Great wind energy LTE in the Des Moines Register this morning, thought you
would want to see it. We any of us could do a response letter picking up on
other facets of the issue, to the DMR or your local paper.

Lyle



Wind energy can be stored by converting it to hydrogen

Pete du Pont complained that wind and solar power are intermittent ("No
Wind, No Energy," June 8). Wind and solar are also most abundant where the
need for energy is least.

But if converted to hydrogen, energy from wind and sun can be transported
and stored. To replace imported fossil fuels and the eternal toxicity from
nuclear power with home-grown alternative energies, hydrogen should be the
backbone of a national energy policy.

President Bush's talk about developing hydrogen fuel cells solves little
because he wants to make the hydrogen from petroleum. Senator John Kerry
says our current spending of $1.8 billion on oil and gas development and
just $24 million on promising new alternative-energy sources is wrong. A
nation that uses about a fourth of the world's output of petroleum and has
only 3 percent of the reserves should reverse this 75-to-1 ratio.

Building hydrogen infrastructure would not come for free. But already
available alternatives may be cheaper than oil or nuclear energy if their
true costs are not externalized to the public treasury.

In contrast, while corn used for ethanol replaces imported petroleum, its
co-products encourage a vigorous livestock industry. Much if not most of the
feed value of a bushel of corn remains, concentrated and renamed, in what's
left after ethanol has been removed.

Some view ethanol as the by-product, a value-added bonus for the corn that
remains basically livestock feed. Even so, Jim McCrabb (letter, June 8) is
right that corn ethanol can replace only a part of our petroleum imports.
Other alternative energies are needed, too. Biodiesel and biomass can help.
But the greatest potential is converting sunshine and wind to hydrogen.

If not vetoed by the oil magnates who now head our government, plural
approaches to alternative energies would greatly benefit national security,
our balance of trade, the global environment, our economy and farmers.

Robert A. Rohwer,
Paullina.


Lyle R. Krewson
Sierra Club Conservation Organizer
6403 Aurora Avenue #3
Des Moines, IA 50322-2862

515/276-8947
515/238-7113 - cel

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