It’s okay as long as they don’t explicitly say Sebelius supports Iran…. Right?

Update: Stay Red Kansas weighs in on Kansans For Affordable Energy:

Kansans for Affordable Energy, a non-partisan activist group designed to encourage responsible production of domestic energy, has begun to fight back against the liberal interest groups that found themselves whispering in the ears of Governor Sebelius - doing so from a comfortable location in her hip pocket.

Kansans for Affordable Energy is undoubtedly non-partisan (western Kansas Democrats are up in arms about the ruling), but that doesn’t mean they don’t represent special interests.  I haven’t been able to find their filing on the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission  homepage (terrible site by the way), but I’ve been told the group didn’t form until October and that the funding comes from sources that stand to gain a lot from the construction of the Holcomb plant.

To clarify, self-serving interest groups aren’t necessarily a bad thing: of course a business, or a business interest group will pay money to advance their agenda.  But Kansans for Affordable Energy is definitely making a link between Sebelius’ administration and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (along with Putin and Chavez), emphasizing innuendo over sound fact.

Stay Red Kansas can whine all it wants about the “politicization” of this issue, but they need to face the simple truth.  First, not flinching when a group uses fear as a tool of criticism is lazy, and disgusting.  Second, criticizing opponents of the coal plant for being in line with “out-of-state natural gas [interests]” is conveniently ignoring that out-of-state and in-state coal interests stand to gain a lot by the construction of this plant.  Remember that coal is only a cheap source of power when considering the dollar-cost per unit of energy and ignoring the long-term environmental effects.

Stay Red Kansas’ third and worst offense?: using the word “Coal-Gate” without laughing.