Published

1 year ago

December 24, 2024

Alice Rush

This post is part of a series of blogs examining where 2024 Southeastern candidates for state and federal offices stand on key energy and climate issues.

Note: The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy does not support or oppose candidates or political parties. Links to reports, candidate websites and outside sources are provided as citizen education tools.

In this blog post, we examine the policies and positions of Marsha Blackburn, the Republican Party candidate running for reelection to represent Tennessee in the United States Senate. Also in this series, we profile Democratic candidate Gloria Johnson. Election Day is November 5, 2024.

Marsha Blackburn was elected in 2018 to represent the people of Tennessee in the U.S. Senate. Prior to her time as a U.S. senator, Marsha Blackburn represented Congressional District 7 in the U.S. House of Representatives for 16 years. She served in the Tennessee Senate for 4 years representing Senate District 23. In 1995 she was appointed executive director of the Tennessee Film, Entertainment, and Music Commission.

Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency

Senator Blackburn co-sponsored a joint resolution of disapproval with the intent of using the Congressional Review Act to overturn the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) new standards to cut down on pollution from fossil fuel-fired power plants.

Blackburn voted against the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which gives federal financial support for clean energy technologies.

Blackburn spoke out against new standards the Department of Energy proposed to help consumers save money by making household appliances more efficient. On X (formerly Twitter) she said, “First, the Left comes for gas stoves and washing machines. Now, the Biden administration wants to take away your water heater. What else will they take in the name of their socialist agenda?”

Climate Change

In 2011, Senator Blackburn sponsored a bill to prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating carbon emissions under the Clean Air Act.

In 2014, Senator Blackburn dismissed the extent of the consensus of the scientific community on human activity being the cause of climate change.

Electric Transportation

Senator Blackburn had the following response to the development of an electric vehicle and battery manufacturing plant in Stanton, Tennessee, “Ford and SK Innovations’ investment in West Tennessee will develop the next generation of American electric vehicles and battery production. Altogether, the 5.6 billion dollars in investment will directly create 5,800 jobs in addition to countless opportunities in supporting industries.”

Energy Equity and Energy Burden

Blackburn attributes rising electricity bills to President Biden’s climate policies. On X she shared, “American families are spending more on their energy bills because Biden caved to radical leftists.”

High-Risk Energy

Senator Blackburn and 22 of her Republican colleagues in the Senate wrote a letter to President Biden outlining 12 actions his administration should take regarding energy in the U.S. The actions included rescinding his decision to revoke the Presidential Permit for the Keystone XL pipeline and fast tracking oil and gas production on federal land.

Voting Information

Election Day is November 5. Here are important dates and deadlines to consider, from the Tennessee Secretary of State:

Aug. 7, 2024: First day to make an absentee ballot request
Oct. 7, 2024: Voter registration deadline
Oct. 16, 2024: In-person early voting begins
Oct. 29, 2024: Absentee ballot request deadline
Oct. 31, 2024: In-person early voting ends
Nov. 5, 2024: General Election Day
Nov. 5, 2024: Absentee ballot return deadline

For more information about being a Tennessee voter, including registering, finding your polling place, and requesting an absentee ballot, visit proudvoter.org.

#CandidatesOnEnergy2024

The post Candidate Marsha Blackburn on Climate & Energy appeared first on SACE | Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

Candidate Marsha Blackburn on Climate & Energy

Renewable Energy

Homeschooling

Published

7 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Alice Rush

Decent and intelligent people respect the rights of parents to homeschool their children, but there are two reasons for concern: a) socialization, failure to expose children to their peers, so that they may make friends and come to understand the norms of society, and b) the quality of the education itself.

Almost all homeschooling in the United States is conducted on the basis of a radical rightwing viewpoint, normally a blend of evangelical Christianity and Trumpism.

Homeschooling

Renewable Energy

The Positive Effects We’ve Had on Others Are Profound, Whether We Know It or Not

Published

17 hours ago

February 28, 2026

Alice Rush

There’s a theory that most people underestimate the positive effects they’ve had on other people.

Yes, that’s the theme of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” but it’s also the core of the 1995 film “Mr. Holland’s Opus,” in which a music teacher who deemed that his life had been a failure because he never completed writing a great symphony, is gently and beautifully corrected. Please see below.

The Positive Effects We’ve Had on Others Are Profound, Whether We Know It or Not

Renewable Energy

Renewable Energy Concepts Can’t Violate the Laws of Physics

Published

1 day ago

February 28, 2026

Alice Rush

In the early days of 2GreenEnergy, my people and I were vigorously engaged in finding solid ideas in cleantech that needed funding in order to move forward.

I vividly remember a conversation with a guy in Maryland who was trying to explain the (ostensible) breakthrough that he and his team had made in hydrokinetics. When I was having trouble visualizing what we was talking about, he asked me to “think of it as a river in a box.”

“Oh!” I exclaimed. “You mean you take a box full of standing water, add energy to it get it moving, then extract that energy, leaving you with more energy that you added to it.”

“Exactly.”

I politely explained that the laws of physics, specifically the first and second laws of thermodynamics, make this impossible.

He wasn’t through, however, and insisted that, in his office, his people had constructed a “working model.”

Here’s where my tone descended into something less than 100% polite. I told him that he may think he has a working model, but he’s wrong; if he believes this, he’s ignorant; if he doesn’t, but is conducting this conversation anyway, he’s a fraud.

“But don’t you want to come see it?” he implored.

“No. Not only would not fly across the country to see whatever it is you claim to have built, I wouldn’t walk across the street to a “working model” of something that is theoretically impossible.”

—

I tell this story because the claim made at the upper left is essentially identical. You’re pumping water up out of a stream, and then claiming to extract more energy when the water flows back into the stream.

Of course, social media today is rife with complete crap like this. We’ve devolved to a point where defrauding money out of idiots is rapidly replacing baseball as our national pastime.