Mike Bennett Pushes Alternative Energies

Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, issued a call for increased focus on using alternative energies on Tuesday.

For months, Americans were focused on Americas Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, wrote Bennett. Anyone who has ever had a Florida vacation, a Mardi Gras experience, who has gambled on the Mississippi coast or enjoyed the delights of LA (Lower Alabama) is hurting. When we couple the pain at home with the issues in Iraq, Afghanistan and other places, we barely pay attention to 'how can we fail to have a real energy policy, a real energy strategy'? Before one more American dies for oil-company profits, or before the next disaster in the Gulf, we need to change.

With the well capped, the rest of the country has largely moved forward, added Bennett. Most people dont make the complex connections between drilling the Gulf, Alaska or anywhere else and the economics of coastal life. Florida does not have a complicated relationship with big oil like some of the other Gulf States. We dont receive billions of dollars from oil-industry jobs. Our jobs are dependent on the quality of the environment. And we want to keep our environment clean and healthy because weve already seen what even the threat of oil will do to our coastal businesses.

Much as many of us would like, we cannot simply flip a switch and move from oil to something else, continued Bennett. "As much as a quality environment drives our economy, our entire country is, and will for some time be, dependent on fossil fuel. But instead of squeezing every drop from every little corner, instead of sending billions of dollars to people who hate us and depending on them to provide for our needs, we need to do something now -- today.

Bennett called for more conservative involvement and lauded the initial steps made in Florida to harness solar power. He also lavished praised on Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs -- while jeering at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae for standing against them.

While we have been victims of the spill in the Gulf, we can take this tragedy and use it as a platform to move in a new direction, a smart direction, closed Bennett. We need a plan that ensures Americas Sea is restored, that our troops come home and that we provide for our own energy needs with clean, renewable alternatives, with American biofuels.

If we are to flip the switch on drilling in the Gulf or anywhere else, we have to start right now, insisted Bennett. Right here. At home.