FRANKFORT, Ky. — Gov. Steve Beshear Wednesday defended his administration's contract with a national climate consultant but said he's not decided whether to retain the consultant in the face of a legislative committee's objection.
Beshear said in an impromptu news conference that the $200,000 contract does not call for the Washington-based Center for Climate Strategies to make policy but rather to do administrative work for the Kentucky Climate Action Plan Council, which has been charged with developing a plan to address the causes and likely consequences of climate change.
Beshear stressed that the council has representatives of the coal industry as well as environmentalists and represents a cross-section of Kentucky.
“It's not going to run off into the wilderness somewhere with some crazy ideas. It's very representative of what Kentucky's all about,” Beshear said.
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100818/NEWS0101/308180086/1008/NEWS01/Gov.+Steve+Beshear+defends+climate+consultant