It's all about the subsidies.

Yep, Peterson is a blue dog in an agricultural district. It is all about corn-based ethanol.

Peterson's position

"I want this message sent back down the street. I will not support any climate change bill. I don't trust anybody anymore...You're going to kill off the biofuels industry before it even gets started."

has anything to do with this:

(from the OpenCongress link you provided):

Agribusiness $542,134 49.7 % (of his total campaign contributions).

But the good news is that he talks about trust. Transparency, too, I'll bet.

His base is large farmers, who have millions invested in land, hardware, seed, fertilzers, animals, food, etc. Middle farmers are disappearing in Minnesota. And the small farmers - a growing number, I might add - are moving to organic. His other base is ag giants like Cargill & ADM, who buy all their corn on contract. The two together have the clout to make him jump.

Farmers don't want to face the fact that they have to change what and how they grow. Easier to do what ADM wants.

I thought the big problem with corn-based ethanol was that it took more energy to make than it could produce when used as a fuel. Am I mistaken about this?

... has to do with how EPA calculated the lifetime GHG emissions from ethanol. They included impacts from converting previously untouched lands (such as forests) to agricultural use to grow corn to meet food and fuel demand. No indirect impacts were added to petroleum-based fuels.

This potentially disqualifies corn ethanol from some of the requirements of the renewable fuels standard and potentially gives it a greater GHG footprint than gasoline. But it depends how you run the numbers.

But you can smell the graft in DC. Similarly, those hydrogen fuel cell cars will be designed to run on hydrogen provided by (drumroll) big oil corporations.

Meanwhile, back on planet Earth, climate change is laughable. It's a scam. The solar cycle has far more to do with our climate than mankind's combined efforts to pollute the planet as fast as possible. A new slab of bureaucracy will not help matters.

Peterson has both lots of corn famers and ethanol plants in his district - that makes it easy for him to ignore any bad stuff about biofuels

I guess his climate change remarks mean they have to carve out a bio-fuels or agiculture exemption from any cap and trade or similar bill

I'm sure he's all for meanigful regulation...

of other people ;)

That I'll most likely be dead when all the really bad climate change stuff starts to hit.

This potentially disqualifies corn ethanol from some of the requirements of the renewable fuels standard and potentially gives it a greater GHG footprint than gasoline. But it depends how you run the numbers.

Everything related to global warming, carbon footprint (biggest load of BS around), is based on some assumptions and variables. There is no way to accurately model carbon footprints without making some wildass assumptions.

Its frustrating that we're making HUGE policy decisions based on computer models regarding the environment, when the same exact thing was done in the financial market and look where that got us.

I really think "going green" is one of the biggest marketing fads in the world.

... his district (MN7) borders on Michele Bachman's (MN6)! Coincidence? Minnesota progressives want to know!

Climate change is real and any who doesn't think so needs to do this little experiment.

Get a fishbowl and put 1 goldfish in it. Watch how it lives and thrives given the appropriate amount of food, sunlight and cleaning. The fish will live a good full life.

Now get another fishbowl and put two fish in it and observe how the bowl needs more frequent cleaning.

Get another fishbowl and put ten fish in it. Observe. Your fish will be dead in a week.

That is our earth, our planet, our home.

The more people, the more resources consumed. For every forest that is cut down in the amazon, the climate changes. Look at your local lakes and streams. Would you drink that water? Look at the air over any city during the summer - there is a low brown cloud over it due to emissions from cars.

Humans have no impact on the planet? Some people must've been asleep during earth science class.

Every animal has an impact, but humans have the most detrimental because we try to change the environment to suit ourselves instead of finding ways to live in harmony with the environment.

We cannot continue to consume fossil fuels, cut down forests and pave or develop every inch of land.

Peterson is probably right in as much as people are all manipulative whiners in favor of an agenda. Trusting no one till you know the truth of thier ravings seems reasonable to me. Hard to know these days with so many capable of such plaintiff whines, genuine in apprearance.

I'm just a small minded idiot living in Florida. Dealing with a Governor and legislature that thinks seatbelts save lives when competent and considerate driving habits actually do this, nothing else. They also believe, so they say, that water management will "save" water? I've yet to figure out just where the hell they think it's going. I see wads of cash flowing in to both efforts so I tend to be skeptical of thier true goal.

Honest, moral and ethical character earns trust and respect. A bully demands it. Don't be bullied.

First Michelle Bachman, then Garrison Keillor, and now this idiot. The reason they don't want to seat Franken is that the Minnesota inmates would no longer be completely in charge of the asylum!