In a recent opinion letter, Marc Landry correctly points out that we taxpayers ultimately provided the subsides that are helping to pay for Dorcas Ministries' new solar installation, and this fact was omitted from the original article. I'd like to point out that Mr. Landry's letter also omits a few things.

First, the real losers here are not the taxpayers or the utility ratepayers, but future generations who will have to deal with the consequences of our unrestrained consumption. Even if you deny mankind's role in global climate change, nobody is denying that fossil fuels are a finite resource.

We owe it to our children and grandchildren to conserve what is left, and begin developing alternatives now - while there is still energy to support that development.

Another omission is that Progress Energy also invests in and provides incentives for other renewable energy technologies, not just solar. This, I'd argue, is the way things should be done: providing broad incentives that don't micromanage the markets by favoring one technology or company over another.

You don't like government subsidies? Fine! Let's lower everybody's income taxes and replace the revenue with a per-BTU tax on all non-renewable energy. Let the markets sort it out and determine the most efficient way to wean ourselves from fossil fuels.

Ed Brown

Cary