Letter to the editor: Coal can still provide reliable, cheap energy

I disagree with the letter “We shouldn’t be celebrating coal” (May 23, TribLIVE) criticizing the legacy of coal in Pennsylvania. Although coal power plants provide only 12% of our state’s electricity today, they once provided the majority of our electricity powering our manufacturing plants and providing cheap energy to make our lives easier and more productive.

Yes, there was pollution, but burning coal now is many times cleaner than it once was. Would the critics of coal power generation prefer that Americans lived less prosperous and comfortable lives without coal?

The trendy alternatives to coal power like windmills and solar create even more hazards by requiring environmentally damaging mining of rare minerals needed for equipment manufacture. Solar and windmills installations use much more land than coal-powered plants and are less productive and efficient. And how are we going to dispose of all those dangerous materials from wind and solar plants once they wear out?

The rising economic powers of China and India are building new coal power plants today and into the future because they want to provide their citizens with cheap reliable energy while our country is reducing its electrical capacity by moving away from fossil fuels.

If we stubbornly ignore common sense and continue to destroy our power capacity by abandoning fossil fuels, we will relegate our great nation to the ash heap of history much quicker than most believe.

Dave Majernik

Plum