THIS WEEK, the fall elections ballot includes a cleanenergy referendum. Despite last week's confusing and partisan rally for the initiative, this measure deserves our support. The proposal would preserve our way of life, protect our environment and, best of all, shift the costs away from Virginia to those pesky left-wing states.
Last Tuesday, while the Student Alliance for Virginia's Environment (SAVE) and Students for Environmental Action (SEA) pedaled around en masse on bicycles to promote the referendum, they were joined by a mock campaign bus satirizing President Bush. In the parlance of public relations professionals, this was a classic case of the "mixed message." In an e-mail statement, SAVE President Elizabeth Marie Dubovsky regretted the "confusion," although she denied responsibility for the bus. In any case, of all the points made in that rally, only one was correct.
First, the initiative itself: U.Va. students are being asked to endorse a plan requiring them to pay a $7 "renewable energy fee" each semester. The fee would purchase a wind energy credit on the national grid. While the University would continue using traditional energy, it would subsidize some other institutions' use of wind energy in place of dirty energy, thus reducing soot and greenhouse gasses overall.
On the need for such a subsidy, Dubovsky explained that wind energy is "slightly more expensive than cheap coal and fossil fuels, but
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