Dear Editor:
RE: “Time to ditch them” and “Let’s not delay,” April 7.
Both of these letter writers want to stop the use of fossil fuels right now and replace them with “clean” energy like solar panels and wind turbines, thus stopping global warming – as if that’s even possible.
That is also the attitude of our prime minister and many leaders in the Western world, and is a big part of the reason the world is such a mess today.
Germany was a leader in renewable energy, and was so confident in solar and wind power that they closed half their nuclear plants. That left them so short of power that they now must buy fossil fuels from Russia, while paying exorbitant costs for electricity that is powered more by high polluting coal than by wind.
Clearly, unreliable wind turbines and solar panels, most components of which are supplied by China and require fossil fuels to build and maintain, are not the answer.
Canada under Trudeau and the U.S. under Biden have both discouraged gas and oil production through stopping pipelines and onerous regulations, thus reducing world supplies and enriching Russia through higher demand and prices. Had they not done so, they could have been in a position to supply the oil and gas to Germany and other European countries who are now forced to buy from Russia.
Perhaps this would have caused Putin to stop his invasion of Ukraine.
Henry Brunsveld,
Puslinch