Letter to the Editor: Wind farms, carbon fees can help ‘kick our addiction to oil’

Thanks for the commentary by Willett Kempton and Kris Ohleth (“Offshore wind is a new opportunity,” Feb. 7), about the potential of offshore wind farms to provide clean, low-cost power that will provide jobs for skilled workers at terrific wages.

I hope that our state leaders take to heart the wisdom of our Delaware experts and authorize a wind power request for proposals that meets Delaware’s needs soon.

Although not clearly mentioned in the opinion piece, offshore wind along the East Coast and around the world will provide the clean energy, along with solar power, that will save our planet from climate chaos, wildfires, drought, floods and other catastrophes. Wind will provide the electricity that we need to power our economy, our vehicles, our buildings, our industries, without having to rip up the earth for coal, spill oil on our coasts or poison our waters with fracked gas drilling.

The burning of these fossil fuels — coal, oil and natural gas — causes most of the air pollution that makes asthma attacks worse, like my daughter and wife have experienced on smoggy days. This polluted air contains small particles that get deep into our lungs and kill tens of thousands before their time in the U.S. With more clean power, Europe will not be blackmailed over Russian-supplied gas, and dictators in oil-rich countries in the Middle East will lose their stranglehold on world oil markets.

There is hope for achieving these goals. Make polluters pay! Put a price on carbon, and it will get more expensive, so less and less will be used. At the same time, carbon-free power, like wind and solar, will continue to get cheaper every year. Take the fees on dirty polluting power and give it back to every American family in a monthly dividend check. This is called “carbon fee and dividend.” Almost every economist agrees that this is the most efficient policy for us, in the words of President George W. Bush, to “kick our addiction to oil.”

Charlie Garlow

Citizens Climate Lobby Lower Delaware

Rehoboth Beach