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Writer misleading about power line
In his May 21 letter (“Champlain line a big threat to river, land,”) Tom Ellis made a number of misleading, provably false claims about the CHPE hydropower transmission line project that must be corrected.
Most significant is the misguided attempt to raise concern about impacts the construction process could have on the Hudson River’s water quality, which simply isn’t true.
This month, we released the results of rigorous water testing that followed protocols designed with the Hudson 7 and found the installation of the project’s clean energy will not have an impact on the safety of local water supplies. The positive reports can be found at https://chpexpress.com/water-testing/.
CHPE utilizes fully buried HVDC cables, chosen specifically for their ability to carry large quantities of clean energy long distances without losses and ensure the preservation of New York’s scenic beauty.
CHPE will provide 20% of New York City’s energy needs, replacing fossil fuels that harm the health of city residents and add to health costs shared by all New Yorkers.
CHPE has been endorsed by several environmental advocacy organizations, like the New York League of Conservation Voters and Citizens Campaign for the Environment.
CHPE was also the subject of more than a decade of careful planning and environmental review, and construction is underway on this ambitious project that will deliver clean hydropower, helping the state meet its urgent energy goals.
It’s difficult to understand why anyone would deliberately push inaccurate information to fiercely oppose a renewable energy project critical to New York’s energy reliability.
Jennifer White
Albany
The writer is vice president of external affairs for Transmission Developers, the developer of CHPE.
Views on column, editorial, movie list
Here’s a three-for letter.
First, regarding the recent letter objecting to Andrew Waite’s column appearing on your front page,
I would say that his column has been consistently pertinent, insightful and extremely well written. Put it wherever you want, whenever you like, and I for one will continue to enjoy it.
As for the May 21 editorial, (“Go slow before banning phones in schools,”) about schools being flexible about students having cellphones in school, I say, why? As a former middle school principal, I am well aware of how disruptive cellphones can be in school and truly see no plus side from an educational perspective.
If a student really needs to reach a parent or vice versa, schools have offices with clerical staff and telephones.
Why not keep it simple, as we used to, and if a student has a cell phone that is not turned off and out of sight, it gets confiscated and can be picked up in the office at the end of the school day?
For repeat offenders it would be turned over to a parent whenever they were able to pick it up.
Finally, how about putting the movie calendar back in your paper, as you have had for many years? It would make it a lot easier for people so that we don’t have to jump from website to website in order to find out what is playing where and when.
Thank you! We love The Gazette!
Bruce Ballan
Rexford
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Categories: Clifton Park and Halfmoon, Letters to the Editor, Opinion, Opinion
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I forgot about the missing movie calendar. That would be nice to have back.
Whenever I feel Republicans have hit bottom and exhausted their efforts to end democracy in this country, I find myself to be wrong. In Oregon Republicans are a minority in the state legislature. However, as explained in Mark Z. Barabak’s column on the Opinion page, Republicans are stalling legislation that would pass by refusing to show up in the legislature, denying the Democratic majority the quorum necessary to hold a vote. The will of the citizens of Oregon as expressed in elections to the legislature is thus thwarted by a determined minority of autocrats who believe in “their way or the highway.”
Other states are taking steps to make direct citizen votes on specific issues such as abortion rights more difficult. Currently in Ohio, amendments to the state constitution require a simple majority vote. The enemies of democracy want to raise the required vote to 60% since a majority of Ohioans clearly favor abortion rights. We can always rely on far right “Christian” governors to be anti-democracy since only they know what God wants:
Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a bill passed by the Arkansas legislature which, “makes it tougher to qualify ballot measures by more than tripling the number of counties where signatures must be gathered, from 15 to 50.”
How can we stop these narrow-minded demagogues from suffocating our democracy and forcing us to live under their tyrannical rule in a theocracy much like Margaret Atwood’s horrifying description of dystopian Gilead?
What I learned about 45 and the gop is…THERE IS NO BOTTOM. 45 continues his attacks on the FBI & DOJ for daring to hold him accountable. This lays squarely on the gop for abdicating their responsibility to stop him and continue to enable their loser.
45 will push and push and push to end our Constitutional Republic and is encouraging the gop to default when he, as president, said it was a ¨sacred element of our country.¨
The gop will continue to break down our country since they seem to have the Supreme Court on their side–all because 45 became president and was able to push through 3 extreme Justices.
These ridiculous and dangerous laws are making us mad, so hopefully driving the general public to the ballot box!
It will be interesting to see how Republicans react to the Dignity Act, a reasonable compromise immigration reform proposed by three Republicans and three Democrats, all Hispanic representatives from border states.
The Dignity Act is explained in the column, “Give immigration reform plan a chance,” on the Opinion page.
Anthony…..that would be a miracle……there are too many Marinac’s in the USA
Unlike the leaders of the early years of the republic, politicians today regard their positions as a job, replete with pensions and other perks. Our first representatives regarded government service as a civic duty for the rich and well-born. A few, like Aaron Burr, used their notoriety and political connections to boost their fortunes and power, but by and large most thought it a civic virtue to serve one’s country. If they lost an election, so be it. The defeat had no effect on their personal status or economic well-being.
Running for office today is expensive – so expensive, in fact, that politicians spend as much as 50% of their time fundraising. And thanks to Citizens United, money talks louder than ever in Congress and the state legislatures. That’s why special interest groups funnel big money into elections: to ensure their guys will win and pass legislation for their benefit.
Politicians are afraid of losing their jobs not so much because of the lost income – most of them are lawyers, anyway, so they can just go back into private practice – but because an election loss early in their careers negates any future political influence they might otherwise have attained with longevity. If a politician serves long enough and thereby gains important committee status, the more likely he or she is to find work as a lobbyist or land a position with a well-financed think tank. The key, then, is to keep winning not only for economic security and prestige, but also to guaranty a lucrative future should one lose an election.
