Sen. Ortiz y Pino pays Gessing a compliment

There’s no doubt that Sen. (Comrade as many call him) Ortiz y Pino and the Rio Grande Foundation are on the opposite sides of most issues. But, recently, I asked him — after attempting to get several New Mexico-based environmental groups to participate — to debate our guest Pat Michaels, a climate change expert with the libertarian Cato Institute on the issue of global warming and climate change. To give Jerry credit, he was willing to show up.

Of course, he followed up the debate with an Alibi column that, among other things, attacked conservatives for not giving appropriate spaces to lefties. We could have had Pat on for an hour by himself, but we (and host Bob Clark) wanted to have the other side represented…

So, according to Ortiz y Pino, I “garner ungodly amounts of print” and specifically reached out to him to get the left’s perspective. They may be backhanded compliments, but I’ll take them considering who they are coming from.

The rest of the article is a rant against the supposed corporate interests and other ad hominem attacks, but he does explain in his own way the nub of the disagreement he has with Michaels. However, Ortiz y Pino seems sanguine about the very real and imminent economic crisis facing our nation. Leaving solutions up to individuals acting in a — preferably, energy-subsidy free market — simply don’t believe that we are facing a crisis. Rather, they are instead being forced through backdoor mileage regulations to give up the comfort and safety of having a spare tire in their vehicles.