To the editor:

Last week, the Lawrence Journal-World challenged Kansas to lead the way toward clean coal.

To be sure, carbon capture and sequestration is critical to control greenhouse gas pollution — and billions of dollars are being spent by our national labs and by private industry to develop it.

Black & Veatch, Burns & McDonnell and numerous other firms worldwide have been working on these solutions for years. And they will surely continue.

But industry experts agree: Technology that sequesters harmful carbon dioxide emissions is at least 10-20 years from commercial deployment. When available, its energy and water demands on top of substantial construction costs may leave other options looking better in comparison.

If Kansas is to lead toward an energy solution for the 21st century, wouldn’t it make sense to focus on a resource we have in abundance?

Kansans have been harnessing wind energy for generations. We don’t have to import it, it won’t run out, the fuel cost is zero, it produces no greenhouse gas pollution, and it is commercially viable — and available — today.

Recent reports project that wind development in Kansas will create more than 10,000 new jobs in component manufacturing alone. Add that to operations and maintenance jobs and a projected $40 million each year to Kansas landowners and counties that host wind farms and imagine a real recovery for Main Street.

It is time for Kansas to lead. Why not lead the nation toward our native clean energy and build the Kansas economy at the same time?

Nancy Jackson,
Lawrence