LETTERS: Taxpayers pick up tab for ethanol

To the editor:

Kudos to reader Tom Keller for his fine letter opposing the corn-for-ethanol subsidy (“Ethanol in gasoline,” Nov. 19 Review-Journal). This mandate was passed under the premise of lowering our dependency on foreign oil, but has only served to become a bonanza for distillers, truckers, growers, and, lest we forget, the politicians who support this measure and the lobbyists who sold it.

Meanwhile, the American consumer is paying the tab.

As Mr. Keller pointed out, corn prices have gone through the roof, taking the prices of food stuffs with them. With government subsidies making corn a more lucrative crop to grow, more land is switched from other food production, causing those products’ prices to rise. Also, the profitability of selling corn to distillers rather than using it for animal feed does the same to meat and dairy products.

As for its value as a fuel additive, it has been shown to be very damaging to conventional gas engine parts, requiring costly modifications to be made in cars and trucks. Many products with gas motors, such as snow blowers, lawn mowers, outboard motors, motor scooters and the like cannot use fuel with ethanol in it.

The reasons for the high cost at the pump are many. Filling stations selling ethanol-infused gasoline must have special underground storage tanks, as the typical gasoline tank would be damaged. The cost to transport the corn to distiller and then the ethanol itself to where it is blended has to be done through costly and environmentally unsound surface transportation, not by pipeline, as with petroleum products. (This presents a good argument for the approval of the Keystone pipeline, rather than making concessions to nuclear-hungry Iran in exchange for cheap oil.)

Probably the single largest factor in the high cost of ethanol-added-gas is the subsidy. The blender receives 51 cents per gallon as a tax credit, plus the subsidy the growers receive for planting the corn to produce ethanol.

We are being had, folks. The proper place for corn byproducts is in a beverage of your choice — to be consumed in moderation — not in your gas tank.

ROBERT LATCHFORD

HENDERSON

Obamacare stinks

To the editor:

The Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as Obamacare, should be renamed to something easier to remember and more descriptively accurate. I suggest using the president’s initials: B.O.

JACK CORY

LAS VEGAS

Democrats’ lies

To the editor:

What is that terrible noise? Why, it’s the collapse of the nest of grade-school lies told to us by the president of the United States of America. Sen. Kirstin Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said it best on ABC on Nov. 17 when she lamented, “We all knew” that he was lying. She admitted Democrats knew full well that Americans would be booted from their health insurance plans due to Obamacare.

And the typical, lockstep Democrats were not only complicit in these lies, but remained blindly loyal to President Barack Obama. He lied to the Congress, he lied to the media, and he looked right into the camera and lied to you and me. Why would anybody believe anything this man says? I will join the people who vote in 2014, but not for any Democrat. Enough is enough.

NORMAN YEAGER

HENDERSON

Thanksgiving shopping

To the editor:

When I was young, Thanksgiving was a day for family. All would gather around the table and enjoy a feast of turkey and all the other traditional foods.

Today, it is all about money. The big shots, CEOs and the like, tell their employees that they will be required to work on Thanksgiving, while executives and their families relax and enjoy the holiday. Wal-Mart, Target, Kmart, JCPenney, just to name a few, will be open at some point during the day, doing business as usual. All they are concerned about is the profit margin at the end of the year.

I realize that this is a different society we live in, but some of the values and traditions we grew up with should still be honored. I have not and will not shop on Thanksgiving or Christmas. My children are all back east, and it is difficult for them to come home for the holidays. They do it, though, celebrating with their respective families. The only way these CEOs are going to change their attitude is by the general public not shopping on these days.

JIM CENCER

OVERTON

Recycling no problem

To the editor:

Individuals complaining about only one pickup of trash per week must be the people who aren’t recycling (“Clark County OKs single-stream recycling in unincorporated areas,” Nov. 20, Review-Journal). We have recycled since the early 1990s, in Santa Barbara, Calif., then for 10 years in Winter Garden, Fla.

We have very little trash for pickup because we recycle everything possible. Junk mail goes in the recycling, along with all kinds of cans, paper, glass bottles and jars, cardboard, empty cereal cartons, etc. We have much more recycling than we do trash. I was surprised to see how little recycling our neighbors do here in Las Vegas; in Florida and California, helping the environment is quite popular.

People complain about the smell of the trash. Just put the trash in plastic bags and secure them well so odor does not escape. It is a no-brainer.

Recycling isn’t difficult. Please people, just recycle. You will be amazed how little trash you really have.

KEN WINTERS

LAS VEGAS