Category Archives: loco

As Tip O’Neill never said, “All politics is loco.”

loco

Born OK the First Time

Watch very closely what is happening in the debate over evolution. Proponents of “Intelligent Design” (ID) insist they just want discussion; they want open-mindedness. Right. Anyone who believes Duhbya when he says it’s good to ask questions has never seen him at a press conference. His mind is made up — he wants YOU to question YOUR beliefs and realize his are the right ones.

ID is simply the latest facet of the culture war, the war being waged by Reactionaries against the rest of us. Don’t trust the media. Don’t trust the government. Don’t trust the courts. Don’t trust the teachers. Trust God and his chosen spokesmen. Believe completely what you are told by these few and no others.

Science is a path and a discipline. The term “pseudo-science” is sometimes applied to ID, but ID is, in fact, anti-science. ID says science CANNOT EVER explain the complexities of life. ID doesn’t just say evolution has so far failed to explain things — science can NEVER explain certain things. Accepting that means accepting that when you reach the limits of whatever you don’t yet understand, you cannot move beyond those limits. God starts at the edge of your ignorance. Under that view, the more ignorant you are, the closer you are to god.

I have a proposal to any proponent of ID. I will allow the possibility there was something divine involved at some point in the development of the Universe IF you will allow the possibility that there never, ever was a god and religion might be full of nonsense. We might both be correct. Fair enough? mjh

ABQjournal: From UNM, 2 Different Views; Biologist, Biochemist Share Their Thoughts By John Fleck, Journal Staff Writer

Intelligent design’s central claim is that living organisms have characteristics too complex to be explained by evolution, where random changes in DNA, survival of the fittest and lots of time are evoked to explain the diversity of life we see today. An unnamed “intelligent designer” must have been involved, the idea’s advocates claim. …

At its heart, the debate is a battle over the definition of science itself.

For more than 300 years, the fundamental goal of science has been to try to find naturalistic explanations for what we see in nature, according to University of New Mexico science historian Timothy Moy.

The resulting scientific method of observation, experiment, hypothesis testing and constant revision of ideas, scientists note, has been remarkably successfully at explaining the natural world and providing the technology that underpins modernity.

Invoking a supernatural being to explain the mysterious, as pre-scientific cultures had done, is not part of that process.

When, for example, physicists struggle with their inability to reconcile quantum mechanics and general relativity, it would never occur to them to invoke a supernatural being and call it solved. “That would not be a scientific argument,” Moy said. …

One of the problems driving the debate, according to Moy, is that science is so esteemed in modern society that everyone wants its stamp of approval for their body of knowledge.

I was stunned by that last assertion. If Moy really believes that, he is stunningly out of touch with America. We believe in God and the Devil and that both take a personal interest in our daily lives. We believe the Bible is literally true. We believe the Founders were Christian zealots. We believe Jesus rode dinosaurs. We believe Indiana Jones was a great archaeologist and Jurassic Park is coming soon. We believe Magic is more powerful than Science. mjh

ABQjournal: Intelligent Design Evidence Ignored By Paul Veers, Engineer

Intelligent design is neither bad science nor stealth creationism. It is a means of setting up mathematically verifiable tests for chance, necessity, or a third possibility, design.

If design is found, it could well raise the issue of its source. The ensuing discussion about the possibility of a creator is a separate issue to be dealt with outside the realm of science.

But it appears from the vehemence of the attacks against intelligent design that the scientific establishment intends to squelch even the possibility of following the evidence wherever it might lead.

Veers is so out-of-touch with the majority of ID supporters it is unreal. mjh

Penguins, People and a Grisly Bear Tale By George F. Will

“March of the Penguins” raises this question: If an Intelligent Designer designed nature, why did it decide to make breeding so tedious for those penguins? The movie documents the 70-mile march of thousands of Antarctic penguins from the sea to an icy breeding place barren of nutrition. These perhaps intelligently but certainly oddly designed birds march because they cannot fly. They cannot even march well, being most at home in the sea. …

But the penguins are made for that behavior in that place. What made them? Adaptive evolution. They have been “designed” for all that rigor — meaning they have been shaped by adapting to many millennia of nature’s harshness. …

Reality’s swirling complexity is sometimes lovely, sometime brutal; its laws propel the comings and goings of life forms in processes as impersonal as Antarctica is to the penguins ….. It is so grand that nothing is gained by dragging an Intelligent Designer into the picture for praise. Or blame.

