The Obama-Biden Energy Plan

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Comment by Ulysses "ULY" Labilles on March 14, 2009 at 6:46am

Without Our Initiative, Support and Follow-Through

The practicality of a simple initiative coming from us to push our leaders to do the right thing is as practical as a Novocain therapy on easing the pain of a Trigeminal Neuralgia. A green initiative such as the Pickens Plan or any imagination from our engineers and green entrepreneurs will give us an initial fix to pacify our anguish with the present economic tic douloureux. One thing we do not have is time. We do not have the time just to sit around and wait for our leaders to do something, wait for our leaders to pick us up. The cost of not doing anything is catastrophic. The initiative should start from us, and not from Washington. Otherwise, without our push and our initiative, the imaginations of our scientists and our entrepreneurial spirit are nothing but dust in the wind. Our anguish will just be a drop of water in an endless sea, our hopes will just crumble to the ground, our cry will just be an old song, and all we are is just dust in the wind. I could almost feel my heart thumping while I use the poetic words of Kerry Livgren of the group Kansas to describe the ramification of not answering the call of urgency. Now is the time for us to take charge of our future, push to our leaders the importance of the “cap and trade”.

Gore vs. Pickens: who got the right stuff? Environmentalism and Green Capitalism could best describe the March 9th Memnosyne Foundation "Energy Independence: Pickens Plan vs. Gore Challenge" Leadership Dialogue. Conversation Catalysts"-Geoffrey Bailey, former White House intern, Regional Leader - New Energy Army/Pickens Plan and Todd Howard, President of T. Howard & Associates and graduate of Al Gore's "The Climate Project” framed the two plans to kick off the dialogue. The third in a 3-event Environmental Leadership Dialogue Series, facilitated by Orbits of Influence –was truly a powerful and engaging experience, bringing together some of the best minds and strongest advocates to compare and contrast the two prominent U.S. Energy Independence plans (one – the Pickens Plan – based right here in Texas!) and to address how best to ensure sustainable energy and the national security issues for our region and nation, while protecting our natural resources and sparking innovation to leverage new alternative energy sources and the economic boom they represent. Al Gore, former U.S. vice president, a Nobel Prize-winning crusader challenges the U.S. to produce all of its electricity from renewable sources in 10 years to combat climate change. T. Boone Pickens, a Texas Billionaire, answer the challenge for a massive switch to natural gas as a transportation fuel and a dramatic increase in wind power, building the largest wind farm in the world. So who’s right? It is clear that there is much that these two men agree on. Gore and Pickens along with former President Bill Clinton and other prominent leaders on alternative energy emphasizes the importance of the continuance of a new green revolution during the February 23rd “National Clean Energy Project Summit” in Washington DC. The summit focused on the modernization and expansion of the electrical grid, integrating energy efficiency and increasing transmission capacity for renewable energy-a green approach on reducing our nation’s dependence on foreign oil by examining short and long term solutions to replace foreign oil with domestic resources to fuel vehicles and trucks, including natural gas. The energy system of the future will tie efficiency and renewable energy together. The bundling of efficiency and renewable energy together will not be feasible without the unique alignment of an environmentalist visions like Al Gore’s, the imaginations of scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs, and the risks of capitalists has to take in the present unstable economic environment. What is the difference between entrepreneurs and capitalists? The entrepreneurs are the athletes and the capitalists are the coaches. The coaches train and motivate their teams and choose which athletes get to play, and help them create the plays and the plans to win. The beginning of the greatest story of this century is now, and the success of our initiative relies to our determination. Our determination will then fuel others to join our fight, and together we will prevail as a nation of leaders, leaders who will make this country great again, leaders who will make this earth of ours, a green planet for the future generation.

