Representative phone survey

Posted By: Arlyn Stewart
Date: 6/11/08 7:11a.m.

Report: outside forum guidelines

My US rep (Louie Goumert) called last night to add me to the phone net. Has happened several times. Last night he performed a survey on energy where he asked questions and those on the net pressed yes/no on the key pad and then he took questions. The survey questions were, should we drill in Anwar, should we open up the outer continental shelf, should we add nuclear, and should we go clean coal. Then he spoke for a few minutes until I got the chow call to make the point that he believed that in a time of poor economy, environmental issues had to be waived to focus on the economy. I guess I believe with effort, both should remain goals. A few years ago, I designed a conversion kit to deal with the problems associated with the Edson small boat wheel steering system. First, goals were defined and in that case there were ten important requirements. It proved really hard to design something that met all. Over several months hundreds of paths and sketches were searched and in the end perseverance saw a plan evolve that met them all. I believe energy independence, economic health and the environment are all much harder goals to fit together than my steering conversion but to simply throw one or more elements aside without effort is not indicative of the American "Can Do" spirit.