Letters 4-6

Age discrimination

Older folks need to educate the young

To the man with the age discrimination issue: It’s up to us older folks to educate the young, ignorant and clueless. Report them to EEOC, it’s free.

Lottie Tagupa

Waikoloa

Free market competition

Kudos to neighborly propane supplier

Puna District residents are the winners in this “war” (West Hawaii Today’s words).

Good on Mr. Hamocon for his neighborly gesture and wanting to help the community by supplying propane gas at a small profit instead of what the market will bear. Maybe his overhead is lower so he is able to pass it on to his customers and still make a small profit.

It’s called good will and free market competition, but beware the equalizers in our society who want to make it fair. How will they do this? Dictate the price? Give coupons to those who don’t earn enough to buy the high-priced spread? Start a government supply source to compete with existing civilian sources (think state bank)? Tax them differently? Find OSHA violations? Oh, the possibilities are infinite aren’t they?

Michelle “Mike” Kerr

Waikoloa

Electric vehicles

We should praise
the mayor’s effort

I am writing to express an alternative view on the Hawaii County’s bid process for electric hybrid vehicles as detailed in a March 22 article in WHT. The article seemed to take the local Chevy Volt dealer to task for actually having the vehicles on hand that it was bidding to sell to the county.

Considering that customers have waited many months to get one of these new electric cars, I am mystified as to why we shouldn’t congratulate the bidder for being able to deliver immediately if it should win the bid.

It seems here in West Hawaii we have become accustomed to waiting. Waiting for road improvements, waiting for HELCO reforms, etc. So now we are suspicious of someone who is actually prepared to deliver on a commitment.

I am a proud owner of a Chevy Volt, which we purchased off island when the local dealer was telling customers it was not equipped ever to sell the Volt. So, I have no affiliation with the local dealer.

The article quoted a Denver consultant who says, “The Volts cannot be justified from a cost standpoint period.” He went on to say this could change if “… gasoline prices change dramatically.” I wonder if he knows a gallon of gas costs around $5 now in West Hawaii. The Volt can go 35 miles, according to the EPA, on a charge. Mine averages 40 miles. (The article said it was 100 miles. I wish.)

For many of us, even in commercial or public service roles in West Hawaii, 40 miles of driving would often be a full day. After all, we live on an island and we don’t have interstate highways as they have in Denver.

The new county facility has photo voltaic panels and charging stations. If the Volts are then recharged using free photo voltaic power, the fuel costs for local driving could be zero dollars, and the Volts actual mpg results would calculate to be infinity. When the Volts need to be driven to Hilo or to other distant places, they will burn gasoline with an EPA rating of 37 mpg. (Mine has been getting 39 mpg, but this depends on use of A/C, driving style, etc.) The article compares the Volt’s 37 mpg rating to the Prius’ 49 mpg rating, but fails to say the Prius is always burning gasoline, even for local driving.

Let’s say on a given day a Volt needed to be driven 72 miles, possibly to Hilo, so there is no opportunity to recharge. Using EPA numbers, that would be 35 miles on the electric charge and 37 miles on gasoline. The car would use one gallon of gasoline to go 72 miles, for a result of 72 mpg. That is more than 49 mpg for a Prius.

As I mentioned, the Denver consultant said the cost of the Volts cannot be justified. To be so sure, he would need to know how the cars will be driven, how many miles they will be driven each day and what the cost of gasoline will be here in West Hawaii next year, two years out, etc.

Even if, by chance, a clairvoyant person’s calculation turns out to suggest the Volts would have a slightly higher cost, I think we should admire the mayor’s desire to “lead by example.”

Did anyone tell us getting away from foreign oil purchases and, for that matter, moving manufacturing jobs back to our country was going to be free and easy?

Thomas Lullo

Kailua-Kona