Just finished a great roundtable in Madison, WI at the State Capitol! Local veteran Robin Eckstein and the rest of the Operation Free team (Larry Delashmit and I) spoke to a good sized crowd. The roundtable included Senator Fred Risser, a WWII veteran and President of the Wisconsin State Senate, and Representative Steve Hilgenberg, Chairman of the Veterans Committee, and was later attended by Representative Steve Black, co-author (along with Sen. Risser) of the current clean energy legislation under consideration before the Wisconsin legislature. Reporters from the Wisconsin Radio Network and the BBC World Service were also in attendance.
Senator Risser and Representative Hilgenberg both expressed their thanks to Operation Free for bringing attention to the issue of green energy and said that they had come to learn and listen to views and information that they could use in their own push for comprehensive clean energy reform in the state of Wisconsin, the culmination of which may come soon in a bill coming up for vote in the state legislature. Sen. Risser also spoke to the fact that Wisconsin currently imports 100% of its energy from outside of the state and that Wisconsin and states like it have much to gain from energy independence.
The questions raised by the audience ranged from veteran involvement in new green energy jobs to the astronomical cost of fueling the fight against terrorism and what the U.S. military itself is currently doing to develop new energy sources and reduce its use of oil. We really enjoyed our time in Wisconsin, now we’re off to Indiana!
Looking forward to seeing you in Indiana! I’m in Gary right now getting things ready.