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Letters to the Editor
Lest ye be judged... Dear Editor:
What incentive does a person have in doing good...when evil people are being praised?
We have allowed judges and others in authority to become dictators, misusing their power, to hurt and destroy their fellow men.
The media does not report these people's evil deeds and has allowed them to be praised after their death.
Anita Depczynski
Support natural gas Dear Editor:
This fall, our representatives in Congress will vote on a critical issue that has the potential to help stabilize energy prices and reduce our dependence on energy imports from volatile areas around the world.
When Congress reconvenes in September, the House and Senate will vote on a compromise bill that would permit drilling for natural gas and oil in offshore areas of the U.S. that are presently off-limits. At issue is allowing drilling in certain areas of the Gulf of Mexico and enabling individual states to make decisions on drilling in their coastal waters if the state legislatures agree.
High oil and natural gas prices point to the obvious need for additional production, and there is no rational basis to continue to lock up these supplies. Modern production techniques and practices ensure safe, responsible development. There has not been a significant oil spill from offshore production since 1969. There has never been a serious environmental incident from offshore natural gas production. There was not even any environmental damage from oiland gas-producing facilities as a result of last year's hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico.
Some opponents of offshore drilling claim we can't continue to rely on fossil fuels and that we must, instead, develop alternate sources of renewable energy. Alternate fuels should be and are being developed.
But the transition to a future fuel mix will take decades and must be accompanied by continued resource development. As environmental policies have created additional demand for natural gas for uses such as electric generation, so, too, must additional reserves be developed to meet that demand. As we've seen in recent years, the alternative to making additional supplies available is ever-higher prices.
In addition, natural gas is predominately a domestic, North American resource. Unlike oil, only a small percentage of natural gas is imported (as Liquified Natural Gas or LNG). Current restrictive policies mean that the U.S. continues to rely on imported oil from volatile areas such as the Mid-East rather than increasing our own available and abundant supplies. Increasingly, large natural gas users like chemical plants and manufacturers are realizing that their products can be produced much less expensively in countries that have cheaper energy prices. As those companies locate new facilities overseas, jobs are lost and our economy suffers.
We frequently hear the argument that an area should not be developed because it would contribute only some small percentage of our U.S. demand and would not make a real difference. But, when BP shut in 400,000 barrels of oil per day in Alaska, which is only about two percent of U.S. consumption (about eight percent of U.S. production), oil prices rose three percent the next day. It would seem that the impact on price is greater than the impact on volume.
The U.S. has abundant energy reserves offshore. These can and should be safely developed. It is imperative that our representatives vote in favor of meaningful change in the energy marketplace. Philip C. Ackerman, Chairman
and Chief Executive Officer National Fuel Gas Company
Give credit where it's due Dear Editor:
I read an article in your paper about the school taxes in Cheektowaga Sloan. Our administrators were happy that they were able to lower the tax rate from $3.60 to $1.13. There's only one reason they were able to do this, and that is all those nice people we elected to the town board raised our assessments.
If our administrators would have eliminated the frills and unneccessary contract work in the bond issue they could have lowered the tax rate.
Our problem is the people we elected to the state, county, town and school boards are all very nice people, but we don't need nice people. What we need is responsible people and we don't seem to have any.
Until we change the way we vote, our taxes will keep increasing.
Florian Korbel
Helping a soldier Dear Editor:
On August 6 the F.J. Donovan Post 1626 American Legion Post, located at 3210 Genesee Street, Cheektowaga held their yearly picnic.
Members had read about the young veteran Mark Beyers, who had lost an arm and a leg in Iraq, and he and his wife were mugged by five men in Washington, D.C.
The post took up a collection and a total of $350 was donated to the fundraiser this weekend. This money was sent to the Akron V.F.W. Post which recently held a fundraiser for this young couple.
Elaine Rosenthal
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