Opinion - Letters to the Editor

Thursday, Aug. 21, 2008

Letters to the Editor

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Ending oil dependency

i want to thank your editors and reporters for giving the kind of attention to developments in “green car technology” and energy conservation that I think they deserve. The piece from the San Jose Mercury News on the future of plug-in hybrids on Aug. 9 was particularly appreciated.

Perhaps you are giving attention because this area — and Los Angeles and San Francisco — deserve to get attention. Locally, we have the Green Car Journal, the Air Pollution Control District with its C5 alternative vehicle program, an electric car distribution start-up, Revolution Electric Cars and hundreds of people interested in tech alternatives to $4 per gallon gas (A forum on electric car conversions had at least 100 participants at Cal Poly recently).

It is, however, distressing how many people still aren’t getting the message. My wife and her daughter have noted how the SUVs seem to be back on the road (again) and barreling down the highway as per usual. I’ve concluded, also, that we would much rather drill than make attempts at conservation — very sad.

Believe me, we have no time to waste reducing our dependencies on expensive crude oil.

William L. Seavey

Cambria

Who killed the planet?

Regarding Gary Kirkland’s letter of Aug. 16:

I believe he is confused on the issue of global warming.

I cannot claim to be a climatologist, nor can I claim to necessarily be respected, but as I understand it, he is underestimating the effects of global climate change.

He pooh-poohs the calamity we face in a change of mean temperatures by a few degrees. A change in, say, 4 degrees is not simply the difference between 75 and sunny and 79 and sunny. It is an index of the energy contained within the planet’s weather patterns. A few degrees up and we start seeing massive hurricanes and other catastrophic weather events previously unseen. The letter claims that “respected” climatologists can back these assertions, yet fails to mention a single one.

With all due respect, the letter is an example of the simplistic intellectual approach required to justify the arguments of those who deny global climate change: There used to be glaciers everywhere. Now there are not. So, obviously, global warming is natural.

This logic is better reserved for the confines of the board game “Clue.”

Who killed the planet? Why, it was Mr. Consumer, with a gas can, in the garage.

Justin Pheley

Los Osos

Billions for oil

In regards to Hal Holzinger’s letter (Aug. 10), he can’t seem to understand why we aren’t getting some of that “Muslim” oil in Iraq. We have indeed spent billions in their country, why don’t they give us some of that oil?

Wouldn’t our billions spent there actually have been better used here at home? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could actually have some sort of high-speed train linking our metropolitan cities? Just think of how much less dependent we would be on that “Muslim” oil. Oh yeah, that would take billions of dollars.

Mark Emmons

Paso Robles

The gullible electorate

I guess we have to keep saying it: In May, several congressional committees held hearings calling upon industrialists, financiers, scientists and other experts to testify regarding oil prices. The overwhelming consensus was “We can’t drill our way to lower oil prices,” “Supply and demand plays a diminished role in our current situation” and “Speculators are responsible for up to 50 percent of the price of oil.”

These results were reported at a news conference I watched on C-SPAN. I did not see this reported on the evening network news.

Recently, the Senate tried to pass a carefully crafted bill to limit, restrict and regulate oil speculators, which could bring down oil prices quickly. The Republicans sabotaged it. They demanded provisions for drilling!

They continue to take partisan advantage of the ignorance and gullibility of the American electorate—plus the blind obedience of their base.

Remember, it was due to largesse in the Republican Congress of 2000, Republican Sen. Phil Gramm manipulated a bill preventing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) from overseeing energy speculators, thus, the “Enron Loophole.” (Google it.)

In spite of handwaves by a toothless CFTC, those speculators continue their rape of the market and the public.

Today, Phil Gramm (“a nation of whiners”) is still John McCain’s unofficial economic adviser in spite of his recent blunders.

Charlie Lawrence

Paso Robles

False budget claim

R egarding “Cal Poly engineering dean meets resistance” (July 14):

The article includes the false claim by the university’s administration that the budget deficit of the College of Engineering was caused by the electrical engineering department.

In fact, the electrical engineering deficit was resolved through internal adjustments and payment from discretionary funds. But this deficit was caused in part by Dean Noori’s discontinuation of promised funding to allow reduced workloads for three new faculty in their first year of teaching.

The real cause of budget deficits is increases in the dean’s office staff and the very large salary increases passed out by the dean to staff. To put the current dean’s office staff of 20 in perspective, when I first joined the faculty, the dean’s office consisted of a full-time dean and secretary and a half-time associate dean.

The five senior faculty named in the article have a stellar record of leadership on campus. Unny Menon has served as senate chair, department chair, associate dean and assistant to the provost; James Meagher has served as department chair; Rakesh Goel is currently department chair; Frank Owen serves as an elected California Faculty Association official; and I have served as chair of electrical engineering with 40 years of service at Cal Poly.

Michael M. Cirovic,

Cal Poly

Significant birthday

Bert Collier turned 90 on Aug. 7. This is significant, because Bert served in the military during World War II. He was in Pearl Harbor when bombed by the Japanese and later parachuted into Normandy. Last year, Bert was treated to a trip to the cities he helped liberate from the Germans, and the local people were appreciative of what Bert and his fellow soldiers accomplished. Happy birthday, Bert.

Jerry Crawford

Morro Bay