Sunday, Sep. 28, 2008

Cap Report

• Quote of the week

“Doing nothing is not an option.”

— Gov. Mark Sanford this week as he accepted a report from a panel he formed to make recommendations on how S.C. could become more energy efficient and cut greenhouse gas emissions. Last year, Sanford formed the Climate, Energy and Commerce Advisory Committee. On Monday, the group presented the governor its final report, which includes 51 policy changes.

THIS WEEK

Tuesday

11 a.m., Agency Head Salary Commission meets in the Gressette Building, Room 406.

2 p.m., DHEC’s S.C. Environmental Justice Advisory Committee meets in the Blatt Building, Room 305.

Wednesday

10 a.m., The Public Service Commission’s Subcommittee of the State Regulation of Public Utilities Review Committee will meet at the Gressette Building, Room 105.

10 a.m. Public Private Partnership Study Committee meets in the Blatt Building, Room 207.

• THE BUZZASTROTURF AWARD GOES TO ...

The Buzz would like to issue a lifetime achievement award in astroturfing to the S.C. Policy Council and its allies this week.

Astroturfing is any PR effort to try to create a false sense of grass-roots support for an issue. This week, it was calls to require roll call voting for the state Legislature.

Supporters called a press conference Wednesday and talked about the widespread public support for the idea. Then those same people spent the day filling blogs with comments in support of the idea to simulate said widespread support.

Well, The Buzz has been on the campaign trail a little bit this year. And with a cratering financial system, inflation eating away at paychecks, two wars overseas, illegal immigration and roughly 50 million people with no health insurance, we can’t tell you how many people have bent The Buzz’s ear about the need for state lawmakers to take a roll call vote on bills governing how and when to remove a mobile home.

Actually, we can. It’s none.

The Buzz is all for the transparency roll call votes provide (we’re asking for unanimous consent from y’all in the Senate). But so far the issue is more heat than light.

• SANFORD HATES THE BAILOUT

The Buzz picked up The Washington Post this week and found a column by none other than Gov. Mark Sanford, who wagged a finger at Congress for considering the proposed $700 billion bailout.

The Guv pulled out some of his favorites — Milton Friedman, Ronald Reagan and Edward Gibbons — in arguing for both a free-market solution to the problem and for corporate titans who caused this financial mess to feel the pain of their decision-making. Sanford wrote that a bailout leaves “those who are prudent in their finances to foot the bill for those who are not.”

The Buzz expects to hear that line again in South Carolina as the state deals with possibly having to cut its budget on news that state revenues are expected to continue their decline. Sanford, who also hates across-the-board cuts, wants the state to reward the prudent and punish the rest.