While it is correct that renewable energy is subsidized, there are also subsidies to fossil fuel suppliers. Thompson says climate change is driving renewable-energy standards. That is true, but it is false that the motivation is based on “a discredited theory of global warming.”

There is no plausible “natural forces” explanation for the temperature increase we have been experiencing during the last 35 years. The vast majority of climate scientists have concluded that human activities are responsible for climate change.

Moreover, we can do something about this. A renewable-energy standard is one of many strategies that can be used to reduce carbon emissions from electricity production. In addition, we should simultaneously support a vigorous program of energy efficiency for our homes, businesses and industry.

Turning to Tri-State and its campaign against raising the renewable standard from 10 percent to 20 percent of the total electricity supplied, I find it difficult to trust its estimate of billions of dollars cost to consumers. Indeed, it would be useful for Tri-State to provide co-op members with the calculations and assumptions it used to arrive at the billions of dollars figure.

More importantly, a study by the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, at the University of California, Berkeley, found the electricity rate increased by less than 1.5 percent per year as the renewable-electricity percentage in Colorado increased in 2009 and 2010. Even without subsidies, wind energy is now almost comparable (and falling) in cost to coal (which accounts for 60 percent or more of energy supplied by Tri-State). Additionally, the cost of electricity from coal does not take into account the health effects of emissions (e.g. particulates, sulfur oxides, mercury) from power plants. Coal-fired power plants are being retired, and they will be replaced with natural-gas power plants and renewable-energy facilities.

Tri-State needs to acknowledge these changes and plan for a healthier future for its 44 member cooperatives.

Isaac Turiel

Durango