It is rare that you find me praising a Republican, but I do believe in giving credit where credit is due. Republican Governor of Indiana, Micth Daniels, is doing something that Bush has only given lip service to: working towards energy independence. As the newly elected Congressional Democrats from Indiana are working with the Democratic majority in Congress for energy independence, Governor Daniels is taking a small step on a local level.

As portrayed in a recent Current TV segment, Indiana has chosen one small town, Reynolds, Indiana, and declared it "Bio-Town" (locally called "Turd-town" for reasons that will become apparent) in an attempt to show America how local solutions can turn America energy independent.

With government help (the step Bush ignores but Daniels recognizes as critical), Reynolds is going through a three-phase transition to achieve the following goals:

* Developing homegrown, local energy production to become independent from foreign sources

* Creating a cleaner environment

* Implementing solutions to animal waste management issues

* Developing new markets for Indiana agricultural products and byproducts

The main thrust seems to be biofuels, as one might expect from an agricultural state. I want to emphasizez that biofuels are not as good as, for example, wind energy, but let's not kid ourselves. Local solutions mean local solutions, and for an agricultural state, biomass made from sewage and animal waste (hence Turd-town) and ethanol from crops are a reasonable and probably necessary way to go.

And this represents an alliance of interests that I have been pushing for years. Alternative energy means LOCAL energy, which means LOCAL economic growth and LOCAL jobs. It means a cooperation among busiensses (e.g. soybean industry), government (in this case Indiana state government) and local communities (Reynolds, IN). My main complaints about the Bio-Town model is that it may be too small a step given the time scale we have to act, and that I feel it should broaden its scope to include, at least, wind power. But these are minor criticisms. You have to start somewhere and one town of about 600 people in Indiana is as good a place as any. And in terms of the choice of energy sources, America produces massive quantities of, essentially, animal shit (as those who reads Al Franken's books will be familiar with thanks to his "pig-shit geyser" story) and using that as an energy source is something America probably should do.

So thank you Mitch Daniels, Indiana and Turd-town. Please expand this program as it becomes successful and please convince the rest of the Republican Party that it is time to stop being the pawns of Saudi Arabia and to stop denying global warming is happening and to start facing up to local, American solutions. And thanks to Current TV for putting this out there!