Empty policies won't conserve energy

To the editor:

It's wonderful that Ms. (Carol) Bragg offers up the thought of having an energy policy in Seekonk, but where are her ideas? She ought to have added some directions that Seekonk should pursue. But, I guess that would be asking a lot from one of our leaders.

Had she researched this direction she would have found out a number of things. Energy resources such as wind power, hydro power and solar are not cost-effective and were already found out to be virtually impractical in Seekonk. However, a policy of conservation regarding our public buildings and the way all of us conduct our lives and business is the ONLY direction worth pursuing.

Our power company has programs in place that help the government sector conserve energy. And, these programs can be in place with little or no cost to the town. Energy-efficient motors, lighting, heating, cooling and co-gen are all part of conservation programs provided by National Grid (formerly Massachusetts Electric). Any designs for new or existing building retrofits should incorporate energy-efficiency. Again, with the help of our power company — efficiency should become a way of life.

In the bigger picture we should pressure our elected officials to pursue energy-efficiency on a broader scale. We have not had an energy policy in any administration be it local or national. We ought to consider policies that would ban the manufacturing of eight cylinder vehicles, have weight limits regarding automobiles, co-generation as part of any commercial and industrial building, return to the nuclear power drawing boards, build more hydro and wind power wherever feasible and take a closer look at our own oil possibilities. There is absolutely no reason for any family or sport vehicle in this country to have an engine bigger than six cylinders. In fact, I have a hard time being convinced that family vehicles should have more than four cylinders. But, I'll leave that discussion for a better venue.

Quite simply, our leaders have offered us nothing more then rhetoric on a national, state and local basis. It's time for us to adopt and even stronger energy policy – that of term limits for all officials. That would help conserve our energy of having to listen to empty policies.

David Saad

129 West River St.

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