Published: 6:16?p.m.?Sunday,?March?4,?2012
Alternative energy flop
Alternative energy companies and their shareholders are hurting, even though our government has verbalized a desire to move on our alternative options more aggressively. Some companies have been forced to declare bankruptcy because of the higher cost of materials like silicon and the lack of actual growth of that market. Incentives for solar energy have been lacking.
Government talks a good game about supporting investments in solar and other alternative energy options, but actions speak louder than words.
The previous administration also stated support for alternative energy, but it too failed in honestly promoting the industries.
In addresses in both George W. Bush elections, he stated his administration?s support of alternative energy, but we never saw the actions of support and incentives.
The truth is that gas and oil companies rule, and unless these companies delve into the alternative market themselves, we will not see any real growth in alternative energy markets. Wealthy lobbies and extravagant campaign contributions, gifts and perks ensure it.
Peter Stern
pstern@austin.rr.com
Driftwood
Capital punishment cost
Re: Feb. 24 article, ?Price tag of executions soars after drug switch.?
It is ludicrous to suggest that the cost of the drugs used in Texas executions, less than a fraction of even one month of imprisonment, has a place in any serious discussion of the death penalty. If one were genuinely concerned about the cost of capital punishment, one instead could have focused on the far greater cost of legal fees and incarceration for the protracted appeals process. This argument is a particularly hypocritical exercise in hyperbole given that opponents of the death penalty do everything they can to frustrate the process, making it expensive from trial to execution.
Mike Rodriguez
Austin
Creative writing
Re: Feb. 27 Tom Palaima commentary, ?The wonder of our own handwriting.?
I was delighted to see Palaima praising the benefits of personal handwriting and bemoaning the fact that cursive is on its way out.
Handwriting is not only an artistic activity, something we desperately need to cultivate today, but an expression of the human ego, the part of us that says ?I am? in the world. Technology tends to lump us all into a rigid mode of communication, and working artistically balances that. This in addition to the lovely points he made about the historical and sentimental sides of handwriting.
This would be worth protesting strongly.
Melanie Richards
klavier46@msn.com
Round Rock
Protest restriction
Re: Feb. 24 Texas Digest brief, ?New rule could ax women?s program.?
This brief said that Texas Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Tom Suehs signed a rule that the State of Texas will no longer ?provide funds to a clinic that is affiliated with an organization that provides abortions, even if that institution does not provide abortions itself.
The law is intended to cut off government support for Planned Parenthood clinics.?
This program will be instituted by the end of this month and will affect 130,000 Texas women who use the Women?s Health Program for cancer screenings, well-women exams and contraception. This law is a political invasion into the personal rights of Texas women.
It?s time for Texas women to email, call, post and march into 2012 equality.
Jo Ann Farabee
Austin
Inattentive drivers
Re: Feb. 28 article, ?Acting on safety fears, government set to require rearview cameras in cars.?
This article says that 100 children a year are killed by inattentive drivers backing over them. So, beginning in 2014, the federal government will mandate a camera on the back of every car with a monitor visible to the driver.
This ?will cost the auto industry as much as $2.7 billion a year, or $160 to $200 per vehicle. At least some of the cost is expected to be passed to consumers with higher prices.?
Some of the cost? Where could the rest be coming from? A more accurate article would have mentioned that averages at least $27 million per child who would have been killed, if and only if those same inattentive drivers take care to look at the TV monitor.
Larry Dacunto
Austin
Distracted drivers
Article source: http://www.statesman.com/opinion/alternative-energy-flop-capital-punishment-cost-creative-writing-2216535.html
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