Obama’s power plan worth cost. But is it enough? #tellusatoday

President Obama announced clean power standards this week that would require reductions in carbon dioxide emissions for electric power plants to begin by 2022. Facebook comments edited for clarity and grammar:

Some people don’t seem to care that China and India will be building coal-fired power plants like crazy. Those emissions will dwarf the slight decrease in U.S. emissions at a huge cost to consumers.

—Bill Johnson

President Obama’s plan is an important step that will provide a focus for U.S. leadership at the international meeting in Paris. As a scientist, I agree with his statement that we are the first generation to experience climate change and the last generation with a chance of stopping it.

—Bill DeMott

Why not accept that climate change is real, and clean energy needs to be respected as a solution? Continuing to equate the issue to a cost level is hardly relevant when the resulting doom of future citizens is imminent. If one could avoid a terminal disease by changing his or her lifestyle and incur additional expense, would that be a sensible alternative to dying? Big business can surely afford to provide clean air. Politicians claim their concern is for constituents, but their allegiance is to donors who put them in office.

—John Thomas

Burning coal for energy at anywhere near the current rate causes health problems and environmental degradation. Just the facts.

—Phillip Noe

Plan is just a drop in the bucket

We asked what people thought of Obama’s plan to cut emissions from electric power plants. Twitter comments edited or style and grammar:

We asked what people thought of Obama’s plan to cut emissions from electric power plants.

Excellent idea. Natural gas, wind and solar power are alternatives.

—@ChuckInMiddle

This plan amounts to a drop in the bucket. We have to reduce car emissions and the number of cars on the road.

—@MattValdez3

We settled into fossil fuel dependency instead of committing to alternative energy a long time ago.

—@JorgetheBull

What has this administration done well? If green energy were economically viable, the private sector would do it.

—@TheBigWoodsman

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Letter to the editor

As President Obama promised in his first presidential campaign, he is marching non-stop down the road to fulfilling his legacy at any cost, waving the flag of global-warming alarmism, while he continues fundamentally transforming America. Certainly, coupled with nationalizing health care and over-regulating Wall Street and the finance industry, Obama’s abuse of power seems limitless.

Worse, the president’s feckless foreign policy has allowed Russia’s aggression to escalate, terror machines to spread throughout the Middle East and the world, and Iran’s state-sponsored terrorism to move toward nuclear weapons, the destruction of Israel and attacks against America and the West.

Hope is not lost if American voters rise up, reject the liberal views infecting our country, and take back government in the next election.

Daniel B. Jeffs; Apple Valley, Calif.