By now, most people at Macalester have seen the new wind turbine spinning above Olin-Rice. For the most part, the response has been very positive; people, especially students, understand that renewable energy is the direction in which we need to head. But moves underway at the state Legislature would severely compromise Minnesota's drive to develop its indigenous renewable sources of energy.

I should explain the historical context: In 1994, Northern States Power (now Xcel) petitioned the Minnesota Legislature to allow them to store 48 dry casks of high-level nuclear waste at their Prairie Island generating facility on the Mississippi near Red Wing, about 45 miles downriver from St. Paul. After a very hard-fought battle, they were allowed space for 17 casks, each holding 70 metric tons of spent fuel. In exchange for the privilege of storing highly radioactive waste on the headwaters of the river that drains 41% of the continental United States, they were required to pay $500,000 per cask per year into a Renewable Development Fund. This fund paid for our wind turbine, as well as many innovative energy sources throughout the state.

The fog of war that has hung over the legislative session is disappearing, and we must reassert ourselves to ensure that our interests are represented. While we have been protesting, Xcel's 40 lobbyists have been working to renege on their agreement and write the public out of their decisions. They want unlimited nuclear storage for free, without any guarantees for renewable development. They want to raid the RDF of $2.5 million per year to bribe the Prairie Island band of Dakota. Rather than developing clean energy, they would use the RDF to underwrite their own duplicity.

We all have an interest in using energy from sources that will not leave a toxic birthright to our children. We all have an interest in developing energy sources that generate positive, tangible benefits today rather than impose uncertain costs on the future. We deserve a system where clean, sustainable energy is something more than a pipe dream for delusional hippies.

It is vital that we hold Xcel to account for their promises by rejecting more nuclear waste production when there's no place to put it. Nuclear waste in Minnesota will not be moved for another three decades. Yucca Mountain will not be able to hold all the nation's nuclear waste. A friend put it like this: If you've got a bathtub that's overflowing, you try to turn off the water before you reach for the mop. Let's make our voice heard and demand a substantive investment in human ingenuity for the future, not subsidize antiquated and wasteful technologies.

I encourage anyone who reads this to call or write Senator Norm Coleman (unless you're from elsewhere in the United States) and encourage him to revive the compromise bill, Senate File 733. Such decisions will affect us for the next 40 years, and your voices deserve to be heard.