Think before bankrupting major electricity source

There is no solution to the greenhouse effect. China, India and other nations will continue to burn fossil fuels and increase the greenhouse effect even if we stop entirely. Cap-and-trade will have no measurable effect on emissions. Spain tried it and got an 18 percent unemployment rate for its troubles.

Sources of electricity in the U.S. are: coal, 48.5 percent; natural gas, 21.3 percent; nuclear, 19.6 percent; hydroelectric, 6 percent; and petroleum, 1.1 percent. That totals 96.5 percent. Congress wants to tax utility companies that produce 96.5 percent of our electricity to subsidize alternative sources that produce 3.5 percent. Political expediency.

France produces 80 percent of its electricity with nuclear power and processes their spent fuel to dispose of it safely. Why not subsidize nuclear? Because it would upset the misguided "green" voters and Chicken Littles who are afraid of anything nuclear.

Why not encourage utility companies to convert from coal to natural gas? It would reduce emissions 40 percent, and we would be relying on an abundant energy source.

President Barack Obama said: "If somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted."

He wants to bankrupt the source of 48.5 percent of our electricity. I can only conclude he is either arrogant or blindly fanatic. Neither is appropriate for the president of this country.

Pete Welch

Hilton Head Island