To the editor:

Sunday’s opinion piece concerning American energy would have been more credible, more instructive and thus more convincing had not the author, intentionally or otherwise, conflated the solid element “carbon” and the life-giving gas “carbon dioxide.”

Unfortunately, confusion of this sort is evident in the writings of poorly informed   scribes who sometimes purposely confuse carbon dioxide with carbon as a way to equate natural climate change with the myth of man-made global warming.  Often railing against “emissions,” such writers purposely ignore the fact that carbon dioxide is a colorless, odorless, invisible, naturally-occurring gas essential to life on Earth, whereas carbon, in the form of soot for example, is a black substance, harmful to inhale, soiling everything with which it comes in contact.

Equating carbon and carbon dioxide makes about as much sense as does conflating lightening and lightening bugs!

Also, the author’s use of the ridiculous mantra “all of the above” concerning energy sources should be charitably ignored.  Otherwise, implementation would have our country continuing to blight the land with, for example, more windmills, perhaps the greatest technological blunder of our time.  Were outrageous, obscene and massive gifts to wind energy predators to dry up, no more of these monstrosities that blight our countryside would be built.

Furthermore, the penman’s cliché, “all of the above,” may sound open-minded, tolerant, learned and intellectual but, in fact, is absurd usually stemming from an over-supply of conviction coupled with an under-supply of scientific, engineering , and economic knowledge.  “All of the above” is equivalent to saying: “some of the ridiculous”!

Finally if correspondents, masquerading as energy experts, believe a need exists for an energy mantra to better inform the public, they should use something that would not result in vast environmental junkyards involving wind, solar, algae and similar foolishness, all of which are really powered by coal.  I suggest “all of the sensible” recognizing that in the history of energy technology, only hydrocarbons (coal, oil, and gas), hydro-electric, and nuclear have proven to be affordable, plentiful and reliable.

M. S. Medeiros, Jr., Kitty Hawk