Energy deal
Energy deal
too many questions
The 20-year deal with Aina Koa Pono for renewable diesel fuel has several aspects I don’t like.
It is committing our island electricity customers to a deal that supposedly is sweetened by Oahu customers chipping in to pay for our electricity. If they are forced to pay for us, they are going to want something back, like a half-percent rise in our excise tax rates to pay for their financial disaster rail system. That’s a very bad deal right there; it makes me wonder if the buckets of money our current mayor is getting from Oahu are involved.
There seems to be a lot of arcane mumbo-jumbo about the cost. Just tell us in dollars per gallon so we can compare it to prices we see every day. If they don’t know or refuse to disclose the price, then we are buying a mystery, locked in for 20 years. Wall Street specializes in deals like that, not small town electrical suppliers. The price of wind, solar and ocean energy are coming down steadily and geothermal is not going up — unless Pele intervenes. The declining price of natural gas on the mainland is already impacting petroleum prices.
The price of energy is very complex and changing daily. I don’t like this 20-year, locked-in price, 5 years, maybe, but not 20.
Richard Swann
Ocean View
Deer concerns
A sickening idea
The letter in West Hawaii Today July 20 written by Thane Pratt shocked me. He stated that the State Farm Insurance Co. recently reported 1.09 million collisions between deer and vehicles occurred in the U.S. between July 1, 2010 and June 30, 2011 and he goes on to state “one in every 300 people on the mainland was in a car that hit a deer last year.”
He also notes that “the least likely state in which to hit a deer is still Hawaii.” But he still wishes to eliminate axis deer.
It could have occurred to him that the deer populations are not spread out over the entire mainland U.S.. The occurrences most likely are repetitive in areas where deer populations are dense like New York, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and other rural communities where there is still deer habitat.
The idea of eliminating wildlife in a world where so many species have already become extinct sickens me. Would “Silent Spring” become the nature of this planet?
The buffalo were nearly eliminated on the mainland, leading to the demise of the great hunting peoples — the indigenous Americans.
It is important the unfenced areas remain open and sustainable hunting and gathering be fostered and preserved. The dignity and the sanity of the Hawaiian people depends upon this.
Would you have this place turned into another concrete jungle? Is real estate all you see when you look at a field or woods?
Do you know the price of everything but the value of nothing?
Maybe Mr. Pratt would be happier living in Manhattan; I’ve never seen deer running in front of cars there.
Nancy Coppola
Kailua-Kona
Voting rights
Exercise your right
This week marks the 47th anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act, which outlawed discrimination in voting and has been instrumental in ensuring citizens’ voting rights are protected from nefarious state election laws.
Instead of celebrating, we have watched attempts to undermine this vital law in states across the country.
Voter photo ID laws were considered in 34 states in 2011 alone and it is estimated that 11 percent of the population does not have the type of identification required by many of these laws. Especially impacted are the elderly, people with disabilities, low-income voters and young people.
These new voting laws and requirements are unnecessary and costly.
Numerous studies have found that of the rare examples of voting irregularities, almost none are the kind that could be prevented by a photo identification law. And putting new voting laws and requirements in place is expensive.
Is this really how we want to spend our already stretched-too-thin state budget?
This election is really important. We’re not just voting for the president, we’re voting for education, health care, and our community. Everyone else is voting and so should you.
Be sure to visit Vote411.org for all the election information you need and share it with family and friends so that everyone votes Aug. 11th in November.
Donna Oba, Margaret Drake
Co-presidents
Hawaii County
League of Women Voters