Why exactly are two Republican State Reps. so in favor of requiring the citizens of Georgia to finance the construction of a pipeline to transport Liquified Natural Gas (“LNG”) on behalf of a PUBLICLY-OWNED
utility like Atlanta Gas Light?

Mark Burkhalter and Jeff Lewis are the two reps who carried this legislation and supported it through its passage in the House. I have several questions:

1) What exactly have they been promised from AGL and their lobbyists? I know Burkhalter is involved in real estate development and managment, and I looked-up Lewis’ background as well and, sure ’nuff, it turns out he’s also involved in the real estate game.

Not that there’s anything wrong with the real estate game per se, but, when it comes to a utility getting two supposed Republicans to think it’s a great idea to saddle the people of Georgia with paying for a pipeline that may or may not be needed 8 years into the future, something STINKS to high heaven. It cannot just be campaign donations…I seriously suspect there’s some other type of quid pro quo of a highly valued nature in the works between AGL and Messrs. Burkhalter and Lewis.

2) What the heck is wrong with the rest of the House that they are so easily duped into voting FOR this bill? Have they all turned into “neocons?” For those not too familiar with the word, a “neocon” is someone who represents themselves to the voter as a conservative but acts like a big-government Socialist in matters dealing with fiscal responsibilities. Burkhalter and Lewis are apparently the new leaders of the neocon movement in our state house.

I certainly hope that the State Senate comes to their senses and kills this bill in Rules or defeats it on the floor. This is NOT legislation that should be passed by Republicans.

This entry was posted by Bill Simon, on Thursday, March 16th, 2006 at 10:26 pm and is filed under WTF and You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.