We need to play the energy game with a full deck

Sen. Ben Nelson of the "Gang of 14" bipartisan effort that allowed judicial nominees a fair hearing, says he's now part of a "Team of Ten" working to increase oil production.

The issue is a bitter partisan point, Democrats generally opposing expanded drilling in ecologically sensitive areas like offshore and Alaska, and Republicans favoring it.

Nelson's one of the Democrats favoring on shore and off shore drilling, and wants to know why there are some 68 million acres of onshore and offshore land leased for drilling now that is not being tapped.

But Nelson's weekly column points out correctly that "we aren't going to solve all of our energy problems at the bottom of an oil well."

We have to play all of the cards in our hand, including wind, solar, geothermal, nuclear and biofuels.

As Nelson points out, last year, Americans used 6.5 billion gallons of ethanol, with 1.3 billion coming from Nebraska, the nation's second largest ethanol producing state.

"Those 6.5 billion gallons of ethanol took the place of 228 million barrels of oil for a savings of $16.5 billion. That means, instead of sending $16.5 billion to the Mideast, we were able to send that money to the Midwest," Nelson said.

"Absolutely, we need to do everything we can to bring down energy costs now," he said. "But we must keep our eyes on the future and our goal of energy security, so we can control our own destiny and not be at the mercy of other countries for our energy supply."

Even when it comes to biofuels, we don't want to put all our eggs in one basket. Already, the price of corn has hurt demand, as feeders and ethanol producers cut back on production to maintain profitability.

On Sunday, one topic of discussion at the National Governors Association convention in Philadelphia, Pa., was the need to produce cellulosic ethanol, produced from plant matter like switchgrass or wood waste products as well as corn.

And corn and cellulose aren't the only possibilities for ethanol production. On Monday, a Minnesota-based company announced it would build a 1.5 million-gallon ethanol plant in Omaha that will use food waste byproducts.

A news release from the company said the ethanol will be produced from the waste byproducts of tortillas, bread and cereal production.

It seems to us that using waste byproducts to brew fuel alcohol should help silence those who say ethanol production is pushing up the price of food.

But anyone who thinks Middle America isn't getting serious about alternative energy hasn't driven across Kansas on Interstate 70. The Smoky Hills Wind Farm is a spectacular sight, covering 26,000 acres and with perhaps 150 1.8 megawatt Vestas wind turbines, 260 feet tall with blades 80 meters in diameter spinning on a hub 80 meters in the air.

As you near Salina from the west, white blades churn over the highway ahead, challenging the Don Quixotes among us to a duel.

The two-phase project will provide enough electricity for as many as 75,000 homes and offset 750,000 tons of CO2 production when complete At the same time, it takes a minimal amount of land out of production, and will pay royalties to 120 land owners.