This is in response to Mr. Eirich’s letter on May 17 regarding Gov. Jay Inslee’s clean energy policy.

Mr. Eirich, to set the record straight, none of the bills passed this session in the Washington State Legislature prohibits you from driving a gasoline-powered truck pulling a trailer up into the Cascades. However, the range and power of electric vehicles is improving and there is a very real possibility that you will be able to replace your highly polluting vehicle with a completely clean one at an affordable price within the next few years.

Costs of wind and solar generation are dropping. Wind power is currently competitive with gas and coal (that’s before accounting for the costs to society of air pollution and climate change). Storage technology for wind and solar is rapidly advancing. It is completely technically feasible to have 80 percent clean energy by 2030 and 100 percent clean by 2045 in our state.

Mr. Eirich, you’ve surely heard that it’s a critical time for our planet. The IPCC gives us 12 years to make substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emission in order to avoid the most devastating consequences of the climate crisis. Instead of throwing our hands up in the air with distrust, I think it would be better to stop and ask ourselves what we can personally do to help make our planet livable for future generations.

I commend our legislators and our governor for their bold action on climate change.

Susan Vossler

Kirkland