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Show A6 D H A t I V H E H Wednesday, March U, 2008 AID DFTORIALS EDITORIAL BOARD Craig Dennis. President & Publisher Randy Wright. Executive Editor Jim Tynen, Editorial Page Editor IN OUR VIEW Time to tap America's oil Santa Barbara into a forest of oil derricks. They would be sparse and far offshore. We would also observe that tourism is a moot worse, Average prices for gas have hit point if people don't have jobs or can't afford gasoline to drive to $3. 13 a gallon in Utah. And pain the coast.: isn't jast felt at the pump. Partly Make no mistake: Our nation's because of high fuel Costs, prices economic security hangs in the for basic foods such as bread, balance as the price of oil rises. milk, eggs and flour surged in t he past year and are primed to The threat is no less dangerous probably more than any go higher, according to the Labor physical threat posed by Islamic Department. oil In addit ion, $ jihad. Economic terrorism aims to stanch our lifeblood, and it has may push the United St at es into a recession. Every day, the United already begun. In our view, the royal Saudi fat States spends $2 billion on oil, cats and petty dictators of South and much of that money flows to America have feasted at our table countries in the Middle East and Latin America that are unstable or long enough. It is time to take energy back into our own hands in a outright threats to America. realistic way. Unreasonable enviThis has to stop. The United ronmental concerns need to move States must immediately devote itself to developing its own energy to the back burner. It is essential, even as we tap our resources in a major way. It is time to stop deluding ourown oil reserves, that we simultaselves with fantasies about the neously make a big commitment large-scalviability of solar power to nuclear power in the United or biofuels. The rush in the United States. It is clean and limitless. The States to turn corn and soybeans potentially polluting into fuel is one of the things boostare minimal and manageable. Nuclear reactors already suping your grocery bill, because more of those crops go to help ply much of the electrical power for many advanced nations such transport us instead of feed us. as Japan and France. But we There are heavy costs associated with virtually all "green" energy have to outgrow our fears. Consources. trary to one common anxiety, it To be sure, alternative technolo- is impossible for a nuclear plant gies should be developed, including to explode. And modern desigas such promising fuels as hydrogen. virtually eliminate any danger that But the payback is going to take a plant will emit radiation. Even the worst nuclear accident in U.S. time, and that we do not have. This nation needs to tap its oil history, Three Mile Island, poses no danger to anyone. Russia's reserves aggressively. We must cease to be driven by the most poorly engineered and even more extreme environmental views poorly managed Chernobyl plant, that have prevented our doing so. by contrast, spread poison around It's time to get more oil out of the the entire planet. Nuclear reactors in this country come with no such Arctic National Wildlife Refuge You're paying for big time Qjngress's refusal to get serious about energy. And it's going to get e and out of the ocean floor off the California coast. Thanks to modern methods, oil production in Alaska would occur on a mere 2,000 acres out of yet it could add a million barrels of oil a day to the nation's supply. We currently import about 5.5 million barrels a day from the OPEC cartel. A cut in imports would likely drive the price of oil down. A reduction of imports could get us back to a dollar a gallon at the gas pump. Offshore drilling, banned in many places (notably along the California coast) needs to be allowed right now. It can be done with low environmental impact. We appreciate our coastlines, but aesthetics must be weighed against hard economic realities. It's time to accept the slight risks of drilling and take advantage of our nation's oil before our economy goes belly-u- p for good. Some say coastal drilling would slow tourism an argument that's hard to buy. It's not as though you'll ever be looking off problems. As for nuclear waste, French nuclear plants have generated s of that nation's electricity for 25 years, and France stores ail of its nuclear waste in a single room. Coal and natural gas continue to be viable sources for electrical generation in the West, but they should not be viewed as long-tersolutions. Nuclear power is. Our national course must be three-folWe must tap our oil re- serves and add refinery capacity. We must invest in nuclear power. And we must continue to develop realistic alternative technologies. In that order. The time to seize control of our nation's energy future is now. We need to stop talking about weaning ourselves from foreign oil and actually start doing it. That will buy time to develop new technologies while continuing to prosper. If this means an oil rig here and there off the California coast or in an Alaska wilderness, so be it. We really don't have other choices. The alternative is too horrible to contemplate. It is nothing less than economic ruin. orimmv rum GUEST OPINION Greedy CEOs dodge responsibility Ellis Henican isn't just that some people have shame. We knew that already. that some people don't even accept the whole notion of feeling ashamed no matter how greedy the behavior, no matter how public the display;. Say hello to Angelo Mozillo, founder and chief executive of Countrywide Financial, the mammoth subprime lender that's at dead center of the whole mortgage foreclosure fiasco. Mozillo earned $ 1.9 million last year on top of a $20 million bonus, as his company teetered at the edge of collapse because of billions in worthless loans. Good going, Ang! Mozillo turned up in Washington on Friday, summoned by Rep. Henry Waxman and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. He didn't arrive alone. Charles Prince was It four-fifth- ' of Citigroup. also there. He's Stan O'Neal came too, the former big guy at Merrill. Waxman had the hopeless job of trying to locate some shame anywhere! Here's a statistic for you: Together, these three were paid $460 million over the past five years. In just the second half of last year, their companies lost more than $20 billion. And while Prince and O'Neal have finally been