Senators’ call for a new U.S. energy policy
Re: “A new energy policy,” Jan. 8 Perspective article.
The article by Sen. Ken Salazar and former Sen. Tim Wirth is an excellent summary of why our country needs to end its reliance on foreign oil and develop alternative energy sources as quickly as possible. Someone really ought to awaken members of Congress and the Bush administration from their slumber and force them to read this article and then ensure that they do something proactive. However, we do not need any further mysterious, Dick Cheney- negotiated energy plans formulated in secret by the good-ol’-boys oil industry network, and we certainly do need to retract the $20 million budget reduction being implemented against the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, where alternative energy is being researched and developed.
What is needed is a complete federal commitment to a program of funding and development of alternative sources of energy akin to the commitment our country made during the Kennedy administration to reaching the moon. This is needed as quickly as possible to forestall future negative impacts on our country and its economy due to actions taken by oil suppliers hostile to the U.S. It is also needed because the world supply of oil is increasingly in short supply and will actually run out during this century. Finally, it will present an excellent opportunity for our country to take steps to reduce fossil-fuel carbon dioxide emissions and hopefully have a positive impact on global warming.
Jack F. Salter, Evergreen
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Sen. Ken Salazar and Timothy Wirth are right to call for a new energy policy for Colorado, but wrong to include coal as part of the mix. Have we learned nothing from the tragedy in Sago, W.Va., just days ago? Coal mining is excessively dangerous work, and no new- fangled advancements in coal technology have made it any less so. While mining comprised only 1.3 percent of total U.S. employment in 2004, it accounted for roughly 15 percent of all workplace fatalities.
Any energy strategy calling for increased reliance on this 19th century technology dooms even more American workers to the same fate as Sago’s brave souls. Colorado and the nation can do better for its workers than expanding coal production. Investing in new ways of harnessing the sun, the wind and the tides creates nearly three times as many jobs as investing in coal, without risking the lives of American workers and without bulldozing the Colorado landscape. A truly new energy policy would forever abandon the ways of the past and look boldly toward the clean, inexhaustible sources of energy all around us, free for the taking.
Chris Cooper, New York
The writer is a project director for the Global Resource Action Center for the Environment.
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Sen. Ken Salazar and Tim Wirth are two very able and knowledgable politicians. These suggested programs for solving the U.S. energy problem are old hat. They know that. Salazar and Wirth suggested lower consumption via more efficient engines. Have they been asleep while Ford, Honda, Toyota, etc., are already selling such autos? They also suggest increasing production via windmills, ethanol, biofuels, coal. Again, old hat. I am very surprised at their just rejuggling old voluminous writings. But worse: Not one word about increasing production via developing a minute area in northern Alaska that could produce 1 million or more barrels or oil per day – one-third of our present imports from the Persian Gulf. Not a word about nuclear energy that produces no air pollution. Not a word about the huge potential of shale. Alaska, gas, nuclear, shale. How is it possible to not even mention those?
Ken Lloyd, Arvada
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I concur with the bulk of the article, including the omission of potential energy savings by using transit instead of automobiles – probably because, quite surprisingly to many, conventional transit averages about the same energy use per passenger mile as automobiles. A new form of transit – personal rapid transit or PRT (presently being installed at London’s Heathrow Airport) – is poised to change that. The operating concept includes steady-speed, non-stop travel resulting in low trip times without energy-wasting stops and starts and the drag associated with high speeds. Energy use is anticipated to be about one-quarter that of car and transit. System characteristics result in a level of service more like an automobile than conventional transit. Studies indicate the potential to attract a much more significant ride share than conventional transit.
PRT systems are electrically driven and have no on-site emissions. This coupled with the low energy use and the lack of noise and vibrations means that PRT should be the most sustainable form of powered transportation ever.
Peter Muller, Centennial
‘Tis a privelege …
Re: “What it means to be a Coloradan,” Jan. 8 Colorado Voices column.
Sarah Kuiken’s excellent column shows that the year she recently spent in England gave her a great deal of insight into that which she – and the others of us who live in Colorado – have to be proud: our wonderful state. Colorado is truly a wonderful place to be from and, for one transplanted Coloradan for the past 30 years, in which to live. Kuiken learned in one short year in Europe what many living in the United States today never learn. This country of ours – with all its “faults” – is a great country which to be from and in which to live. It’s insightful that traveling to and living in someone else’s home country teaches us how wonderful and how many are the attributes we enjoy right here at home.
