Letters for Friday, December 12, 2008

• Is project agro-communal?

• Yes to electric cars on Kaua‘i

• Lower the speed limit

• Why the Big Three are in trouble

• Tax each barrel of oil

 Is project agro-communal?

On Tuesday, the Kauai Planning Commission unanimously approved the zoning permits for a proposed 18-hole miniature golf course to be built next to Banana Joe’s here in Kilauea (“Agro-communal project approved,” A1, Dec. 11).

This project plans to operate this golf facility seven days a week from 10 a.m. till 10 p.m. with overhead lights that will illuminate the night skies here on the North Shore. This site is in the direct path of the endangered shearwater birds which fly over this site nearly every day.

There is also a proposed Park and Ride station for The Kauai Bus system there. The current bus system is not yet aware of it, since they already have a bus stop 1/4 of a mile away across from the Shell station.

How many bus stops does Kilauea need anyway? They are proposing to somehow conceal this golf course with landscaping using rare and endangered plants that will screen the course from outside disturbances such as the highway noise.

Now we can look forward to another wall of areca palms used as a fence for this screen which are certainly not rare or endangered. Last, but certainly not least, this developer plans for the next phase of this site, a 250-seat auditorium with a commercial kitchen for concerts, plays, weddings and any other events that they choose to hold at this facility. Can you imagine the amount of additional traffic that this mini-golf course and auditorium will generate for our two-lane highway here in Kilauea? Not to mention the overhead lights needed for both facilities. I can, and it will be change that we will not like.

 • James Gair, Kilauea

Yes to electric cars on Kaua‘i

Perhaps Sonja King should check out the new Tesla Roadster if she thinks electric cars will only go 35 mph. 

This particular electric vehicle will go 125 mph with a range of 200 miles. OK … so buying a Tesla will set you back about $100,000, but who said green was cheap? 

More moderately priced electric cars will easily go over 65 mph, which should get you from Kapa‘a to Wailua Golf Course in a reasonable amount of time (albeit at 4 a.m.).

I do agree with Sonja that we have serious traffic problems, but slow electric vehicles should be the least of our worries. 

 • Robin Clark, Kalaheo

Lower the speed limit

In response to Sonja King (“Electric Cars on Kaua‘i,” Letters, Dec. 11): My Global Electric Motorcar is legally limited to roads posted 35 mph or under, but for the busy golfer impatient to make tee time, may I suggest the all-electric Tesla Roadster which goes from 0 to 60 mph in under 4 seconds, has a top speed of 125 mph and has a range of 225 miles on a single, 3.5 hour charge.

Legally lowering the top speed to under 35 mph island-wide would make far too much sense, save lives, energy and the environment. No-nonsense folks in a hurry may favor the no-action-alternative which will naturally set a 35 mph (or slower) speed limit as Kaua‘i’s ever-increasing traffic pressures create a bumper-to-bumper island.

Slow down and experience Kaua‘i’s beauty while it lasts. But you better hurry because it’s fading fast.

• Ed Coll, Puhi

Why the Big Three are in trouble

Why are the Big Three auto companies in trouble?

The same reason America is having a crisis right now — bad management.

We need to stop hiring people we like, friends or relatives and start hiring the people best suited for the job.

Instead of making cars that would compete with Honda and Toyota in terms of gas milage and dependability, GM actually sued California’s initiative to raise gas milage and helped to kill their own electric car, the EV1.

Of course the oil companies pressured them, but at the end of the day who is in charge of GM, Ford and Chrysler?

So instead of producing better cars with better and better gas milage, all three decided to build bigger and bigger cars that no one now wants to own.

So all of us are now paying more at the pump because we got stuck with bad gas milage and now we get to pay the CEOs of the Big Three a nice fat bonus for doing a bad job.

Only in America.

We also need oversight into corporations that purchase companies with new green technology and then let these companies sit so that people cannot benefit from these new technologies.

The Big Three need to start making cars that are better than Honda and Toyota, and get much better gas milage and then we will stop buying foreign cars and we will not need to bail out our own car companies.

But let’s start by firing the heads of all three.

• Dennis Chaquette, Kapa‘a

Tax each barrel of oil

The United States should impose an “energy price tax” on each barrel of oil consumed in the U.S. and apply it to support new “green” technologies.

According to the International Energy Agency, we consume 7.7 billion barrels of oil annually. An energy price tax of $50 per barrel would generate $385 billion in revenue annually to revolutionize America’s energy base and create millions of new jobs — with no added deficits.

The tax would help create a “floor” price for oil and relieve the cycle of price swings that incent and then discourage investment in alternative energy. The tax would also move oil closer to its “life-cycle” cost — reflecting its “external” impacts on the environment, public health and national security, and the reality that excessive consumption by the current generation imposes higher costs for future generations.

The tax would have few negative impacts on consumers since its application to the current price would still mean sub-$100 per-barrel oil.

Even if oil settles at $80 as predicted, the tax would still result in a price below the peak of $145 per barrel set in July 2008.

Evidence from the 2008 run-up in oil demonstrates demand decreases only slightly in response to higher prices because consumers lack reasonably available alternatives. An energy price tax would yield more efficient and equitable pricing, speed up the diffusion of new technologies, and deliver real benefits to the people for a change.

• Joe Hommel, Waikapu, Maui