To the editor:

I cannot believe Polly Judd did her homework on Proposal 3 before submitting her recently published letter in this forum against the proposal and criticizing Carol Higgins of Mendon, who apparently did do her research.

I hope Ms. Judd was enlightened by both the front-page article in the Daily News from Oct. 10 and the opinion of Mr. William Griffin of Edwardsburg in the same edition.

Having done my homework and being possessed of both common sense and intelligence, I cannot see why, being faced with the negative health and environmental effects caused by the continued use of coal to produce electricity, anyone would not wish to see a substantial conversion to clean energy as quickly as possible.

The only ones who do not want this sorely needed conversion to take place are the coal companies and the electrical cooperative executives who don’t want to spend the money for fear it could negatively effect their salaries and perks.

Being as I am already paying an extremely hefty monthly electrical bill as a Midwest Energy customer, an annual increase of a maximum of 1 percent to my bill would hardly be noticed; as, I suspect, would it with anyone else’s.

The cost of electricity for Midwest Energy’s customers skyrocketed following their acquisition of our former Fruit Belt Co-op.

While I cannot deny the reliability of service has improved, I’m not sure paying two to four times as much for that reliability is worth it.

Does anyone else besides me remember when we used to see a CREDIT each month on our Fruit Belt bills under “Power Cost Adjustment?” Long gone are those days.

Midwest is crying NO because the proposal allows them to add only an additional maximum of 1 percent per year to consumer costs. They claim they are well on their way to meeting the standard of 10 percent by 2015, so why can’t they do the additional 15 percent in the next 10 years? That’s only 1 1/2 percent per year.

We need more clean energy production, so please vote yes on Proposal 3.

Lois Karasek

Dowagiac