Enjoy Colorado and all those good things it represents.
Paul C. Jones, Golden
Motherhood vs. advancing a career
Re: “Law vs. Family: A Balancing Act,” Jan. 8 business news story.
I read your article on female attorneys with great personal interest. As a stay-at-home mom who writes criminal appeals part-time in my basement, I was hoping to read about a greater variety of creative legal practices that enable women to spend a good deal of time raising their kids. I was disappointed with the message that “success” and “accomplishment” mean making a lot of money and becoming partner – even if you don’t see your kids for weeks! I was equally dismayed with the article’s depreciation of nonprofit and government work because attorneys make less money in those fields. (Is that all that matters in the business section?) My children are very happy to have me around, and I believe they will be quite proud of their mommy when they learn she works to defend the constitutional rights of all people.
Kim Dvorchak, Littleton
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As a stay-at-home mom, I continually find myself incensed when reading articles regarding working mothers and their children. I am a licensed professional counselor who quit a job six years ago to raise my children. It is impossible to manage a family while working full-time. Why do you think there is an obesity epidemic among our youth? It takes time to shop and prepare healthy meals on a daily basis. I haven’t even mentioned the time involved in managing a child’s emotional, spiritual, educational, physical and psychological health.
It is extremely difficult staying home with young children; however, I chose to have children and have accepted the responsibility to raise them to the best of my ability. We haven’t been to Disneyland or Hawaii yet; however, my children know when they get home from school, their mother will be home to give them a hug and ask them how their day went. An emotionally healthy individual far outweighs the material junk this world has to offer.
Taryn Logan, Lakewood
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According to your article, attorney Kristin Bronson has absolutely no balance in her life in regards to her family; i.e., she “can go weeks without seeing her children, and she says she relies heavily on others for child care.” How is this to be commended? Bronson has erroneously programmed her children to believe it’s a good and noble thing to choose work over family. Kids at 5 and 8 don’t need career aspirations; they need a mother to instill values and love on a daily basis.
It is said that no success in the workplace can compensate for failure in the home. I sure hope Bronson can figure this out before it’s too late.
Amber Johnson, Arvada
Shave and a haircut?
Re: “Plummer’s true grit lies beneath his scruffy looks,” Jan. 8 news story.
The article about Jake Plummer was very interesting. While Jake is a good quarterback and could take the Broncos to the Super Bowl, he is quite immature. Whether he likes it or not, he is seen as a role model by many boys and girls and is a public figure. He must learn to control his quick temper. His scruffy look is insulting and makes him a poor role model for young athletes. Other Broncos have different hairstyles, yet they look neat and clean. Jake, on the other hand, looks like he just crawled out of a Dumpster. He can have a beard and long hair, but should keep it neat. I am surprised Broncos owner Pat Bowlen and coach Mike Shanahan have allowed him to look this way.
Gayle Merves, Lone Tree
Sex-offender legislation
Re: “Iowa law has sex offenders packing bags,” Jan. 8 news story.
In response to The Post’s article and the fact that Colorado legislators are now considering residency restrictions for sex offenders, I hope Colorado legislators will not forget that they commissioned a report a few years back – “Report on Safety Issues Raised by Living Arrangements for and Location of Sex Offenders in the Community” – which found that there was no relationship between where sex offenders lived and their reoffense rate. While Colorado lawmakers definitely have an interest in keeping children safe, passing feel- good laws that have not been proven to work is not the way to do it.
Brian E. Oliver, St. Louis
“Brokeback Mountain”
Re: “‘Brokeback’ dares us to take heart,” Jan. 8 Diane Carman column.
In her column about the movie “Brokeback Mountain,” Diane Carman reduced her heterosexual male friends to cowering homophobes if they chose not to see this movie.
I am a heterosexual male. Many of my male colleagues are ill-suited to intellectually discuss diverse issues, and a sub-set of these have problems with their own masculinity.
