Indiana should drop EPA lawsuit

Ryan Sabalow's March 12 article about the Karner blue butterfly, native to a small area of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, believed now to be extinct, was highly informative about what climate change means. Climate change as a result of more than 150 years of fossil-fuel burning is real and man-made. Yet Indiana state government is willing to spend tax money to defy the Environmental Protection Agency as it makes rules to implement the Clean Air Act. What prompts our governor to spend our money in this futile effort? Is it his lack of understanding of federalism? Is it his denial of the threat of climate change? Is it ignorance of the advance of clean, renewable energy? Is it a few words in the Clean Air Act wrongly interpreted? Is it because the fossil fuel industries are more powerful than the advocates of green energy? Is it all of these?

Thomas Easterly, Indiana Department of Environmental Management commissioner, testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works last week. The EPA says Indiana must reduce by 20 percent the amount of carbon dioxide generated per unit of electricity by 2030. This is easily achieved, by one of four methods or a combination of two or more. Easterly criticized the proposed rule for Indiana, stating it is unrealistic and will damage Indiana's economy and energy reliability. Both of these objections are false; green energy has been shown to provide more jobs than coal, and reliable energy is possible given advances in technology.

I call upon the citizens of Indiana to protest Gov. Mike Pence's protestations about the way to achieve clean air, and withdraw Indiana from the lawsuit now before the U.S. Court of Appeals' D.C. Circuit.

Wayne Moss, Indianapolis