Last November, both the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports said humanity has 12 years to cut carbon emission in half and to zero by 2045 or it is highly possible that humans may not survive the ravishes of climate change. These reports were compiled by over 2,000 peer reviewed climatologists from over 160 nations.
Despite this, Pennsylvania’s Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee scheduled a hearing to pass legislation to protect coal-fired power plants, the most polluting and CO2 emitting power source in existence, from a proposed carbon tax.
Heading this effort is Sen. Gene Yaw, R-Lycoming, supported by Reps. James Struzzi, R-Indiana, Donna Oberlander, R-Clarion, and Pam Snyder D-Green. Rep. Daryl Metcalf, R-Butler, is holding a House hearing on the same issue Oct. 28.
Their efforts, if successful, will increase CO2 emissions. Are they blind to the health care cost from burning coal, the cost of extreme storm damage from floods caused by a heating atmosphere (2017 was the worst on record costing Pennsylvania $163.5 million) or the economic benefits of the 90,772 clean energy jobs created in Pennsylvania in 2019?
Mr. Yaw pays lip service to clean energy but is working very hard to kill it behind the scenes. They whip out the same old saw that cutting fossil fuels will kill jobs, hurt the economy and disrupt our energy supply. Well, not if they strongly supported clean energy and gave it more incentives than given to the fossil industry.
What kind of moral ethics, or lack thereof, allow them to sacrifice the futures of our children to an uninhabitable planet to keep the dirty fossil industry alive? How old will your children be in 2045?
RICHARD WHITEFORD
Downingtown, Pa.
The writer is a climate change consultant and educator and a board member of the World Information Transfer.
First Published: October 22, 2019, 4:00 a.m.