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ECOS, Democrats protest national energy plan By
the USU department of journalism and communication A sign next to a pile of coal south of the Taggart Student Center identified it as the Jim Hansen National Monument. That political statement Wednesday morning was part of what the Ecological Coalition of Students and the USU College Democrats called an "educational demonstration" on campus against the energy policy passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and under consideration by the Senate. Hansen, Logan's congressman, was a major force behind the energy bill in the House. Demonstration orgainzers said the event attempted to dramatizate the impact that the energy plan endorsed by Hansen will have on the American landscape. They planned to have phone connections on site for students to call U.S. Sens. Orrin Hatch and Robert Bennett, both Utah Republicans, to urge their opposition to the energy plan. "The future of Utah's landscape is at severe risk under the Hansen energy plan," said Jim Steitz, forest issues coordinator for ECOS. "It is morally imperative that the Senate reject the Hansen approach and enact an energy plan that utilizes our renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies, and encourages the social infrastructure needed for long-term energy conservation." ECOS and the College Democrats also oppose using the renewed focus on national security as an excuse for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. "Refuge drilling would make only a marginal contribution to energy security," said Kata Vehal, President of College Democrats. "Also, in a time of increased emphasis on national security, staking our future on a handful of concentrated industrial zones and a pipeline through the Alaska wilderness is poor strategy." ECOS and College Democrats maintain that only a long-term, sustainable energy plan based on decentralized, renewable resources can guarantee national energy security.
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