CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

Brian Nearing's Aug. 12 article on the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative was wonderful news, mostly. Once again, an attempt to improve the quality of our environment is decried by those who need to be held accountable.

Gavin Donohue, president and CEO of the Independent Power Producers of New York (IPPNY), declares that "We cannot afford to be uncompetitive with neighboring states. A national program, with all states on a level playing field, is the right approach to reducing CO2 emissions." Over the past eight years, our national government hasn't exactly been the shining beacon of protecting our environment now, has it?

Level playing field? New York residential electric rates are the second highest in the nation, second only to Hawaii (according to the Energy Information Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy). Our neighboring states rank as follows: Connecticut, third; Massachusetts, fourth; Vermont, 10th; Pennsylvania, 17th.

When deregulation forced the investor owned utilities, National Grid and NYSEG, to sell their generating plants, they were snapped up by a group of new players in the game, now represented by the IPPNY. The IPPNY members bought dirty plants and now whine about having to clean them up? Guess they didn't see the writing on the wall?

I'm not a big fan of the pollution credits either, whether they diminish over time or not. What they do is allow dirty polluters to continue being dirty and toxically soil their neighborhoods then they purchase credits from cleaner operations (perhaps not even other power plants); it sounds like legalized bribery to me. It seems like a questionable way to achieve progress and not a very healthy one. Remember that all of these costs are always passed along to us, their customers.

THOMAS A. PRITCHARD