Green Rural Development Policy:  We need Green policies that support the social, economic and environmental healthy of family farms, rural communities, rural environments, and the global community. This means investing in a renewable energy infrastructure for a future of wind, solar, geothermal, algae-based bio-fuels, and other clean, renewable energy resources.

We need good science to assure that our farmers can create food in more economically and environmentally sustainable ways.  We need to guide public education in the United States toward science-based renewable energy futures that provide good jobs for young people and a strong economic future for rural Nebraska. Developing Green energy technologies will better assure that our young people can return to rural Nebraska rather than being forced into more and more wars over oil in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Venezuela, Nigeria, and elsewhere.

Over the past eight years, our political system has been built around creating higher profits for private oil companies. As a result, we are seeing the highest oil company profits in the history of the world and consumers in America and the world are suffering. For their part, the oil companies continue to buy up and stifle the development of renewable alternatives to oil. It is time for the American people to redirect our economy toward a future that is better for the environment and better for the people.

A good example of what we need all across America can be found in the SUSTAINABLE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FOR GREENSBURG, KANSAS. After a devastating tornado in 2007, the people of Greensburg came together to envision the best possibilities for social, economic, and environmental health for their community. The result is a community-based vision for a sustainable future for Greensburg. If elected, I will support the development of sustainable community development policies that empower farmers and rural communities everywhere to develop similar sustainable comprehensive community plans for the future.