Last week, Senate Republicans succeeded in passing measures that will make it substantially easier to begin exploration and oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the most pristine preserved land on the continent.

Now, normally as a columnist, I would carefully delineate all the various reasons this is a hurtful move and going in the wrong direction toward energy reform. Columnists love to bash you over the head with bad news all the time and tell you just how quickly the world is going to end, so this time I thought I’d do something different and save you some verbal venom.

Instead, I would like to offer up my own humble suggestions on what can be done to help ease our energy crisis. Here are just a few:

• Use less. Every single electronic device turned on in the city of Ames comes courtesy of our coal power plant. I have nothing against the plant because it keeps the lights on and allows us to live our lives in the modern age. Chemicals from that smokestack, however, have been found as far away as northern Canada. So when you have to use electricity in your home, use it for something worthwhile and turn it off when you’re done. That’s just common sense. It isn’t a free service, either, so the more you save on the electricity bill is more money in your pocket for beer on Friday.

• Recycle. Or at least make an effort. Sure, picking up all those cans on Sunday morning can be gross, but you’re cleaning up anyway, so you might as well redeem them for some extra cash. I’m originally from Illinois, where we don’t even have redemption locations at grocery stores, so consider yourself lucky.

• Stop wasting billions of dollars on a missile defense shield that will never save us from terrorists and put that money into something useful. One of the many other projects we could be using that money for would be to support research into renewable energy sources. Biomass fuels, biotechnology and alternative energy sources need research and development to make them applicable for large-scale use.

I suggest putting just a few of those millions from the useless missile defense shield (which seems to fail on a daily basis in minor tests) into our public universities that have specialties in engineering and agriculture.

Wait, I’m thinking of a university that specializes in both of those things right now. I can’t remember the name though. Oh yeah, that’s right — Iowa State University. Toss us a few million bucks, federal government, and we’ll come up with something more useful than failed missiles. We came up with the first computer, so making our automobiles more efficient shouldn’t be too hard with juicy government contracts as motivation.

• Use the Moonlight Express and CyRide. The people are cheerful (or at least you think that at 1 a.m.), the service is great and you’re already paying for the gas. We need to make use of this good service before they slash the budget again and more Nick Nolte wannabes take to the roads out of desperation to get to off-campus house parties.

• Take a cue from developing nations and try wind power, solar power and hydroelectric power. Developing nations rarely have the capital or access to resources to effectively harvest and use fossil fuels, so they’ve been doing what they can by using alternative sources. And guess what — it works pretty well. The wind turbines by Nevada seem to be doing just fine; why not have a couple here in Ames, too? They may be a bit unsightly, but no more than a power plant belching out smoke.

• My final suggestion is so genius I should be given an award. Connect turbines to all the wheels on the stationary bikes and all the pulleys on the machines at Lied Recreation Center. You’ve got people in there day in and day out just running in place and exerting human calories left and right that could be used to power all the bars in town.

Then the next day, people from the bars the night before feel guilty and go to the rec while the other people take the night off to party. A complete circle.

Brilliant!