Third District Congressman Mark Souder spoke Saturday about alternative energy sources.
Souder was the featured speaker during the Kosciusko REMC 70th annual meeting at Warsaw Community Church.
Approximately 1,200 KREMC members attended the meeting. An $8 electric credit will appear on the next bill of each member in attendance.
Souder addressed alternative energy sources including wind, solar and nuclear power.
He said the 3rd congressional district that he represents is the number one manufacturing district in the United States even though it has lost jobs.He said the GM plant uses more energy than Warsaw and Winona Lake combined.
"It is not realistic to expect to power steel mills and GM plants with windmill and solar power," Souder said.
He said the 3rd congressional district would lose a lot of jobs under cap and trade. Under cap and trade, a governing body sets a limit or cap on the amount of a pollutant that can be emitted.
Souder said it is hard for American Electric Power or REMC to go ahead with plant construction because they don't know what customer rates or energy demand will be in the future.
He said two years ago there were plans to build seven or eight power plants in the 3rd congressional district, but it would take 12 years to get them up and running.
"It is a big investment in time and money and the companies are in trouble if the government decides along the way it doesn't like nuclear power or some other source," Souder said.
He said the great thing about REMC is that regular people, separate from an elite board of directors, get to hear and see how money is being lost.
"Two years ago there was talk about the energy crisis and how we had to create new energy," Souder said.
Now energy companies are looking to close down some plant investments because they are losing money, according to Souder.
He said Washington supports windmills and solar panels to create energy.
Wind towers that will be put in LaGrange County are 220 to 320 feet tall, but he said they can't go higher than that because steady wind flow is needed.
In Indiana there are wind channels in Benton County and Topeka, but the challenge is to find sustainable wind power.
"When the government starts looking at having northern Indiana get 12 to 14 percent of its energy from wind power, we can't achieve that here," Souder said.
Souder said China produces dirty steel, but doesn't worry about pollution as they try to steal the U.S. RV business. He said a plant like Steel Dynamics already recycles and doesn't create as much pollution as one in China.
Also during the meeting, board members were elected. John Anglin and William Stump were re-elected to the board, and Dan Tucker was newly elected to the board.
