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It is both troubling and frustrating to see the effect diesel prices and energy affordability -- or, really, unaffordability -- has on our region's farms.
It is troubling because these farmers are our neighbors, and we know they work hard to fulfill an essential role in our society and truly throughout the world. We always hope for their success in a sector that is too often volatile with variables and complications outside of anyone's control.
It is frustrating because, as our editorials have argued for years if not decades, it doesn't have to be this way -- this variable is not outside of society's control, this complication could have been avoided with better leadership.
Energy affordability is not a dry summer or an invasive species -- it can be mitigated.
So, as we have editorialized in the past, we call once again for state and federal leaders to embrace domestic sources of energy -- drilling for domestic oil and natural gas, researching how to improve the viability of geothermal sources, building or retrofitting hydroelectric dams, building and using solar panels and wind farms and giving the green light to the infrastructure, perhaps most critically refineries, to meet our nation's demand for energy.
Too often, we are letting people with too little concern for the impact of energy costs on our families and our employers to denigrate sources of energy -- whether it is environmental extremists' contempt for domestic oil and natural gas or their opponents' contempt for renewable sources of energy.
We still believe that an "all-of-the-above" philosophy on energy would help meet the needs of our homes and workplaces. We need our leaders to reject the naysayers and their indifference to the burden high energy costs place on Americans and incentivize energy production in our own communities.