In response to the Nov 26 Solar letter, I must say that  the EPA’s new regulations calling for reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, to reduce global warming, are essentially worthless.

From what I gather, about 95 percent of the greenhouse gas effect comes from water vapor. Only 0.117 percent of the greenhouse effect is due to man-made atmospheric carbon dioxide,(CO2) (these figures take into account the heat retention capabilities of the gases; water vapor holds a lot more heat than CO2). If we assume 50 percent of this manmade CO2 is coming from coal fired power plants, that brings the CO2 figure down to 0.0585 percent of the total greenhouse effect worldwide from coal. If we assume the U.S.A. burns about 13 percent of the total coal being burned worldwide, the figure goes to 0.0076 percent. This amount seems so puny that even the natural variability of the ocean’s CO2 absorption/emission cycle rates would render that man-made CO2 figure meaningless. I’m not against solar and wind power; just the nonsense environmentalist CO2 propaganda.  You could shut down every coal fired plant in the U.S.A. and accomplish nothing (except destroy thousands of coal related jobs in mining, railroading and power generation).

There was one “big polluter” that did have an effect on climate; the 1815 eruption of Mt. Tambora which caused the disastrous ‘Year without Summer’ in 1816 in the northern hemisphere, crops failed, even the snow was pink or brown in various countries.

In summary: It’s the sun and ocean, and sometimes volcanoes that change climate; not man’s puny efforts.

Phil Drietz, Delhi, Minnesota