Glenwood Post Independent,
21 March 2002

letter 1 • letter2

Thankful for RMI's help in developing new energy policy

Dear Editor,
Mr. R.T. Moolick wrote in Sunday's edition of the Glenwood Springs Post Independent referring to the the Lovins' and Rocky Mountain Institute as the "Ding-a-ling crowd" and "dreamers." The letter was in response to RMI's work on national energy policy. For the benefit of readers who do not follow energy issues, it should be shared that RMI and the Lovins' are internationally recognized leaders in the field. The Wall Street Journal's Centennial Issue named Amory Lovins among 39 people in the world most likely to change the course of business in the 1990s. Time magazine cited the Lovins' as among the scientists most likely to save the planet. Lovins is also known as one of the most powerful people in the global automobile industry. Mr. Lovins has also been awarded a MacArthur Fellowship and too many other awards to mention. Personally, it is a source of great hope to me that RMI is working to shape national energy policy. RMI and countless other organizations are working to develop a sustainable energy policy which will allow us to enjoy a high standard of comfort while minimizing depletion of the natural capital to which we are stewards. Our current policy brings out the worst in a great country. I share R.T. Moolick's enthusiasm for America but qualify his assertion that America is Number 1 with the sobering facts that we place first in: energy consumption, pollution, arms exporting, trash generation, per capita incarceration, and dependence on fossil fuels. Cheerleading for the status quo has been and continues to be deadly energy policy.

Sincerely,
Robert Schultz
Carbondale

letter 1 • letter2

Moolick rings ding-a-ling's bell

Dear Editor,
I don't like to get personal, but hey, "Moolick started it!" I read your letter to the editor replying to the article titled "Rocky Mountain Institute helps forge National Energy Policy Initiative." Like most all of your letters to the editor, I find myself drawn to them, much the same way many people are drawn to TV. Many people really enjoy seeing just how asinine the show can actually get. Call me a "ding-a-ling," but I am one of those people who actually believe that this country of ours, let alone the entire world, would be much better off researching and developing renewable energy sources. And your common sense conclusion that our current path of coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear energy consumption is actually working is incredibly short-sighted and narrow-minded. It is becoming increasingly obvious to millions of citizens that fossil fuels are NOT working for us anymore, without a huge cost to the entire planet and its inhabitants, i.e., you and me and all of the rest. I do not dispute that fossil fuels were and are still behind what makes this country, among others, a great place to live. But I believe that if renewables were given the same amount of government thought, energy, and subsidies that fossil fuels have received in the past, and are still receiving to this day, renewables could become the energy of choice by individuals and large corporations. Call me a dreamer, but I do not know of any revolutionary change or invention that has not started without a vision or dream, if you will. As for putting my faith in the hands of your so-called "dreamers" like the Rocky Mountain Institute and other like-minded people, it sure beats continuing down a path that most people know has to end sooner (10 to 20 years) or later (30 to 100 years). Surely a mining engineer with your knowledge and background realizes this simplest of facts. Do you really believe that squeezing out, and using up, every last drop of our own nation's oil will reduce our dependence on foreign oil significantly enough to reduce the threat to our nation's security? How many wars would you find acceptable to defend your right to consume oil? And have you not read or even heard of the Hanford nuclear waste site, and dozens more like it, that are threatening entire regions of ground water supplies? No, Mr. Moolick, you have a mighty tall task, should you decide to accept it, of convincing this ding-a-ling that renewable energy cannot work or that your path of continued fossil fuel consumption is actually working without a deadly price. P. S. Maybe both of us can be a little less personal in the future.

Brian Schwarz
New Castle