• Vote for getting the job done • Making a living no excuse • Greenhouse gases getting worse • Won’t shop at Koloa stores until trees full grown Vote for getting the job done Anyone can write a letter to
• Vote for getting the job done
• Making a living no excuse
• Greenhouse gases getting worse
• Won’t shop at Koloa stores until trees full grown
Vote for getting the job done
Anyone can write a letter to the editor. You just have to know who to pay attention to. Dave Camp has been complaining about all the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative directors since the 2005 nominating committee rejected his application to be on KIUC’s board (“KIUC board continuity not a worthy goal,” Guest Viewpoint, March 1). Paul Lucas, another KIUC-director-want-a-be who the voters rejected in KIUC’s first election, has complained about the utility since before it was even a co-op (“KIUC needs to wake up,” Guest Viewpoint, Feb. 27). For him it goes all the way back to when Kauai Electric kicked him off the list of approved solar contractors.
Sounds like a lot of sour grapes to me. I’m sure that Kaua‘i is best suited to be directed by people who have been successful in local business and understand local problems. Dennis Esaki has shown exactly the right mix of concerns for KIUC — concern for the residents, concern for employees and concern for the island. He has pushed for projects that make sense and are practical, like expanding the program helping people get their own solar hot water system to cut their bills and save electricity. With Dennis as chairman of KIUC, they started work on a wind farm to produce electricity, and the Green Energy project the county Planning Commission just approved will start construction soon so a portion of the electricity will come from wood grown on Kaua‘i. These are practical projects that practical people, like Dennis, can make work. Unfortunately, KIUC directors only serve for three years before needing to be re-elected and three years is nowhere nearly long enough to get a project completed, no matter how fast you work. It has taken the Green Energy project almost three years just to get the permits it needs from the county — it will probably take another five years at the earliest to get it up and running. Before construction on wind turbines can begin it takes a year to collect bird data and another year to collect wind data, and then who can guess how long for county permits. My point is that you need people who are willing and capable of seeing the long process completed, not people who like to grandstand by making promises that no one can deliver.
Most of you know Dennis Esaki, Phil Tacbian and Peter Yukimura are running for re-election to KIUC. A vote for them is a vote for actually getting the job done.
Bobby Morris
West Sacramento, Calif.
Making a living no excuse
Anne Brookstone says that if you stand up to developers you are just hurting everyday people (“Vandalism as protest?” Letters, March 9).
Who says everyday people get a pass from doing what’s right? People who claim that they have to do something immoral for financial reasons no longer get a pass from me. There are many ways to make a living without offending a community. What happened in Koloa town was immoral. I feel sorry for the perpetrators of this offense. Just because you will face no criminal charges in the human world does not mean the spirits of those trees are going to let you walk away clean. Anybody who thinks it’s okay to profit off of a blatant desecration of a special place on this island is a fool. If you got a check for killing those trees, I’d suggest burning that cursed piece of paper and stop listening to people like Anne Brookstone who are obviously disconnected from the real source of energy in this world. If this sounds judgmental, good. Every day I’m sick to my stomach from the stupidity of greed and ignorance that has swallowed the South Shore of this island.
Jason Nichols
Koloa
Greenhouse gases getting worse
I wish to answer two questions that William Rusher asked in his article (Forum, March 5) “Global-warming doubters strike back.”
He asked, whatever happened to acid rain and the ozone hole? Both of these issues were, and to some extent continue to be, serious environmental issues. In both cases, worldwide decisive action managed to reduce or eliminate the problem.
In the case of the ozone hole, still quite large but not growing any worse, CFCs were gradually replaced by ozone-friendly refrigerants. Despite this, it may take many more years for the damage to the ozone layer to fully correct itself. In order to reduce acid rain, sulfur dioxide emissions that were mostly the cause of the problem were reduced by smoke stack scrubbers and by other means. Lakes and rivers improved greatly by these measures.
Today we face a new global environmental threat of increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, but have yet to act decisively as we have in the past to begin to correct the problem.
Thomas Najarian
Los Osos, Calif.
Won’t shop at Koloa stores until trees full grown
Stacey Wong has long been telling us that the new trees he will plant in Koloa will soon be the size of the old ones, and in a few years we won’t even notice the difference.
That’s good news. Because as soon as the new trees are the size of the ones he just tore down, I and my family and friends will begin to shop in his stores. Until then, none of us will ever spend a dime there.
Stacey and his high-rent tenants will have no worry — unless his trees take a little longer to grow than he expected — and unless it just so happens that I am not alone.
John Patt
Koloa
