May 12, 2009 09:44 PM UTC

Boldly Following...Lundberg?

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• by: Colorado Pols

Why in the world would anyone oppose telecommuting? After all, it reduces road congestion, highway and car maintenance costs, fuel consumption, improves employee morale, and all kinds of other good stuff–there’s really no downside. About as uncontroversial a idea as you could possibly propose to the General Assembly, especially in the form of a symbolic resolution of “support.”

Enter Kevin Lundberg.

Just before the end of the session last week a bunch of state Senate Republicans, led by Sen. Lundberg, voted against a resolution generically expressing support for “telecommuting by the State of Colorado.”

Why, you ask? Because the resolution stated in passing that telecommuting would “reduce carbon emissions that lead to global warming.” And because of that one sentence, not just Lundberg but fully 10 Republican Senators, an overwhelming majority of their caucus, voted ‘no’ on HJR09-1021.

This is the sort of nutty grandstand for which Lundberg is constantly hammered by incredulous constituents–the Fort Collins Coloradoan printed this one today:

Teachers and parents like to tell their children that Earth Day is every day. But State Sen. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, didn’t learn the lesson…

Before you jump to the phone to remind Lundberg that the vast majority of the world’s leading climate scientists have been worried for decades about global warming and its potential impacts on weather patterns, sea level and more, you should know Lundberg’s denial of the basic facts about global warming appears to be deeply entrenched.

Lundberg has made a string of unsupported outbursts about global warming, which, taken together, portray him as an extremist on the issue, to say the least, in the company of folks like Gov. Sarah Palin, R-Alaska, who completely reject the international climate modeling and empirical evidence that support global warming predictions.

Last year, Lundberg made Fort Collins proud by getting spotlighted in The Denver Post for claiming that the science underlying Gov. Bill Ritter’s climate action plan is “junk science.”

He said it hasn’t been settled by scientists that manmade carbon dioxide emissions contribute to global warming at all…

There’s legitimate debate within the scientific community about how fast global warming will happen and how devastating the results will be, and skepticism is a welcome part of the scientific process.

But Lundberg’s view on global warming, that it’s simply nonexistent, is akin to believing the Earth is flat.

We’re through asking what Lundberg’s problem is–he’s been spewing his fringe view on the subject for years now while less mercenary Republicans cringe, and shows no signs of slowing. But why are all these other Senate Republicans encouraging him, even joining with him, going so far out of their way to trash anything remotely environmental–something as benign as telecommuting–in a state like Colorado where conservation is actually popular? Why did presumed gubernatorial candidate Josh Penry, of all people, vote with Lundberg on this?

Another anecdote to file under “why they keep losing.”