Like Will, whom I seldom agree with, I thought a great deal about Intelligent Design during March of the Penguins, which is hardly scientific in its approach. If there was a designer of penguins, he was cruel and sadistic. mjh

ABQjournal: Theologians In Conflict Over Controversy By Paul Logan, Journal Staff Writer

“I would certainly have to say we don’t take the Book of Genesis literally — that God made the world in six days,” Sheehan said. “It’s a religious teaching and not a scientific teaching that Genesis gives.” …

There is a concern that the cardinal’s article could move the church away from evolution theory and toward intelligent design, he said.

Pope John Paul II spoke on evolution several times. In a 1996 message to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, he said:

“New knowledge leads us to recognize in the theory of evolution more than a hypothesis … The convergence, neither sought nor induced, of results of work done independently one from the other, constitutes in itself a significant argument in favor of this theory.”

“To tell the truth, more than the theory of evolution, one must speak of the theories of evolution … ”

Some scientists consider intelligent design a thinly disguised version of creationism. Thomas called it “creationism in a lab coat.” …

“The Roman Catholic Church does not accept Scripture literally,” Rev. Andy Pavlak, a Dominican priest, said.

I can’t wait to see evangelicals attack Catholics as lacking faith. I wonder if Catholics will ever regret joining forces with the Bible Literalists like our President. mjh

PS: the title of this entry (“Born OK the First Time”) was reported to me by friends who saw it on a bumper sticker.

Religion – RELIGION TODAY: Among influential American evangelicals, a sense of persecution persists – sacbee.comBy RACHEL ZOLL, AP Religion Writer

To outsiders, conservative Christians seem at the peak of their influence.

Books by evangelical pastors Rick Warren and Joel Osteen are multimillion best sellers, megachurches are building satellite congregations to meet demand, conservatives control Congress and, most importantly, religious activists helped put a Bible-believer in the White House.

Yet, many evangelicals still consider themselves a persecuted majority, hounded by “secular fundamentalists” intent on driving religion from public life.

Opponents find this view baffling. Bill Leonard, dean of Wake Forest University Divinity School in North Carolina and a critic of the religious right, says evangelicals consider themselves oppressed only because some Americans disagree with them.

“They want to be culture dominant,” Leonard said. …

The sense of being outsiders has historical roots as well. For much of the 20th century, liberal-leaning Protestants were considered the mainstream of American Christianity, while biblical traditionalists were generally marginalized and often mocked.

Starting around the 1960s, as mainline Protestant denominations started losing members, conservative churches were growing, yet evangelicals still felt shut out. A new emphasis on personal freedoms was pushing organized religion to the sidelines of public life.

U.S. Supreme Court decisions supporting abortion-rights and prohibiting public school officials from organizing or leading prayers and devotional Bible reading were also part of this troubling shift for evangelicals….

Behind the conflict about religion in public life is a debate within Christianity itself over how the Bible should be interpreted and which view should be considered the norm. Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson, head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, warned recently that Christianity is experiencing a “global identity crisis.”

Gibbs said conservative Christians need to accept that they live in a nation that is becoming ever more diverse, and that no single Christian group will have a “privileged voice” in society.

“You’ve got to find ways of being heard within that context,” Gibbs said. “But we shouldn’t get angry or try to reclaim the past.”

loco

I’m not laughing with Dimdahl, I’m laughing at him

ABQjournal: Richardson Won a Battle, But CYFD’s Bolson Won War By John Dendahl

Laugh of the Month: Richardson remains obstinate. Despite environment-friendly natural gas production on super-enviro Ted Turner’s Vermejo Park Ranch next door, drilling for natural gas in the Valle Vidal is vigorously opposed by some special interests. Vowing to do all he can to prevent Valle Vidal drilling, Richardson recently told the opponents, “We are not going to stand for special-interest management of the public domain.” Say what?

Lifelong New Mexican John Dendahl is a retired executive and political leader. E-mail: jdendahl@swcp.com

Those “special interests” Dimdahl denegrates include a diverse group of tree huggers like me plus hunters and outdoors people, Gary Fonay, former president of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, and Northern New Mexico rancher Alan Lackey, a Republican and a founding member of the Coalition for the Valle Vidal, who has pointed out the networks of roads and well pads that have sprung up on the Vermejo Park Ranch….

