Consider many sources
The board of the Northern Michigan Environmental Action Council (NMEAC) agrees with the Record-Eagle editorial of Jan. 12 stating Traverse City Light & Power (TCLP) should not rush into a hasty decision concerning the construction of a biomass plant in or near Traverse City.
NMEAC praises TCLP for creating a goal of obtaining 30 percent of its power from renewable energy sources by 2020. This is an ambitious goal that should be supported by the entire community and region. But, before any decisions are made concerning a biomass plant, there should be a community-wide discussion about which sources of renewable energy are the best fit as well as the pros and cons of biomass.
It is also important for TCLP to be consistent with the principles stated in the Grand Vision which call for a major conservation effort to cut energy use. This includes a goal of encouraging all buildings to be energy efficient in their location, design and their use.
In the meantime, let's stop and make sure a wide variety of renewable energy sources are considered (including wind, solar and geothermal) before any final decisions are made about building a biomass plant.
Greg Reisig, Chairman
Traverse City
The writer is board chairman of the Northern Michigan Environmental Action Council
Brushed off again?
I read the article from Jan. 13 about Joni Holbrook's bond being revoked, and her being sent back to jail. I may not have all of the details of this case, but I was told by a Grand Traverse County prosecutor that it is against the law to revoke a bond unless the conditions of the bond are violated.
That was the reason they gave for not revoking Dennis Mikko's bond when I circulated a petition to get him off the streets, because he had access to our children's personal information.
I find myself wondering if I was just brushed off, again, due to favoritism of a court official?
Kari Kilway
Traverse City
Is this fair?
Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress have proposed a plan whereby under the proposed health care bill union members, and union members only, will be exempt from paying income tax on the value of their "Cadillac" insurance benefits.
If under our Constitution Congress can favor one class of income earners over another, union vs. non union, what will prevent this government from taking further steps along these same lines, e.g. exempt pensions paid to all union members from federal income tax? Ridiculous? Don't bet on it!
Do you suppose the fact that government workers are nearly five times more likely to belong to a union than those workers in the private sector might be a factor in all of this?
Washington has taken but one more step in the promotion of "class warfare" in order to buy votes.
President Obama, a constitutional lawyer, seems to have conveniently forgotten that the preamble to the U.S. Constitution starts out with -- We the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice .... (fairness of laws where every citizen has the opportunity for equal treatment).
At what point do we say enough is enough?
Veronica La Pointe
Williamsburg
Biomass health impacts
What a shame Traverse City Light & Power is pushing more biomass burning on Michigan. Biomass shouldn't be lumped with wind and solar as "renewable" because anything that is burned really is not renewable.
The biomass advocates claim that burning wood is "carbon neutral" because trees will grow back. But anybody who has had a kitchen garden knows that if you keep harvesting, the soils decline, and after a while, you have to add nutrients and fertilize. The same is true for forests. After a few harvests, the regrowth declines. Given that it takes 13 thousand tons of wood to generate 1 megawatt of electricity -- there will be a lot of "forest mining" in Michigan.
Consider also that it takes a few minutes to burn a tree and release its CO2 into the atmosphere, but maybe 50 to 100 years to regrow and resequester that CO2.
There are also the health impacts of wood smoke to consider. Wood burning releases polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, a nasty carcinogen.
EPA declared wood burning to be the top airborne carcinogen in Oregon last year. Wood burning also releases particulate matter, and other health-risk pollutants.
Think twice, Michigan.
Rachel Smolker, Ph.D.
Hinesburg, Vermont
Biofuelwatch
The writer is formerly from Traverse City.
A reward for Waggoner
When General Motors was losing $1,000 a minute, why did it retain its upper management so long? One of the only things that Congress got right last year was suggesting that upper management at GM and Chrysler should be replaced. And this from a Congress that met for something like 70 days. With all that was wrong in the country, they accomplished next to nothing.
Rick Waggoner walked with a $12 million dollar pension. Nice reward for absolute failure. He said he needed a million dollars a year because he had a kid in college. I'm still paying half of my son's student loan payment from my pension.
Having experienced extremely accurate weather forecasting on both coasts, I find the local weather "forecasting" vastly overdone and mostly inaccurate. Christmas weekend was a good example. What happened to the monster storm that was supposed to shut down the area?
Don't these guys realize that their inaccurate forecasting affects people's travel plans, and the way they dress and the they stock their pantry? And do we really need it every 10 minutes for hours on end?
Five-day forecast? They usually can't tell you what's going to happen in five hours.
John Joslyn
Honor
