ROCHESTER POST BULLETIN: FROMMER ON GUTKNECHT'S GOOD-BYE
The Post-Bulletin runs Frederick Frommer's AP article Gutknecht contemplates life after Congress. Gutknecht opens with an analogy:
Ask Rep. Gil Gutknecht if he'll ever mount another run for Congress, and the colorful lawmaker has a quick rejoinder.
"That's a little like asking a woman who's just come out of a 38-hour labor and delivered a 12-pound baby, 'Well, don't you want to get pregnant again?"' he said. "Not today."
But Gutknecht and his fellow Minnesota GOP House member, Mark Kennedy, don't rule out future runs for office. They're just focused on the more immediate right now: life after Congress.
Gutknecht, a 12-year House veteran, lost his re-election campaign to Democrat Tim Walz. Kennedy, after six years in the House, tried to jump to the Senate, but he lost to Democrat Amy Klobuchar.
"The honest truth is the political virus seldom leaves the bloodstream," Gutknecht, 55, said in a telephone interview this week, but added, "I've been here, done that."
A virus and going through labor: Gutknecht's metaphors tend to discuss the electoral process as medical events. Not fun.
Gutknecht's future plans:
Gutknecht said he's interested in business opportunities in renewable energy, new technologies, and international trade. But his true dream seems to be landing a gig hosting a radio show.
"I'd like to start with 35 stations, and build to 100. Eventually, I'd like to take it national," said Gutknecht, who has hosted a weekly radio show in Minnesota called "Conversations with the Congressman."
He said he'd offer a "conservative viewpoint with an optimistic tone," saying there was a void for that. And Gutknecht said he might do some auctioneering again.
Neither lawmaker expressed an interest in working as a lobbyist, although Gutknecht wouldn't close the door on it.
"I don't really want to do it, but if they dangle enough money in front of me, I may not have any choice," he said with a laugh.
Uh-huh. Nice to know in case Gutknecht ever runs for office again. On his loss:
Both lawmakers said their losses were part of a wave that swept Democrats into control.
"It was not a good year for those with 'R' beside their name," said Kennedy, citing the Iraq war as a particular drag for Republicans. Gutknecht agreed.
"It was the war more than anything else," he said.
Kennedy said he was proud of his work to expand ethanol and cut taxes. Gutknecht said he was proud to be "my own man" on issues, such as legislation to allow people to import prescription drugs from Canada, which he pushed over the objections of the Bush administration.
Gutknecht said he was leaving Congress with mixed emotions.
"In some respects, it's sad," he said. "In some respects, it's kind of exciting. Life is interesting to interesting people. I have to believe the next chapter will be as exciting."
FAIRMONT SENTINEL: ROSEN EAGER TO GET BACK TO WORK
More excitement in Senate District 24, where senator Julie Rosen (R-Fairmont) tells the local paper she has no qualms about working with Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller. In fact, they get along "very well" in
Rosen looking forward to session:
Despite a larger Democratic party majority in the Minnesota Senate this year, Fairmont Republican Julie Rosen is looking forward to the upcoming legislative session.
“I’m really excited for this session; to get back to work,” Rosen said. “Not just because I have an aggressive agenda, but to work with Sen. Pogemiller and the team he has set up. I am looking forward to working with Pogemiller, I get along very well with him.”
Later in the article, the reporter takes some of that good will back:
Her anticipation of getting back into the legislative swing not withstanding, Rosen is concerned about the makeup of the DFL majority’s leadership. In the past, Senate leaders have included members representing rural areas, but now the leadership consists of a strictly metro-area bunch.
Now, since that's not a direct quote from Rosen, so we don't want readers attributing the "strictly metro-area bunch" description of DFL senate majority leadership to her. It could just be the way the Sentinel reporter chose to paraphrase something Rosen said.
We're curious if folks in St. Cloud who are represented state by senator Tarryl Clark consider themselves part of "a strictly metro-bunch." We're guessing not; nor is St. Cloud included in any standard definition of the metro area. Clark is the new Assistant Majority Leader.
Here's St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis's take on Clark, who challeged him twice while he was the state senator for the district, from a recent St. Cloud Times article:
. . . St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis said Clark's new status is the best bet the area has for getting things such as increased state aid to local governments.
"Especially on local issues, there's an ability to influence your peers because they elected you to your position in the first place, so you have their respect," said Kleis, who served as assistant minority leader during his Republican Senate career. "Plus, the Minneapolis DFL leadership will be eager to show that they're not just looking out for the Twin Cities."
It looks as if that "Minneapolis DFL leadership" boils down to Pogemiller and Kelliher, neither of whom have chosen to concentrate deputy leadership posts or committee chairs within the Minneapolis city limits.
Back to the article. Rosen doesn't see much call for a tax rebate:
As for a tax rebate, she does not see much hope for one.
