We all benefit from investments in wind, solar

Doesn’t the wind blow in Illinois or Missouri? It seems to be OK with Trump if red states have wind and solar, but cut any funding for blue states.

Grain Belt Express project is a $7 billion undertaking to carry 5,000 megawatts of wind-generated power more than 800 miles from the western Kansas power grids in Missouri, Illinois and across the mid-Atlantic region. Continuing to run vulnerable power lines for 800 miles, is 800 miles of potential failure.

We should be spending at least half of the $7 billion in our own state, building more resilient homes and energy sources with both wind and solar, which is cleaner and cheaper. This would help to lessen the impact of disasters like we have just witnessed in the Southern states.

For example, as reported from the New York Post and BBC, “Florida's Babcock Ranch, just north of Fort Myers, was built to survive storms. Hurricane Ian was the town's first test. Incredibly, the community weathered the storm — emerging almost unscathed. In the aftermath, not a single house lost power, internet, or access to clean water, and the development opened its doors to the surrounding community who had lost their homes. A large 870-acre solar panel farm powers the entire development, as well as surrounding communities — making Babcock Ranch American’s first solar-powered town.”

I toured two homes in the ‘70s that were completely off the grid, using a combination of solar, wind, and geothermal as a test for each component. Both were designed by two Fermi Lab employees. One was a nuclear physicist. Decentralized residential power, off the grid, limits widespread disasters. Maybe if residents were off the grid, we would not be spending billions for ever larger grid structures. The delivery system of wind and solar — compliments of God.

Andrew Sanders

Sugar Grove