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Fields Of Fuel

“The Iowa Democratic Party is stealing your idea,” my father in Arizona proclaimed over the phone a couple of years back. He had just read in his newspaper where an article detailed the Democrats, in a bid to retake the Iowa Senate and House, were backing a three strikes law to stop illegal immigration that I had detailed in this column. My law was simple. Companies found hiring illegals would face a gradually increasing fine system until it would be too painful to continue breaking the law. First offense, a minor monetary slap on the wrist, about the same as the fine for driving an automobile without insurance. The second fine would be $30,000 to $50,000. Third strike, death penalty, the state pretty much owns everything the company has. If a drinking establishment can be responsible for underage drinkers using fake identification cards, companies can stand the burden of policing their own work force. I guarantee you there would be a cloud of dust heading back south of the border the day after the law hit the books.

Why has such a law never been passed in any of the fifty states? It would change the debate from demonizing a people to dealing with the real issue that America faces, the ethics of cheap labor. It would remove the age old mask that conservatives have used in the south for generations to use xenophobia against those filling the low level jobs and focusing on those doing the hiring. It would address whether we are a just people or a people more interested in the perks and benefits that come on the broken back of another human being. I believe it is a debate that is needed but do not want to have.

In turn, find your Democratic representative and place this column in his or her hands because I am going to detail some programs and laws that would get us back on the tract that President Jimmy Carter tried to place us on over 30 years ago when he pushed a program of energy independence and it is something that we have done before that economically kick started the rural countryside and helped farmers enjoy a prosperity they never had before. Just like today, when conservatives rub their hands together and talk about how costly it would be to change our oil based economy, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt came into the White House power companies claimed that it was too costly to string power lines out to farmers in the countryside, because to do such was less economically profitable than in concentrated population areas. To address the problem, Roosevelt did something brilliant. He set up the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) in 1935. The REA provided loans to farmer coops to extend power to these areas long neglected by the utility companies. With one program, the lives of farmers changed dramatically, output increased, and these hard working men and women got to enjoy a lifestyle than their urban friends and neighbors had known for years.

My proposition is simple. We introduce a similar program today in regards to alternative energy. Along with a massive reinvestment in our land grant colleges to perfect such technologies as an economical process for turning corn into biodegradable plastics, alternative fuels and environmentally friendly farming methods, and other investments, my new REA-type program would turn Iowa farmers into this generation’s Texas oil men. Every farmer I have ever met has scrub land that they try to plant crops on or buildings they are no longer using. Loans would be extended to farmers to build solar, wind, and alternative fuel instillations (such as featured in this documentary). Any excess power produced that did not maintain agricultural operations would be sold back to the power companies. With technological advancements and success, this program could be extended to businesses, individual home owners, and other environmental situation. With millions of flat roofs on malls and box stores across this nation, imagine solar power panels and mini-wind turbines keeping the lights on and air conditioning going. Picture cities like Las Vegas, Nevada and El Paso, Texas surrounded and powered by a sea of solar, bio-energy stations, and wind technology on worthless land currently going to waste. President Dwight D. Eisenhower kicked off a wave of prosperity with the federal investment in the Interstate highway system, we could now do the same thing with green energy. We would no longer have to be constantly worried about the political winds of Middle East countries, kowtowing to leaders and despots with histories of human rights abuses who secretly hate us behind our backs. No longer would the nation be dragging our heels when it comes to global warming, but could assume the leadership role on this issue on the world stage that we should be.

Along with little programs that allow businesses to write off hybrid vehicles like the Bush administration did with gas guzzling SUVs, let’s have reduced cost on tax and tag fees for these same vehicles on the same level that trucks are currently enjoying. We need tax rebates for people who live within 30 minutes of their workplace, and for installing such things as solar water heaters in personal residences. Federal encouragement of state and local communities is needed to come up with local solutions to energy needs or saving methods such as using garbage dumps to produce geothermal energy. If we can produce pills that get old men back in the game, we can do the same for our energy needs. All we have to do is dream.

One such dreamer is Josh Tickell, the director, star, and screenwriter of the documentary Fields of Fuel. This is a cause documentary and the cause is alternative energy and biofuels, primarily biodiesel. The problem with any movie that is trying to preach to you is it risks becoming the mother-in-law who invites herself over to your house and gives you cleaning advice. It can quickly wear out its welcome. No one wants to pay to see a PSA. Tickell frames his concern for the environment and finding alternative forms of energy around his life story and touring the country in his eco-friendly vehicle. Throughout the film celebrities like Julia Roberts, Woody Harrelson, Willie Nelson, Neil Young, Larry Hagman, Jack Johnson, Laurie David, and billionaire Richard Branson discuss what they are doing to be environmentally friendly and scientists pop up from time to time to discuss the sad state of the planet we live on.

The main problem with this documentary is it is preaching to the chorus. How does one reach the unconverted, those who doubt global warming? Much like the tobacco companies who found doubt to be their best weapon in the battle to keep smokers, those who are making immense profits under the current system want to throw enough intellectual dust in the air to confuse consumers and avoid needed change. I have talked to too many individuals who are puzzled about whether climate change is real or not. My answer to these people is a modern Pascal’s Wager. In the 17^th century, when confronted by skeptics of God’s existence, French philosopher Blaise Pascal suggested one should wager on God’s existence, i.e. become a believer. If God exists, you gain everything, a place in paradise, eternal sojourning in heaven. If there is no Big Guy, well, you really did not lose a thing. In other words, you have everything to gain and nothing to lose. The same is true when it comes to global warming. If those who believe that we are at the footsteps of a major problem are wrong, what do we loose by pursuing alternating energy sources? Not much. Some oil and coal executives have a lot smaller bonus check at the end of the year. But if all the scientists with their peer reviewed studies are right and the deniers are wrong, what does that mean? This is a wager that even the most degenerate gambler knows the odds on and would bet with Tickell.

Verdict: Okay, Watch it on cable whenever it gets there