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Letters to the Editor: Nuclear power is answer to energy supply problems

The Morning Call · last updated June 7, 2025 – 2:42 AM

Nuclear power will help bridge energy gap

The May 21 Morning Call opinion page carried an editorial pleading with Congress to keep energy prices low. I could not let the writer make the unchallenged assumption that harnessing wind, sun and thermal earth sources will somehow lead to cheaper energy.

The European Union, Germany and Denmark in particular, have gone down that path only to discover that energy prices have exploded. Germany, for example, now sports a national average kilowatt-hour price more than twice that of the U.S. The national average price in the United Kingdom, also a big player in wind and solar, is double that of the U.S. The consulting firm KPMG has forecast that there is no end in sight for elevated prices. China, which enjoys an electricity national average price advantage that is twice the U.S. (8 cents vs. 18 cents) relies heavily and indefinitely on coal-fired boilers, as does India with a similar (8 cent) advantage against the U.S.

China, which makes the overwhelming number of polysilicate panels, also happens to be a strategic competitor against the West. The May 21 editorial writer may not wish to accept the fact that nuclear power, not Congress, is the only long-term source of abundant, clean and inexpensive energy if we moth-ball hydrocarbons.

Mark Allyn

Lower Saucon Township

Medicare should cover cost of anti-obesity drugs

I’m a retired schoolteacher and have lived for years with diabetes, so I know my way around the health care system. I’ve seen up close how hard it can be for people to manage chronic health conditions. One issue that stands out is how obesity is often viewed — as if it’s just about willpower or personal choices, instead of being recognized as the medical condition it is.

Obesity isn’t simply a matter of lifestyle. Science makes it clear that genetics play a major role for many people. While healthy habits are important, they’re often not enough by themselves. That’s where anti-obesity medications come in — they’re a vital part of a full treatment plan.

Right now, Medicare covers medications for conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes, but it does not cover AOMs. That’s unfair and shortsighted. It limits access to treatments that could significantly improve people’s health and well-being.

People deserve every available tool to manage their health — and that includes access to AOMs.

Penelope Grayson

Greenwich Township

Politicians’ statements need solid evidence

When will the average citizen begin to ask politicians to verify their statements with documentary evidence or some kind of proof? Just saying it, does not make it true.

Jack Siplak

Allentown

Big Beautiful Bill means more debt

Much like the 2018 tax cut, the Big Beautiful Bill shifts the debt burden from our generation to our children and grandchildren. This happens because Congress is unwilling to pay for the services that citizens both want and need. The modest tax cuts citizens will receive in the coming years will be dwarfed by the generational wealth transfer and the compounding interest on the national debt.

Unless we act, the cost of debt and interest payments will continue to grow faster than the economy itself. Productivity gains will no longer be enough to offset this growth in debt and its associated costs.

The current Congressional leadership only seems to care about the national debt when they are in the minority. Now that they hold the majority, they are even more irresponsible than the opposition they once criticized. The only difference lies in the arguments they use to justify their actions.

David Rivera

Whitehall Township

Trump mistaken about American history

President Donald Trump often refers to the 1890s as one of the wealthiest periods in American history. In reality, it was not the golden age he claims it was.

The 1890s was the last decade of what Mark Twain coined the “Gilded Age.” The label was appropriate. America was transformed into an economic powerhouse due to technological advancement and industrialization. However, the prosperity this produced was uneven. Wealthy industrialists amassed obscene fortunes on the backs of their workers who struggled to survive. These robber barons used their economic power to acquire political power and basically dictate government policy.

Today’s Trump agenda clearly mirrors this unevenness — a widening wealth gap fueled by tax cuts to the top 1%, an unelected billionaire dictating government policy, slashing scientific research, health care, and food stamps, imposing high tariffs that impose a higher economic burden on the working class, and removing guardrails that protect against corruption.

President Franklin Roosevelt once said, “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide for those who have too little.” Trump and his billionaire bros apparently disagree.

Rich Israel

Bethlehem

Immigrants contribute to America’s greatness

Closing our doors to foreign born students and faculty is amazingly shortsighted. America has always been a magnet for many of the world’s best and brightest. According to Forbes magazine, 17 physics, 16 chemistry, and 12 medicine Nobel Prize winners were immigrants between 2000 and 2023. Going back to 1901, immigrants made up 36% of American Nobel winners in the sciences.

Visit any local hospital and you’ll find American-trained doctors and nurses from around the world. Visit some of our best science labs and many of the highly educated scientists are American-educated immigrants. Our great colleges and universities have a large portion of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) students who are smart, talented, and dedicated immigrants and foreign students.

If President Trump and his supporters want to weaken America, keeping the best and brightest immigrants out of our country and universities is an example of how to do it.

Philip R. Segal