“Seriously, I have not talked to anyone for it,” she noted. “I think that it will be interesting to see if anyone wants a rebate.”
Ask Marty Seifert and Tim Pawlenty.
DM & E AND THE WINONA STUDENT SENATE: WE AT WSU, OPPOSE DM& E
Jason at I Don't Hate America blogs more about the Winona Student Senate in We at WSU, Oppose DM&E. A good round-up of coverage of the student resolution, though Bluestem Prairie is just another grassroots hick blog, not a news network.
STRIB: PRAIRIE GRASSES BEAT CORN
Speaking of grassroots, we're pretty partial to native prairie grasses, as our name attests, and a friend who is a policy wonk on renewable fuels told us in September that the energy potential in bluestem is quite high.
We knew that.
But now a study is out that suggests that a mix of native prairie grasses grown on marginal land beats corn as a feedstock for making ethanol. We didn't know that, having only read about the potential of switchgrass--which, like corn, demands high-quality soil and intensive cultivation.
The Strib reports:
World demand for fuel and food is projected to double in the next 50 years. Now, researchers at the University of Minnesota have concluded that corn may not be up to the task of filling both stomachs and gas tanks.
"Unless we produce food and biofuel in an efficient manner, they will be directly competing with each other," said David Tilman, regents professor of ecology at the University of Minnesota. "We will have high prices for both."
University researchers, led by Tilman, think they've found a solution -- supply the facilities that make ethanol with a diverse mixture of prairie grasses instead of corn. The grasses not only can produce more net energy per acre than corn but they also act as a sponge for greenhouse gases before being harvested, soaking them out of the air and into their roots and surrounding soil, the researchers found.
The last trait could prove an economic bonus for farmers if businesses one day are able to cash in "credits" for removing greenhouse gases from the air, as many predict. Clean air credits already are traded in Europe.
Nearly 100 ethanol plants consuming corn have sprung up across the country. A director of the Minnesota Corn Growers Association has warned that supplanting corn with grasses would be a complex, costly task that could take years.
But in an interview, Tilman contended that prairie grasses could represent a new cheap-to-produce cash crop that would be more of an opportunity than threat to farmers.
In a cover story published today in Science magazine, the researchers reported that a field planted with a medley of prairie grasses and flowering plants packed more than triple the energy of single-variety grasses. The study also estimated that mixed prairie grasses grown on marginal farmland would yield 51 percent more energy per acre than corn cultivated on fertile land.
The prairie grasses were grown on depleted land without fertilizers and pesticides commonly used for corn. The grasses require almost no maintenance, so less gasoline and diesel fuel would be burned tending to fields.
Harvesting and processing a hectare (about 2.5 acres) of grasslands produces about three-tenths of a metric ton of carbon dioxide, the researchers calculated. But in the first 10 years, the grasses absorb 4.4 metric tons of carbon dioxide. In other words, the prairie grasses absorb about 14 times more greenhouse gas than is released in producing grass-based fuel.
Tilman led researchers studying grass crops planted at the Cedar Creek Natural History Area in central Minnesota.
President Bush has touted research into making ethanol from switchgrass. But the researchers found that a single species of grass is far less promising as material for ethanol production than is a blend of prairie grasses. They studied 16 varieties.
"Switchgrass is very productive when it's grown like corn, in fertile soil with lots of fertilizer, pesticide and energy inputs, but this approach doesn't yield as much energy gain as mixed species in poor soil, nor does it have the same environmental effects," Jason Hill, a post-doctoral researcher who worked with Tilman, said in a statement.
Only the abstract of the Science article and the study's supporting materials are available free online. We'll see if we can dig up a full-text copy of the article.
The Strib reports on the reaction of corn growers to the study. It's mixed, especialy since those marginal lands are heavily committed to conservation efforts:
Ron Obermoller, a corn and soybean grower in Brewster, Minn., said he believes corn will remain king in ethanol production. He owns shares of two Minnesota ethanol plants and is a director of the Minnesota Corn Growers Association. He doubts the government ever will free farmland set aside for conservation in order to grow prairie grasses for harvest.
"I'm not sure we've got idle land," he said. Conservation land is home to ducks and pheasants and provides hunting grounds and extra revenue for farmers, Obermoller said.
On the other hand, if the economics are favorable, he sees benefits in grass cultivation -- even for farmers who now grow corn. While the price of corn is high enough to justify the cost of shipping it great distances, the market prices of prairie grasses are likely to be much lower, dictating clustering of ethanol production plants near the grass fields, he said.
"Instead of having big plants, we will have hundreds of smaller plants," he said. "That gives the farmers the chance to invest locally."
That's an interesting model for local rural development. Can a balance between biofuels and pheasant habitat be reached? Stay tuned.
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