Sarah Mentock

Members of Congress must be feeling some pressure this month. If they're not, they ought to be.

After all, not many of their constituents (that's us) would get away with leaving our posts for a long break with a big, pressing job undone. But that's what lawmakers just did, bailing out of their jobs for more than a month without extending critical incentives for energy conservation and renewable resource development.

Their lack of action threatens to choke a promising industry on the threshold of helping America realize clean sources of home-grown energy, not to mention billions of dollars in job-creating investments and tens of thousands of existing jobs.

Unlike members of Congress, the rest of us have sure noticed the toll energy is taking on our lives and lifestyles. Farmers and ranchers input costs are soaring, while fewer and fewer tourists are making the long drive to enjoy Wyoming's unparalleled natural wonders. Washington's long spell of foot-dragging and missteps have had direct and painful impacts on all of us here at home.

And that's without even counting the decades of abuse a lot of our best ranching and hunting land has already suffered to keep the rest of the country going.

So it's a little infuriating to watch our congressional delegation knock off for the summer without moving to preserve policies that are actually working to curb U.S. energy use and bring renewable energy sources on line -- all while supporting a vibrant new industry that means good American jobs for years to come.

Sens. Mike Enzi and John Barrasso -- both of whom will be asking Wyoming voters for their continued support as they travel the state this month -- helped block efforts to maintain a successful package of tax incentives, credits and other measures designed to encourage commercialization of wind and solar energy technology. Rep. Barbara Cubin took the same stance, but she's not seeking re-election.

This is bad policy, and plenty of other political leaders know it.

On the presidential campaign trail, the candidates may not agree on much, but they both accept that America needs to diversify its energy supply. Sen. John McCain has made "all of the above" a pillar of his energy plan, and insisted that Congress come back from vacation to get something passed. Sen. Barack Obama, meanwhile, is pushing his fellow lawmakers to act on something, anything, that might produce progress on energy conservation and renewable resource development.

At the same time, all of the nation's governors -- including Wyoming's own Gov. Dave Freudenthal -- are also pleading with lawmakers to preserve these valuable energy programs. "Renewable energy plays an important role in our nation's energy security," they declared in a letter to congressional leaders this summer.

The governors, like the American people they serve, know that the nation can't drill itself out of the energy crunch that tightens on our economy with each passing day. We need to stay the course with programs that have proven their promise to actually get the nation on track to a future of clean, renewable and domestic energy.

In fact, the recent outpouring of potent political support simply mirrors a growing understanding among all Americans: that supporting conservation and renewable energy is just fundamentally the right and smart thing to do. Our finite carbon-based fuels cost the planet too much -- in global warming effects and in destruction of valuable land and water supplies -- to keep ripping them from the ground without at least attempting to find new ways to power our economy.

Not to mention the hit that economy will take anyway, if these programs fail to clear Congress before they expire at the end of the year. Renewable energy development is an important national industry, but our long reliance on coal, oil and natural gas keeps it at an economic disadvantage.

If Congress allows the industry's critical incentives to lapse, more than 100,000 Americans stand to lose high-paying jobs aimed at bringing solar- and wind-generated electricity to a market that's eager for it. Nearly $20 billion worth of planned investment in new plants, new technologies -- and, most important, good new permanent jobs -- is at risk if this impasse continues.

And all of this uncertainty comes at a time when the nation can least afford to threaten one of its most promising, forward-looking energy industries.

The United States is in the midst of an energy crisis, as the presidential candidates and the nation's governors know all too well. Surely Wyoming's own candidates, Sens. John Barrasso and Mike Enzi, must have read something about it somewhere.

For now, for them, the question has got to be: Will they do something meaningful about it? They must, for the future of our great nation.

 

Sarah Mentock is a member of the Powder River Basin Resource Council, and recently served four years on the organization's board of directors. She also sits on Powder River's Renewable Energy Committee. She lives in Sheridan.