A few thoughts on going carbon neutral. Must first mention that while everyone is concerned with oil prices on consumers, what was omitted was the cost to us carbon neutral electric consumers who are feeling the costs of our electric bills which on average right now are over $400 per month, for electric heat.
What I am seeing happening in the future is the trouble when all this conserving and getting off fossil fuels is the following: first is the push to solar panels which are not biodegradable and also wear out. Must add they are ugly and destroying all our precious farmlands. Remember solar panels were first introduced out west and down south where there is plenty of sunshine.
Wind power is a much better alternative and even then, wind doesn’t always blow. Why not go nuclear power? Yes, there are risks but so are there with solar and wind. To continue with carbon neutral we are going to first get rid of all the family gas ranges, natural and propane, and replace them with electric induction ranges, and also regular electric ranges.
Next, we will all need electric cars, adding to the grid load. Bear in mind the experts don’t tell us all this changing won’t be able to augment and add the capacity to the grid, which means we will need to build more transmission lines along with the non-fossil fuels for generating electricity. My suggestion is to build small nuclear plants around the country to offset the cost of just a few huge ones like they have in Europe. Incidentally, Poland just signed a big contract with Westinghouse to build a new nuclear plant there. Also, must add where I came from, in just a radius of 40 miles, we had three small local power plants owned by consumers and all even had electric heat rates for us.
Don’t be fooled that heat pumps are going to solve all our problems. The manufacturers of them even suggest electric heat back up for them, and we all will be using electric heat to heat our homes, too, adding more load to an already over-stressed grid.
I recall the 1960s when power companies would supply all the appliances free if you went all electric, including heat. Looks like maybe history will repeat itself in the future.
Frank Slason Somerville
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