Letters for May 17, 2012

Mitt fits

Re “Libertarian weekend” (Feature story, May 10):

The people of Nevada deserve to know the truth about what happened at the Nevada Republican State Convention. Throughout the whole day, there were delays being intentionally created by the Credentials Committee. The “cred com” is in charge of validating passes, counting totals and printing ballots. The cred com was full of Mitt Romney supporters. They failed to properly count the total number of attendees, and this created a two-hour delay. They failed to make enough ballots. This created additional delays. It was the Mitt Romney supporters at the convention who were wreaking havoc. Whether it was passing out fake slates of ballots or creating delays at the convention, the people have a right to know what the supporters of Mitt Romney were doing at the convention and the trouble they caused.

Joseph Jumale
Reno

Check the bottom line

Re “League endorses candidates” (Greenspace, May 10):

It’s not surprising that they would take that position, as I am a strong supporter of green energy—and everyone know that—but only if the project creates more than two jobs, and taxpayers and ratepayers don’t get the bill. The May 10 edition of the Nevada Journal ran an article titled, “Canadian firm will receive up to 50 million stimulus dollars for Nevada solar plant that employs two people.” That works out to about $25 million of tax credits per job. What a bargain! I’m left to wonder how much funding NCL gets from NV Energy or other energy producers to force a 6 percent mandate of photo-voltaic solar energy in the Nevada Renewable portfolio standard, when it’s one of the most expensive ways to produce energy at this time.

Those high costs are part of the reason that manufacturing companies will not relocate to Nevada and we’re losing more jobs every day. NCL reported a $25,000 contribution in 2010 from the American Wind Energy Association. “AWEA supports policies to boost wind energy, including extension of the Production Tax Credit (PTC), establishment of a Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) …” Obviously, there’s no conflict of interest there. Yes, Nevada will produce some of the cleanest, most expensive energy on the planet. NV Energy and their corporate cronies and investors (in Canada) will continue to get rich, until there is no one here left to pay for it, except the occasional tourist, as the mining industry certainly isn’t going to pony up.

Newmont Mining has its own 242-megawatt coal-fired power plant in northeastern Nevada. If we expect manufacturing in Nevada to be competitive, we need a new approach to energy production in Nevada. It has become clear that tax-incentives do not provide real benefits, and developing utility-scale wind, solar and geothermal energy will not provide long term jobs or significant economic impact. We need to develop our renewable energy resources as a means to decrease energy costs and enable value-added manufacturing. That is exactly what Iceland did. They were able to bring themselves out of an economic recession by offering, 100 megawatts of clean, low-cost geothermal energy to Alcoa for an aluminum smelter.

Perhaps we could learn a lesson from Iceland and stop the Nevada Conservation League from making us use taxpayer and ratepayer money to subsidize the most expensive clean energy available. It seems to me the only jobs they’re interested in saving in Nevada are their own.

Lauren Scott
Reno

Dirty old men

Re “Sonic adults” (Guest comment, May 10):

Not allowing minors in bars has been around since the ancient juke joint days and before. So has the childish threat, “If we don’t get entrance to adult music venues, we’re going off and get in trouble with drugs and crime.” Want to lower the drinking age? Good luck. Check the 18-21 stats on driving, unwanted pregnancy, crime and substance abuse. I am really tired of every place in America being some version of “family friendly.” No smoking coffee houses are bad enough. To say that we now must be subjected to 18-year-old behavior everywhere we go takes all the fun out of being an adult. Amazingly, generations of musicians have grown and evolved without the benefit of their teenage peach faces being allowed into saloons. Also, do you really want minor girls around dirty old men?

Hank Sosnowski
Sparks

That’s very kind

Re “Positively Fourth Street” (Feature story, May 10):

I must say that for a while I meant to write to you to congratulate you on a great—and free!—weekly paper, which I love to pick up as I cycle around, ever since I moved to Reno from Europe last July. This week’s edition with yet more interesting articles got me to put finger to keyboard.

As a newcomer, I had no idea what Reno would be like and even less how life here would pan out, and I have to say it has been an amazing discovery. In my opinion, Reno is not only the world’s biggest little city but also a well kept secret. As you can imagine, coming from little old Europe, I feared I was moving to a land of just big cars and highways. But soon enough it was clear that cycling in Reno was no problem. I discovered the Bike Project on Fourth Street on my second day upon arriving, which made me immediately at home. There I met friendly, passionate and environmentally conscious people. That same day I bought an old burner bike, which, 10 months later, still carries me hassle free to work across town everyday as well as to the zillions of gorgeous bike trails in and out of Reno and Sparks.

On the subject of developing a bike path along the Reno-Sparks thoroughfare, I could not be more supportive. I want to recount a ride I took last autumn to a great concert at the Alley in Sparks. On the way there from Reno, I rode a beautiful path along the Truckee. On the way back, since it was a bit too dark to return the same way, I went along East Fourth Street. Unfortunately, that night they had some enormous potholes on the side of the road, which was being repaired but which had been badly signaled. I cycled right into one mega hole and nearly broke my neck. Thankfully, the owner of Abby’s Highway 40 happened to be riding by on his motorbike and stopped to help me up. He was so generous also as to call me a cab and store my bike in his bar so I could pick it up the next day.

In general, it seems to me that Reno has so far done a great job of integrating cyclists. And as drivers here are also on the whole particularly careful, reliable and kind, a happy cohabitation seems to be quite possible.

Zoe Bray
Reno

We’re tax slaves

Re “<3 a tax” (Letters to the Editor, May 3):

There’s a lot of love for taxation in the letters section lately, so I figured I should chime in with a different view. Taxation is violence enacted on free individuals. Taxes are a claim on your life. The payment you receive from your labor is your property. Government takes a claim on a portion of that property through law. Since government takes that property from the owner without any agreement, does the government own that property? If they do, then do they also own that labor? Of course if you tell the government that they don’t in fact own your life and labor, you are imprisoned. But what about the roads? But what about the police state? What about the guns that murder Mexican citizens? The drone warfare? The spying on American citizens? The failing public schools? The crony capitalism? The dictators? The oil subsidies? Endless wars? What about you? We are bribed with our own money, thinking that our own best interests cannot be chosen by ourselves.

John Kratky
Reno

Correction

Re: “Fame” (News, May 10):

A quote from school board candidate Diane Nicolet described parents as “the child’s first and only teacher.” That should have read, “first and always teacher.”