Honorable Elizabeth Warren,
Permit me to add a couple of things to your rousing “friend of the environment” stump speech.
First up, federal public lands are leased, not sold, to oil and gas and coal miners — greed notwithstanding — for the common good. Cleanup requirements are extensive.
Royalties from those operations help fund government services, and they’re sources of good-paying jobs. Your proposal to ban drilling targets Utah's poorest.
I drive a car (gas). I wear a woolen sweater (sheep). I eat a hamburger (cattle). Electricity (coal or natural gas) is routed to my house via copper wires (mine). The skeleton of my house comprises wooden two-by-fours (pine trees). All from public lands. My voracious consumer lifestyle and yours require it.
Those clean renewables you promote? Massive wind and solar projects are euphemistically called “farms” because somebody comes in with a motor grader, scrapes away all of the natural vegetation (i.e. wildlife habitat) and plants photovoltaics or turbines.
A wind turbine requires rare metals, neodymium, lanthanum and such. Most aren’t found in the U.S. Processing the stuff is messy, dirty and dangerous. Our clean energy takes a toxic toll on workers in China, where they have little or no protection.
A word or two about environmental justice would boost your credibility.
Bill Keshlear, Salt Lake City
