as gasoline and kerosene became new energy sources when whale oil and whaling came to an end as an industry, it is now time to move forward with safe, renewable 'green energy', and to end coal mining.

That is works, that it is cost effective, and that is is cost-effective especially in terms of not only dollars and cents, but health and lives. This is the kind of effort that the GOP and Tea Party in congress are trying to stop by defunding green energy initiatives. OUTSIDE of Congress

Here is an example of effective green energy in Appalachia, the Jobs Project:

About The JOBS Project

The JOBS Project is an organization that serves the dedicated communities in Central Appalachia who have provided the nation with energy for generations.  After more than 150 years of coal mining, a new energy future is on the rise with potential for job creation and tax benefits for local and state economies.  As the renewable energy industry grows, residents of coal producing states like West Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio deserve to benefit from the natural resources development that will flourish in the region.

The JOBS Project promotes renewable energy as a way to create long-term, good paying jobs.  Our organization aims to make good use of federal and state incentives by offering rural landowners the chance to participate in the development of renewable energy projects beginning in 2010.  To prepare our workforce for jobs in renewable energy, we invite educators to “turn your school into a tool” for learning about technological innovation and 21st century skills.

Our mission

The JOBS Project is a catalyst for sustainable economic diversification in Central Appalachia, creating replicable, locally-owned institutions that capitalize on renewable energy resources.

And here is what they looked like back in 2011, getting started on their first project, via Huff Po:

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A group devoted to creating alternative energy jobs in Central Appalachia is building a first for West Virginia's southern coalfields region this week – a set of rooftop solar panels, assembled by unemployed and underemployed coal miners and contractors.

The 40- by 15-foot solar array going up on a doctor's office in Williamson is significant not for its size but for its location: It signals to an area long reliant on mining that there can be life beyond coal.

People were skeptical when the idea was first floated about a year ago, says Nick Getzen, spokesman for The Jobs Project, which is trying to create renewable energy job opportunities in West Virginia and Kentucky. In the southern coalfields, he says, people have only ever gotten electricity one way – from coal-fired power plants.

"This is the first sign for a lot of folks that this is real, and that it's real technology, and they can have it in their communities," Getzen says.

 Here are some examples of the Tea Party standing up to the big money funders of the movement, and even against their own.

Tea Party Takes On Georgia Power Over Lack Of Solar Energy

And this is occurring in other places across the nation:

Koch-Fueled Denial Backfires: Independents, Other Republicans Split With Tea-Party Extremists on Global Warming

Pew Poll: Clean Energy Is A Political Wedge Among Republicans

R.I. Tea Party Supports Wind Power

It a good start in opposing the part of stupid; some of their support is leaving the anti-science side and moving into the light.  We're seeing it in tea party support in places like Missouri for PACE funding; now we just have to see it move up from the conservative grass roots to the federal level.