“When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) is preparing a national clean energy policy that would be implemented on a regional basis. According to the Clean Energy Report:
Landrieu said the policy would “not [be] a mandate, not an agency in charge, but a goal, a standard, and [the states] would have to reach it.”
The “goal” is needed, Sen. Dumpty Landrieu, says, because:
Besides high gasoline prices, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and climate change issues are fresh in the public’s mind, even though a minority “doesn’t think climate change is real,” she said.
Were Sen. Dumpty the Queen of Hearts instead, one can easily imagine her shouting “Off with the deniers’ heads!”
The states would have to reach it….. Sounds like a Mandate to me.
From the Bing Dictionary:
man·date [ mán dàyt ] NOUN
1.
authoritative order: an official command or instruction from an authority
4.
instruction from superior court: an order from a superior court or official to a lower one
“not [be] a mandate, not an agency in charge, but a goal, a standard, and [the states] would have to reach it.”
Using the words “would have to reach it.” seems to me to be contadictory or she doesn’t have a clue what she is talking about.