LaFiandra’s opinion divides Americans on renewable energy

Dear Editor:

You’ve published another “opinion” article by Joe LaFiandra full of lies and misdirection that support the fossil fuel industry and divide Americans on renewable energy.

Look practically at energy. Burning fossil fuels creates pollution. Extracting, storing, moving, and burning it causes some environmental damage. So would it be better if we could generate all energy with clean options which did not pollute? 

Yes, of course, less pollution is always better. But can we generate all of our energy with no pollution now? Of course not. For a long time there’ll be cases where the existing fossil fuel infrastructure will be used for energy. But that does not mean clean, renewable energy is always bad or inappropriate or that we should never bother to use it.

In his March opinion piece, LaFiandra takes the position that burning fuels is always the right answer. In 2020, he wrote an article arguing that the earth needed MORE CO2 to help plants grow better. Preposterous and damaging misinformation generated by the Heartland Foundation; an organization fully funded by the fossil fuel industry. 

For years these groups, with the help of people like LaFiandra, have provided biased talking points to protect the profits of the fossil fuel industry at the expense of humans who are ultimately impacted by the pollution effects of their products. 

In his latest article he writes, “The events in Texas last month show how vulnerable the electric power grid is.” True, but other states experienced bitter cold in this storm, why didn’t their grid go down? It’s because Texas legislators, funded by fossil fuel companies, disconnected Texas’ grid from the rest of the country, and deregulated it to the point that energy providers were not required to winterize. Energy consumers were left to foot the bill when energy prices from their providers skyrocketed. 

He also writes, “The main reason for this loss of power to the grid was that the wind turbines that supplied the power froze up due to ice on their blades, and rotating mechanisms, and solar panels didn’t generate enough electricity.” False.  Failures of fossil fuel and nuclear infrastructure was responsible for 2x more outages in Texas than renewables (https://apnews.com/article/false-claims-texas-blackout-wind-turbine-f9e24976e9723021bec21f9a68afe927) This false narrative pushed by Sean Hannity and others, was even walked back by Gov Abbott. Wind turbines did fail, again, primarily due again to Texas’ not requiring energy providers to winterize equipment as is done in all other states. Those states’ grids did not fail.

“Electrical system designers never realized that such event could happen in Texas” False It was this cold for this long in Texas in 1983, 1985, 1989…(https://washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/02/22/texas-cold-snap-predictable-foreseeable/) Ten years ago, 241 Texas power plants failed due to a lack of regulated winterization  (https://washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/03/06/texas-power-plants/) causing major outages. Does this sound familiar?

“The present Administration’s plan to ban fossil fuels is…” False. The present administration doesn’t have a policy to “ban fossil fuels” This is an insulting accusation intended to divert attention from the failure of regulation of the Texas grid, and divide Americans on this issue. 

There’s a “false premise that CO2 is causing a global warming crisis.” False. CO2’s effect on climate change and on the planet is not a “false premise” it is accepted science. Even the Heartland Foundation now admits the effects of CO2 on the planet are harmful and are caused by humans, but argues it’s really too late to do anything about them.

Please if you’re interested in this topic, or have an opinion that you will act upon, research information on climate change science from climate change scientists, and not from one organization entirely set up and paid for by the very polluters it claims to independently defend. 

Rob Martin

Leesburg

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