Op-Eds and Letters

By Dick Jones Our public discourse encourages us to believe that we live in a world of stark binary choices. Red state-blue state, liberal-conservative, capitalist-socialist. Nuance is so 20th century. That’s the case with the attention given to the Green New Deal, the plan championed by New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Massachusetts senator Ed Markey. While its centerpiece is a stimulus program with incentives to move the United States to 100% renewable energy by 2030, the Green New Deal also contains an “economic bill of rights”… Read More »Climate watch: It’s not the Green New Deal or nothing at all

By Dick Jones This Earth Day, lawmakers should support an end to ‘socialized soot’ When former South Carolina Republican Congressman Bob Inglis was in State College in February to speak at Penn State’s “Sustainability Showcase,” he called for an end to “socialized soot.” The fossil-fuel industry gets a free pass on the health, environmental and national defense costs of its products. While profits are safely privatized, many of the industry’s costs are socialized — borne by society at large. Inglis, who for 12 years represented… Read More »Earth Day Op Ed