LTE – Steve Scoll – 5-1-2013

Friday, April 19, 2013

Unfortunate Choices 

I received a reply from Tom Larson’s office to a letter I’d sent him questioning the long range environmental and social impacts of the boom in frac sand mining. He’s an adherent of the line of reasoning characterizable as jobs at any cost.

Among his comments is the implied assertion that by digging up our hills we will move our country towards energy independence.

This is rather like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

There are better ways to create jobs than by removing the very earth from under our feet.

The least expensive, most secure, cleanest energy is energy that is not used.

We’ve a long list of companies doing business in Wisconsin in the field of reducing petroleum based energy use. If you look at the job boards you find ample hiring opportunities at a number of these companies.

Allan Bradley, Siemens AG, Cree LED, Cardinal Glass both in Mazomanie and Menomonie are only a few of these forward thinking companies.

At the same time Governor Walker is in China visiting ginseng buyers the Chinese government is flooding the world market with photovoltaic panels priced below the cost of manufacture to undercut producers of that same equipment here in Wisconsin.

We’re making some unfortunate choices that we to need to reconsider.

Steve Scoll