If U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce wants to run for governor on a platform of fiscal responsibility, he’s going about it in a strange way.
The fedpol is trumpeting a $1.45 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s “Low or No-Emission Vehicle Competitive Program.” The City of Las Cruces will get the moolah, which “could provide for two or three 35-foot long buses to operate on the city’s established routes.” Pearce claims, despite mounting evidence to the contrary, that the funding will address the city’s “need to improve and increase public transportation to provide another avenue for people to get to work, to visit their friends and family, and ultimately to more easily move around the community.”
Don’t look for “greens” to embrace the news. El Paso Electric, which provides power to the southern portion of the state, doesn’t get its juice from Leonardo DiCaprio-approved sources. The chart below, taken from the utility’s 2016 annual report, shows that its generation portfolio is lousy with nuclear and natural gas.
But even if Las Cruces’s “progressive” city fathers install solar panels to power their new buses, the grant is problematic. The national debt just surpassed $20 trillion, and the figure for unfunded liabilities is far higher. In his remaining time in Congress, Pearce should be working to eliminate subsidies such as the Low or No-Emission Vehicle Competitive Program.
Running for Governor do you say? Run for the center. The soft gooey center where principles are sacrificed, souls are sold and marketing and political correctness rule the day.