It is Dimdahl who remains obstinate and misleading. mjh

loco

Fool me twice, Shame on me

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA / Power line fails, 700,000 homes blacked out

In one of the most severe electricity problems since the energy crisis, blackouts hit Southern California on Thursday after a major transmission line was knocked out, cutting power to roughly 700,000 homes.

Just because the last crisis was a phony, created by a friend of Duhbya’s and leading directly to the rise of Republican Governor Schwartzeneggar, that’s no reason to be cynical about this crisis — this crisis is real, don’t you know. mjh

News > Business — FERC wants closure to energy crisis” href=”http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20050813-9999-1b13refunds.html”>SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Business — FERC wants closure to energy crisis

California has sought $9 billion in refunds for electricity and natural gas that it says was over-priced due to market manipulation by some of the nation’s biggest energy firms.

Reliant settles issues involving California energy crisis – 2005-08-15

Houston-based electricity provider Reliant Energy Inc. announced Monday morning that it has reached a $445 million settlement over litigation and regulatory investigations stemming from the sale of electricity during California’s energy crisis in 2000 and 2001.

loco

Distrust

Confidence In Military News Wanes By Josh White, Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 24, 2005; Page A04

The U.S. public’s confidence that the military and the media keep them informed about national security issues has eroded significantly over the past six years, according to a new poll that shows 60 percent of Americans believe they do not get enough information about military matters to make educated decisions.

According to a McCormick Tribune Foundation/Gallup poll scheduled for release today, Americans are more interested in national security than they were in the past. But only 54 percent of Americans say they feel the military keeps them well informed, down from 77 percent in 1999 — before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Similarly, the public grew increasingly skeptical of the news media’s efforts, with 61 percent of Americans saying that the media keep them well informed on military and national security issues, down from 79 percent in 1999. More than three-quarters of Americans also believe that the military occasionally provides false or inaccurate information to the media, according to the poll, which surveyed 1,016 adults during the first two weeks of June.

Don’t look far for who to blame for loss of public confidence: it’s the Republican Party’s fault. Oh, sure, we can single out countless individuals, with Karl Rove and Duhbya near the top of the list, but the Republican Party has ridden to near absolute power by undermining nearly every institution — the media, elections, the courts, science — through constant assault. They say corporate media is liberal (hah!). They say the founders were evangelical zealots. They say creationism is science. They say they’re making the world safer. So much nonsense being spewed. mjh

loco

Trust, but Verify

A friend wrote in response to my previous entry contrasting the way the Journal and the Sierra Club handled the story of Urenco and LES bringing nuclear materials refining to New Mexico. She mentions several things I should pass on to you and ignores a few things we should not.

For starters, she points out that the story of Urenco and Dr. A. Q. Khan, notorious nuclear pirate, is 30 years old and says nothing about Urenco today. I’m forced to glibly retort that I wonder if the kind of president Nixon was 30+ years ago really says nothing about Republicans today. OK, so maybe Urenco is stellar today. Haven’t Worldcom and Enron taught us to mistrust any corporate claims?

She mentions that this story has found new legs as part of a whisper campaign being put forward by a competitor. That’s news I am happy to pass on here, based on my trust of her research. She suggests it is bizarre that environmentalist are allied with this competitor. She is also very frustrated that environmentalists refuse to consider nuclear power as an alternative to more immediately destructive and widely used sources like coal (or, though she said nothing of this, as an alternative to less immediately promising sources like wind and solar). My friend is nearly a Vulcan in wishing all of society would weigh all of the options relatively and rationally. Sorry, it just doesn’t work that way, but bless her for wishing people, on the Left and Right, were more rational.

My friend and Moskos said nothing about how this plant is of a type that threatens to escalate nuclear proliferation. The “Stockholm International Peace Research Institute [has called] for a worldwide, permanent ban on centrifuge technology,” says Marilyn Berlin Snell in what my friend disparages as a “hit piece.”

