Pawlenty 2012: TP’s green initiatives fade to brown

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Remember the green Tim Pawlenty? Back in 2007, the governor departed from the GOP pack by signalling a desire to take up the issue of climate change. He signed a bill calling for substantial reductions in the state’s greenhouse gas emissions, and appointed a commission to generate further recommendations.

But changes in political climate seem to be outstripping Pawlenty’s worries over global climate. Evan Lehmann of Climatewire writes in the New York Times:

Gov. Tim Pawlenty is stoking frustration among Democratic state lawmakers and prominent climate thinkers for becoming “totally silent” on two major efforts to stem greenhouse gas emissions in Minnesota and in a strip of states stretching from Canada to Kansas.

The turnaround is striking because it was the governor who powerfully promoted the initiatives. Now, chafed participants believe Pawlenty is abandoning climate action to mend his conservative credentials before taking a stab at the Republican nomination for president in 2012.

“What we’re seeing from our governor currently is all focused on his national political ambitions,” said state Rep. Bill Hilty, the Democratic chairman of the state’s House Energy Committee.

Lehmann adds that the recommendations of Pawlenty’s Minnesota Climate Change Advisory Group “are getting dusty.” As Britt Robson wrote for PIM Weekly Report back in March (final item), it’s hardly the first time the governor has turned his back on the advice of his own blue-ribbon commissions.