To the editor:

I recently returned from an extended trip throughout the southwestern states. Because I planned to visit friends and relatives along the way, I didn’t fly, as I would have preferred. In the 10 years since my last auto tour through the same territory, I found many significant changes. Not the least of which was $4-per-gallon gasoline.

The most visible change was the giant windmill turbines in each state (after leaving Kansas). Southern California has mightily increased its windmill-generated electricity into their grid system, beginning about 25 years ago. Along Interstate 40 through New Mexico and the Texas panhandle, I saw a solid 15 miles of windmills. They were spaced about 50 yards apart, so in that 15 miles, there could have been more than 500 of these towers.

While in the Palm Springs area I read an article in which a symposium of scientists predicted that in a not-too-distant future, a great share of the world’s electricity would be supplied by solar-powered generators – exciting stuff.

When I returned to Kansas, what did I find? The Kansas Legislature had voted to resurrect the formally denied erection of two new electric power plants in western Kansas using the latest version of 100-year-old technology. The resultant release of hundreds of tons of pollution into our atmosphere each year is unacceptable. How can we allow current financial interests to continue to defile our planet? We finally need to move into the 21st century.

Richard M. Hassur,

Lawrence