Dear Mr. or Ms. President,

While not prominent in the media currently, given the current coverage of the Presidential election, global warming poses a significant threat to our lives and those of our posterity. There needs to be more regulations placed on companies and on car manufacturers so that carbon dioxide emissions are monitored and reduced. Additionally, actions need to be taken to advance the alternative energy and electric car industries. There is technology available that can have a significant positive impact on the global warming crisis, but currently, this technology is too expensive for the average American to invest in. What will you do to help our country and the rest of the world become more energy efficient and combat the global warming crisis?

Global warming serves as the cause of several worldwide effects, one of these being rising sea levels. One of the ways in which sea levels are rising is due to the warming of our Earth. This additional heat is radiating onto the ocean and causing it to expand (and thus rise). One of the factors contributing to increasing ocean temperatures is power plants situated along coastlines. These plants use ocean water as a means of cooling down the plant, but the heat produced to make the energy in the plants results in heating up the water; this warmer water is then cycled back into the ocean. Heat causes water to expand, and as a result the sea levels rise.  This leads to warming of our oceans and in turn, rising sea levels. One solution to this problem is moving these plants away from the coast and using alternative methods to cool the plant. Unfortunately, this would be expensive and would require significant technological advancements. What would you do as President to encourage movement of plants away from the ocean and the development of alternative cooling processes?

Another method to combat global warming would be to use fully electric cars. Cars powered by gasoline release carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. While fully electric cars would help with the greenhouse gas problem presented by gasoline-powered cars, fully electric automobiles are not as convenient as regular cars. If you run out of gas, there is a gas station very close by; this is not the case with electric charging stations since there are not nearly as many charging stations as gas filling stations. Also, the time it takes to fill up a car with gas is rather quick compared to the hours it could take to charge a fully electric car. There needs to be advances in battery technology to make it more convenient for people to make the switch from gas to electric. How will you encourage this development when you are President?

Along with improvements in battery technology, there needs to be a significant price reduction in the fully electric cars. The lowest priced Tesla cars are over sixty thousand dollars, and the average American just doesn’t have that much money to pay for a car. How will this change when you are President?

One may be concerned about the use of electricity to power these fully electric cars. This can be solved with the promotion of "green" sources of energy such as wind and solar power. According to the American Wind Energy Association, there are fifty two thousand operating wind turbine facilities spread across thirty nine states and Puerto Rico. The American Wind Energy also stated, "Wind power generated 4.13 percent of all the electricity in America in 2013...That is enough to power the equivalent of 15.5 million American homes." Another way of creating energy in a "cleaner" way is through solar energy. An article in Fortune magazine discussing solar panels stated, "There are now over 20 gigawatts of solar panels operating in the U.S., which can power 4.6 million U.S. homes. So far this year, 40% of all the new electricity-generating capacity came from solar." If the country is to continue its growth in these areas of clean energy, there will be less carbon dioxide emissions released and an increase in "clean" ways to power electric cars. 

I appreciate your time in reading my letter and I hope that you consider the significant effects that global warming could have on our world if left untreated.

Sincerely,

Monroe F.