The Tree Huggers Invade Idaho's Capitol

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If tree huggers host an event and nobody comes, does it make a sound? An organization known as Idaho Energy Freedom hosted an “education” day at the Idaho State Capitol. Group members claim they aren’t lobbyists but they would like to sell green energy ideas to an overwhelmingly Republican legislature. Next week they can sell ice boxes in Nome, Alaska!

A couple of energy activists I know (they’re opposed to the proposed wind farms in southern Idaho) decided to attend out of curiosity. The crowd was small. There were more reporters than legislators. I’m told a couple of people who looked like they could be members of the House or Senate passed by and made some small talk.

The company behind the Lava Ridge boondoggle had a table set up and one of the firm’s spokesmen was there. Lt. Governor Scott Bedke recognized the pitchman and stopped to say hello. Don’t read too much into that encounter. The very first time I met Scott Bedke, he vented about the ugly wind turbines already dotting our landscape.

Getting back to the media coverage, it was extensive. Because you have a lot of people working in newsrooms who are fellow travelers when it comes to green energy. They believe they have an obligation to help sell the idea.

I hope to find some time soon for a conversation with some of the presenters from Thursday’s event. Because I would hope they would support nuclear as an option going forward. One of the participants was Nez Perce. She told a reporter her people have always used renewables. Meaning they burned wood during winter. That certainly wouldn’t work on a massive scale in 2023.

LOOK: Best Beers From Every State

To find the best beer in each state and Washington D.C., Stacker analyzed January 2020 data from BeerAdvocate, a website that gathers user scores for beer in real-time. BeerAdvocate makes its determinations by compiling consumer ratings for all 50 states and Washington D.C. and applying a weighted rank to each. The weighted rank pulls the beer toward the list's average based on the number of ratings it has and aims to allow lesser-known beers to increase in rank. Only beers with at least 10 rankings to be considered; we took it a step further to only include beers with at least 100 user rankings in our gallery. Keep reading to find out what the best beer is in each of the 50 states and Washington D.C.