(In reference to “Can We Stop Wasting Energy?” page 4, Mid-February issue.) I appreciated your editorial about wasting energy. I read your view just minutes after reading a Washington Post article that states why GM can't or won't sell their European gas miser cars here in the U.S. Over there, they are viewed as a conservation leader. The average mpg voluntary standard there is almost 20 mpg greater than here, 24 mpg vs. 44 over there. (www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/06/AR2007030601807.html?referrer=email)

My dairy farm is located on a county highway, which is a serious backroad for the “lake and recreation” people heading to their mecca each weekend. I still don't understand why it takes a quad cab F350 to pull a 3,000-lb. boat 200 miles.

The suburbanites here in Minnesota have much better and bigger trucks than most of us on the farm. Why do they do it? Because they can afford it. It is just pocket change to most of them. Until they are forced to be “patriotic” and reduce fuel use, it won't happen.

We need to have some serious leadership in this country. Jimmy Carter tried to convince us to conserve in the 70s, and was run out of town. Things aren't any different today.
— Pat Lunemann, Clarissa, MN

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