Desperate times lead to desperate measures, and this is one of the good ones. Ohio lawmakers plan to introduce a bill to require the installation of solar panels in all schools to reduce electricity costs, stimulate the market, take advantage of the 30% federal tax credit and boost the state’s green energy industry.

This is not so much a mandate as a survival tactic. The downturn in the economy and all its business difficulties have proven one thing for sure. Alternative energy is where it is, there is growth, there are jobs, and there is hope with alternative energy.

A mandate is change, something that people are always hesitant to do. But change is exactly what is needed for this country. We cannot continue to drain fossil fuels from the ground to produce energy that can be done just as well or better with solar panels. Solar power is free power, clean power, sustainable power, and a source of power that is set to grow by leaps and bounds in the coming decades.

Mandates for Ohio schools need to be taken at the national level and enforced at the federal level so that every school in the country requires solar power. How many millions of jobs would that kind of mandate create, as well as how many billions of dollars would be saved by getting our power from solar instead of coal or oil?

Facts must be faced, fossil fuel must be stopped to meet our needs. We are at the mercy of those who pump oil or mine for coal, instead of taking our kidneys into our own hands, demanding the use of solar energy in all areas and being free from the nightmare of fossil fuels, along with all the pollution, the high prices and wars that are fought.

Fossil fuels are a dead end, while solar power and other sustainable fuel sources are the real shining light. The sooner and faster we get out from under the scourge of fossil fuels, the better off this planet and the economy will be, even if it requires mandates to do so.