DFL Rep. Joe Atkins wants Tim Pawlenty, the potential 2012 Republican presidential candidate, to reacquaint the House with Gov. Tim Pawlenty, the environmental governor of 2007.

Atkins, DFL-Inver Grove Heights, issued Pawlenty an invitation to testify in front of a House committee about the Next Generation Act of 2007, which Republicans in the House are now trying to pull back.

At the time, Pawlenty called it renewable energy and "tackling greenhouse gas emissions" one of the "one of the most important issues of our time," Atkins wrote in his letter. According to 2007 archives, Pawlenty called the reduction of carbon dioxide and increasing renewable energy, the "huge and defining issue for our time."

Things have changed since then. Likely presidential candidate Pawlenty talks little of his green past and backed away from it. That 2007 bill even became an issue in the 2010 Republican gubernatorial race, as one candidate accused the other of supporting GOP-hated cap and trade because of his vote for the bill.

So, show of hands, anyone think this National Review cover model...

.

..Will reply favorably to this letter?

atkins pawlenty