Letters to the Editor

September 25, 2008

Clean Air Council official urges all to embrace green outlook

Jim Sovaiko of Scranton, the son of a coal miner, came up with the brilliant idea of using more than 30 billion gallons of warm mine water that exists in abandoned mine tunnels throughout the region to create a clean and renewable source of geothermal energy.

This method will save 50 percent a year over the cost of conventional heating and cooling methods, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Not only did Mr. Sovaiko envision this, but also by working with area miners, environmental engineers and government officials, he put it into action, demonstrating the kind of green jobs and projects that we can create by embracing the emerging green economy.

On Tuesday, Sept. 9, the Clean Air Council, working with a coalition of Pennsylvania nonprofit groups, released a new report titled “Green Recovery – A Program to Create Good Jobs and Start Building a Low-Carbon Economy.” This report, from the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, models the impact of a program that would reduce our dependence on foreign oil while creating 2 million green jobs throughout the country over two years – with more than 86,000 of those jobs right here in Pennsylvania.

I urge Pennsylvanians to support green jobs – and political candidates who support green jobs – as a solution that will help fix a struggling economy and assist in combating global warming. America cannot drill its way out of a problem that a persistent lack of planning and political courage have produced.

Katie Feeney Global warming policy analyst Clean Air Council Philadelphia

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