To the Journal editor:

As Gene Champagne noted recently in his Op-ed, the Upper Peninsula Energy Task Force has commenced Phase II, alternative technologies and electric rates.

His suggestion that we stay involved in this process is right. We are in the unique position of having a voice in shaping the future of life in the U.P.

I urge all of us to keep eyes on this ball: #KeepItInTheGround is not just a rebel yell. We must stop burning fossil fuels. Putting more carbon dioxide in the air is just bad. It stays in the atmosphere for centuries and will be wreaking increasing damage to the environment and human life all that time.

The target for reducing CO2 emissions such that climate damage is still “manageable” (not “avoidable”) is just a decade out. The need is not just “urgent.” We are in the “emergency” phase now.

Ultimately, we need to electrify everything. This is why the rate issues is central. Making all our buildings, our transportation, our manufacturing processes, our power systems optimally efficient, we can have a cleaner, healthier, safer, vastly more productive, more equitable world.

We just need to have the will to get it done. And no, it’s not a question of “paying for it.” The alternative (collapse of civilization, loss of billions of lives) would “cost” immeasurably more.

For us in the U.P. it will be an interesting challenge. We are dispersed. The answers will include weatherization, and locally generated wind and solar, conversion to air-to-air heat pumps, possibly geothermal. Radical? No. Heat pumps are wildly successful in Vermont, arguably as cold as we get. Induction cooktops, electric vehicles (and really, if your household has two vehicles, one of them should be electric now) will be key. In Canada (and elsewhere in the world) utilities install solar on remote residences, route the power through a meter and bill households at prevailing rates with no up-front costs.

Other tools include Michigan Saves (a “green bank” for Michigan) and use of on-bill amortization of installation costs. It will take people-oriented fixing of utility regulation and genuinely visionary management of our utilities to get this all done, and it won’t get done if we, the people involved, do not step up and demand, demand, taking action with the long-term future in mind.

It’s on us to remind our elected representatives at all levels, local to national, to take action now.