<quote>One problem with Iran’s proposed enrichment facility is that, unlike the older, gaseous-diffusion technology to enrich uranium, centrifuge plants can be much smaller and use much less energy, making them harder to detect. Centrifuge plants, of which there are only a handful worldwide, can also be easily and covertly retooled to produce weapons-grade uranium, the key component in nuclear warheads.</quote>

This new centrifuge plant could be one of the reasons that Iran said just last week that the US has no grounds for moralizing with other countries on nuclear proliferation (nuclear bunker busters may be another reason); Moskos makes no mention of this in his “far more journalistically respectable look” at the issue.

One of the reasons Moskos so irked me was how he blithely quotes a guy who works for Urenco in repeatedly dismissing and downplaying any and every concern. Are we to simply accept these words because an engineer says them? “There is no issue regarding waste”; “You may store them [waste cylinders] in my back garden. I have no problem with that”; “Leakage is no discussion”; “the barrels … can be stored safely”; “The air coming out of our plant has less radioactivity than the air which goes inside.” Surely a guy who works for the company wouldn’t lie/exaggerate/tell us what we want to hear. Again, have we learned nothing from Enron, Worldcom or BushCo?

And surely a fine journalist like Moskos would have asked tough questions and corroborated these happy-face claims through other sources. Surely.

It may well be that the Sierra Club didn’t publish a dispassionate, fair and balanced report on Urenco/LES. It may also be that one shouldn’t expect investigative reporting from the “Spare Change” column. I see my role as connecting others to two radically different views and asking some questions. mjh

A little something about uranium hexafluoride — you’re soaking in it now!

Urenco: UD (English)

UF6 is not flammable, not explosive and inert in dry air. On the other hand, it reacts with water – the humidity of the air is sufficient – to undergo a rapid conversion into water soluble uranyl fluoride (UO2F2) and hydrogen fluoride (HF). In the presence of excess water hydrogen fluorine forms hydrofluoric acid, which may cause serious burns. But even at very low concentrations – long before a possible health threat – HF is clearly visible as a grey white fog.

—

In order to dispose of the byproduct, it must be changed from uranium hexafluoride back to the more chemically stable uranium oxide form. This process is called ?deconversion.?

There are no commercial deconversion facilities in the U.S. at this time. …

There are currently more than 700,000 metric tons (MTs) of byproduct owned by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) stored on site at these locations. LES will produce 7,800 metric tons per year at full production. …

Once the uranium hexafluoride byproduct has been ?deconverted? to uranium oxide, it can be disposed of in existing facilities or in abandoned mines. …

These facilities could bury the byproduct deep underground or contract with a company who owns an abandoned mine to bury the byproduct in its mine once the proper permits were obtained, for example, the Cotter mine in southern Colorado [mjh: west of Colorado Springs and Pueblo; can we assume the waste vehicles will go straight up I-25?].

http://www.nefnm.com/documents/infosheets/uranium.pdf

—

So, the low humidity of New Mexico may save our lives (except during monsoon season). At least you’ll see the big white fog coming towards you. And all this immensely safe waste will be shuttled all over. I can’t understand why environmentalists don’t just roll over. Let’s all buy furniture made out of nuclear waste! mjh

loco

Don’t worry, Be stupid

ABQjournal: Netherlands Nuclear Plant Is the Model for N.M.
By Harry Moskos, Of the Journal

Herald Voschezang says New Mexicans need not fret over stored waste from Louisiana Energy Services’ proposed $1.2 billion nuclear fuel factory in Lea County.

“There is no issue regarding waste,” Voschezang said as we walked through Urenco’s seven-building, 55-acre uranium enrichment facility in Almelo, located near the German border and about a 90-minute rail ride from Amsterdam. I was in Amsterdam in July, en route to Greece, and took a tour of the plant.

Urenco, with two similar plants in Great Britain and Germany, supplies about 19 percent of the worldwide nuclear power refining needs. The company describes itself as an independent, global group using its own centrifuge technology to do uranium refining for power generation.

The LES plant proposed for New Mexico near Eunice would be patterned after the Almelo plant and would be the first centrifuge uranium refinery in the United States. It would refine uranium for use as nuclear power plant fuel. …

LES would like to start construction next summer with a late-2008 completion date. The New Mexico plant would be the fourth in Urenco’s international network.

Voschezang, one of five shift managers at Almelo, said he sees no problems with storing waste in steel cylinders on site, as they do at Almelo.

“You may store them in my back garden. I have no problem with that,” he said as we looked over an open field with several hundred of the containers.

