I read recently, that if we were to use our oil resources in the continental United States we have enough oil to fuel our homes and automobiles for the next 60 years. I won’t be around in 60 years; however, I look at my grandchildren and have to wonder what will life be like for them and their children if the oil should run out.

Alternative energy is being explored and developed. Today’s technology has improved our ability to implement those alternatives.

Large wind farms are being constructed in our area at an amazing rate. T. Boone Pickens, an oil man from Texas, has been on television lately announcing the Pickens’s Plan to Save America. The Pickens’s Plan includes the further development and construction of wind farms throughout the Midwest capable of producing energy for the entire United States through wind and solar power.

Wind and solar energy is also possible and available on a small scale able to produce and store energy to provide power to streetlights and your home. A 1,000-watt wind generator is no larger than some rooftop television antennas. Two of these generators could supply most of a home’s electrical need.

Incentives and grants are available to reimburse up to 25 percent of project cost in implementing this technology.

Our local city council is looking to make the city a green city and will be hiring a outside group to do a study as to what the city can to conserve energy and cut back on energy cost.

I would like to see the city to take the initiative as a part an effort to make our city a green city, to write an ordinance that would allow homeowners and businesses to construct and implement this technology. I would also like to see the city make it policy that any new street lighting to be installed in the city be powered by wind and solar energy and a plan to convert existing street lighting to solar and wind power in the next 10 years.

George Gillespie

Albert Lea