On April 1st to 3rd, the Pickens Plan will initiate a Virtual March on Washington. The Pickens Plan team will utilize the size and unique capabilities of the New Green Energy Army to have an enormous impact on the White House and Congress. The Army will focus its energy for three days on e-mails, calls and faxes to every Member of Congress. The success of this event will prove that advances in communication technology could bridge our differences, expanding human interconnectedness to virtually test the possibility of ideological re-wiring of America. The Virtual March will strengthen our true power to initiate change, making way to the evolution of our common conviction not as black, brown, white, straight or gay, Christians or not, but us one nation, one body, one soul to create a better future for the country and the rest of the world. Well, some will say that achieving a unified comprehensive vision for the future of America is impossible because each and every one of us are raised in different ethnic and religious values, if the majority will foster such mentality then all of our efforts to renew America is nothing but dust in the wind. An advice from a friend in Alabama will be something that I will always remember. “Confidence will give my generation and the next generation a special kind of courage to strike out in new directions and still believe that the future will be at least as bright as the past ever was”. Personally, I got my confidence and my inspiration when America embraced the need for change and elected the First Black President of the United States. Without embracing change, in just a blink of our eyes, our hope, our dreams and everything we started will be just dust in the wind. With out our initiative to push any plan like the Pickens Plan to answer the call of the Gore Challenge, with out the support of our leaders who are willing to risk their political careers to do what is right for the future, with out the much needed inter-agency cooperation to build a new smart energy grid needed for our sustainability survival-the new genre of job opportunities that depends upon the renewal of our energy infrastructures will be nothing but dust in the wind.

Comment by Ulysses "ULY" Labilles on March 9, 2009 at 8:55pm

"Pickens Plan vs Gore Challenge"
March 9, 2009–Zale Auditorium/Jewish Community Center
For us to get out from the present economic and environmental pickle, the initiative should start from us and not from Washington. It is high time for the ideological re-wiring of America.

Find more photos like this on PickensPlan

Comment by Ulysses "ULY" Labilles on March 9, 2009 at 11:03am

Just a reminder: Today's event -"Pickens Plan vs Gore Challenge" http://tinyurl.com/ceo38l
Follow me on Twitter: InnoMD
A Community Dialogue on ENERGY INDEPENDENCE.

A Community Dialogue on ENERGY INDEPENDENCE.

“An Orbits of Influence Community Dialogue
ENERGY INDEPENDENCE” on Monday, the 9th of March 2009. Our good friend Geoff will be on it!!!!!!!!

The Memnosyne Foundation
With the support of
Texas Business for Clean Air Presents

An Orbits of Influence Community Dialogue
ENERGY INDEPENDENCE:
Pickens Plan vs Gore Challenge
Geoff Bailey for the Pickens Plan
Todd Howard, AIA for the Gore Challenge
MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2009
5:30 p.m. - Registration/Reception
Sandwiches, Desserts and Coffee will be served
6:00-8:30 p.m. - Dialogue & Vision Circles
Zale Auditorium/Jewish Community Center
7900 Northaven Blvd., Dallas, Texas 75230 For More Information http://is.gd/jDsb

Geoff Bailey, Regional Leader - New Energy Army
has responsibility for organizing the Pickens Plan in the great states of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska. His job is to provide members of the New Energy Army with resources, ideas and support in the pursuit of American Energy Independence

Todd Howard, AIA, LEED-AP
is the founder and president of t. howard & associates architects in Dallas, a firm dedicated to the practice of sustainable design. Howard is a graduate of Vice President Al Gore’s The Climate Project.

3RD in a 3-Part Environmental Leadership Dialogue Series

Presented by the Memnosyne Foundation

Comment by James Tracy on February 20, 2009 at 8:40am

All talk and no action.

Comment by James Tracy on December 29, 2008 at 10:38am

The Obama team has opened questions to the public. I have posed one, please vote. http://change.gov/openforquestions.

Comment by Jessee McBroom on November 23, 2008 at 3:42pm

Hello all. Jessee Mcbroom here. I think Obama's going to need all the help he can get to meet his goals and objectives. To that end; invite you to visit my page and view my profile and blog. Sincerely: Jessee McBroom

Comment by Michael, Houston on November 8, 2008 at 10:14pm

Thousands of new GREEN JOBS are now posted on GREEN JOBS NOW! group page. Join the group today and we will keep you informed. http://push.pickensplan.com/group/greenjobsnowcom
Tell your friends looking for a job to sign up on the PickensPlan and upload their resume FREE at: www.green-jobs-now.com
Melissa
coordinator@green-jobs-now.com

Comment by Luane Todd on November 8, 2008 at 2:02pm

This is a good summary of useful information for our files
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Apollo Weekly Update: New President and Clean Energy Victories Friday, November 7, 2008 4:52 PM
From: "Apollo Alliance Weekly Update"

With a measure of restraint and grace that was almost at odds with the burst of joyful tears and global celebration that his election victory prompted, President-elect Barack Obama Tuesday night described one more time his allegiance to a new kind of economy that fixes “a planet in peril,” and addresses the “new energy to harness and new jobs to be created.”

