With energy costs rising and home and business space heating gobbling up a huge share of America's total energy demand, I have been researching alternate energy sources, and related government subsidies to help with the financing of implementing these technologies. Although solar and wind power are enticing and glamorous, an energy consultant I hired to audit my home said it very well. He said it is less important how energy is produced and more important that it is conserved. With that in mind I chose to have my home insulated. I live in a turn of the century home not unlike many in the Finger Lakes area. Although I probably cannot mention the name of the company that did the work in a letter to the editor, let me say that the contractor I chose was simply superior to all others. The technicians took their work seriously and understood the importance of their efforts in reducing our dependence on foreign energy, hence reducing our need to deploy our military to secure our energy supplies. And as developing countries demand more energy, competition for these resources can only intensify.

With that in mind I must lament the government policy on energy subsidies. Photovoltaics and wind energy production are subsidized up to 90 percent through NYSERDA. My tax credit on the insulation job amounts to about 8 percent of the cost. These subsidies are meant to encourage a particular action and it would be a much greater public benefit to encourage conservation through proven technologies and leave the research into wind and solar to the private sector. We can trust that they will develop the technology so as to be profitable. That's what they do.

C. Stephan Cuipylo

Cayuga