High River project will help the region
I would like to go on record voicing my support for the High River Energy Center.
I believe that this project will be an asset to our community.
A partnership with NextEra Energy Resources has and will continue to support our communities by providing clean renewable energy, through conservation of our environment and rural setting, creating jobs and new revenue.
The High River Energy project allows for migration paths for large animals such as whitetail deer, moose, bear and coyotes.
In the planning there are also allowances for vegetative screening, which would provide additional homes and habitats for native wildlife.
A solar array project can help retain our agricultural setting and heritage.
This project will provide jobs both during the construction phase and when at capacity. Construction is expected to create 180 jobs.
While three to four full-time positions will be created over the lifetime of the project.
The High River Energy project will also support the local farms involved which provide employment for over forty people.
Solar projects allow farmers to keep their land while diversifying their income.
The High River Energy Project is set to pay over $11 million into our communities. The town of Florida alone is projected to receive over $4 million throughout the life of the project.
The remaining money would be distributed to Montgomery County and the Amsterdam school district.
Please consider all the ways that this proposed project could help our communities thrive.
Shelly Hutchison
Amsterdam
If you want change, then get involved
On Oct. 23, a threat was made online towards two Schenectady middle schools.
The all-clear was given on Oct. 24, with the district and police saying it was just a “prank.”
Facebook comments exploded with the usual vitriol and distrust (earned in my opinion) of it being a prank and how the situation was handled.
Sadly, most of these people commenting on Facebook are also the ones that never attend a school board meeting or are not of the 1.3% of eligible voters in Schenectady who voted during the last school board elections.
I completely understand peoples’ anger and frustration.
What I do not understand is their lack of desire to do anything about it.
If you want to effect change, then you must become involved.
Register to vote, show up at board meetings, not just when there is a controversy but at least a few times a year as well.
Research candidates, the League of Women Voters normally has a meet-the-candidate night, sadly the attendance is usually in the low 40s at best.
Then once you find a candidate you believe in, help them get elected, canvass, phone text-bank for them.
But don’t just sit and do nothing but complain and then question why nothing changes and why nothing improves.
If you wish to know why it doesn’t, then simply look in the mirror.
Edward J. Smith Jr.
Schenectady
High prices caused by myriad factors
There have been a few letter writers to The Gazette that are saying price increases are due solely to our current leadership in government and their supposed left leaning.
I doubt this is the case. One does not need to be an economist to see it is supply and demand that are driving our economy.
Recently at my deer-hunting camp, two guests were talking about a unique and hard-to-get type of rifle. When one guest said they had this rifle, the other guest said, ‘I’ll buy it from you.’
The guest with the rifle said, “OK, but since you told me it is very hard to obtain, I’ll sell it to you for three times its cost.”
This is exactly what is happening in our economy.
When the demand is high and the supply is low, the cost goes up. There is nothing mysterious about it.
And it has less to do with politics, but more about consumer consumption, the pandemic, the hurricane that devastated the refineries in Louisiana and Texas, and the supply chain that moves it all: ships, trucks, roads, and bridges.
Our government can help through policies and legislation, which is ongoing.
It’s the terrible name calling and labeling by the few that is disappointing and does nothing to support our country.
John Van Patten
Glenville
Don’t forget there are many caring people
Every day I read about people who are complaining about something or see articles about crime and unrest. It is too easy to realize that most people are good, caring Americans.
Recently my wife, who has Alzheimer’s, went out the front door without me seeing her and went for a walk.
A few minutes later, I received a call from a good Samaritan who said that she was with my wife and that she had fallen down and was hurt.
I went immediately to the site she told me and found my wife on the ground with a blanket on her and three Samaritans helping her.
One had gotten the blanket from his vehicle. One had his emergency medical kit out and was tending her scrapes and the third was wiping her forehead and calming her down till I got there.
Three people saw someone in need and stopped to help. I’m sure it happens often, but we get too consumed by the strife we see.
I can’t thank these kind people enough. Let’s all learn a lesson here, that there are people who need help and if we don’t help them, who will?
Bob Atkinson
Clifton Park
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Mr Van Patten:
I believe your statements to be 1/2 correct.
Most if not all Economists believe in both Demand-Pull Inflation (DPI) and Cost-Push Inflation (CPI).
