Letter to the Editor: Boyda Fighting for Kansas Citizens

From the Pittsburg Morning Sun:

Dear Editor,

With gasoline prices about $4.00 a gallon, and with many people being squeezed financially and considering whether a trip somewhere is really necessary, I find myself grumbling about our national energy policy and the $40 billion that Exxon Mobil made in profit last year (that's $77 thousand per minute). And also thinking about the tax breaks that the largest oil companies get from us, the taxpayers. I don't begrudge reasonable profit for a company that has taken risk to bring a valuable product to the consumer, but do the largest oil companies really need these tax breaks? I don't think so and neither does Nancy Boyda, who has voted to end these unnecessary subsidies for the largest five oil companies. She wants to throw out our old energy policy that was created partly for corporate oil interests, and wants to help create new energy policy that will benefit ordinary citizens. She has demonstrated that desire by voting to raise fuel mileage standards for new cars to 35 miles per gallon, as well as voting for renewable fuel and energy efficiency standards.

But this is just a starting point as we need to go further by developing a strong renewable energy industry. To help push that idea, Boyda voted for an energy tax package that would provide $18 billion in renewable energy incentives for wind, solar, and other renewable energy and that would help create thousands of new jobs in the renewable energy industry. Some of these jobs would be in Kansas with our resources of land, wind, sun, and technology. These incentives would be paid for by the removal of some of the tax breaks for the oil companies. As she says, we need to invest in the Midwest, not the Middle East.

Nancy Boyda is a friend of Kansas citizens by fighting for an energy policy that works for us rather than the oil companies that are making record profits.

George Weeks
Pittsburg