It is the storage of those cylinders containing uranium waste? “tails”? that is causing consternation in New Mexico. The New Mexico plant would generate about 8,000 tons of radioactive waste annually.

“Leakage is no discussion,” Voschezang added. “The enriched part of the uranium is used to make fuel, and you have the depleted part and that’s the tails. And that is what is in the barrels and they can be stored safely.” …

Each cylinder at the New Mexico plant would be 4 feet in diameter and 8 feet long. The cylinders would contain uranium hexaflouride, a substance that resembles rock salt. …

The New Mexico plant will employ about 210, including security, in the operation of the plant. This would be in addition to construction crews.

“Don’t worry,” Voschezang said, about having a facility that will process uranium for use as fuel in nuclear power plants. “And especially when you see the distances in New Mexico. Here, we are only two kilometers to the center of Almelo.”

Harry Moskos can be reached at 823-3837 or hmoskos@ abqjournal.com.

Did you read the Journal’s glowing account of the company that will build a dangerous nuclear processing plant in New Mexico? Didn’t it sound wonderful? I suggest you read the Sierra Club article about the same company — Urenco. Not nearly as chearleady. peace, mjh

Nuclear Proliferation Article Main Page – Sierra Magazine, May/June 2005 – Sierra Club

Sierra Magazine
Dangerous Liaisons
from the May/June issue of Sierra Magazine

The company whose nuclear secrets leaked to Iran and North Korea now wants to bring its know-how to New Mexico. What will be the fallout? …

Three decades ago, a brilliant young Pakistani metallurgist named Abdul Qadeer Khan managed to steal highly classified nuclear secrets while working in Amsterdam. It was a theft that would first shake Pakistan’s Chagai Hills test site, and ultimately the rest of the planet. Working for a firm that contracted with Urenco, a Dutch-German-British company that provides uranium-enrichment services to nuclear power plants, Khan had access to Urenco’s secret blueprints and manuals. He learned how to enrich uranium in centrifuges to make fuel for nuclear power plants but also for weapons. He took what he learned back to Pakistan, enriched uranium at the Dr. A. Q. Khan Research Laboratories, and helped his country build its first nuclear bomb. …

Centrifuge plants, of which there are only a handful worldwide, can also be easily and covertly retooled to produce weapons-grade uranium, the key component in nuclear warheads. …

The problem is that no one knows whether the 21st-century Urenco has plugged its security leaks.

“[Urenco’s] technology was stolen a long time ago and a lot has changed since then,” says Bruce Moran, an NRC staffer who monitors international nuclear safety. When asked to explain exactly what Urenco had done to ensure that its classified nuclear secrets were secure, a Urenco spokesperson told me that since the New Mexico plant will be an “LES enrichment facility,” I would need to speak with LES (even though, according to an LES spokesperson, the centrifuges will be assembled on-site by Urenco security-cleared contractors). I then asked LES vice president Marshall Cohen what had changed since A. Q. Khan’s day to close security loopholes. Cohen didn’t know offhand but repeatedly assured me, in calls, by e-mail, and in person, his company would provide an answer. It never did. …

In Hobbs, New Mexico, a boom/bust oil town of 28,000, the public is noticeably absent from February public hearings before the NRC’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, which will recommend whether to license the LES plant. City officials are solidly behind the idea, and local residents are desperate for new jobs. “Very few people have gone to these public hearings,” says Rose Gardner. “They trust our leaders to make the right decisions.” Gardner, 46, owns Desert Rose Flowers and Gifts in the tiny town of Eunice, 20 miles from Hobbs and 5 miles from the proposed site. On the first day of the weeklong hearings, she and retired Hobbs businessman Lee Cheney are the only members of the audience not associated with either the media or LES. …

“Congress is taking a basically hands-off approach; that LES is a private enterprise and under NRC jurisdiction so there’s no point in intervening,” he says. To the degree that there has been intervention, it has been boosterism on the part of Pete Domenici (R-N.Mex.), the powerful chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. In 2003, the senator pledged to aid LES by working “at all levels to help get through the long permit and regulatory process.” He then praised LES partner Urenco and its history of uranium enrichment in Europe. Of Urenco’s past performance, he added, “We can expect as much here.” …

Senator Domenici is an old friend of the energy industry. He was the top Senate recipient of money from electric utilities (which include nuclear power plants) during the 2002 election cycle. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, he received more than $175,000 from electric utilities alone, and more than $400,000 from the energy and natural-resources sector overall.

