Letter to the editor: Now is time to transition to clean energy

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, in a televised interview, promotes solar and wind for other parts of the country but is content to let Pennsylvania suffer with mining and fracking. Pennsylvania citizens have sacrificed enough, from the 1800s to the present day. We deserve the clean air and water others enjoy from clean energy and the good- paying, safe jobs that come with it.

Each year, thousands of Pennsylvania folks die too soon from fossil-fuel pollutants that stress their lungs and hearts. Fracking is linked to poor birth outcomes, proven in independent research. Our babies with health problems, our kids with asthma and high cancer rates, show we have paid enough for coal and gas extraction. Poor employment numbers demonstrate fracking has gone bust on jobs.

Granholm says, like so many before her, the government is researching how to make coal cleaner and fracking safer. Industry propaganda.

We don’t have time to wait for this fantasy. Pennsylvania workers should be making steel for turbines and solar supports, not pipelines that carry gas for a few years and degrade to become conduits for radioactive toxins forever.

Tell Granholm Pennsylvania deserves the transition to clean energy and safe jobs now.

Jan Milburn

Ligonier Township