LETTER: Renewable energy isn’t yet up to the task
Sunday letter writer Kenneth McElroy believes that if we “extinguish fossil fuel greed” we will enjoy better air and safer water and have a healthy future. But if we extinguished fossil fuels tomorrow, millions of people on this planet would die in a short period.
The United States has done a great deal over the past 50 years dealing with pollution. What Mr. McElroy is asking for, however, is not reality but a pipe dream. China, India and Russia are not doing much to curb pollution and are laughing at our policies, which are costing American taxpayers trillions of dollars with little effect on temperatures. We cannot rely only on renewable energy. It didn’t work in Europe, as they found out and as the United States is starting to discover, with rolling brownouts in states that are adopting climate change policies to the detriment of their citizens.
Nevadans voted to impose a 50 percent renewable energy mandate by 2030, and we are already feeling the increased costs.
Anytime a so-called climate expert appears before Congress and is asked how many degrees the planet will cool if we spend the trillions they demand, most never have an answer. The ones who do estimate it will cool the planet by maybe 1 degree. Whoop de do. Like it or not, fossil fuels will be around for decades to come.