TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Letters To The Editor

ADVERTISEMENT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 9, 2008

Nothing New Offered

Regarding "There Are Better Alternatives To Drilling For More Oil" (Other Views, May 30):

Bev Griffiths of the Tampa Bay Sierra Club took up a quarter of your page to quote a lot of numbers but offer no better alternatives than are already being widely used today.

One thing she did get right was the size of the Artic National Wildlife Reserve - give or take an acre. We are talking about a 20-million-acre park for caribou and the elite wealthy few who might still be able to afford to travel. For those who want to try and get a grip on this, we are talking about an area approximately 38 percent the size of the land area of Florida. Of that 20 million acres, the area of what is known as the environmental footprint of the drilling is 2,000 acres plus whatever roads are necessary for needed connections.

As for biofuels, there seems to be quite a controversy as to whether we can really afford them.

CONNOR TUCKER

Brandon

Delusional Prescriptions

The delusions of the naive were never more plainly seen than hanging the laundry on the clothesline! Bev Griffiths and the Sierra Club, among a host of other such ilk, have no clue as to the severity of a full-blown energy shortage on the integrated society in today's world.

They, Al Gore and his "sham panic" followers are the guilty parties who infected Congress with the "no drilling, no new refineries" virus."

The pittance of energy savings she eloquently put forth are Band-Aid nothings to our vast needs. We are at least 30 to 50 years away from any new form that can make use of the 200,000 more or less service stations now dispensing our vital needs. We desperately need immediate, all-out efforts to locate and drill within our own areas to give us that 30-to-50 year "window!"

D.V. "RED" McCONNOHIE

Tampa

Blame Environmentalists
Nice job printing the Sierra Club's propaganda regarding ANWR. Bev Griffiths' group and their puppets in the Democrat Party are the ones responsible for the $4-per-gallon gas prices. Why are oil companies making so much profit? Because they can't spend that money to build new refineries or drill for domestic oil due to regulations forced upon them by the Dems and groups like the Sierra Club.

Representative Kathy Castor rails against drilling in the Gulf of Mexico while China and Cuba are preparing to do just that. What environmental safety guidelines will they be following? Does Castor really think they care about Florida's beaches and tourism?

When drilling in ANWR was debated back in the '90s, Bill Clinton said we wouldn't see the benefit for 10 years, so he vetoed the bill. Well, it's 10 years later; I wonder what difference it would have made.

KEN LAMBERT

Tampa

Start Walking More

In response to the Sierra Club's claptrap, I would like to say that nuclear power plants are the best option we have. I wonder what their stance is on that.

One thing we could do almost immediately is, beginning next school year assign all students to the school nearest their home. If they are within two miles of the school, it is up to them and their parents to get them there. If they walk and have to cross dangerous streets, hire crossing guards. If the students did some walking, there would not be so many fatties walking around in pants they can't keep up. We would save millions of gallons of gas each day, eliminate thousands of gas- guzzling buses with their maintenance costs and thousands of driver's salaries.

Before and after school, kids go all over the place without buses so why can't they and their parents get them to school?

JACK C. BOLEN

Brandon

Electric Car Redux

Regarding "GM Closing 4 Truck And SUV Plants" (Business, June 4):

So General Motors has set another date for the "Volt." Wow - 40 miles per charge! Let's go back to 1999-2003 when GM built the EV-1 that would go 80 mph for 120 miles on a charge. Why can't GM do that today? Because the battery technology was sold to Chevron in 2003, and the EV-1s were crushed. Chevron immediately sued Panasonic and Toyota for patent infringement and won a $3 million settlement, and the production of the batteries was curtailed.

Toyota also built the RAV4-EV during the same time period. They sold 320 to customers instead of crushing them as Honda and GM did with theirs. Those Toyotas are still on the road today.

HAROLD M. WHIPPS

Riverview

Editorial Hits Home

Regarding "New 'Hello' In Health Care: Sign Here Not To Sue" (Our Opinion, June 1):

This editorial really hit home. I was asked to sign this binding arbitration agreement on my last visit to a well-known Tampa Bay ob-gyn group. When I refused to sign it, I was refused further care and was abruptly ushered from the office, despite being a patient in good standing for several years. Needless to say, I felt abandoned and betrayed by someone I had entrusted my health to.

Do the women who are mindlessly signing these agreements realize that by doing so, they are giving up their constitutional right to sue if, for example, their baby is born with a condition caused by malpractice or a sponge is left in them after surgery?

Patients have a choice in deciding who their doctors should be and should think twice before entrusting their health care to a physician who requires they sign something like this before they will treat them.

DEBORAH GREEN

Sun City Center

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT