A sensible Republican legislator (there is such a thing!) was asked why Senate Republicans want to regulate wind and solar energy to death. After all, don’t these people despise government regulation?

His answer – more accurately, his suspicion – was: “The Koch Brothers.”

The Koch fortune relies heavily on extracting fossil fuels and fouling the planet’s air, land and water.

Renewable energy is good for our lives, our health and that of future generations. And North Carolina has been moving ahead, with government and business working together.

But that’s bad for the Koch Brothers’ bottom line. Their money talks, and Americans for Prosperity, the John Locke Foundation and Republican legislators take their orders. The rest of us are out of luck.