Letter to the editor: Fossil fuels vs. health of our children

Op-ed writer Anais Peterson is right to raise the alarm on oil and gas companies looking to use the Ukraine-Russia war as a pretext to further tether us to the fossil fuels whose emissions are polluting our air as they harm the health of our children (“Fracked gas in Appalachia won’t help Ukraine, but will hurt our communities,” March 8, TribLIVE). To use the plight of women and children overcome by war to expand drilling is shameful.

Our elected representatives in Harrisburg are willingly doing the bidding of fossil-fuel companies interested in drilling more, expanding pipelines and dispensing with regulations with little regard for the real-world negative impact this will have on our communities, especially here in Western Pennsylvania.

These same representatives are also happy to forego the state’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a proven program that will cut carbon pollution from the state’s coal-fired power plants and generate meaningful clean air and climate investment in our communities.

Our children deserve far better than to breathe even more polluted air to prop up polluters. Elected officials must not be cowed by special interests when children and families in eastern Europe are fighting for their very lives.

Rajani Vaidyanathan

Fox Chapel