Never let it be said the the Republican’t Party wont kill a good idea for the purpose of a backward, thickheaded political ideology. The Western Climate Initiative is under attack from the slow witted science deniers and, frankly, I don’t think that Herbert has enough moxie (or, frankly, the motivation) to stand up for it.

From the WSJ –

Jon Huntsman, the Republican governor of Utah, has had one foot out the door since being named Ambassador to China by President Obama. But he will still be chair of the Western Governors Association when it holds its annual meeting in Salt Lake City this weekend.

Moreover, it looks like his final days in office will be marred by a controversy over just whose tax dollars are being spent on a highly controversial “Western Climate Initiative.” Paul Chesser, a global warming skeptic who is a researcher with Climate Strategies Watch, submitted Freedom of Information Act requests and discovered that the initiative — aimed at supporting dramatic reductions in carbon emissions — has contracted or partnered with a wide range of liberal climate change groups. A full-time WGA staff member has been detailed to manage the climate project. The subsidies to pay for all this will likely be a topic of discussion at the governors’ meeting because a majority of state governors didn’t sign on to it. Many of them view draconian reductions in carbon emissions as a serious threat to their states’ economies.

Read the rest here …