Best Way To Combat Home Heating Costs Is More Wind, Solar Power

To The Reader’s Forum:

The Post-Journal devotes generous coverage to the increased costs of natural gas customers will pay this winter (“Rising Prices: Home Heating Costs to Increase” and “Sparks Fly…” 9/14). Natural gas, a fossil fuel, generates the electricity with which most New Yorkers heat their homes. It doesn’t have to be this way. Indeed, wildly fluctuating prices compel us to transition as swiftly as possible to efficient electricity generation such as heat pump technology, which uses the ground or outside air as a natural source of heating and cooling and requires minimal maintenance.

You wouldn’t know this from the views expressed by Republican leaders Lee Zeldin, Elise Stefanik, and Steve McLaughlin (see “Sparks Fly”), who suggest all we have to do to get energy prices under control is to increase gas exploration. They urge expanded gas extraction, claiming this would be a quick fix to higher gas prices. This is disingenuous. Gas is a commodity sold globally by multinational companies; its price would not be set by national fiat as these leaders imply.

Worse, Zeldin, Stefanik, and McLaughlin fail to tell their constituents how their energy proposals will exacerbate the climate change that is already affecting New Yorkers. Much of the state has warmed one to three degrees (F) in the last century. We have experienced heavier and more frequent rainfalls. We are seeing beach erosion and coastal flooding. We know that farming and winter recreation have been negatively impacted.

The best strategy for reducing energy expenses and tackling climate change simultaneously is to ramp up production of wind and solar power and ensure that the All-Electric Building Act passes so that new construction in New York will be fossil fuel free. Right now, only Democrats offer an emissions free future and fewer swings in energy prices.

Marcia J. Johnson

Fredonia