Letter: Time to replace fossil fuels

Fossil fuel has raised the standard of living of billions of people. I am thankful for that, but it’s time to move on because we can do better. Fossil fuels directly kill 200,000 Americans each year. The associated methane and carbon dioxide greenhouse gases are heating the Earth and acidifying the ocean, depleting mountain snowpack, flooding coastlines, and intensifying drought and storms.

A steadily increasing price on carbon that accounts for those impacts of fossil fuel will provide a clear market signal that will accelerate the development and production of carbon-free technologies like electric trucks by Volvo and Tesla, high-speed electric trains, hydrogen fuel cell-powered cars by Toyota and tractors by New Holland, electric ferries in Norway and Puget Sound, and eventually biofuel and wind-powered ships and electric and biofuel-powered aircraft.

The necessary carbon-free electricity is being added with wind and solar, and nuclear can do more. Tesla’s 100 MW battery in Australia provides power bursts faster than any other energy source.

Preventing climate change means moving forward, not backward. I, for one, love riding my bicycle to work, and my wife enjoys her Chevy Volt, which is currently averaging 90 miles per gallon of gasoline.