Power bills high enough? Not for Harry
To the editor:
The subterfuge used by Nevada Sen. Harry Reid in his diatribe to the editor in Sunday's newspaper was absolutely amazing ("Attacks on green power lack vision").
I agree with him that the cost of building a coal-fired power plant has at least doubled in the past five years, but in comparison to any solar technology available today it is cheap. His plan to offer low-cost financing for new transmission lines is another Trojan horse.
If a $1 billion transmission line is built by a utility, say Nevada Power, and the financing is free, the utility will still be allowed to rate-base the billion dollars and earn a rate of return of between 10 and 12 percent. On $1 billion, that's at least $100 million per year. But if the lines transmit less than 75 percent of their capacity, the utilities will not earn enough to cover this return. Who gets stuck with this bill if the line is not being used? That would be me and you.
I am all for green power, but until electrical storage technology improves, we'll need increased amounts of electricity generated by nuclear and fossil fuel plants to stay competitive in the global marketplace. Sen. Reid wants all the utilities to invest in unproven and expensive technologies. Is the federal government going to cover the risk associated with these investments, or does he expect the ratepayers and stockholders to bear this burden?
I think Sen. Reid's time would better be spent investigating who in Major League Baseball is using steroids -- that would cost much less.
Tom Hanrahan
LAS VEGAS
Coal smears
To the editor:
In response to Nevada Sen. Harry Reid's Sunday letter, "Attacks on green power lack vision":
As a former resident of your fine state, let me provide some facts. I now live in Wyoming, where we produce and consume large quantities of that evil "dirty" coal that Sen. Reid would love to ban from use. My recent electric bill shows a charge of 5.2 cents per kilowatt hour. I ask your readers to compare this to their current bills.
I further challenge Sen. Reid to come up to Wyoming and view the deep blue skies that we have here, even in the vicinity of our coal-fired power plants. I pass by a large plant on the way to town, and there is not a visible trace of smoke or grime coming from the stacks. Only plumes of water vapor can be seen on our colder days. Is Sen. Reid against water vapor, too?
But what about that evil CO2 that lurks around every turn these days? Isn't that destroying everything dear to us? Well, I hate to remind the likes of Sen. Reid and Al Gore, but the whole global warming scare is simply a theory. High energy prices and their crippling effects are a fact.
Lastly, the study that Sen. Reid quoted, which says we could get 10 percent of our energy from solar panels in nearly 20 years, borders on fantasy. We all know that the only way wind and solar "competes" today is with huge infusions of taxpayer money. Is that what Nevadans really want? To pay high utility bills and high taxes for the privilege?
Keep listening to Sen. Reid, and that is exactly what you will get.
Mac Frank
DEVIL'S TOWER, WYO.
Textbook cuts
To the editor:
As part of the solution to balance the state budget, the Legislature has cut textbook funding to school districts by 50 percent. While on the surface it may appear that this is a poor idea, it actually does have some merit, given the way education is currently funded.
Schools are allocated textbook money each year, even if a school is not new or has not experienced an increase in enrollment. This is done to allow schools to keep textbooks current, but the restrictions put on funding require the schools to spend this money each year or risk losing it. So schools continue to buy textbooks each year, even when it's unnecessary.
I opened a school in Summerlin in 2000; since that time the school has purchased three different math textbook series. Sometimes this occurs because a new series is approved by the district's textbook adoption committee, and the current books are out of compliance; sometimes a new administration or governing committee decides another book would be better. But many teachers bemoan the fact that they barely get to know a textbook series, its strengths and weaknesses, before it's thrown out and replaced with a new series. This seems, to me, to be a poor use of education funds.
When new books are purchased, the old or slightly used ones are sent to the school book depository. There are plenty of textbooks available in the Clark County School District, and unlike clothing, students don't outgrow them every two to three years.
Liz Goodman
LAS VEGAS
