Just got this from him:
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This Friday, April 22, is Earth Day. Last year, we celebrated the 40th Anniversary of the first Earth Day and honored our own Senator Gaylord Nelson, the key force behind that first celebration in 1970. On this day of reflection, it’s hard not to think about environmental tragedies of the last year – especially the ongoing nuclear accident in Japan and the oil spill in the Gulf, which occurred one year ago this week. These serve an important reminder: regardless of the kind of energy we use, we must always take care to protect public health and our environment. It also reiterates the need to increase our use of energy that will never run out. Wisconsin has many great natural resources, but deposits of oil, natural gas and coal are not among them. While there is no doubt that we need these energy sources to fuel our economy, a dollar spent on oil drilling or coal mining undoubtedly benefits other states and other countries. But a dollar spent on renewable energy can support new jobs for Wisconsin. We don’t have oil, but we do have forest resources that can be turned into biomass for our power plants, and one day into fuel for our cars and trucks. We don’t have coal, but we do have farmers across the state that are using “cow power” -- anaerobic digesters that turn farm waste into electricity. We don’t have natural gas, but we have groundbreaking companies creating advanced batteries, solar light pipes and wind turbines. These new energy technologies aren’t just good for reducing power bills and pollution, but also for growing our state’s economy. While we don’t always agree on how to tackle environmental issues, we all support clean air and water, we all want our children to be healthy, and we all yearn for our economy to grow and get people back to work. Forty-one years after the first Earth Day, we celebrate the progress we’ve made, rededicate ourselves to the work ahead, and applaud the men and women of Wisconsin who are inventing and implementing homegrown solutions to better our planet.
Sincerely,
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Sent this back:
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Sir,
Are you insane? You speak of money being spent on developing American oil and gas as money that will benefit other states and nations, while "renewable" energy spending will benefit Wisconsinites.
True, creating "green jobs" will have an immediate effect of Wisconsin jobs, but this will be temporary, lasting only until the people of the United States finally put the kibosh to this wasteful and useless "alternative energy". Wind power is at best a niche application, useless for replacing fossil fuels or nuclear baseline power generation. "Biomass" might help, as an engineer I am in favor of using waste to generate power - IF and ONLY IF it can be competitive with existing resources. If it requires one penny of federal aid - see ethanol - I want it stopped. I am a degreed electrical engineer, and think I might know a bit more about this subject than you or most members of Congress. I certainly know more than our President.
Unless we develop our native energy sources - which we have in abundance, but are prohibited from tapping by wrongheaded attempts to return the planet to Garden of Eden conditions, we are doomed to revert to pre-1900 living conditions while countries like China and India continue to burn coal and oil and grow their economies.
Get on board with the majority of your bosses - the people who elected you, and who you have sworn a solemn oath to serve - and get the federal government out of the way of our country developing our own energy sources. If the free market decides that "renewables" will be part of this, so be it.
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