Readers React: Jerry Brown’s strategy on green energy and fracking

To the editor: I am no fan of fracking, but I doubt Gov. Jerry Brown is blind to its many dangers. I suspect that, like President Obama, he considers this natural gas boom to be an interim step on the way to clean energy — it’s doing good by killing coal, and nobody is building new nuclear plants. (“Fracking: Jerry Brown’s environmental blind spot,” op-ed, May 4)

Meanwhile, we have to make sure our power grids (and power companies’ business models) can handle potentially millions of solar users selling excess power back to the utilities. Unlike op-ed article author Bill McKibben, I am not an expert, but I do believe we need to hear from the governor on how this transition to truly clean energy will work.

If I am right about Brown, he is planning his moves.

Joanne Zirretta, Aliso Viejo

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To the editor: Kudos to McKibben for challenging Brown to address the supply side of climate change.

I celebrate that California is slashing emissions and leading the nation on renewable energy, but we can’t turn a blind eye to oil extraction in our state and our position as the nation’s third-largest producer. By drilling for oil, we are compounding global pollution, increasing atmospheric greenhouse gases and endangering millions who live near rigs.

Brown can lead the way when it comes to the environment, but it means he has to kick California’s fossil fuel habit too.

Ashley Lauth, Oakland

The writer is the Center for Biological Diversity’s California anti-fracking campaigner.

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