Letters: Fossils aren’t the only fuel

Re “Cut their power,” Opinion, Nov. 9

The largest oil and gas companies are already “energy” companies, as author Bill McKibben defines it. Chevron, for instance, is the largest geothermal power producer in the world.

Instead of proposing to “break the power of the fossil fuel industry” to reduce global warming, as McKibben suggests, we should try a more realistic approach: Show them that embracing renewable technology makes good economic sense.

The Department of Energy needs oil and gas companies to partner with geothermal companies to “co-produce” electricity from the waste heat

inherent in oil and gas production. Economically, the fossil fuel companies would benefit by being able to use the electricity for field operations, and the public would benefit by reduced demand on the grid from the oil companies, and from surplus electricity being fed into the grid by the same oil and gas companies.

Beverly Hammond
Westlake Village

The fossil fuel industry is, well, a fossil, and I am tired of subsidizing its bad business practices. Are we going to let another country take the lead in developing alternative energy sources? Congress needs to stop the perks for old technology while encouraging other countries to do the same, and then use the power of our pocketbooks to bring about change.

Vanae Ehret
Sherman Oaks

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