LANSING – Spence Abraham has moved from helping to mold the federal budget to helping energy companies navigate federal regulations, and he said Michigan is one of the states that could play a role in helping make the United States more energy independent.

But he urged against using taxes, at least on the federal level, to drive energy use.

And he told Gongwer News Service that Michigan voters, as are those nationally, are looking for candidates who are not long-term politicians.

The former Michigan Republican Party chair, serving one of the longest terms in recent years, 1983-1990, has not been entirely isolated from politics in the state.

“I help the Republican Party and its candidates when they run,” he said. “I have close relationships with some of the elected officials who were in office when I was party chair.”

And he said the state looks very much now like it did when he was party chair.

“We were just come out of really deep national recessions. It took a long while for things to get back,” he said.

He expects that to start to turn around, though. “I’m optimistic about Michigan’s future and Governor Snyder made some tough decisions you have to make to turn things around in the same way John Engler took over the state and made some tough decisions. They weren’t popular at first,” he said.

Nationally, he said, the picture is not as rosy.

“I was proud of the fact that when I was in Senate and I went on the Budget Committee, we were up against big deficits and growing national debts as we are today. We were able to reverse that trend. We were not only able to balance budgets, but we were able to generate some surpluses,” he said.

But the deficits then were not as large or not as substantial a portion of the national economy, he said. “It’s going to be much harder now to bring things back in line,” he said.

And he said it got that way because elected officials have not been listening. “The American public keeps trying to send signals that they want to see government spending reduced, they want to see budgets balanced,” he said. “That’s causing an erosion of confidence in Washington.”

Some of the blame also goes to the media, he said. “Media coverage of politics has coarsened the environment,” he said. “The coverage is less on the subject, more get one person to say something bad about another person. People posture for the media and they ought to be focused on getting their job done.”

Abraham said the Republicans looking to unseat U.S. Senate Debbie Stabenow (D-Lansing) will need to demonstrate a level of separation from current politics. “The people in Michigan are looking for someone who’ll bring a different kind of perspective to the Senate,” he said.

And Abraham said he is supporting Clark Durant as that candidate. “He’s had a really exciting and diverse career. He’ll bring a different perspective that’s not all about government.”

Abraham said he benefited from Engler’s successes in reforming the state. “I think I benefited in 1994. It was a good Republican year,” he said. “People had begun to see under Governor Engler some real progress.”

That tide had turned by 2000, when he faced Stabenow for re-election, he said. “In 2000, it was a presidential year and unfortunately our ticket didn’t do so well at the top. President Bush lost,” he said. That loss cost Republicans, including himself, down the ticket, he said.

Abraham is now CEO of The Abraham Group, a Washington-based consulting firm that works particularly with energy and technology firms, building on his time as secretary of energy under former President George W. Bush.

“We’re facing a lot of very positive opportunities in energy,” Abraham said. “The development of a lot of natural gas domestically would allow America to be energy independent. … Hopefully they can include some of that development in Michigan.”

But he said some of the moves to control energy use through taxation would be devastating to the state. “That would kill the auto industry just when we trying to fight back,” he said.

Recent efforts to support new energy companies have also been questionable, Abraham said. “One of the frustrations that people have had is there have been some federal dollars directed at some companies that have not done well,” he said. “That reflects more on the wisdom of government trying to pick winners and losers. … It’s created a negative impression of alternative energy overall.”

Abraham said he has been involved in some alternative energy development, including sitting on the board of one of the development companies, but he said those energy sources are not going to be universally available.

“Every state should focus on the things that make the most sense for them,” he said. “For Michigan, we don’t have quite the same kind of setup (as some of the coastal states). There are some areas where wind will work. We’ve got to be realistic what the potential is and focus on where the best areas are.”

He said government should instead focus on research, then allow the private sector to make the technology commercially successful.

Tax money could also be more wisely invested in updating the nation’s electric grid, which he said is currently inefficient.

There is also still substantial room for the government to work with home and commercial building owners to improve the efficiency of their buildings, Abraham said.

What there is not room for, at least in the short term, is Abraham returning to Michigan elected office. While he does still have a home in the state, Abraham said his family is planning to stay in Washington at least while his children are in school. His twins are currently attending Georgetown.

“I’m staying in Washington to spend time with my kids who grow up too fast,” he said.

This story was provided by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on Gongwer.Com

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