Brian Schweitzer is the man

I just heard a half an hour interview with Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer on Open Source with Christopher Lydon. The whole show was really interesting but Schweitzer; wow - that is guy is impressive as hell. Here is a Democrat elected in super-Republican Montana and his main issue is energy - green energy. He has a 69% approval rating, drinks whisky straight, carries a gun, and drives a Jetta running bio-diesel. I had heard a bit about him but never had the opportunity to listen to him make his pitch. In a word - awesome.

In the span of about ten minutes, he explained how these here United States could become energy independent and massively reduce our carbon emissions using coal, bio-fuels, and conservation. His plan would create a market for carbon and, hence, an incentive to capture carbon from all sorts of emitting enterprises rather than dump it into the air. There is a good bit more to the plan but those were the basics. Schweitzer broke down this complex issue and communicated (with genuine enthusiasm I might add) a solution in a way that I understood. I cannot tell you how refreshing that was. This is a guy that bears watching. Consider me on the Draft Schweitzer in '08 bandwagon.