Everyone contributing to this page knows that the Republican Party’s future looks bleak. Demographics are not on their side. If they don’t act now to entrench their political power, they may end up going the way of the Whigs. In my modest opinion, that’s why the GOP engages in political maneuvers like gerrymandering, voting restrictions, anti-union legislation and all the rest of it. To them, democracy takes a back seat to their selfish desire to gain and preserve elite status.
All you say is so true and so obvious to anyone with their mind open and unfettered by bigotry and GOP inspired made up fears and conspiracy theories. Unfortunately, as Guy pointed out, there are far too many people who have fallen prey to GOP BS.
Yeah, your minds are so open all of your brains fell out.
Mr. Bill 🤡 I expected that stupid comment from you….you never fail my expectations of you
OK, what are we missing?
BM, once again, nothing but an insult is offered up by you; no facts, no rational argument against the points made by the “lefties” you fear and hate. How very sad it must be for you. Go back, read any of our posts today and if you deem them lies or dangerous ideas make your case.
Obviously, you didn’t read my comment above about the Texas Democrats who left the state to stop a vote
Looks like your comment didn’t make the grade, reverend.
But there’s this:
~~~~~~
The Oregon state Senate Republicans are approaching nearly a month of a walkout, the longest-ever walkout in the legislature.
Democratic Majority Leader Kate Lieber requested fines for absent senators, insisting on a penalty of $325 a day, saying in a press release, “Oregonians who do not show up to work don’t get paid.”
Two Republican state senators, David Brock Smith and Dick Anderson voted against the fines, but the measure passed 16-2 on Thursday, according to KOIN 6.
“I not only voted no, but raised the objection to force a floor vote,” Brock Smith told the Washington Examiner. “This move by Senate President Wagner is further retaliation to our denial of quorum for his unlawful, hyperpartisan extreme agenda that strips away the parental rights of Oregonians.”
Senate President Rob Wagner denounced the absent GOP lawmakers, saying they were “blocking the will of the people in opposition to legislation they personally don’t like,” according to a statement reported in Oregon Public Broadcasting.
~~~~~~~~
More Republican sore losers.
The U.S.A. is experiencing a renewable energy boom. Even before Biden’s signature piece of legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act, which, despite its name, is really more about combatting climate change, the new industry was on the rise. (If memory serves, I think energy was the only market sector that made money last year, largely due to new investment in renewables.) But I’ll bet you’ll never guess which state leads the country in renewable energy. Texas! Yeah, that Texas.
The reason Texas dominates renewable energy is wind. (If there is a god, why did she entrust so much of our country’s natural resources – from oil and natural gas to solar wind power – to those jerks in high heels and ten-gallon hats?) Yet Texas’s politicians continue to pass legislation that, in effect, subsidizes the (dying) fossil fuel industry. Here is Paul Krugman’s explanation for that senseless policy: “So what’s going on here? Why do Texas Republicans now see the wind as an enemy? You might think that the answer is greed, and that’s surely part of it. But the bigger picture, I’d argue, is that renewable energy has become a victim of the anti-woke mind virus.”
What’s the old saying? Chopping off one’s nose to spite one’s face”? So, besides Republican politicians’ greed and ambition as an explanation for their anti-democratic efforts, add their own stupidity and a dismal demographic outlook to that poisonous mix and it may well presage their doom.
The Scriptures tell us, ‘fossil fuels are God’s gift to us and wokeness is blaspheme’.
Marincic can quote the exact verse, I’m sure.
Great responses, guys. It’s not just funny or interesting, its all true! Unfortunately, the stupid people have taken over. MT greene is presides over our House! She doesn’t even belong there…wtf?
I’m scared for our country for the first time, since 45.
Oops presiding
Plain and clear evidence that the right wing have made a mockery of Christianity.
But we’ve already seen that plain-as-day right here on this forum.
From Fox News:
“…told a story about an elderly African-American man at a Christian revival. At that revival, in the front seat, there was an older African-American man that was sitting there, and this young man got up, and he’d been so gripped with conviction about the racism that was in that local community in a small town in Texas, that he took a shoe brush and walked over to this elderly gentleman and knelt on his knees and began to shine his shoes.”
At this point in the 2020 video, Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy stood up with a shoe shine brush in his hand.
“I invite folks to put some words to action here,” Cathy said, while approaching and kneeling in front of a Black man sharing the stage. “And if we need to find somebody that needs to have their shoes shined, we need to go over and shine their shoes.”
The video then jumped to Cathy back in his seat, saying, “Any expressions of a contrite heart begins with an apologetic heart. I think that’s what our world needs to hear today.”
…journalist Benny Johnson calling Chik-fil-A, “the biggest fraud ever pulled on American Christians.”
Johnson via Elmo’s New Toy: “Go read your Gospels. Let me tell you someone who wasn’t tolerant – Christ. Tolerance is not a Christian virtue”
I’m 100% behind the dignity act with a few changes like in the unaccompanied minor and Daca being too wide open for too many people and finally the TPC program The provision would generally help most TPS recipients from El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua, but the cut-off date would not include those from Venezuela, Afghanistan, Haiti, and Ukraine. That part of the program is stopping immigrants from known countries that have gone socialist meaning more conservatives.
Mr. Bill 🤡…..you have no idea how dumb you sound …do you?
What the hell is he talking about?
Here’s a nice summary of the act from one of its authors, Rep. Escobar. I would avoid the cited DG Opinion piece which is actually a Las Vegas piece bearing some telltale dishonesty (that Democrats are against secure borders is a lie they freely state).
escobar house gov/uploadedfiles/the_dignity_act_of_2023_one_pager.pdf