In the story on power rates, Clark Public Utilities Commissioner Nancy Barnes stated, “It’s hard for me to see an end to the rate increases ahead” (“Clark Public Utilities rates will jump 14.5 percent as of March 1,” The Columbian, Jan. 24). She is correct, and contra Don Steinke, she also stated correctly that “Olympia eliminated most baseload resources from the region without a plan to replace them.”
Renewables will never supply baseload, as they are undependable, most frequently under extreme conditions. The state’s “clean-energy requirements limiting the utility’s use of its natural gas-powered River Road plant” are certainly a major factor in the pass to which we have come, and to deny this is to deny reality.
The determination of climate zealots to eliminate the use of fossil fuels like natural gas will result in a drastic decline in real living standards and will accomplish little or nothing in terms of cooling the planet. The Earth’s climate is far too complex a system to be controlled by puny human beings.
However, if you believe that CO2 is a pollutant, you should support the rapid expansion of modern nuclear power, the only currently available non-CO2 producing source of reliable baseload electricity.
