Not the whole story

I have to say I was interested in your article about I-69 when I first saw it mentioned on the second section of the latest IDS. I have been wondering what everyone’s HUGE complaints were. When I moved back to Bloomington in December of 1996, one of the first things I saw of this town was an I-69 protest meeting at my new middle school. First they were complaining that they should take care of the roads they have, that the highway was going to go through Amish property, along with the obvious environmental issues. I never knew how much of a compromise was struck on some of the issues that could be tackled like going through Amish land, and that’s what I was really interested in.

The issues raised in the article in the IDS are to, be honest, very short-sighted. My largest complaint is that the one downside that the author really pushes is the one of “alternative energy.” If you keep up with this industry at all you will realize that all the work on alternative energy is being put into redesigning what we think of as a car. Plug-in hybrids, fully electric fuel-cell cars, bio-fuel cars who get their energy from algae and forresting waste as opposed to the ground or feed stock. All of these technologies are going to use the the same road systems we use now! This isn’t brain science, it’s a matter of spending half an hour reading articles on cNetnews.com before talking about the energy industry. There is currently no major research being put into transportation that will not use our road system. So the one complaint that the author doesn’t mitigate with some after tag like “... Southern Indiana is hardly a tropical rainforest” has no real merit.

Victor J Kinzer
Office services assistant
Grant Services