Never before has an American president been elected with such green priorities, and never before has the country been so ready to embrace them. The result in the presidential election and in a number of state races and ballot initiatives on Tuesday confirm with unmistakable clarity that the country – coast to coast – is prepared to help the new president pursue an economic development strategy based on clean energy, good jobs, and environmental sustainability.

In California, despite a grinding budget deficit and rising unemployment, voters approved a $10 billion bond to begin building a 220-mile-per-hour high-speed rail network linking cities in southern and northern regions with the Central Valley. Los Angeles voters approved a half-cent sales tax increase to expand the city’s subway.

Missouri voters approved Proposition C that requires the state’s biggest utilities to obtain 15 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2021, the 27th state to enact a renewable energy standard.

Representative Tom Udall, the son of Stewart Udall, Interior Secretary under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, won a Senate seat in New Mexico. His cousin, Representative Mark Udall, the son of the late Representative and presidential candidate Mo Udall, won a Senate seat in Colorado. Both Udalls, members of what is arguably the greenest political family in the United States, are active supporters of clean energy and will likely be at the very head of the work on Capitol Hill to pass the Obama administration’s clean energy agenda.

In Colorado, voters defeated ballot initiatives that were hostile to organized labor. The right to organize is intact in a state with a huge and growing clean energy job potential.

On the flip side, the League of Conservation Voters reported that seven of the 12 Capitol Hill lawmakers on its “Dirty Dozen” list were defeated.

A number of political observers noted that 65 percent of the new members of the House and all of the new members of the Senate come from states with strong renewable energy requirements.

Two of those new House members hail from Michigan, where the Apollo Alliance program staff is heading the week of November 17 to meet in Detroit with our state and local affiliates. This is Apollo’s second visit in five weeks to Detroit, where we held a town hall event in October with Senator Debbie Stabenow in support of The New Apollo Program.

The state that largely invented the drive through economy of the 20th century – it built the cars, the traffic lights, the first concrete roads, the first mall, the first cul-de-sacs, the first freeways, just to name a few – is picking up the pace to catch up to the clean energy and good jobs economy of the 21st century. Detroit’s new mayor, Ken Cockrel Jr., has expressed interest in designing a clean energy, green-collar development strategy, similar to the one that Apollo helped Newark design this year.

The state passed a renewable energy standard in September and a week before the election Governor Jennifer M. Granholm named Skip Pruss, a well-respected attorney and environmental expert, to head the Department of Energy, Labor, and Economic Growth. The agency’s top priority: Invest in clean energy manufacturing and new green-collar Michigan jobs. The Apollo Alliance is working with DELEG on Michigan's green-collar jobs initiative.

Despite these advances, we all know how hard this clean energy, good jobs economic transition will be. The new president’s most important job in our view, and in the view of millions of Americans who voted for him, is to accelerate clean energy development and put people to work. Rail transit, as our new article on the Web site reports, is a good place to start.

What do you think? What should President Obama work on first? Write me at keith@apolloalliance.org. We’ll post your responses in our next Feedback feature. For the time being, this week we’ll breathe deep of the well-earned oxygen of hope and congratulate Barack Obama on a stirring victory that changed the world.

Yours,

Keith Schneider
Communications Director
Apollo Alliance
keith@apolloalliance.org




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Comment by Judy Bussell on November 8, 2008 at 11:14am

I am very glad to be a part of this group, as I was feeling like an outsider when I first joined the Pickens Plan. This is a non partisan issue, and we are all invested in the future, and I really feel that Boone has a solid plan for bridging the gap to the future for our energy solutions.

This is a very bad time for us economically, but it is also a fortuitous time, as industries fail we are also given the opportunity to rebuild. That being said, how can we consider a bailout of the auto industry again (i.e. Chrysler, 1979) if they are not meeting the needs of the consumer, don't they deserve to fail under a free market enterprise system? But if they fail, they take jobs along with them causing further damage to middle class Americans and the economy. Take a look at the history of government bailouts here: http://www.propublica.org/special/bailout-aftermaths#franklin. The history of government bailouts has generally been successful, but there are failures as well.

