LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Republicans’ refusal to embrace alternative energies costing American people

Published 5:43 pm Tuesday, June 3, 2008

To the editor:

Gas is over $4 per gallon now. I’m sure that in a few months we will look back to today and say, “Remember when gas was only $4 a gallon?”

I think it was 1979 when Jimmy Carter had solar panels installed on the roof of the White House and was speaking out about becoming “energy independent” in the near future so we would “not have to rely so heavily on foreign energy sources that may be unreliable.”

This has come to pass. It was easily seen by many at the time.

When Ronald Reagan became president, the first thing he did upon moving into the White House was to have those solar panels removed. Some of the oilmen that run this government now, told him then “Who needs solar, there’s plenty of oil.” Some of these oilmen are Dick Cheney, George H.W. Bush, a couple of the higher profile ones that are still around, not to mention the very oily “W,” or my favorite, Dubya.

Reagan is deified by the Republicans as the “great communicator,” etc., etc.

I bring up Reagan’s name because he has a place of very high esteem in the Republican Party. I’m sure you’ve heard the term “Reaganesque” used by Republicans to describe a particularly good party member.

I would suggest that Reagan’s legacy for the Republican Party was willful ignorance, not great communication and certainly not foresight.

We’ve had 30 years of Republican and Republican-light (Clinton) administrations in this country. How bad does it need to get for the people to demand change?

Dan Freeman

Clinton