An innovative political proposal

letter to Congressman Carlos Curbelo

Thank you for your bill suggesting a carbon tax. That will eventually be an important milestone I think. I think your influence would be maximized if you bring up something that is really important but which is missing from the current debate (and therefore not yet tainted by partisanship). That way, your words drop into a new pool, with a smooth surface where the little ripples are visible. Something co-sponsored by a Democrat perhaps? I have my favorite issue, outlined below:

Americans care about both renewable energy and overhead powerlines. We need new powerlines to allow renewable energy to displace fossil fuel. The utilities keep saying they cannot be put underground. This is only true because neither the utilities nor DOE does anything to develop or study underground options, like elpipes. A little pressure on this could have huge effects by de-bottlenecking remote energy site development across the US. Look at the following blog entry in order to follow-up on this.

http://elpipes.blogspot.com/2012/02/posted-today-on-transmission-hub-blog.html