replaced, Mozillo's still sitting in his comfy CEO chair. "As our company did well," he explained to the committee, "I did well." And when things got tighter last year, he insisted, "my direct compensation and the value of my holdings declined materially." All the way down to a bonus of $20 mil. "You're in the middle of an enormous I Ellis Henican is a columnist for Wax-madebacle," an agitated-soundinNewsday. said to Mozillo and his colleagues. n g LETTERS No ty citizens' tax money by consolidating precincts and asking people to wait a On March 7, National Public Radio little longer to vote, in the future the Station KUER in Salt Lake City (90.1 county will fund every single precinct, FM) reported that Daylight Saving spending unnecessary amounts of Time doesn't save anything but causes money to make sure people can walk more energy to be used. The following right in and vote without waiting. is a quote from their Web site, NPR.org: When our taxes are raised, just remember why. "A study conducted in Indiana conIt's sad that some people have so licluded that Daylight Saving Time uses ttle appreciation for their right to vote more energy than it conserves. Matthew Kotchen, an economics professor that they complained about having to minutes to exerwait in line for who worked on the study, talks with cise that right. These are people who Melissa Block about what researchers would stand in line for hours to learned." Since more energy is used under buy an iPhone or Hannah Montana tickets or seats at the NBA playoffs, Daylight Saving Time, it is difficult but who cry for blood when they are to justify resetting with our clocks inconvenienced a little bit for the privitwice a year. We would be ahead enerto remain on Standard time lege of voting in a free country. gy-wise I Beverly Burdett, throughout the year. Orem tJohn C. Bryner, Orem MEDIA VOICES savings 30-6- 0 Spitzer must quit What a stunner. The last time Eliot Spitzer and "prostitution ring" were mentioned in the same sentence, the reformist governor was enacting a new felony statute to punish human trafficking. Before that, it was Spitzer the crusading attorney general, basting call-gibusinesses on Staten Island. And now all the promise that rested on this leader with the wide vocabulary and the pugnacious jaw comes to this: a tawdry renin fact, probably many dezvous of them with a hooker, this time at Washington's Mayflower Hotel. Of course, the governor has to resign. Fifteen months ago, he was the chief legal officer of the state. Hiring a call girl was not only against the law, but procuring her to cross state lines rl CMerc5MyN&ufWfn I 7HKMTEN X MdRRV 7H L1WKtpiiPTENwnse yT06QAWf! B I 1 30-6- turned the $4,300 evening into a From Newsdax, Tuesday, March 11,2007: federal crime. Spitzer, 48, is either or pathoviciously logically arrogant, believing he wouldn't be caught. Here is the busy governor of New York, on the phone, working out who pays for the prostitute's use of the hotel minibar. The decorum of the office can't withstand this man's abuse of it. From the moment of Monday's no more state business can be done with Spitzer at the helm. The story of Eliot Spitzer's de- mise would be Shakespearean in its tragedy, had he really been the man we thought he was. He promised to reform the most dysfunctional legislature in the nation and to kick off the dust of the latter years of Gov. George Pataki's administration. DOONESBURY Garry Trudeau MmyioMysuT EcTtEFTwSw!?!! UP, BUm U NO HOFE newmmttCiHtw iOV A ORANP W THE I I I" I riTmi I sow, 1?- J - p wM just learned that Utah County ClerkAuditor Bryan Thompson has chosen Sandy Hoffman to "take the fall" for the complaints about the recent election. Sandy, who has worked for the county since 2003 and been elections coordinator since 2005, has been in charge of 11 elections. I have worked as an election judgepoll worker for most of those elections and have always found Sandy to be Friday's Herald reports that Sandy Hoffmann is being demoted and given a pay cut in a County Elections office reshuffle. We think this is a grave injustice! It's not right! One of us (Janyce) has worked in the polls (for over 40 years) and while she has worked with Sandy, has always found her helpful, easy to work with, a hard worker, very fair. The last elections were a mess, but it wasn't Sandy's fault! She is a scapegoat. She worked many hours overtime on those elections. If you readers want Sandy to be reinstated, complain to the county commissioners and to MALLARD FILLMORE TmrAfiwum I FOR I I covblb BUM- - THE (The Daily Herald story cited in this letter said Hoffmann had been offered a position that was a demotion, but had not decided whether to take it. County officials attributed the move to a restructuring they said was needed to modernize the clerk auditor's office.) hmTt I 1 m w, m h Yor com it. How to comment letters to dhletters heraldextra.com Fax to 344-298- 5 I Letters must include the author's full name, address and dayt ime phone number. We prefer shorter letters, 100 to 200 words. Letters may be edited for length. Writers are encouraged to include their occupation and other personal information. Because of the volume of letters, we cannot acknowledge unpublished letters. I Letters become the property of the Daily Herald. Bruce Tinsley PtA. I i elections coming up. I Kent and Janyce Harrison, Provo Mail to P.O. Box 717, Provo, UT 84603. a mistake extremely professional, organized, approachable and efficient in my deal- -' ings with her. Be assured that, since Sandy was demoted for trying to save Utah Coun Bryan Thompson, the county clerk. We need her experience in the elec- tions office, and we have important Hoffman's demotion called Poll worker defends official 1 shocking, sordid revelation and his pitiful apology "It seems like everyone is hurting, except for you." Indeed, the executives' timing couldn't have been worse. By the time they'd left Capitol Hill, another round of economic bleakness was moving across the wires; with nothing but danger lurking ahead. The economy lost 63,000 jobs in February, the fastest falloff in five full years. Nearly 450,000 people left the labor force in the past 12 months. The Dow sunk below 12,000. Even George W. Bush was sounding down. "It's Clear our economy has slowed," he said. Our economy? No denying it's limping. Their economy? Don't bet your next eight figure bonus the good times won't continue to roll. |