To the Editor;
The article on Marion’s landfill solar energy “ project “ seems a good example of why our country is lagging so far behind more enlightened European countries in moving from fossil fuel to renewable energy.
So many meetings, so much talk, so little action from government in all its shapes and sizes and from the fossil fuel centric energy sector … around and around we go.
In 2003, twenty years ago, we met with folks from Samso Island in Denmark, a town about the same size as Marion. In 1998, with much support and help from the Danish government and private sector, they formed citizen based Samso Energy Company to make their town 100% renewable energy. In the first five years they were all on their way. Sure there were bumps and hiccups, however the whole country was pulling in the same direction and after just ten years they reached 100% net balance of renewable energy. They had built ten wind turbines, four biomass plants and several solar farms in and around their town in that time. Amazing.
What a success story for the environment not to mention the millions of dollars in savings for Samson’s residents.
And here we are twenty years later, despite the terrific efforts from folks like Bill Saltonstall, Jennifer Francis and others, basically still in the starting blocks in the race to beat global warming.
It isn’t rocket science, we know how and what to do, just take a good look at Samso Island.
Lee Hayes, Marion
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