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Senator Thune was in town Thursday night for the Salute to Industry banquet. We'd have loved to have been there, but my wife and I couldn't swing $15 apiece to the Chamber for a meal.
Probably no big loss -- we would have heard the same lines about windpower in South Dakota that we've already blogged about frequently. Senator Thune gave the assembled saluters the standard spiel on how South Dakota has lots of wind power potential -- 55% of the nation's electricity demands was the familiar number of the evening -- but needs more transmission capacity to get the power where it's needed.
We've covered this: let's quit wringing our hands over transmission lines. Let's promote local power self-sufficiency projects. Let's shake loose some grant money, re-allocate some capital outlay and other school funds (maybe those drug, alcohol, and tobacco funds that Dr. Newquist and Harrisburg superintendent Jim Holbeck say don't do much good anyway), and raise a windmill next to every school in the state. Get that student team from SDSU to design windfarms for every county, university campus, and other large government facility where there's enough wind to make the turbines work. Build the turbines, build the expertise, build the future.
Drinking Liberally Update (11/15/2024)
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In Politics: Nationally: The Election is over and the wrong side won. I
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3 days ago
First, thanks for supporting our efforts at SDSU to develop wind farm scenarios in Charles-Mix County. We are in fact beginning to focus our designs towards local use in order to lower capital costs and increase overall financial efficiency of the project.
ReplyDeleteSecond, Thune was kind enough to acknowledge he was preaching to the choir as many people in the room developed the material he was presenting. The importance of his speech was the ability to rally the public behind a cause. Sadly, the greatest obstacle in the wind development of SD seems to be politics.
Well whatever politics stand in the way of wind power need to end now. Our future awaits; we don't have time for political games. (Who's standing in the way, anyway? Let us know so we can vote 'em out!)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Matt! It's always good to hear from someone in the know. And when you get done, bring your team to Lake County! Let's see if we can make Ramona and Rutland energy-self-sufficient!