SOUTH DAKOTA STRAIGHT TALK

Bob Sahr at the Bradenburg Gate, the spot where the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.

Straight Talk Commentary – Public Utilities Commissioner Bob Sahr has been in Europe the past couple of weeks studying and learning how European nations manage their utilities. Other items of particular interest have been their energy (including wind energy production)  and telecom infrastructure, how various countries are combating terrorism, trade opportunities for South Dakota and how each country he visited approaches the United States and international affairs.

Sahr Studies While On European Government Program

The Associated Press

October 28, 2005

BERLIN – South Dakota Public Utilities Commissioner Bob Sahr will be returning to Pierre in the next few days after spending almost three weeks in Europe as part of an international exchange program. Sahr is the only representative from the Dakotas that took part in the most recent exchange of American citizens who traveled to Europe through the German Marshall Program. He joined seventeen other young American leaders and has visited five different European cities on the trip. Sahr says the group has learned a lot about international affairs, defense and trade issues and other governmental related topics. Sahr, who was in the German city of Berlin yesterday, says program participants left for Europe October 7 and have visited Brussels, Belgium; Copenhagen, Denmark; Turin, Italy and Sophia, Bulgaria. Sahr says he was proud to be selected to take part in the program after being nominated and passing through an application process and personal interviews. Sahr says the trip has provided a wealth of knowledge for him and says some of the people he has met with and places he has visited in Europe will benefit him in his job at the P.U.C. He says he has learned much about overseas telecommunications on the trip and also gained knowledge on wind development on his visits to Denmark and Germany. Sahr says the German Marshall program does two to three exchange programs each year where Americans travel to Europe. The non-partisan program was founded in 1972 to promote cooperation and understanding between the United States and Europe.