Letters for August 15, 2013

Win some

Re “Biggest Little Best of Northern Nevada” (Feature story, Aug. 8):

Really?! Hands down Opa Cafe is the best and most popular Greek restaurant in town. Best out there anywhere! This vote must be rigged. Nick’s Deli and Blue Plate don’t even taste Greek. And Niko’s Greek Kitchen is decent enough, but I’d pick Opas any day over Niko’s. Try them all and decide for yourself.

Marika Dimitriadis

Reno

Gone to the dogs

Re “Biggest Little Best of Northern Nevada” (Feature story, Aug. 8):

On Command is the best shop around and the cleanest for sure. I’m happy the place is finally getting the recognition it deserves. Thanks.

Bear Scott

Reno

Chains over independents

Re “Biggest Little Best of Northern Nevada” (Feature story, Aug. 8):

I think for future purposes, it would be good to lump restaurants in the same chain into the same entry. Thus, Peg’s Glorified Ham & Eggs on South Sierra Street would be the same entry as Peg’s Glorified Ham & Eggs on Mae Anne and on Prater Way in Sparks. Gives each restaurant in the chain more chances, but also gives more selections for the top 3, as we wouldn’t have two of the three being the same place (for all intents and purposes). Just my 2 cents.

Matt Davis

Sparks

Fear of impact

It is difficult for citizens to understand why RTC does not want to provide an Environmental Impact Study on the proposed Southeast Connector and have gone to great lengths to avoid it. Now it appears they might even have skirted and ignored some federal requirements. What are they afraid of? Just do the study!

Helene Sasser

Reno

Give advice to parents

Re “Plan ahead for new breaks” (Editorial, Aug. 1):

Regarding the editorial on the new school calendar: I am a teacher, and I think there are many positives as we head into the new school year such as retention of learning. Overall, you hit the nail on the head about the struggles of working parents finding daycare (but more jobs isn’t a bad thing). However, I am very disappointed in your closing paragraph which portrays teachers as being stuck in a rut. We constantly seem to be fighting a battle with the media and politicians who seem to think teachers are the enemy. Usually, RN&R doesn’t take this stand. Reform is hard, and this is one step, as you stated. But reform can’t take place in just one area. It needs to be a cooperative effort that includes the school district, parents and politicians! How about some advice for parents about how they can help their children and teachers? That would sure be different!

Melissa Sewell

Reno

Smarten up

Re “Get smart” (Green, Aug. 1):

OK, enough about all the emotionalism, misinformation, and a lack of understanding about electric utility Smart Meters. As hard as it may be to believe, it’s really a good thing that utilities are adopting this technology.

First, for customers of NV Energy, we avoided almost half of the $300 million thanks to the federal government. That’s money that’s not coming directly out of our pocket. Thank you, DOE.

Second, Smart Meters will save a lot of money for everyone—consumers and the utility. It also will result in other benefits in improving customer service and reduced costs—from improved outage response to better billing accuracy and information for customers. It also provides the foundation for the ’next step’ in modernizing the distribution of electric power. Further it’s an investment that utilities can earn on. It’s literally a ’win-win’ for customers and the utility in multiple respects.

So, how does it save money? Well, first it eliminates monthly meter reading for every residential and small commercial customer. This is on-the-order of $10 million per year. And, for most of us that means a meter reader won’t be trudging through our yard every month. I don’t know about you, but I appreciate this.

It also provides the necessary platform to transition to rates based on time-of-day consumption, which is how power is priced on the bulk energy market. For customers who can choose when they run appliances like washers, dryers, etc., they can shift their usage to off-peak periods and save money. I do this with the utility’s current voluntary Time-Of-Use (TOU) residential rate structure. It works for me and it’s not ’rocket science’.

But the real benefit with TOU rates is that they provide an incentive for the utility to improve their overall energy efficiency, being able to eventually reduce their overall power-plant requirements by reducing peak generation requirements. This offers enormous savings for consumers and the company, with facilitating the transition to renewable resources and mitigating the need to build additional fossil-fuel plants in the interim. The future transition to TOU rates will result in a shift to a new level of energy efficiency and reduced utility infrastructure from power plants to distribution resources. All of this eliminates waste, promotes efficiency, and reduces costs. We the consumers directly benefit from all of this with reduced energy costs.

While the fears associated with Smart Meters aren’t necessarily ridiculous, if you use a cell phone or are in the vicinity of virtually any modern technology, you are far more exposed to these concerns than anything coming from a Smart Meter. Think about it, Smart Meters communicate for a few seconds an hour. How long are you on your cell phone a day? How far is the Smart Meter from you compared to the cell phone on your ear? Exposure is a function of time and an inverse of the square-of-the-distance of the source.

For those that choose to opt out and use meters that need to be read every month, $8.72 is a very small price to pay. What other company will come out to your house for that cost? And, that also includes the additional cost of manually reading and processing your meter information. It’s a bargain. You are actually being subsidized by all of the other customers, so be grateful to have the option, let alone the minimal cost.

Rather than taking issue with the cost of opting out, why not opt to use the current optional TOU rates? By managing your consumption you will be able to reduce your monthly cost.

Also, to clear up another issue, a Smart Meter only records a customer’s consumption during 15 minute periods, rather than for the whole month. It can’t tell what the customer is doing. Kilowatts from light bulbs, refrigerators, heaters/air conditioners, etc., are all the same. The claims that the utility knows what you are doing is ridiculous. So much of this misinformation is absurd.

Tim King

Reno

Frack your day

Re “Heating up” (Green, July 4):

To allow fracking in Nevada is the biggest mistake the state would make in its history! Fracking will waste our clean water, which is already at low levels due to drought, and replace it with a toxic cocktail of “secret” chemicals. The fracking companies will rape the land and leave farmers and ranchers with sick animals, cancer causing water supply and filthy, toxic pollution. Nevadan’s right to drink clean water and breathe clean air supersedes any fracking company’s right to pollute for profit!

JoAnn Torre

Las Vegas

Frack-free Nevada

Re “Heating up” (Green, July 4):

Hydraulic fracking is an urgent issue. Nevada needs a moratorium in order to allow science time to study the potential risks of hydraulic fracturing before issues surface. If Nevada fails to allow time for research, the side-effect costs associated with fracking to our health, air, water, and food supply could far exceed any projected revenue. We already face water shortage issues. Let’s make sure that the water we do have available remains safe for consumption. Nevada also faces issues of nuclear disturbances as we violently shake and frack our crust. Fracking poses health and safety issues that must be addressed before any fracking is permitted in Nevada.

Jean Perry-Jones

Las Vegas