When Sen. Norm Coleman walked into the Coffee Company in Hutchinson Monday afternoon (June 16), it was as if he was a beloved regular customer.

Many in the packed house cheered, and one man yelled “Norm!”

Coleman is seeking re-election to the U.S. Senate this fall and his chief opponent is the DFL-endorsed candidate Al Franken. While many seemed grateful for the chance to rub shoulders with Coleman, he spent a fair amount of time trying to bridge divides with some of the more vocal local conservatives.

Coleman is often labeled a moderate Republican, and his positions on environmental and energy issues sometimes draw criticism from others in his party. He has opposed drilling for oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He also favors factoring global warming into federal project planning.

This puts him at odds with people like longtime Glencoe activist Glenn Gruenhagen, who believe global warming is a myth.

Regardless of disagreements over the science of global warming, Coleman said, “There’s no doubt that we’re just pushing a lot more stuff in the air.”

“You don’t have to get too far into Genesis … to see that God taught us to be stewards of this planet,” he added. “If we’re wrong and we don’t do anything, then we will have inflicted a great hurt on this next generation.”

Coleman said that any climate change proposals have to be weighed against their cost and potential impact on the economy. Also, other industrialized nations such as India and China need to be held to the same standards as the U.S.

For more on this story, see the Leader’s June 19 print edition.

(Jorge Sosa is a staff writer for the Hutchinson Leader. He can be reached at sosa@hutchinsonleader.com [2])