Do local Republicans have concerns about effect of climate change?

Editor:

I have a question. Has there ever been an environmental initiative that our local Republican party has backed? Do they have any concerns about the effect that climate change (due to greenhouse gases) will have on future generations?

A number weeks ago Neil Watko and Cori Balch posted a letter railing about the zero carbon initiative proposed by the PUC. I don’t need to comment on that letter since a number of others wrote letters pointing out the inaccuracies and silly claims they made. I would like to comment however, on their letter in last week’s paper regarding methane capture in landfills.

In that letter they seem to be fixated on the cost. I wonder if they are aware of the fact that methane is the second leading contributor to global warming and that as a greenhouse gas it is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Furthermore, it is explosive. Houses near landfills and coal mines have been known to explode and people have been asphyxiated due to methane migration.

I do agree with their concern regarding the “working class” having to pay higher bills. So possibly they should be talking about Trump’s Department of Energy not allowing Tri-State to close money-losing, highly polluting and inefficient coal-fired plants. By keeping these plants operating in order to prop up the dying coal industry we, as downstream consumers, will all pick up millions of dollars of added cost.

I would also like to comment on the last paragraph of their letter. It seems to me to be nothing more than a red herring. They rail about individuals, I assume they mean Medicaid recipients, being eligible for transgender surgery. The state mandates people’s right to gender health care, and individuals on Medicaid are entitled to the same level of health care as anyone else. The actual cost of these surgeries is so small as to be laughable in terms of the total budget.

Charles Welch

Gunnison