Letters: Carbon emissions | Voluntary acts | Floodwaters | Respect the office | Buried bar
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Simple fix could slice
carbon emissions
This state loves to tell its citizens what they have to do to fight climate change. Why can’t the state participate too?
I see every day where the state can easily save 20 billion pounds of carbon from going into the air each year and could save more. (1 gallon of gas emits 20 lbs. of carbon.) Just adjust the traffic lights to cut down on unnecessary stops and idling time. We burned nearly 14 billion gallons of fuel in 2021. With the tweaking of traffic light cycles a billion gallons could probably be saved. The gas tax revenue shortfall can be made up with cap-and-trade funds, which are now funding probably the number one carbon-producing public works project in the nation, the high-speed rail train. (One yard of concrete produces 400 pounds of carbon.)
The problem is union power and revenue collection will always win in this state.
William Ortendahl
Santa Clara
Voluntary acts won’t
stop climate change
Responding to Martha and Carl Plescia’s letter to the editor published in The Mercury News on Jan. 18 (“End unnecessary travel to save planet,” Page A6), most of us agree we should modify our behavior in response to climate change. We should all be aware that our lifestyles in the affluent world contribute significantly to climate change.
But volunteer efforts to mitigate against climate change are not going to get the job done. In his book “How the World Really Works,” Canadian professor Vaclav Smil describes how difficult it will be to wean ourselves from fossil fuels.
Effective action against climate change must be with policy and laws. And the best policy is a carbon fee on all carbon emissions. Republican Sen. Mitt Romney stated recently that a carbon tax is the No. thing that will help curb global emissions and rising temperatures. Please make your voices heard to get the legislation we need to effectively reduce carbon emissions.
Rob Hogue
Menlo Park
Sites Reservoir wouldn’t
hold back floodwaters
I do not agree with Ed Kahl (“Sites Reservoir could guard against floods,” Page A6, Jan. 18) that the Sites Reservoir would provide protection against flooding. Per the “35 Key Figures” listed in the Jan. 17 Mercury News, the Sacramento River flow increased by over 1 million gallons per second during these storms, which is 133,681 cubic feet per second. Per Wikipedia, the pumps/canals to move water from the river to the reservoir are sized at 5,900 cubic feet per second, only 5.9% of the flow increase.
I also question his statement “it is less expensive per acre-foot than other proposals.” The Stanford Woods Institute stated the cost of groundwater recharge is between $90 and $1,100 per acre-foot, which is significantly less than the $2,166 per Kahl’s numbers. And having federal funds available does not reduce the cost. It shifts the cost from water users and state taxpayers to federal taxpayers.
Max Steinke
San Jose
Warriors forgot
to respect the office
Re. “‘Dub Nation is in the house,’” Page A1, Jan. 18:
The Golden State Warriors refused to meet former President Trump in the White House but went there to meet Joe Biden instead.
It’s the office of the president that needs to be respected, not who lives there.
Fan Jiao
Morgan Hill
Trump buried the bar
where lying is concerned
Regarding the question raised in Neil Bonke’s Letter to the Editor on Jan. 18 (“GOP should take chance to expel George Santos,” Page A6), “One wonders when lying became ethical” — it became ethical when Donald Trump told 30,573 lies during his four years in office, without consequence. The bar has been set so low it is underground.
By this standard, George Santos is still okay.
Donna Munic
San Jose
Setting the record straight
An editorial appearing in Thursday’s Opinion section misstated that President Biden had nominated Gigi Sohn as chair of the Federal Communications Commission. The president nominated Sohn to serve on the FCC.