At a meeting Tuesday afternoon, Seventh Congressional District Congressman Collin Peterson said what a lot of people have been saying for years – renewable energy is expensive, especially when it is compared to the use of coal.
That, he said, is why the government offers subsidies to energy programs funding ethanol and biodiesel, as well as providing incentives to those utilizing other non fossil fuel sources of energy.
As Peterson said offering subsidies and incentives is never the ideal, but until we find ways to make these things less expensive it is the best option – especially when one considers the limited natural resources left in the ground. Renewable energy also helps reduce that dependence we have on oil purchased from other nations. The question we have to ask is whether or not we are willing to keep paying for oil from nations who hate us or if we would be better off spending that money domestically, which, in turn, spurs the national economy. That is something we need now.
We don’t believe subsidies and incentives ought to be the long-term solution, but until we can make them more cost effective they are the best thing we have. The Environmen-tal Protection Agency in the future is going to clamp down even harder on the use of coal. While we may disagree with that philosophy, we recognize the reality. Let’s work harder to make renewable energy self-sufficient.
