Will
Louisiana’s conservative Republicans throw away the Secretary of State’s
office?
Suddenly,
the field for this special election in the fall seems flooded with these
choices. This week, both former
state Sen. A.G. Crowe and current
state Rep. Rick Edmonds formally announced candidacies. Crowe compiled a
solidly conservative voting record in his many years in the Legislature, and
Edmonds has done likewise in his House service.
And
another conservative Republican, state Rep. Paul Hollis,
has indicated he will run. Of the three, he has the most experience in running
statewide campaigns, having run for U.S. Senate in 2014 only to desist prior to
the election.
Some
tweaks made and guidance given to Louisiana’s pretrial diversion guidelines could
guarantee the concept does what it’s supposed to do – increase public safety
while ensuring accountability.
While
the state requires diversion programs – which allow a defendant to skip
judicial proceedings and accept some kind of punishment for an alleged crime – in
a couple of instances, except for prohibiting some serious matters it leaves
whether to have such a program and its scope in then hands of the individual
authorities, essentially district attorneys or city prosecutors. Within these parameters,
authorities basically do what they want, subject to a 1993 state
attorney general’s opinion that declares these activities can’t enrich
offices beyond the costs to run them.
This
has allowed, particularly in the last few years, many judicial
districts to begin authorizing diversion for a host of crimes, often
dealing with traffic. This proves easy for DAs, as they exist as a separate government
entity as opposed to municipalities’ legal departments that enforce ordinances.
For a fee paid directly to the DA, those who draw citations have the DA drop
the charges.
Out
of the stupidity
witnessed at the last meeting of Louisiana’s Public
Service Commission, at least one spot of brilliance emerged.
The
PSC approved an application by SWEPCO to foist costs of the Windcatcher project
onto Louisiana ratepayers. The decision was expected as staff had worked out an
agreement
with the producer that includes northwest Louisiana’s Wal-Mart properties agreeing
to purchase power from it, a cap on construction costs, qualification for 100
percent of the federal Production Tax Credits, and minimum annual production
from the project – similar to a deal made for Arkansas’ regulators’ approval. Building
the wind farm and transmitting power to customers with no new need established
requires assent from these states plus Oklahoma and Texas.
The
project
has way too many question marks to merit acceptance. Data sew doubt the
project will save ratepayers money over the long haul, especially as federal
wind power production tax credits will expire by 2020, too many risks of
inefficient production exist, SWEPCO’s has a history of cost overruns (plus
onshore wind power typically costs per unit roughly triple that of fossil fuels
when considering all factors such as reliability and subsidies), and the likelihood
of lower margins on projected sales all should serve to scuttle the effort.