Energize US is a coalition of candidates united around one central message: we can fix our economy and put Americans back to work in good paying jobs by focusing our attention on renewable energy and conservation. Today's diary is the first in a series that will be introducing you one by one to the members of the coalition.
David Cozad articulated what many of us had been thinking for some time; we need jobs, but not just any jobs - the investments this country will make have to be strategic in nature rather than tactical. Building a bridge to an area where a subdivision is planned isn’t much of a plan if the housing market won’t recover for another decade.
There are stable businesses that can be fostered in the U.S. and all of them depend on energy. Making that a local business is the first and best foundation of a national recovery.
Being an engineer by training, David is a systems thinker and his ideas on what to do are national in scope.
Texas 6 is a big district with its head in the southern portions of Dallas Fort Worth and a tail that stretches clear down towards Houston. The northwest corner is urban and has Barnett shale gas production fouling its water. The southeast is open range land that is sparsely populated. This is a rural, heavily Republican district, but former Marine Cozad has a chance in this place.
Part of Cozad’s chance is due to the disinterest Joe Barton shows this district’s residents compared to the attention he lavishes on the most dangerous oil producer operating in American offshore drilling, British Petroleum. Barton’s apology to BP, and his apology for that apology are already the stuff of legend.
Aiming for political responsibility in Texas 6, David aims for national sized energy solutions. Texas is dry, sunny, and the perfect place for large scale solar solutions. Could we place solar panels over parking lots in large facilities? And then expand the plant to cover highways, which are already state property, meaning there would be no right of way troubles? There are large cement kilns in the region and it’s conceivable their coal based production could be at least partially shifted to a solar thermal solution.
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America needs big, bold thinking based on reality today and a rational view of the future, instead of clinging to a past that is slipping away from us. David Cozad can provide that sort of leadership for Texas 6 directly, and for the rest of the nation by providing an example.
EnergizeUS is a coalition of candidates across the country talking about how we can reenergize our economy, put Americans back to work in good paying jobs and lessen our dependence on foreign oil but creating jobs in the areas of renewable energy resources and energy efficiency. Candidates of the coalition are: David Cozad (TX-06), Raul Grijalva (AZ-07),Jim Holbert (KY-05), Billy Kennedy (NC-5), David Gill (IL-15), Lance Enderle (MI-08), Rodney Glassman (AZ-Sen), laineyforcongress.com Lainey Melnick] (TX-21), [ Jerry Policoff (PA St House 41), and Michael Puhr (IL St House 104).
You can learn more about the coalition at EnergizeUS.org & you can join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.
If you can afford to, please show these candidates some love on ActBlue.