So isn't this a remarkable opportunity to compel the American auto industry to RETOOL. If we are going to bailout the auto industry anyway, then let's force them to retool and provide solid solutions in the cars they build for reducing our oil consumption, providing natural gas vehicles, setting higher standards for emissions and investing in the development of future technologies that will lead to permanent solutions for energy consumption. If they are failing now, then this is the perfect time to change. Clearly natural gas powered vehicles can provide a stop gap solution for our energy crisis, economic crisis and global warming crisis. What a win . . . win!!! The process of retooling, providing new vehicles that allow consumers to drive affordably and consequently reducing our oil consumption, while developing the emerging technologies for vehicles powered by electricity, hydrogen or compressed air or other possible solutions is in our hands.

These emerging technologies are right here, on the planet, right now. As an IT specialist, we continually embrace innovation and new technologies, i.e. the continued improvement and speed of the processor. Technology has offered the steady development of new products to the consumer. Yet the auto industry just seems to be failing the consumer stagnating, and threatening the economy leading to more job loss. If the auto industry approached the consumer the way Intel has approached the processor, we would probably all be driving flying vehicles powered by air. So if the taxpayer is going to be required to bailout the auto industry, then don’t we all have the opportunity and the right to force them to change? Isn’t it time they stopped building automobiles that continue failed trends at producing vehicles that only maintain our dependence on oil, which is one of the major sources of our economic crisis and contributes enormously to the global warming crisis.

Retooling the auto industry will provide jobs for Americans and restructure the auto industry and their products, providing stimulus and growth for the economy, which can continue to grow if the industry maintains progressive innovation and develops the new technologies we are going to need for the future. Our current auto industry leaders seem to feel that technological innovation means providing consumers with a vehicle that burns gas while giving passengers a DVD player to watch, oh boy, that’s progress. No wonder they are failing. Even natural gas cannot provide permanent solutions, but it can provide solutions for a period of time long enough to end dependence on oil while we develop better technologies. There are both existing and emerging technologies to numerous to name, that can provide solutions now, such as electric powered vehicles and technologies that will undoubtedly provide our future solutions, perhaps hydrogen fuel. At the same time, there is no reason why we can’t start putting pumps in every Ma and Pa gas station throughout this country offering natural gas for vehicles. I don’t think the American taxpayer should hand over any money to bailout the auto industry unless the auto industry meets the pressing needs of Americans right here, right now. We can do this!!!

There are over a million of us in the Pickens Plan army, and if each of us takes the time to go to this link http://change.gov/page/s/yourvision and let our President elect, Barack Obama know how concerned we are about this, we can definitely do this. This truly is a fortuitous opportunity to make the changes in the auto industry we need right now.

Thanks
Judy B.

Comment by Jeri Zerr MO 2nd Congressional District Leader on November 7, 2008 at 11:36pm

I wrote this for a group in our local community and thought I'd share it here. It's long since I needed to explain the various energy sources as the target audience is generally not familiar with some of these concepts, advantages and limitations.

My idea of an ideal energy plan: reduce our dependence on foreign oil while creating jobs here in the Homeland thereby helping our economic crisis, as well.

I support T. Boone Pickens' energy plan to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Pickens himself explains that his plan is not THE answer, rather a BRIDGE until we develop THE answer. I agree with him, CNG is not the final answer, but it is indeed a component of an answer that we so desperately need. I'm also confident there are several technologies that when combined will indeed provide THE answer to our energy situation.

We all understand that the power grid currently has a minimum load which I will refer to as the "base load." Logically this base load typically occurs during the night in the moderate seasons of spring and fall. This is when the power demand on the power grid is generally at the very lowest levels. Traditionally the very peak demands on the power grid occur in the mid afternoon through early evening on the very hottest of summer days. Any viable energy plan developed must be scalable to the current and instantaneous demands on the power grid. This means the base load must be maintainable at all times, at a minimum level, and the energy plan *must* be adaptable to take into consideration the peak loads during hot summer days.

Power is currently generated many ways: nuclear, coal, hydroelectric (both from rivers and from containment ponds such as Ameren's Tom Sauk), solar, geothermal, wind, natural gas (NG), methane, etc.

