Dateline: April 5, Dundee, KY - “One more layer ought to do the trick,” Mark puffed. Len nodded as they hoisted another sand bag onto the makeshift dam. “I don’t know how I can ever thank you,” Anita Boost replied, tears of gratitude clouding her eyes. “The news guy said this is the worst flooding Kentucky’s ever seen. And this little house is all I’ve got; without help…”Anita shook her head and wiped away a tear.
Dirty, wet and exhausted, Mark and Len made their way to the Red Cross food tent. “It’s really great seeing these volunteers pour in from all over the country,” Len DaHand smiled while scanning the motley cross-section of characters. “You got that right,” Mark Et’Place agreed. “And thank goodness our president has released federal disaster funding to help these folks get back on their feet.”
“No kidding,” Len said. “With the climate warming, these severe weather events just keep piling up and getting more severe. Besides all the human suffering, it’s costing us a fortune - $182 billion in the U.S. last year alone, over $1.4 trillion over the last 10 years!
“This administration is trying so hard to reduce costs; you’d think they’d support policies that both save taxpayers money and reduce unhealthy, climate-warming emissions, stuff like the Inflation Reduction Act provisions. Take Elective Pay for example; it cuts 30% from the cost of energy efficiency upgrades and adding solar for nonprofits. Hundreds of schools in Wisconsin have done just that and are saving their local taxpayer’s tens of thousands of dollars every year. Some schools
are counting on that 30% to make improvements that are already in the works.”
“Hmm…,” Mark began, “I’ve always been a ‘let the marketplace determine costs’ kind-a-guy, especially concerning energy issues. But shoot; when we’re really in a pinch, like with this flood, we pretty much all agree that federal help is a godsend. It’s a bit like that last layer of sandbags, a reliable backstop preventing a whole lot of misery. Seems like a similar ‘stitch-in-time’ from the feds would help stem these rising disaster costs. Yeah…ya know what? I’m gonna drop a note to our senators asking them to not cut off those ‘stitches.’ You should too. Because, by golly, this is the only home we’ll ever know. It’s where we’re all forever… Earthbound.”
Wis. senators: https://www.ronjohnson.senate.gov/email-the-senator
https://www.baldwin.senate.gov/contact/contact-tammy
Dirty, wet and exhausted, Mark and Len made their way to the Red Cross food tent. “It’s really great seeing these volunteers pour in from all over the country,” Len DaHand smiled while scanning the motley cross-section of characters. “You got that right,” Mark Et’Place agreed. “And thank goodness our president has released federal disaster funding to help these folks get back on their feet.”
“No kidding,” Len said. “With the climate warming, these severe weather events just keep piling up and getting more severe. Besides all the human suffering, it’s costing us a fortune - $182 billion in the U.S. last year alone, over $1.4 trillion over the last 10 years!
“This administration is trying so hard to reduce costs; you’d think they’d support policies that both save taxpayers money and reduce unhealthy, climate-warming emissions, stuff like the Inflation Reduction Act provisions. Take Elective Pay for example; it cuts 30% from the cost of energy efficiency upgrades and adding solar for nonprofits. Hundreds of schools in Wisconsin have done just that and are saving their local taxpayer’s tens of thousands of dollars every year. Some schools
are counting on that 30% to make improvements that are already in the works.”
“Hmm…,” Mark began, “I’ve always been a ‘let the marketplace determine costs’ kind-a-guy, especially concerning energy issues. But shoot; when we’re really in a pinch, like with this flood, we pretty much all agree that federal help is a godsend. It’s a bit like that last layer of sandbags, a reliable backstop preventing a whole lot of misery. Seems like a similar ‘stitch-in-time’ from the feds would help stem these rising disaster costs. Yeah…ya know what? I’m gonna drop a note to our senators asking them to not cut off those ‘stitches.’ You should too. Because, by golly, this is the only home we’ll ever know. It’s where we’re all forever… Earthbound.”
Wis. senators: https://www.ronjohnson.senate.gov/email-the-senator
https://www.baldwin.senate.gov/contact/contact-tammy
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