Nevada, solar power a perfect fit
To the editor:
As the Review-Journal correctly noted in its Friday article, "Group sees promise in solar power," Nevada has vast potential to use solar power to transition to a clean energy economy.
While solar energy has the potential to be a great energy source, it would require a 100-mile square, not 100 square miles of solar panels, as you reported, to generate the entire country's electricity. This is roughly the same area that we have already disturbed for coal mining.
The Nevada economy is already seeing the benefits of solar energy. Solar One in Boulder City is using the sun's abundant rays to generate commercial electricity, and Asura is close to completing a plant to manufacture solar components in Las Vegas.
Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has shown great initiative in promoting this burgeoning industry. He championed an energy bill that included a federal renewable electricity standard that would have ensured that the country received 15 percent of its energy from clean, renewable sources by 2020 and an extension of the investment tax credit that is essential to continued solar development. Unfortunately, these provisions fell one vote short in the Senate.
Ben Schreiber
WASHINGTON, D.C.
THE WRITER IS STAFF ATTORNEY FOR ENVIRONMENT AMERICA.
New refineries
To the editor:
In reading various editorials and letters to the editor on energy policy recently, I have noticed a maddening failure to address one of the most important components: new oil refineries.
We hear that no new refineries have been built in the United States for more than 30 years.
Why not? If previous generations could win World Wars I and II, not to mention put men on the moon, certainly our generation can find a way to build some refineries.
If the roadblock is a spate of federal and local laws and regulations, or mindless bureaucrats who refuse to issue permits, we can easily overcome those obstacles with new federal legislation. Properly crafted federal laws could pre-empt state and local laws and regulations and overrule bureaucratic decisionmakers who often seem to operate in Neverland.
We need statesmen, not more politicians. Our senators and congressmen should focus on legislation that will bring some new refineries online.
Who knows, we might even get one in Nevada.
Erven T. Nelson
LAS VEGAS
Juiced justice
To the editor:
Does Las Vegas have a major drug problem? Most major cities do. As a parent, I am very concerned about our children being exposed to this danger. But it appears that some local officials are not.
Recently they told us as much when they dropped felony charges of possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell and possession of drug paraphernalia against the stepson of District Judge Lee Gates and son of former Clark County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates, Brian Atkinson-Turner and his wife, Kathryn O'Gara ("Ex-official's son, his wife plead guilty," Friday Review-Journal).
Now they didn't get off scot-free, mind you. They did, in fact, get patted on the wrist for one count of misdemeanor child neglect -- not child endangerment.
Where is the justice? Forget it! You and I and the children just don't count unless you have connections. Can you say "The Good Old Boys"?
And we continue to wonder why the drugs just keep flowing so freely. Silly us.
Ron Noah
MESQUITE
Poor parenting
To the editor:
In his Tuesday letter to the editor regarding public schools and drug testing, Kevin Stockton worries that we are heading down a path toward making children nothing more than brainwashed clones who blindly follow the regimented programs of our public schools.
As someone who has no children, yet pays more in taxes because of this to fund those who do, I submit the following:
Reach into your own pocket for a change and send your children to the private school of your choice that has an agenda you can live with. Participate in your child's education, rather than blaming listless public school teachers who get paid regardless of how lackluster a performance they put out.
Every time some teenager wanders into my store with his jeans down to his ankles, looking for a job application, my first thought isn't the public school that ruined this kid, it's the parents who have no clue how to raise a child with any sense of societal etiquette.
No, public schools aren't my worry. Parents who don't have the resources or will to properly raise their children are.
Tony Marovitz
HENDERSON
