• Enough already • Vacation rental hypocrisy • Solar power is wiser • Where did you hear that? Enough already I hope those that read state Sen. Gary Hooser’s article in the “Leading Voices” column in the Forum on Tuesday
• Enough already
• Vacation rental hypocrisy
• Solar power is wiser
• Where did you hear that?
Enough already
I hope those that read state Sen. Gary Hooser’s article in the “Leading Voices” column in the Forum on Tuesday also read “The Tax Man” article by Lowell Kalapa on page A6.
Those two articles should have been side by side. While Hooser mentioned HB1271 and how it should not be vetoed, and that it would generate millions of dollars, he failed to mention that this is the “barrel tax” bill destined to help empty the taxpayers’ pockets.
This bill is increasing the tax from 5 cents to $1.05 per barrel of petroleum and will be passed on to consumers in higher service and goods cost. Rep. Mina Morita helped write this bill.
When will our elected officials understand that increased taxes mean less money for the wage earner in the long run.
Yes, we need to develop renewable energy and be a more self-sufficient island but not always at the expense of the taxpayer. Enough already!
Joye Irwin, Kalaheo
Vacation rental hypocrisy
It was shocking to hear individuals that live in Hanalei (not from Kaua‘i) at the Planning Commission meeting regarding vacation rentals Tuesday.
Some of these individuals actually spoke against vacation rentals that at one time either rented their home as a “vacation rental” or used to stay in a “vacation rental” right where they currently live today. It was OK for them to rent one or rent their home as one, but now that they have chose to live in that neighborhood they don’t like it.
Wow! You should be ashamed and embarrassed. The hypocrisy you have no place saying anything about vacation rental rentals in Hanalei and you know who you are. Shame on you.
Noelle Barnes, Hanalei
Solar power is wiser
Burning trash to produce electricity is not a wise choice.
Burning trash pollutes the air we breath with toxic unburned hydro carbons and burning plastic produces cyanide gas. Burning trash, cigarettes, gasoline, diesel fuel, sugarcane and household rubbish is bad for our health.
Air pollution causes and aggravates many diseases. Asthma, emphysema and cardio-pulmonary (heart and lung) diseases are negatively influenced by toxic by-products of combustion. Our health is adversely affected by tobacco smoke, 55-gallon backyard incinerators, Port Allen’s diesel-powered generators, petroleum-burning cars and trucks and sugar companies burning cane trash and plastic drip tubing. It’s against the law to burn anything that adversely impacts anyone’s health. I check with Rod Yama at the Board of Health.
Westside residents have a high rate of asthma and hopefully the sugar company will stop burning soon as this is their last year to harvest sugarcane. Wouldn’t it be better if they grew mangos, lychees and good food crops and planted flowering cover crops to stop erosion instead of growing a crop that contributes to tooth decay and diabetes?
The home we live in is powered via the sun by photovoltaic panels and works great with silent power 365 days a year. The slopes of unused land on the Westside could produce all of Kaua‘i’s electrical needs. Windmills are noisy, inefficient and kill birds. Burning trash pollutes our air and is bad for our health. Sun power is abundant, efficient and affordable. Photovoltaic electrical generation is a wiser choice.
Kawika Moke, Kekaha
Where did you hear that?
In response to Gordon LaBedz’s “Do a triple ‘R’ solution” concerning “burning trash for electricity” I have to wonder where LaBedz gets his information?
Surely not from The Garden Island newspaper, whose journalist Coco Zickos wrote an excellent and accurate account of what WRE and Carbon Tech, as well as Jose Bulatao and myself, are attempting to bring to Kaua‘i.
Nowhere in Coco’s article does it mention a word about burning Kaua‘i’s trash, solid, plastics or green waste in “trash incinerators.”
It mentions the following: a simple solution for turning trash into a renewable resource treasure that won’t cost the taxpayers one red cent; bringing a municipal recycling facility to Kaua‘i in collaboration with Western Renewable Energy and Carbon Tech; $100 million WRE has already set aside for the project, the potential for the island to become almost entirely self-sustainable in a few years; and, most importantly, the MRF would convert Kaua‘i’s green waste into alternative fuel pellets which could then be burned to generate heat in an “earth-friendly manner” and create electricity for the island.
Coco ends the article with the ultimate objective: sustainability. Not one mention was made of “incineration of trash” in Coco’s article so I ask, where did that idea come from?
The “green pellets” will burn clean and will be manufactured on Kaua‘i. That is WRE/CT’s objective if we can receive the support of the “body politic.”
John Hoff, Lawai
