Rich Garling’s Blog

While in Ohio recently I stopped at a roadside rest area and noticed in the distance four windmills churning away. There was a plaque at the rest stop that explained those four windmills were producing enough electricity to support a small town of 1000 nearby.

I just located a story on the internet: Harvest Wind farm

in which 15,000 homes were getting thier electricity from 32 windmills located in Harvest Wind Farm near Elkton, MI. It costs $90 million to erect this array of windmills and each windmill provides electricity and $3,000 to the farmer who owns the land.

I will support these types of programs for Illinois because we need to get away from using a fuel that not only drains our pocket books but also pollutes our air and makes us sick. The alternatives are available, we just need to institute them.

Tags: Environment by Rich
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Went to Philadelphia last summer, posted these thoughts on my campaign blog…

We took a trip to

Philadelphia this last weekend. Visited Gettysburg,

Lancaster, and Constitution Hall and saw where the Declaration of Independence was signed. You could imagine how heady a moment that must have been to know that you were putting your life and everything you had worked for on the line by signing that document. These were very brave men who were willing to do what was right in spite of the possible adversity they may face. They were honestly living the change they wished to see at that moment.

While I will not compare myself to those great people, I do believe, as they did, that we all should live the change we wish to see in the world. Otherwise it is nothing but mere talk. I firmly believe in doing what I can to keep our air, water and land clean. As such I recycle all that I can, I use very little water since we’re dependent on well water, and I drive a hybrid car. We drove that car to

Philadelphia and back. We averaged 41 mpg. If we had used my girlfriend’s car we would have gotten around 28 mpg on the highway. While locally I average 46 mpg, we only took a hit of 5 mpg using the hybrid. The State, the nation, needs to encourage more usage of these types of vehicles and each level of government needs to use these for their non-emergency vehicles. The money we could save because we cut back on the amount of gas being consumed would be an excellent start to becoming oil free and saving this planet. The money saved could be used to help with funding education, our infrastructure and other important services we expect from our government. 

Tags: Environment by Rich
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A post from my campaign blog on gas prices and alternative fuels…

I’m sure most of you are aware that we have a huge problem with the rising cost of energy. I know I’m paying too much at the gas pump. And it’s pretty sad when today we consider a price of $4.10/gal to be a good price. I drive a hybrid which is getting 45 mpg. I have seen or read about different hybrid types being offered. Some run on alternative fuels such as E85 (85% alcohol/15% gasoline). Problem I have is that the alcohol is derived from food crops and in spite of the commercial you hear/see on the air, the feed corn used to make the fuel also is used to many different products. The price of those other products is rising, such as a loaf of bread, which is not a good thing. There are other means we could use to power our cars such as hydrogen, natural gas, wind and solar. I just saw a film clip sent to me by a friend that suggests we could use wind power as a substitute for natural gas, use the natural gas to power our automobiles which would help cut our usage of foreign oil. Here is the link: Pickens Plan . It’s an interesting suggestion. One thing for sure is that we cannot last very long on overpriced oil that pollutes our air. The State of Illinois can do it’s part by investing in a fleet of electrically assisted hybrid cars that would use less fuel, pollute less and cost less in the long run. While E85 may benefit our farmers, it hurts other parts of our economy. The Pickens plan suggests using a more sensible approach with existing alternatives. We have an abundance of natural gas in this country and we live in one of the best wind corridors going right through the middle of the country. Illinois happens to be part of that corridor. Lets be part of the solution and not part of the problem.

Tags: Environment by Rich
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