Nelson Otto
Jefferson City
Dear Editor:
Alarmists seem to show a complete lack of logical rational thought, and the letter to the editor from Larry Prenger on Feb. 15 is a prime example.
Mr. Prenger's letter starts with a claim that a report states that electricity from renewable energy is now as cheap to produce as that made from fossil fuels and then lists a group of corporations that are switching their operations to completely renewable energy. Which is a clear indication of how the free market works.
Then he wants to push H.R.763 carbon tax. Why, what is the point? Logic would dictate that as the price of renewable energy goes down naturally then people and power companies will want to use them to not only save money for themselves but their customers. So there is no logical reason to push a tax on the American people. The next line of reasoning and we see this all the time, and apparently people don't really give it much thought and I think it is because it is designed to focus on an individual's greed of "Oooh, I'll get money from this tax." So let us use logic and reason to think about this. As the price of renewable energy goes down the use of carbon-based fuels will go down and depending on how fast the price goes down on renewable energy will dictate how quickly the dividend will dry up. So if in the end what Mr. Prenger writes is true then there is no need for this tax. The tax dividend becomes completely pointless and no one will be getting any money from it anyway.
The real question is, who is going to tax China, India, and Japan, all of whom are building more coal fire plants, lots more plants? Until those countries and their emissions are brought under control, what little we produce in the United States is a drop in the bucket not to mention CO2 isn't a problem, scientists will tell you CO2 is actually a good gas necessary for life.