To the editor:

This is the time of year for a bit of perspective on the melodrama that is our dialogue on global warming. It sure is hot. I can’t help but notice the large number of people who scurry from their house to their car to the store to the car to the house – all air-conditioned. Last time I checked, air conditioning uses a lot of power – even when the environmental guidelines on settings are followed. Where is all that power coming from?

How about the coal-fired power plant just outside town? Will investing in any number of wind farms – or other environmentally anointed solutions – allow for its retirement? Probably not in my lifetime if we continue to use air conditioning to provide reasonably comfortable surroundings! Our local plant and just about all similar coal-fired plants – western Kansas – that we can build will be needed to provide that air conditioning in the near term. Are we ready to give up our air conditioning? I really think not!

There is way too much heat – pardon the pun – and not enough light on the whole global warming discussion. How much power will it take to provide the living conditions the majority of us want and how will we generate it – megawatt by megawatt? Waiting for the unavoidable shortages that will result when the environmental alarmists have blocked all realistic power-generating solutions will certainly solve the air conditioning problem. Only the environmental elites (like Mr. Gore) will have air conditioning!

George Lippencott,

Lawrence