Dear Editor,

I drive a short distance on gravel roads to go check pastured cattle each day. I often stop to pick up a beer can tossed out either to avoid the open container law or just for lack of respect for our environment.

Fifteen miles to the west of our farm are miles of windmills. On the way there is a small solar energy installation. The solar panels haven’t been properly directed for a month.

This is the kind of litter that makes a few beer cans look like small potatoes. I can take the cans to Dumont and donate them to the library. On the way to Des Moines down Interstate 35 is a huge pile of junked windmill blades. Apparently, they haven’t found a use for them. The library probably doesn’t want them either.

In Iowa Farmer Today (“Iowa residents question solar farm construction” June 5) is an article about potentially covering 4,250 acres of the best farmland on earth with a bunch of solar panels. Intercepting sunlight negates the usefulness of this amazing resource (the soil).

I suggest that the executives of NextEra and Clenera, who plan to use government alternative energy incentives for these installations should put them in their yards next to their swing sets and barbecues. Instead of spoiling the landscape of others.

The problem isn’t just as Jeff Ralston, Benton County farmer states that the owners have no concern about quality of life and are motivated by profits. The real deal is that none of this wasteful and unsightly trash would exist if not for the subsidies and tax credits stolen from people like myself and Mr. Ralston.

When and if wind and solar become profitable without taxpayer assistance those profits should be prized for directing scarce resources to their proper use. The profit motive, as long as theft is not involved, will always be the best way to guide our energy dollars, and everything else.

Fritz Groszkruger