A commercial gas meter in Riverhead for National Grid.

A commercial gas meter in Riverhead for National Grid. Credit: Newsday/Mark Harrington

Hybrid idea better than just electrifying

National Grid is committed to achieving New York’s climate change goals. We are also committed to making sure that New Yorkers who rely on us to heat their homes, cook their meals, and power their businesses can do that without breaking the bank.

Yet activists keep pushing just one solution to the threat of climate change — electrification [“National Grid should stay in 21st century,” Letters, Sept. 13].

However, relying on electrification alone to meet New York’s energy goals is more expensive for Long Island families and businesses than a hybrid approach using all the available tools.

Energy efficiency, electrification and renewable energy are key to achieving New York’s clean-energy goals and mitigating climate change — and we have invested significantly in infrastructure to connect New York wind and solar projects.

However, there are hidden costs to electrification that policymakers need to take into consideration.

Converting homes and businesses to run on electricity requires replacing appliances with new models. Replacing a furnace with a heat pump can cost a homeowner more than $20,000. Costs for businesses are even higher, meaning many will cut jobs and some will close permanently.

On top of these costs, electrification will also require taxpayers to pay billions of dollars to upgrade and expand transmission infrastructure.

Meanwhile, our gas distribution system, which is already built out, can deliver decarbonized fossil-free energy without sacrificing affordability and customer choice.

National Grid’s plan meets New York’s clean energy goals while avoiding these unnecessary costs to residents, businesses, and taxpayers.

By using a combination of energy efficiency, clean electricity, renewable natural gas, and green hydrogen, our fossil-free vision gives New Yorkers the option to continue using appliances they have, helps small businesses stay open, and avoids massive, wasteful taxpayer spending.

New Yorkers can’t put reliability at risk and need a plan for net zero without so many zeros.
 — Bryan Grimaldi, Brooklyn

The writer is vice president of corporate affairs for National Grid New York.

Birch Society stands for proper ideals

In smearing the MAGA movement, and thereby former President Donald Trump, in “Echoes of extremism” [From the Point, Opinion, Sept. 10], the writers reach back into history to resurrect an earlier target of verbal attacks, the John Birch Society. What stands did JBS take to earn such epithets as fascists, screwballs and, of course, extremists?

According to the piece, JBS supported states’ rights, which would put it in agreement with our founders who believed the federal government should have extremely limited powers, while the states should be trusted with the prerogative in most matters. JBS also favored the preservation of national sovereignty over the hegemony of such international organizations as the UN.

JBS’ opposition to civil rights legislation sought to wake up people to the revolution that was turning the idea of rights upside down. No more individual rights, no property rights or freedom of association, only collective rights, affirmative action and the identity politics that is tearing this country apart today.

To write them off as “conspiracy theorists” ignores the fact that our government’s very own Venona project vindicated JBS’ claims of communist penetration at the highest levels of our government.

If protecting our liberties and our nation is extremism, count me in.

 — Thomas Ballou, East Meadow

John Birch Society members are constitutionalists from all walks of life and are from all around the state. We are motivated daily to strengthen our commitment to restoring principled government at every level of our society. The JBS organization has actually been at the vanguard of political perspectives that many now accept as mainstream. Our government is a constitutional republic. America was not intended to be a democracy, which is where fascism springs from. To claim that JBS is extremist is absurd.

Many governmental problems today stem from failure to adhere to the Constitution as it was written. Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution lists the powers of Congress, which has no power to do anything outside those things.

“Education is our total strategy, and truth is our only weapon,” wrote JBS founder Robert Welch. By working to correct federal government overreach and curtailing the endless printing of money from the Federal Reserve, JBS is the sensible voice in this mixed-up world that should be embraced, not avoided. Americans are reconnecting to the sound principles laid out in our Constitution, having withstood the test of time, guaranteeing the most personal freedom to be successful.

 — Chris Wales, Levittown

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