All of the clean-energy and no-hydrocarbons-in our-air talk sounds good. However, that is not reality at this time. We need to react to where and when we live. We live here in an America that now cannot provide for her own energy needs. Happy thoughts and good wishes, windmills and solar panels will not keep American commerce moving. We are an oil-driven nation. We must feed our need for oil until alternative energy sources are widely available and cost-effective.

How many tractors, hay balers, combines, 18-wheelers, fishing trawlers, backhoes and airplanes do you see running on wind and solar power? None! If they could that would be great, but the technology is not there yet. It could be five, 10 or 100 years away. I’m not talking about the university prototype that costs a million dollars to produce. I’m talking about the equipment that is necessary for our farmers and ranchers to do their work. I’m talking about the average Joe being able to afford operating his or her business.

When energy becomes more expensive, it costs the farmer more money to produce a crop, and a rancher more dollars to get a cow to market. It costs all of us more money just to feed our family. The average liberal environmentalist may not care, but it does negatively impact the huge majority of Americans.

Mr. Swanson says that electric cars are becoming a reality. We see how well that is going. Last month the Chevy Volt sold under 300 units. If someone wants to drive an electric car, good for them. However, how many electric pickup trucks that have the power to haul hay, tow a horse trailer or move equipment between fields do you see? Is it the liberal solution to force Americans into vehicles that they do not want and that don’t provide for their needs? They should not try to force the rest of us out of our vehicles of choice and into what they believe we need to drive.

Liberalism and the environmental movement is the philosophy of NO. They say NO to drilling for oil and providing for our energy needs until alternative energy sources are workable and affordable.

They say NO to clean and renewable hydroelectric power from our dams; it might hurt a salmon or two. Yet, they will not address the tens of thousands of salmon killed by the gill nets that belong to their cohorts at the mouth of the Klamath River.

They say NO to wind generators because they might injure a migrating bird.

They say NO to requested solar fields because of the possible damage to some “three-legged horned toad” that no one gives a hoot about.

They say NO to real solutions to our energy problems. They are long on objections but short on real solutions.

There is no question that alternative energy sources need to be pursued. Energy solutions that are available to us now need to be tapped. We have oil; let’s take it out of the ground, get it into our fuel tanks, and give our economy a boost. We are going to pay someone for our energy needs; it would be better that our own countrymen got our dollars rather than sending more of our dollars to foreign nations.

My neighbor says he does not have the answer to our energy problems and on that he is right. However, I will step out and say that I do have the answer! Drill now, develop alternative energy sources, and use the God-given resources that this nation has been blessed with.