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April 02, 2013 08:15 AM UTC

Coffman Reinvention Watch: Love Me Some Solar Power!

  • 12 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

endangeredcoffmanA brief story on an obscure energy blog will provoke a double-take from anybody who knows Rep. Mike Coffman:

Today (April 1) SolarCity and Walgreens introduced a new partnership in Aurora, CO, under which SolarCity will install solar photovoltaics on Walgreens pharmacies at 22 locations throughout Colorado. The companies are installing the arrays in 14 Colorado cities in Xcel Energy’s coverage area. Official from the companies, U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman (R) and Aurora’s Mayor Steve Hogan were on hand to cut the ribbon at the first completed system.

“It's exciting to see that Walgreens is going to do 22 stores throughout our state and the first one that they picked was in Aurora, Colo.,” Coffman said. “It kind of brings me full-circle.…When I was 16 years old and in Aurora, one of my first jobs was working for a Walgreens.”

It seems like a pretty ordinary story, so much so that it didn't apparently get much pickup at all outside a couple of industry publications and a press release that went around. Congressman joins local business to celebrate new solar power systems. Great, right?

Except, as we know from events preceding last year's elections, the hard-right Rep. Coffman most of us know is no fan of solar power. Last January, before Rep. Coffman's unexpectedly narrow 2012 re-election and subsequent en masse flip-flopping "repositioning" on a growing number of issues, President Barack Obama came to Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora to tout new renewable energy programs at the Department of Defense. To which Coffman replied piquishly,

The president’s Green Energy initiative for the Department of Defense has everything to do with scoring political points with environmentalists and very little to do with supporting our war fighters. By forcing our military to adopt high-cost renewable energies, while at the same time pushing for reductions in military personnel, the president will ultimately force further reductions to achieve his costly Green Energy initiative while also meeting his demands for a smaller military.

Clearly, he feels a differently about solar power at your local Walgreens! We're not trying to make an apples-to-apples allegation of hypocrisy, but let's be frank: the purpose of sending out election year press releases about "scoring political points with environmentalists" on renewable energy is to disparage renewable energy. Appearing at a drug store in your district to celebrate solar power, after so much criticism of the president over renewable energy last year? It may not be a perfect hypocritical fit, but seriously, folks. In the context of everything else Rep. Coffman is trying to backpedal on ahead of 2014, it's really hard to keep the cynics at bay.

There are limits to the degree to which a politician can credibly "reinvent" himself, no matter how necessary it may be to remake one's image to save one's political career. Most recently, Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign crossed this line, and paid the ultimate price. Mike Coffman seems bent on at least testing it.

Comments

12 thoughts on “Coffman Reinvention Watch: Love Me Some Solar Power!

  1. It is too fast. Coffman is running scared from his record, but the spectacle of him running away is newsworthy too. It's not believable at all.

      1. I actually think of Coffman as a prairie dog. Nothing but a rat but a keystone species as other critters, notably hawks, need something to eat. Except for that nutrition they provide they have no value. Apologies to anyone from communities that might have protected them because they are cute

        Only in the last few years I have  ceased shooting prairie dogs except for one rancher friend

  2. Don't believe for a minute that Coffman has given up his fight to expose the Kenyan Socialist-Marxist plot to overturn the Constitution.  Mike is using his masterful political skills to pretend to be a moderate just so he can get an invitation to the White House where he'll have access to the secret files.

    He has been and always will be a Tea Party Patriot!

    1. He, he, not in the slightest.

      You're talking about the Gov. Owens circus act, when John Andrews got his panties all in a twist because the ballot measure to kick brown people out of Colorado got shot down by the courts?  http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/politics/governor-calls-special-session-to-discuss-illegal-immigration

      Somebody had to throw some water on overheated Republicans.  He's always been the adult keeping the unruly children in check.

       

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