In defense of oil

I read with considerable amusement the recent tirades of Harold and Dana Kraus against the oil industry and all the environmental harm it has caused in the county. They conveniently ignored the tax revenues, jobs and local economic benefits provided by the oil industry -- exploration, servicing and transport -- all of which vastly exceed, and positively affect far more people, anything likely to arise from the wind energy development they so ardently support.

They also ignore the fact that modern oil extraction is held to stringent environmental regulations -- none of which they want to see applied to wind energy and its negative local impacts.

And, excuse me, but hasn't the Kraus family, in addition to receiving the largest share of agricultural subsidies in the county for the past 10 years, also received substantial income from multiple oil leases on their land for many decades? Now, suddenly, they develop an environmental conscience -- just as many of their oil leases are expiring or running dry? Can you spell "hypocrisy"?

Could it be that the Kraus family's abrupt conversion into supporters of all things green was motivated by financial convenience? After all, they are now scheduled to be the largest local beneficiaries of the Iberdrola wind project. Turbines good, oil wells bad -- at least as long as they are profiting from them.

It seems predictable that, should turbines become unfashionable and lose their generous public subsidies, the Kraus family will be the first to denounce the wind industry, decry the inefficiencies of turbines and whine for public assistance in ridding themselves of the hideous machines that, after all, they installed only to benefit the environment and the public need for "clean" energy.

J.P. Michaud

1189 180th Ave.