The Mount Vernon News stands by every word of its story dated Oct. 4, Mount Vernon City Council passes resolution promising to "pursue" the replacement of natural gas and coal with solar power, which reported the city council’s passage of a resolution at its Sept. 28 meeting.
The resolution pledges city residents to pursue the goals of “Sustainable 2050,” an initiative created by a group called the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC), based in Columbus.
As the story reported, armed with $8.6 million in U.S. taxpayer grants, MORPC has convinced 33 cities in Central Ohio to sign a pledge to pursue its ideas. Mount Vernon is the latest— and the first in Knox County.
Mount Vernon Mayor Matt Starr took issue with our characterization of the initiative. He told the News that-- perhaps, obviously-- he doesn't want to replace natural gas and coal with solar and wind power in Knox County. He said he fully supports natural gas.
"This is a gas town," he told us.
We agree. And we believe him. But we also stand behind our story.
After we saw a draft of the resolution on the city council agenda, we looked into "Sustainable 2050" to find out what it might mean to the residents and businesses of Mount Vernon.
We read MORPC's stated "agenda' for "Sustainable 250," we watched the Powerpoint presentations and reviewed the group's "progress" dashboard, detailing how it has been implemented thus far in other cities. We read how other Ohio mayors are describing it.
One conclusion was unavoidable: working with MORPC, the other cities signing the "Sustainable 2050" intend to make their communities "carbon neutral" -- or natural gas and coal-free-- by the year 2050.
That is— in heating homes or buildings, powering farm equipment or machinery, using light fixtures or driving a vehicle, Mount Vernon businesses and residents would collectively emit no carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Meaning— you couldn’t use energy generated by natural gas or coal and they couldn’t drive a gas-powered vehicle.
Or, if anyone did, you would have to “offset” this emission with an approved activity, like planting a tree or buying a “carbon credit.”
This what “carbon neutrality” means, literally, for actual people in everyday life.
Thus-- the name "Sustainable 2050"-- which is intended to suggest that using natural gas or coal for energy is the opposite-- "unsustainable."
The argument made by the staff at MORPC, repeatedly, if you read what they publish, is that guaranteeing the "sustainabilty" of Ohio requires ditching so-called "fossil fuels" for taxpayer-subsidized solar panels and wind turbines.
Leading the "Sustainable 250" progrm is Brandi Whetstone, who came to MORPC from the Sierra Club, which is "committed to eliminating the use of fossil fuels, including coal, natural gas and oil, as soon as possible," and has been nothing short of emphatic in making this point, or her end game.
"Sustainable2050 is a program that supports our member communities’ sustainability efforts through direct technical assistance, collaboration, and recognition," she wrote.
It starts with seemingly little things-- like convincing you that starting your car in the morning is bad for the environment. But theirs aren't small plans
Whetstone and her colleagues believe carbon dioxide is “climate pollution” that causes “climate change.”
We would reject this premise as demonstrably false.
There is zero scientific proof that human emissions of carbon dioxide are the dominant cause of the very slight warming of our Earth’s atmosphere over the past century or so.
And there is also zero evidence that a warmer climate— if the earth were to warm materially— would be bad for humans.
Nonetheless, MORPC is pursuing "carbon neutrality" in Knox County. And if you live in Mount Vernon, you are now resolved to help them.
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Read the letter to the editor on this issue from Mount Vernon Mayor Matthew Starr HERE.
