Senator Crapo,
In this second message we show how
we in Salmon devised a solution to the energy, environment, and jobs problems
for all rural towns in Idaho and in the nation.
Based on the ideas from your energy presentation to the Senate, we share
with you how:
·
the federal government can help the people
First we present how Willie Mundy, a lifetime Salmon citizen, explains the
energy problem and solution.
Our Problem
Since 1973 our government has realized that gasoline and fossil fuels would one
day be phased out. The policy choice then was to support development of
technology to find new sources of oil. This included protecting oil resources
all over the world, by our military, and staying away from renewable
transportation fuels. Today, with the help of other countries, the US has
finally realized that the only way to keep our world moving into the future
profitably is to develop renewable fuel from the power of the sun. Scientists
know this and oil companies have realized this and are now investing in
renewable fuel technology at an alarming rate. If they continue with just
petroleum base fuel, they will lose their market share and the profits they
enjoy today.
This is where the problem with the future exists.
In the last 35 years, supporting big business has not improved these
issues with our energy or environment at all. Policy has created oil industry
profits at the expense of the people. Wealth has moved farther away from the
majority and into the hands of the few at the top of the pay scale. The average
American doesn’t have the money to build a facility to prove that we can be a
large part of the solution to our energy and environment needs. By developing a
renewable source of energy, to be consumed within our communities, we can create
a more stable economy for the towns and for the people who live in these towns.
The benefits of this idea extend beyond fuel alone. Our idea will (1) have a
positive impact on social programs, (2) provide support for educational
development, (3) support value-added businesses, and (4) increase local tax
revenues at the expense of a profit-driven agenda of people who live far from
here.
Policy change in the last 25 years has increased poverty and has greatly reduced
communities like ours. Jobs have moved away to never be replaced. Federal monies
have been invested into areas that do not continue to regenerate jobs for the
citizens at a local level beyond implementation. Projects that have been funded
stand dormant and put expense on the community to continue to maintain them. The
Sacajawea Park and the Salmon Valley Innovation Center are examples.
All the past investments promised success from a tourism trade, which is
limited to seasons resulting in a part-time industry, which has a negative
effect on small businesses’ sustainability in our community.
The solution to renewable energy and healthy environment starts with the
consumer. When the consumer realizes the benefits to the environment and to the
local economy, the use of bio-fuels developed within their communities will
increase dramatically. Bio-fuels reduce global warming by consuming more carbon
dioxide than is produced in the production process. A small bio-fuels facility
will support businesses, like a dairy and cheese factory, a commercial
greenhouse, a research and development facility, and all supporting jobs
associated with them. More income will be available to create more tax base for
our city, our county and our state governments.
For generations people have moved away from using the land. Farms are
disappearing at a rapid rate. Most
of industry today, whether it be food or services, this industry is fixed on
growing profits that benefit only a few people at the top, who live far from
here. We have a lot of waste filling our landfills that can be used to decrease
costs in operating these facilities. Researching better methods and materials in
the production of fuels, negotiations between all parties involved, and
understanding the impact of transportation fuel on our community can maximize
profit here, by eliminating the middle man and regenerating an agriculturally
based economy.
Our Solution
We are not asking for a handout, we are asking for the chance to prove that
small communities around our country, with the proper support can contribute to
the resolution of our world energy and environment needs. By supporting a
bio-fuel facility’s development, our government can give back directly to rural
areas that have been hardest hit, it will give life to struggling small
business, create a stable self sustaining market for our goods and services, let
small communities compete in a rapidly changing world economy, reduce poverty to
the lowest levels, and bring back pride to the American people.
Next we show:
·
How
the federal government can help the people
Help Workers to Get Fair Pay
Between 1975 and 2007,
worker productivity
(output per hour) nearly doubled, rising by 85 percent (see Figure 1). Yet the
share of the economy’s growing abundance going to the average worker (measured
by the average hourly rate of production and non-supervisory workers) actually
fell by 4 percent, to $17.42 from $18.23. In short, even though an hour of work
by the average worker produced close to twice as much in 2007 as in 1975,
his/her hourly wage declined.
How the People can help themselves, in spite of this labor-productivity
inequity.
With our local production of feed-stock, local production of ethanol, and local
use of that ethanol, we avoid this labor-productivity issue.
Local Coops can grow the feed-stock, can run the ethanol plant, and can
distribute the fuel to the people.
The labor-productivity issue is most unlikely with coops.
This is the people taking care of themselves, which is the second idea in this
message:
Local production and use of transportation fuel:
1.
Eliminates cost of transportation of feed-stock and of product. We make the
feed-stock here and burn the ethanol here.
2.
Is not subject to the labor-productivity inequity that is nationwide, because
local people, not distant big corporations, will make the fuel.
3.
Does not contribute to the 385 ppm of carbon dioxide in the air, because our
process is carbon-neutral.
4.
Stops the flow of $10,506,496 out of town for gasoline each year.
5.
Stops our use of imported oil.
6.
Adds $28,955,050 to the local economy and $5,149,500 to household income.
7.
Adds 182 jobs in the town. Some of
these jobs are with the local metal shops, who can build and can maintain the
ethanol facility. Other jobs are for the
auto shops, who adapt local vehicles to run on ethanol.
8.
Will produce cattle feed (sugar beet pulp) to help open the dairy that closed
five years ago.
9.
Will heat a commercial greenhouse with
the hot water (from the distiller and from the condenser)
10.
Will use wood for heating the distiller.
This wood is from the Lemhi land fill wood waste, the QB Corporation
waste, and from the beetle-killed trees in our forests.
11.
Uses
profits to foster local business, education, and social programs.
12.
Will be competitive with the gasoline that is trucked to this town now.
13. Brings back the social fabric of the town and individual self-fulfillment.