WORLD WIND ENERGY NET

This is regarding the Chicago Tribune's July 10 front-page article about T. Boone Pickens' proposed energy policy.

"Oilman sees a shift in the wind" is well worth reading and discussing.

Pickens, who is an entrepreneur with many years' experience in the oil industry, has some very sensible and valuable suggestions directed toward solving our energy problems.

These include moving forward rapidly on developing wind energy to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and extending the use of natural gas as a transportation fuel.

The fundamental problem that we face in U.S. energy policy today is that it has been so thoroughly militarized during recent years.

The soaring price of oil today is partly due to the Bush administration's two failing wars and occupations that had been intended to secure the oil-rich areas in and near the Middle East by force but instead have left the United States both militarily and financially in far worse shape than before.

During the administration of President George W. Bush, controlling and plundering the energy resources of other countries unfortunately became the primary energy policy of the United States.

We need to distance ourselves from the failures of that militarized energy policy in order to get out of the really terrible situation that we are in now.

T. Boone Pickens' suggestions can move us in the direction of a less dangerous, less horrendously expensive and more domestically secure and sustainable energy policy for the future.

—Caroline Herzenberg