I will not see this movie. I am not homophobic, nor do I run in fear or cower at the thought of discussing controversial subjects. I choose not to see this movie because I see it as yet another emasculation of the value that masculinity brings to human development. Feminine and masculine each bring infinite, diverse value to our life as human beings and I see little value in portraying heartbreak, which we all suffer, using someone’s sexual preference as the backdrop. Using this medium to portray the human tragedy of heartbreak is little more than sensationalism and disappointing, as it gives those who hold their own stereotypes about heterosexual men yet another reason to box all heterosexual men into being beer drinking, “horse-and-whore riding” homophobes if they dare choose to not to see this movie.
Phil Viens, Westminster
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I don’t give a hoot about two cowboys falling in love with each other. I simply don’t want to spend 6 bucks watching this fetching romance happen. It would be a total waste of my time because I am unable to relate to it.
Bill Hannah, Denver
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I was glad to see that Diane Carman used her column to highlight the wonder of “Brokeback Mountain” and how this movie shows that homosexuality cannot be stereotyped as “girlish and effeminate.” In illuminating how these troubling stereotypes can cloud our understanding of groups different than our own, I was glad to see she didn’t utilize such stereotypes about representative male heterosexuals as those who like their “bourbon straight” and their “women blond and gorgeous” or who are “cigarette-smoking, whiskey-drinking, horse-and-whore riding” macho males. That would be unfair because I have no heterosexual buddies who are this way. Oh no, pardon me. Those are precisely the kinds of stereotypes she employed. But at least she expressed such stereotypes about a group for whom it is still permissible to do so.
Glenn T. Stanton, Colorado Springs
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There are thousands upon thousands of movies that have been made during the last 50 years that I have not seen. Why? Because like most people, there is a particular movie genre that draws me in. You want me to go see “Brokeback Mountain”? Change the story line to this: Two gay ranchers, trying to live their life peacefully in a small town, have their families killed by homophobic, straight men. The two gay lovers then go out and begin exacting revenge, killing off the people responsible one by one. Now that’s a movie I would go see.
David Schandle, Littleton
Temps and global warming
Re: “High temps in December: Evidence of global warming?” Dec. 8 Open Forum.
Letter-writer Michael Banks’ attempt to link Denver’s recent heat wave to human- caused global warming violated the first rule of statistics: Correlation does not prove causation. Banks failed to address several well-documented and relevant facts:
1) The Denver area is a mild-winter region, and shirtsleeve weather during the winter months is far more common than Banks suggests. Anyone who has lived here for many years knows our winters are often more pleasant than our springs.
2) When DIA began operations, the “official” Denver weather site was moved there from Stapleton. DIA is some 20 miles further away from the climate-moderating influence of the mountains, so higher highs, lower lows and lower precipitation are likely.
3) There is every possibility that the apparent warming is natural. A mere 1,000 years ago, the northern parts of the world were warm enough for the Vikings to grow crops in Greenland.
We may indeed be in a period of global warming, and that warming may indeed be the result of human activity, but the recent holiday heat wave does not support that case in any meaningful way.
Eric Krein, Lakewood
TO THE POINT: Short takes from readers
Pat Robertson, presuming to speak for God, asserts that the U.S. deserved Sept. 11 and Ariel Sharon deserved a stroke. It will be interesting to see what God has in mind for Robertson’s insufferable arrogance.
G.L. Draus, Highlands Ranch
Some years ago, the term “gunbarrel diplomacy” was in vogue. Today, the Bush administration is promoting “gunbarrel democracy” in Iraq, a policy that resembles a “shotgun wedding.”
John L. Davis, Denver
Shame on The New York Times for withholding information regarding George W. Bush’s warrantless wiretapping of American citizens. Had the public known in 2004 that Bush was operating outside the law, not only would he not be president now, but he could be in jail, instead.
Michael Kanarish, Parker
Gov. Bill Owens says, regarding illegal immigrants, that he “opposes any attempt to round those people up,” and that “We have a U.S. Constitution we have to abide by.” Where and when did the U.S. Constitution have any stipulations protecting the “rights” of illegal immigrants?
John L. Browder, Denver
Why have the recipients of Jack Abramoff’s largesse, including the president, waited until his indictments and admissions before returning his ill-gotten money or giving it to charity? If Abramoff had never gotten in trouble, how many of those recipients would have kept his “contributions” and favors?
R. Kiefer, Arvada
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