T. Boone Pickens is a former Republican who states he is now non-partisan. He's also a former oilman so he understands the energy crisis currently at hand. He's also a very wealthy multi-millionaire who's put his money where his mouth is - he's personally financing most, if not all, of those tv commercials you've undoubtedly seen during the recent campaign days. Mr. Pickens did NOT promote one candidate over another - he was simply promoting his plan to all American Citizens to adopt so hopefully our 44th President (now we know the 44th POTUS will be Obama) will adopt a viable, sustainable and resilient energy plan. The Pickens Plan calls for a substantial reduction of our reliance on foreign oil. Pickens' plan is to develop wind power (currently 1% of power generation in the US) to replace the natural gas currently being burned to supply a portion of the power to the grid, then convert fleet vehicles and some personal vehicles to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) that is currently burned for the grid. Pickens states this will reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Pickens himself states this is a short-term plan to buy us time to develop the next phase to fix our energy problem.

In Pickens' words:

"Building wind facilities in the corridor that stretches from the Texas panhandle to North Dakota could produce 20% of the electricity for the United States at a cost of $1 trillion. It would take another $200 billion to build the capacity to transmit that energy to cities and towns. That's a lot of money, but it's a one-time cost. And compared to the $700 billion we spend on foreign oil every year, it's a bargain." http://www.pickensplan.com/theplan/
I AGREE WHOLEHEARTEDLY. I agree with Boone we need a solution, however I do not believe we simply need a "bridge plan." I think we need a real plan that is sustainable while making our nation more resilient. I have reason to believe we have the capability here and now to *rapidly* deploy new power plants onto the grid using *existing* technology. Meanwhile this technology that is being developed by US companies is now being outsourced to foreign countries who have a stronger and clearer vision of where we all need to be in the coming years so they have already begun the process and are signing into agreements with our US companies.

So what are we waiting for? Why are we standing idly by while the rest of the world moves into the future?

My thoughts on existing technology..

Nuclear is available of course and it's generally available 24x7. However nuclear is NOT the final solution. As a teen while living with my father who was an electrical engineer for a well known U.S. power company, I initially believed nuclear power was the ultimate solution to the world's power needs. However as an adult who's experienced many disasters, I now firmly believe nuclear is NOT the answer. I have first hand seen the devastation left behing after the powerful forces of destruction of mother nature and I seriously doubt any nuclear power plant is safe in the scope of a mega disaster. My opinion is besides being a terrorist target; besides having it's own innate potential for causing a man-made disaster; natural mega-disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes and tornadoes may also compromise a nuclear power plant (though I'll leave that for the experts to debate.) It also has a very long lead time to develop new power plants. Then there's the matter of what to do with the spent fuel rods.

Solar is a great! source of power - during the peak times of day. There are low tech solutions to store radiant solar heat in ponds or pools of water or bricks or clay or other material then released again over time. While this passive energy may provide some radiant heat to homes and businesses, I don't believe this is viable for supplying power to the grid. Nor is it viable to have massive banks of batteries to store the power, either. So we'll reserve solar for the daytime moderate to peak power consumption loads.

Wind is another GREAT source of power - yet we currently only utilize wind to generate 1% of the energy on the grid. The U.S. has quite a resource in wind - so much so that the U.S. is known as the "Saudi of the world" for the wind capacity for power generation. New wind power farms can be built rather swiftly - and since they also generate AC power they don't have conversion loss converting from DC to AC as solar typically does. As long as there are wind farms throughout the US and some even in the windy areas just off the coast, wind is a viable source of power for the grid and should contribute to the ideal energy plan. Wind farms may also be a viable utilization of flood plains thereby keeping that land from being developed for homes and businesses lessening the impacts from disasters. (Mr. Adolphus Busch, I hope you are looking into this!)

Geothermal, until now, was only viable in small portions of the US - and not typically where the larger populations live and work. However recent technological advances have opened up many suitable sites that were previously considered unusable for geothermal. Geothermal is available 24x7 - no matter the outside conditions. The great aspect is new power plants can be developed quickly - in 6 months to a year. Geothermal is the same as wind on the lack of conversion loss since geothermal power plants produces AC power.

Hydroelectric is already around and is available 24x7 - usually. There are some situation where it isn't (similar to nuclear). Hydroelectric plants also produces AC power (unlike solar).

