By Lori Ehde
Sen. Mark Dayton's state director, Jim Gelbmann, met with Luverne area residents Friday at the Pizza Ranch to discuss the effects of high energy prices on consumers, farmers businesses and the community as a whole.
The Pizza Ranch meeting room was nearly filled with people willing to offer their observations.
Farmers shared how fuel prices gouge their bottom line both for production costs and shipping costs after harvest.
Luverne Superintendent Vince Schaefer said rising fuel costs cut into funds that should be spent in the classroom.
Others at the meeting represented efforts to establish alternative sources of energy, such as wind and ethanol.
They asked Dayton to work toward restructuring tax incentives so that owner producers could get involved in alternative energy - not just the big energy producers such as Enron or Florida Power.
They also encouraged him to support legislation that would spend less money on military protection of oil in the Middle East and more on incentives for domestic production of alternative energy.
Luverne's meeting was a kick-off for several others around the state designed to gather residents' input on energy prices.
"As the nation begins to put a new energy policy into place, I want to be sure that we take into account the needs and challenges presented by the alarming rise in energy costs in Minnesota," Dayton said in a release issued prior to Friday's meeting in Luverne.
He is planning to arrange a Senate field hearing in Minnesota with Sen. Paul Wellstone.
The information gathered in Luverne and in other places will be used at that hearing during the upcoming energy debate in Washington.