Rep. J. Randy Forbes (R-VA02):

 

 Rep. J. Randy Forbes - McCain-Palin Rally, Virginia Beach - Oct. 13, 2008 [5:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (95)

House Republicans have been staging a “sit in” of Congress since Aug. 1 when Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi abruptly ended debate on energy solutions and moved-out on a five-week vacation (which appears was for Pelosi’s own benefit).

While Congress waits to act, more and more Virginians are voicing their support for off-shore drilling.

A few weeks back, Rep. J. Randy Forbes (R-VA04) proposed a bold new initiative to reshape the energy discussion with his “New Manhattan Project.” The visionary plan seeks to incentivize innovation when it comes to increasing our energy independence.

The plan has all the makings of applying traditional American know-how and free-market principles to an energy debate that often has lacked both.

In today’s Capital Journal by Gerald Seib of the Wall Street Journal, he features Rep. Randy Forbes efforts to unite Congress behind his efforts to create a “New Manhattan Project” - seven prize-winning challenges placed before the scientific, business and engineering community to make the U.S. energy independent in the next twenty years. Seib laments the fact that more in Congress are not following Forbes’ lead.

Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA) is actually leading in Congress instead of waiting to be led when it comes to energy. His bill to create 100% energy independence within the next 20 years is one of the boldest initiatives that has been proposed in Congress in decades.

“It’s time to stop talking and actually put a bill forward,” said Forbes in his appearance yesterday on CNN.

Watch the clip:

Here are the innovations Forbes is calling for in his plan:

• Double CAFE standards to 70 MPG while keeping vehicles affordable
• Cut home and business energy usage in half
• Make solar power work at the same cost as coal
• Make the production of biofuels cost-competitive with gasoline
• Safely and cheaply store carbon emissions from coal-powered plants
• Safely store or neutralize nuclear waste
• Produce usable electricity from a nuclear fusion reaction

In a recent letter to the editor at the Suffolk News-Herald, the editorial page editor printed a letter with the headline “Forbes Misusing Taxpayer Dollars.” As you can imagine, that caught my attention.

One of the things that most annoys me about today’s political debate is its almost complete reliance on sound bites, innuendo, and shouting matches. But in today’s media environment, that’s unfortunately what it seems to take to get noticed…and to win debates and elections.

In talking with a couple of friends from the left (yes, I have them, of course they wouldn’t want me to name them), we all agreed on one principle:

In a press release today, Rep. J. Randy Forbes (R-VA04) announced his co-sponsorship of H.R. 4464, the Commonsense English Language Act, which would protect employers from lawsuits simply because they require English-only in the workplace.

If you read today’s Virginian-Pilot, you’d certainly think so. It would appear that all the credit for the virtual Republican sweep in the city council elections can be attributed only to the Forbes’ family. However, while the Forbes’ certainly deserve a lot of credit for working to build the Republican Party in Chesapeake, the way the article tries to portray their involvement is far from reality.