In a very simplistic explanation of DPI is your version that demand is simply out weighing our current supply chain. But one needs to only dig into Micro Economic theory of DPI. One potential cause is the consistent fueling of buying tendencies or flooding the economy with cash payments that has evaded many Americans. Our economy is used to a ramp up or “fire” around the holidays but in these pandemic times people have extra money from stimulus checks, they have extra money from not vacationing, etc – thus this has created an unusual spending on items (electronics, building materials, etc).
CPI on the other hand deals with another micro economic factor of an increase in costs to produce the item is passed to the consumer. For example our wages across the board have increased from slaughtering pigs to construction workers so pork ribs and home prices increase because of this. Dig deeper into other items – major corporations GE, Exxon, Google, Amazon, etc are expecting a higher corporate tax rate and if they want to produce the same returns for their investors they either need to increase sales prices or cut costs. Cutting labor costs most time hinders production so this isn’t a real option unless we talk about “finer” end sales – yachts, paintings, – things people are willing to wait a little longer for.
So I would tell you our government is highly influential in both DPI and CPI by flooding our economy with cash and stating the executives intent to raise taxes and increase regulatory costs
The Prime Minister of Sweden Stefan Löfven just now:
“There is no future in fossil fuel”
For those of the Republican persuasion who actually do hear the calls for them to turn on another news source than FoxNewsMaxOANN, try the BBC America. You’ll also learn something about the rest of the world that our American news navel-gazers won’t seriously report on.
Chuck – couple of hurdles the world will face in eliminating fossil fuels – 1.) the mining of essential elements to make over 1 billion rechargeable batteries 2.) getting the heavy construction machines (excavators, loaders, dozers) that have huge engine power the ability to go to electric with advancements in technology
I think most rational people would agree with that. I do too.
It’s not an A or B proposition.
Just to add: several years ago I had the chance to stand next to a drag line excavator working a mine in Missouri, all electric.
As for the prime minister of Sweden he might want to consider the functioning of the world economy during cloudy and windless days. Perhaps he would have tol move to a system of holidays determined by the weather
Fred:
Solar arrays, Wind Farms, Hydro electric plants convert that energy info massive battery storage plants. The energy is then placed into the grid as needed.
Because of storage capabilities and continental smart grids – the energy is stored in the event of cloudy days or windless days.
More battery storage infrastructure is needed as well as more solar and wind arrays.
Here’s some interesting news and statistics:
Over the past five years, police officers have killed more than 400 drivers or passengers who were not wielding a gun or a knife, or who weren’t under pursuit for a violent crime — a rate of more than one a week, a Times investigation found.
Many were stopped for common traffic offenses: a broken taillight, running a red light or swerving across double yellow lines. Relative to the population, Black drivers were overrepresented among those killed.
Traffic stops — which can be driven by the demand for revenue to fund towns — are the most common interactions between police officers and the public. The police consider them among the most dangerous things they do.
Officers have been charged in 32 cases, and nearly two dozen are pending. Only five officers have been convicted of crimes for the killing of motorists. But The Times found that evidence often contradicted the officers’ accounts. A visual investigation rolled back the footage capturing 120 fatal traffic stops and found that in dozens of incidents, officers made tactical mistakes that put them in positions of danger.
Ray
What year was that? The DOJ numbers I saw for 2019 were around 260 fatalities at hands of police. Of course the denominator of that is like 60 or 70,000,000 total police interactions.
Joseph,
Very small number of fatalities for the number of inter actions for sure.
Much like much 1% or less of the population in this country who have died from covid.
Easy to reduce it to percentages of this or that to make it look small. But if your that victim, it takes on a whole more meaning to those left behind, To family, friends, neighbors etc that death and its percentages means nothing in the big picture.
PS, Wait for Fred’s standard statement about resting arrest etc etc. for police and civilian interactions.
Sorry for the delay in responding. Good comments Florida. Also, how many cases don’t get reported that police bury? If it wasn’t for the introduction of body cameras and cell phone recordings, police would get away with a lot more. Many of these interactions are racially motivated and others occur because the police have to maintain a certain number of fines since localities need the revenue which then turn into major encounters.
https://truthout.org/articles/sinema-opposes-drug-bills-after-receiving-750k-in-donations-from-big-pharma/
Yep, and Manchin has the some baggage, but covered in coal du$t. He’s quite open about it but hides behind the possible plight of his coal mining constituents (as opposed to the $8M he has invested in it).