Sandy and the nor’easter wrought such damage to our electrical grid and it led to questions about LIPA’s response.
We can expect that more of these problems will come with undeniable climate change. One-hundred-year storms are now occurring with greater frequency, but there is much that we can do to change our methods of power generation. The cost of burying power lines and improvement of the current system is prohibitive. What alternatives are there?
One alternative that is working in many other countries is the use of solar-power generation. The potential for improvement is great. It is almost unbelievable how widely solar is being used in other countries. Not only are there many solar farms for generation of electricity, but it can be used in individual situations.
In Turkey, the use of solar water heaters for each home is widespread. Other such projects are being undertaken in many very backward countries, where large electrical generation projects are still impossible. The cost of solar-equipped homes has been reduced tremendously in this country and could be even more affordable if subsidies and rebates were redirected to change.
We must truly absorb and admit the effects of our current energy policies. We are polluting our air, poisoning and reducing our safe aquifers, causing many deadly diseases, while still suffering from the increased costs. The prospect of an enormous increase in jobs that could not be exported is very great. This is the direction in which our national policies must go, and quickly.
This idea is just one of many possible solutions to our power generation problems. Unfortunately, our focus is still being greatly misdirected by the influence of hugely powerful wealthy industries on our legislators.
Coal is still being unsafely and destructively mined and burned, oil companies that are making huge profits still get subsidies that should be directed to newer industries.
Congress will not even talk seriously about taking the subsidies out of our federal budgets, and natural gas drilling is being touted as the solution to our dependence on foreign oil.
We are abysmally slow as a nation in reassessing and changing our focus to our support of renewable, safe sources of energy.
Esther Confino
New Hyde Park