In interviews with the Santa Fe New Mexican, Domenici has expressed a desire to create a “nuclear corridor” along a 60-mile stretch of the Texas-New Mexico border, where radioactive waste dumps and the LES facility would support existing nuclear power plants and new plants around the country. Though no new nuclear power plants have been ordered since 1978, plans are now in the pipeline to relicense 18 reactors at 9 power plants nationwide. The LES centrifuge project would fuel the renaissance.

loco

Perspectives

ABQjournal: Wilson, City Councilor Tour Valle Vidal
By Martin Salazar, Journal Northern Bureau

Northern New Mexico rancher Alan Lackey hoped he was nevertheless able to drive home the point that even the most environmentally conscientious drilling scars the land with its network of roads, pipelines, well pads and utilities? all visible on Ted Turner’s Vermejo Park Ranch, which is being drilled.

The drilling also depletes natural resources like water, Lackey said, adding that for each well that’s drilled an estimated 1 million gallons of ground water has to be pumped out before it can start producing. …

Lackey? a Republican and a founding member of the Coalition for the Valle Vidal? pointed out the networks of roads and well pads that have sprung up on the Vermejo Park Ranch and in southern Colorado.

As I read today about damage from drilling on Vermejo, I remembered John Dimdahl’s nonsense of 6 months ago. mjh

ABQjournal: Environmentalists Hijack Public Land Multiple Use By John Dendahl, For the Journal
Friday, March 4, 2005

How can those of us wanting balanced public land use be assured that drilling won’t spoil Valle Vidal? The first place to look is in the “environmentalists'” own back yards. Ted Turner, a major financial supporter of the environment movement, owns the Vermejo Park Ranch. An educated guess of his royalty income from gas production is several million dollars a year.

Turner’s ranch hands reportedly ask guests to play the game, Find a Well. There are hundreds of wells on the ranch, yet they are so inconspicuous guests rarely make a find. …

The important point here, though, isn’t the lying and hypocrisy, it’s that production of oil or gas is being achieved at Vermejo and Rainey with essentially no land, water or wildlife damage. …

There are myriad reasons familiar to nearly all of us why we should develop domestic sources of oil and natural gas. Despite dated, obstructionist hype, the needed development can — and will — go hand-in-hand with sound environmental protection.

If Ted Turner and the Audubon Society can write contracts with producers that protect their land and water, so can the U.S. Forest Service and the BLM.

Richardson needs to tell his “environmentalist” pals to take a long, enjoyable hike — maybe go look for wells at Ted Turner’s place up north.

Lifelong New Mexican John Dendahl is a retired executive and political leader. E-mail: jdendahl@swcp.com

mjh’s blog — Search Results for Dimdahl

mjh’s Blog: anti-environmentalists

ABQjournal: Letters to the Editor
Sunday, August 14, 2005

Regarding the Corporate Welfare Act of 2005….

Billions for Billionaires

Why should the oil and gas industry require something on the order of $15 billion in tax breaks when for instance, Exxon/Mobil in one single quarter made on the order of $35 billion in profit? Exactly what kind of an energy strategy does that comprise other than giving huge amounts of money to companies already swimming in money. … And just how will that make us less dependent on foreign oil? Simple, it won’t!
ALAN PEZARO
Sandia Park

Energy Bill a Gift to Big Oil

America needs a new kind of energy strategy, but this energy bill is just another corporate giveaway which fails to help Americans at the gas pump, and deepens our dependence on foreign oil and does not diminish pollution.

The conservative Heritage Foundation said that “we’ll be dependent on the global market for more than half our oil for as long as we’re using oil, and the energy bill isn’t going to change that.”

America needs a new, visionary program for energy independence. …
REV. LARRY BERNARD
Laguna

Fuel Wasted on Energy Bill

WE USED how many pounds of jet fuel for Air Force One and how many pounds of jet fuel for commercial planes in a holding pattern while Air Force One landed and departed? all to fly in and sign an energy bill, which presumably could have gone in to law no matter where it was signed?

Perhaps if our elected leaders led by example, our energy woes would be a step closer to being resolved.
GREGORY ROTHROCK
Albuquerque