So ultimately this is my idea of an ideal energy plan:

The "base load" can be met utilizing a combination of geothermal, wind, hydroelectric (such as found on rivers and dams) and for now existing nuclear power plants and the current existing power generation plants such as coal and NG. Alternate capacity needs to be continually developed from wind, hydroelectric and geothermal to compensate for the nuclear plants as they are expected to come off the grid.

The "peak load" can be assisted by solar generation farms and hydroelectric plants on containment ponds, such as Tom Sauk. And for the time being we'll still have nuclear plants which also increase generation to a point during peak loads. Also some production can be created from burning natural gas and some of the remaining coal plants (which can be left viable for the foreseeable future and only utilized during the very highest demans of the peak load.)

Again, as we transition from the current energy model to the ideal energy plan we need to continue to develop the infrastructure and additional sustainable and renewable alternate means of power generation as we replace the existing power plants based upon non-renewable energy sources.

What about those existing nuclear plants? Existing nuclear plants, as they are decommissioned and brought offline, if located correctly, can possibly be converted to "low temperature" geothermal power plants using existing technology. The infrastructure is already in place to get the geothermal power onto the grid. In the meantime we continue to hope that mega-disasters do not hit one of the existing nuclear plants nor the spent fuel rods when they are being transported.

The other aspect of my plan - power conservation. When I was in public schools in the 1970's, we were taught about energy conservation. Is this still being taught to our youth today? Each and every one of us needs to look around our home and our offices, our schools and our community buildings and figure out ways we can reduce the power needs in each aspect of our lives. I believe we can readily reduce our current consumption by 10% without much effort and 20% or 30% or more with some effort. Some possible ways to conserve power are listed here, but there are many articles devoted strictly to this subject: Raising the thermostat a degree or two in the summer, lower it a degree or two in the winter. Insulate and caulk better. As lower efficiency appliances wear out they should be replaced with higher efficiency appliances. By converting our lighting to lower wattage lighting sources such as LEDs (I have one here on my desk - it generally provides enough light for my needs!) and more efficient construction methods are implemented (such as determined by the LEED green building rating system), we can significantly reduce our demand on the electric grid.

Now we just need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
We need to raise the bar on the cars being manufactured in the here and now. Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV) and Electric Vehicles (EV) will soon become more feasible to be developed. Battery technology is improving and there have been remarkable strides made in the efficiency of electric motors (an R&D company in Detroit is currently developing a 100 mpg SUV based upon this new technology). I believe solar panels can be built into the roofs (and other parts of the vehicles such as hoods, trunks and upper framing) of these vehicles to automatically recharge these vehicles during the day (flexible solar panel technology already exists.)

We can also look into newer technologies to help reduce our current demand, over time. In the 1880s, over 120 years ago, Nikola Tesla demonstrated broadcast power. That's correct, he successfully demonstrated the ability to illuminate light bulbs from over 20 miles away without any power transmission lines ("Look ma, no wires!") Today Intel is developing a technology to wireless recharge batteries on laptop computers. Taking that one step further: Simply working to reduce power lost through wires and cables will also help reduce some of the power demands on the grid. Or having a bank of batteries in each home to help supplement the demand during the day and then recharge at night would also be another aspect to research and develop. Also that allows the power generation stations to be located more optimally (such as the wind, solar, geothermal and hydroelectric generation plants) to increase their production capacity. There are MANY future technologies that can be developed - the key is that we continue on this path and each and every one of us do our part to make this happen.

The side benefit of this energy plan - we will reduce our dependence on foreign oil therefore eliminating the reason that we are currently embedded in a war in Iraq. By keeping our foreign oil dollars here at home we'll be boosting our economy while making money available to reinvest into our energy infrastructure. By investing and reinvesting in our energy structure we'll be creating very important jobs here in the Homeland to have decent paying jobs so the employees can support their families. Ultimately, this will help our currently demoralized society regain the lost PRIDE in America and what we stand for without constant reminders of the contradictions we live each and every day.

Jeri Zerr
Saint Charles County, Missouri

PS Does anyone know how to get this energy plan before Mr. T. Boone Pickens, our 44th President-Elect Barack Obama, Mr. Samual Bodman, and the yet unnamed new Secretary of Energy? I would also like to see Adolphus Busch look into the feasibility of utilizing flood plains for wind farms. Anyone who's spent much time on and around the Mississippi River near Portage and West Alton realizes the significant amount of wind that seems to be bountiful year round along our mighty river.

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