Sounds like Minnesota governor Pawlenty doesn't realize that self-sufficiency is the road to poverty.
More home-grown energy, less use of fossil fuels and a new focus on countering global warming would bring Minnesotans a broad range of benefits, Gov. Tim Pawlenty said Tuesday in calling for regulations, incentives and penalties aimed at making the state more energy-independent.
Either that or someone needs help from the farm lobby. Whatever the case, someone needs to read this by Russell Roberts:
This is the story of American economic life in the 20th century. Innovation and expanded trade reduce the number of Americans necessary to produce what we want. Yet the number of jobs doesn't fall. The number of jobs grows steadily with population and the desire to work. As innovation and trade reduce the number of people working in agriculture or manufacturing, that frees up capital and human skills to make other things, things we couldn't have if we lived in a static world, the antibiotics and iPods and cell phones and heart valves and MRI machines and flat screen TVs. Banal things and glorious things. Things that entertain and things that extend our lifespan. Our skills and the skills of the next generation can turn to creating and making those things.
Not everything we do well is worth doing. And even the things worth doing now are not necessarily worth doing tomorrow. Self-sufficiency is the road to poverty. Innovation and trade are the road to prosperity.