Letter to the Editor, Philadelphia Inquirer

Today, at over eighty years of living in Pennsylvania, eighty years in the greater Pottstown area, forty one years in the same house in Pottstown, I feel what I think and willing to write about should have a chance to be read.

From my reading about the over heating of our planet, I understand the most affected of the population will be the young, especially the very young, and the aged, especially those moving closer to the Century mark. I fall into one group, my great grandchildren into the other. Shortly Congress will be having hearings on the final draft of the Clean Power Plan and Pennsylvania will play a very important roll in the finished draft.

Our state, the forth largest producer of coal, is also a leader in natural gas production. But, sadly, our energy producing plants spew out more impurities than the final draft is intending. Their desire is a one third reduction by year 2030 from base year 2012 of smoke stack impurities somehow thought to help stabilize our climate into the future.

At eighty years, I've come to put worth into accumulated knowledge. The pursuit of science is essentially that, a grand body of seekers who through trial and error arrive at a consensus of settled truth to which the majority agrees. Those opposed have a grand economic stake in preserving the status quo or, more importantly, rolling back the gains already made.

You, the vocal public, have really an important voice in molding the ultimate outcome of these hearings. It is with upmost reverence that I believe in the power of the people to guide legislators to do the right thing. A choir has magnificence to fully voice fill quite large opera halls but it takes a director to assemble each individual into a singularity of purpose. Our's must be an effort to verify the scientific community's findings and pit it against corporate greed. Please speak up, shout out, write to your legislator. Future generations deserve a livable Earth !

Ronald C. Downie

778 N. Evans St.
Pottstown, Pa. 19464

610 326 0614