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Reader's View: Clean energy isn’t clean, but problematic

Our legislators apparently have not done the science.

Reader's View.jpg

The News Tribune’s Nov. 22 “Our View” editorial, “ Guess we could have left the lights on ,” stated that, "Responsibly frugal electrical use isn’t the primary reason Minnesota Power is seeking to charge its residential customers nearly 18% more. The bigger reason is the high and ongoing cost of our region’s and nation’s transition to cleaner energy,"

However, transitioning to grossly inefficient, resource-gobbling, environment-damaging, short-lived wind and solar projects is probably not "cleaner" — and it has brought a host of problems.

The vast majority of their rated power that wind and solar fail to deliver must be generated by plants that primarily burn natural gas, which creates more carbon dioxide. In addition, natural gas is 90% methane, which is 80 times worse than carbon dioxide for decades. That leakage is negating the gains we've made by cutting back on coal.

Our legislators apparently have not done the science. Instead, they have listened to the industries that profit from building and maintaining these carbon-reliant frauds. Their mantra has been jobs and money, not the environment, and we are going to pay a terrible price. Every dollar wasted on wind and solar projects is a theft of time, effort, and money that should be used to expand highly efficient, resource-sipping, environment-benign, long-lived, carbon dioxide-free nuclear power facilities, which the UN and the World Health Organization have designated No. 1 for safety, with nothing else coming close.

Russia, South Korea, Turkey, Argentina, Poland, Sweden, Finland, India, China, the Czech Republic, Estonia, the Netherlands, France, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Great Britain, Belarus, Ukraine, and the Emirates all have approved or are building nuclear plants. The U.S. should, too.

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For the evidence, download a free PDF of my book, “Unintended Consequences: The Lie That Killed Millions And Accelerated Climate Change,” from tundracub.com . Or purchase “Bright Green Lies” by Derek Jensen.

George Erickson

Eveleth

The writer is an author and a member of the National Center for Science Education, the Thorium Energy Alliance, and a group of 90 independent energy professionals concerned about climate change.


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