DUST IN THE WIND

DUST IN THE WIND

Do you ever feel like that? I do. Even among our own Democrats. You know, you write a letter with your concerns to your congressman and in reply you get some ‘form’ letter in return after some computer program went through it and picked some key phrases out and returned some drivelious (made up word), talking points in an attempt to satiate you.

Let me offer the following example.

After much research I installed an outdoor wood furnace to burn what would otherwise be waste wood. My research told me it would be good for the environment and good for my pocketbook. So after 3 years, I realized it was a very good investment because my investment was to be repaid even quicker than I first calculated.

Anyway, I tried to take this even further. I started to research wind turbines. The initial investment was a scary number, about 60k for a very large turbine that would generate about (forgive my memory on this, I’m not great at electricity figures); I think it was 25kw per year (something like that). Anyway, it would have supplied anywhere from 90%-110% of my yearly consumption. Basically I thought it means free electricity in perpetuity after it paid for itself after about 16 years with maintenance etc.

My surprise came when I found out, by law that my co-op could not buy my excess electricity for the same rate that I had to pay them. I pay about 10.7 cents per kwh but they would only pay me 3.7 cents per kwh. By law! This turned my recoupment from 16 years to over 30 years.

OK, so I write my congressman, who I think is great by the way. I tell him that I definitely don’t agree with this federal law. I get a return e-mail informing me of his energy policy! What now, I don’t have 60k just laying around without accounting for it.

With respect to my congressman, I get these same form letters from my Senators and the Whitehouse.

Enough of my personal struggles and back to my point. Can anyone offer any evidence that our leadership actually reads what we are writing. I see many, many Democrats who call for impeachment of GW Bush. Where is that going? I agree with Congressman Waxman and his investigations and I hope they will lead to an investigation of this administration that will lead to an actual impeachment investigation. Does Howard Dean read the blogs or is this just a feel good tool? Do our Democratic representatives use this tool to see how we feel?

That’s why I feel like dust in the wind.