To the Pennsylvania politicians who for months have evaded their most basic responsibility of passing a budget in Harrisburg: Clean out your desks.

It is disgusting that we taxpaying citizens allow these representatives to shirk their duties all while collecting their paychecks, benefits and per diems while citizens of the state idle in limbo waiting and wondering if the human and social services on which they depend will be terminated. If a defining moment is needed to stimulate citizen action, this is it. A clean sweep of both houses is not enough -- we have tried that and look where we are today.

Freshman legislators with the best of intentions are poisoned by the old boys club of party leaders and their cronies, blurring the lines between those who seek positive results for their districts and the hacks who block such measures through laziness, corruption and greed. It is time we eliminate the perpetual status quo in Harrisburg by voting every incumbent out and voting in only those candidates who promise to adhere to these principals:

1.) Allow ballot initiatives on all matters concerning job performance. The required number of signatures to hold an immediate special election to replace an "underperforming" legislator should be 51 percent of any given district.

2.) Enact legislation eliminating either half of the legislative body or reducing the legislative body to part-time status (because let's face it, they are anyway).

With a clean House and Senate full of new energetic legislators, there will be no opposition to these measures. Out with the old and in with the new. Then and only then will we have a "representative democracy" with a governing body of lawmakers working for the people, not themselves.

JEFF HEISKELL JR.
Mt. Lebanon

The health biz

The problem with the health-care debate is that reform hasn't been laid out in terms that define the scope of the issue.

Reform really begs the question: "Should health care be run like a business?"

Anyone who has had to fight an insurance company to get the care they or a loved one needs knows the answer to that question is a resounding NO!

BRIAN M. LION
Sewickley Hills

Coal advances

On the same day the Post-Gazette published a Perspectives piece knocking coal as an energy source ("Coal Cannot Be Clean," Sept. 22), a new project launched to capture a minimum of 95 percent of the carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas, from a coal-fired test plant just outside Pittsburgh -- proof that actions speak louder than words.

The project combines an advanced form of power generation already operating routinely in Europe and Asia with a carbon dioxide separator to reduce CO2 emissions, produce energy more efficiently and virtually eliminate sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury and particulate emissions. The next phase will feed captured CO2 into a photobioreactor to produce algae that can enrich our soil.

The system can run efficiently on a variety of fuels, including waste coal, which enables us to preserve precious resources while cleaning up old mine sites that dot southwestern Pennsylvania. The technology also can support renewable energy, providing the baseload needed to back up wind and solar. Traditional power plants can't easily cycle up or down with the intermittent production from renewables. PFBC (pressurized fluidized bed combined cycle) technology can.

While some critics are stuck in the past, ignoring advances in coal technology, the state Department of Environmental Protection is investing in the future, providing $1 million to help finance the project, a partnership among PFBC Environmental Energy Technologies Inc., CONSOL Energy and Sargas. We need a variety of homegrown energy sources to power our economy and make us more independent. And for clean coal technology, the future is now.

DOUG FARNHAM
President
PFBC Environmental Energy Technologies Inc.
Monessen

Feasible technology

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Sept. 22 Perspectives piece "Coal Cannot Be Clean" makes a valid point concerning the need for renewable energy sources, green jobs and strong energy legislation. However, these renewable sources should be independently competitive with current energy sources and not be at the expense of current jobs or affordable electricity.

Mr. Kennedy's condemnation of the coal industry as "filthy" "from cradle to grave" only highlights an unwillingness to acknowledge the improvements the industry has made and a lack of interest/awareness of the advancements of clean coal technologies that have proved feasible and successful.

Since the 1970s our demand for electricity has tripled as well as our use of coal-generated electricity. Yet, today's coal-based generating fleet is 77 percent cleaner in terms of emissions currently regulated under the Clean Air Act.

As a state that has mined coal since the early 1800s and is fourth in coal production, Pennsylvanians have a vested interest in making sure that coal remains a part of our energy mix. Understanding coal's importance and the new technologies available, Pennsylvania was the first state to include waste coal as an energy resource in its 2003-2004 clean energy portfolio standard and has stressed the importance of "clean coal technologies." With the commitment of industry and government, carbon capture and zero emissions technologies can be realized in large-scale projects.

In today's society there is little that can be done without the use of electricity. Although the coal industry may not play a significant role in Mr. Kennedy's state, it does play an important role in providing affordable, reliable electricity for all Americans.

JEANINE RAINONE
Manager
Families Organized to Represent the Coal Economy
Monessen

A new energy focus

The introduction of a climate change bill in the U.S. Senate ("Senate Climate Bill Out This Week," Sept. 29) places Pennsylvania's two senators in a tough spot. They will have to decide whether to support the declining coal industry and its dreams of "clean" coal, or support a whole new industry based on conservation and renewable energies.

Subsidies to the coal industry unfairly hold back the rise of the renewable energy industry in the marketplace, and it is worth noting that in their communique the G-20 leaders expressed a commitment to "phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies," which encourage wasteful consumption ("Troubled Economy Overshadows Climate in G-20 Talks," Sept. 28).

It is indeed time to cease providing the coal industry with billions of dollars to pursue the capture and underground storage of greenhouse gases or to adopt energy-intensive schemes to produce liquid fuel from coal. Instead, as they deal with the climate change bill, Sens. Bob Casey and Arlen Specter need to look to the future and support the kind of program envisaged by columnist Thomas Friedman ("The New Sputnik: China Is Going Green; the U.S. Can't Afford to Be Left Behind," Sept. 28). This and similar programs will benefit the citizens of Pennsylvania far more than the continued subsidizing of "dirty" coal.

PETER J. WRAY
Churchill
The writer is co-chair of the conservation committee, Allegheny Group, Sierra Club.

Consider a diet that's life-affirming

In the ongoing rancorous debate over health care, one topic has received very little attention: the personal responsibility each of us needs to take to protect our health.

Let's admit it; the average American diet is basically garbage -- fast food, junk food, meat stuffed inside other meat wrapped by still more meat. It's no wonder so many are so sick and obesity is an escalating epidemic.

There needs to be a major shift in thinking about food, and October will present a prime opportunity to do so.

October is Vegetarian Awareness Month. I urge everyone to learn about the benefits of this healthful, humane and environmentally friendly diet. Explore the many resources available on vegetarianism on the Internet and in bookstores. Friends of Animals offers a free Vegan Starter Guide including great recipes that anyone can download at www.veganmeans.com/resources/.

Take charge of your health and the health of this planet -- choose a life-affirming vegetarian diet. Embrace vegetables, don't fear them!

R. PICARDI
Bloomfield

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