Cost of rejecting clean power is too high

Cost of rejecting clean power is too high

After reading the letter about the "shadow flicker" people, I had to write and publicize my opinion. My heart goes out to people who suffer light and noise pollution and eroding property values.

In all seriousness, do we want to breathe? Drink water? We burn a lot of coal now, and with the approach of peak oil season we will burn even more. Resource depletion is causing economic instability that we can see at the gas pumps.

Coal mining causes pollution. Mountain top removal is a largely unpublicized mining technique that causes dust and toxic chemicals to be released into the air and water. People downstream cannot drink the water or cook with it, or wash their clothes or shower or water their crops. Mountain top removal leaves large areas of West Virginia and other places looking like the surface of the moon.

Burning coal releases soot, ash, sulphur and mercury and causes cancer, brain damage, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and other serious illnesses. Acid rain is another consequence of coal-fired electric plants. Subsequent loss of forest and other ecological degradation is already happening. We need to move toward the use of renewable energy sources as fast as possible and by any means available.

Some of this is my opinion, but most of it is fact that you can verify, if you care.

Steven Bonney