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The Lexington Herald Leader published a strong piece today about renewable energy and climate change written by Jessamine County farmer Henry Riekert. You can find his full commentary here.

Riekert writes:

"Every 45 minutes enough sunlight strikes the Earth to power every home and building in the world for a full year. The U.S. Department of Energy has determined that enough energy could be produced by offshore wind farms alone to power the entire country. Incredible, isn't it? All that clean, renewable energy readily available and we're still burning oil and coal...."

And he wonders:

"Why can't the USA do what other countries are doing? As my German grandparents always said, there isn't anything America can't do.Of course, that was then and this is now. We live in an America where corporations are people and money is free speech. Where oil and coal corporations spend millions of dollars every year to kill legislation that threatens their industry and to discredit scientists who sound the alarm. It's an America where members of Congress earmark public money to fossil fuel industries whose profits are measured in billions. Where industry executives tell elected officials which regulators to hire and fire. We've become an America where industry spends millions more every year spreading misinformation and outright lies."

Meanwhile, here in Kentucky, legislation is currently moving forward to a) remove the current ban on nuclear energy in Kentucky, b) create a caucus of legislators whose purpose is to promote the interests of Kentucky's coal, oil and natural gas industries, c) allow utility companies to condemn private lands in order to build pipelines to transport carbon dioxide captured from coal plants, and d) call upon Congress to prohibit the US EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions.  

Anyone looking for a terrific source of information about these and other energy bills pending before the Kentucky General Assembly should visit the website of the Kentucky Resources Council. Look on the left side for a link to "bills we are watching."