As the Valley News reported on Aug. 18, “Natural Gas Firms Seek Time to Talk,” Liberty Utilities and Valley Green Natural Gas are in discussions on an agreement to present to the Public Utilities Commission in their competing requests for a gas distribution franchise in Lebanon and Hanover. As a private citizen who has been granted intervener status, I have filed formal objections to the coordinated motions by the two companies.
Those motions seek a delay in the already long-delayed decision from the PUC while the companies work on their deal in secret. The city of Lebanon has also objected to the companies’ motions to delay. The project in question would entail the liquefaction of gas extracted by fracking in Pennsylvania and trucking it to Lebanon, where it would be stored in huge tanks, then regasified and distributed by underground pipelines in Lebanon and Hanover. Months ago, the PUC staff and the Office of Consumer Advocate recommended that both petitions be either denied or suspended, citing the lack of customer commitments and the failure to present adequate business plans. I believe that the PUC has more than adequate reasons to deny both proposals based on the evidence presented in hearings. I also believe that no deal struck by the two gas companies will resolve the problems presented by their proposals.
Finally, and most importantly, I believe that citizens must respond to the present danger of climate change by demanding that no new fossil fuel infrastructure be built. Many in Lebanon and Hanover are working on an initiative to get all of our energy from renewable resources by 2050, including the Sierra Club “Ready for 100 — Upper Valley” campaign, as well as task forces in our communities and at Dartmouth College. Obviously, it will be an enormous undertaking and the stakes couldn’t be higher. New gas infrastructure, with a depreciation life of 50 years, is incompatible with moving toward this sustainable future.
We can allow new gas infrastructure to be built now or we can have an economy powered by 100 percent renewable sources a generation from now. We can’t have both.
Ariel Arwen West Lebanon
I read with interest the recent letter regarding the enormous pile of donated clothing at the Listen Center in White River Junction. I contacted the town of Hartford nearly two years ago about this same issue. It really appeared, even then, to be a health and safety hazard, as well as poor management of well-intended donations. (I was told that the Hartford Fire Department was aware and monitoring.) I also sent an email to the head of Listen regarding this issue. The result — Listen covered the windows to the area so that it could no longer be easily seen by passersby. The piles did not diminish.
This is an unfortunate situation, in that these donations could make a difference to people in the local area who need them.
Interestingly, the Upper Valley Community Clothing Swap (see their Facebook page) has managed to conduct an event twice a year for the last four years run by busy and friendly volunteers — who accept clothing donations, organize and sort them, and make them available the very next day to people in the community at no cost. Given the number of people who seem to attend this event, it is serving a needed purpose.
I hope people will look for local places, such as the Upper Valley Community Clothing Swap, as alternatives for their donations. While there are certainly needs overseas, shouldn’t we first be addressing needs closer to home?
Sharon Cook Wilder
Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, stated in an Aug. 18 speech that he “regrets” anything he’s said that may have caused “personal pain.” He didn’t specify what or to whom, but it would encompass women, the disabled, immigrants, Muslims, African-Americans, Hispanics, his fellow Republican candidates, the entire media and veterans. “But I’m honest,” he clarified, “too honest.” Does this mean that he really meant all the painful things he said? Or just regrets that he said it?
He also stated, “I never lie.” It must be that he just has an overactive imagination and is a master conjecturer of conspiracy theories. Facts are too bothersome and better off ignored entirely. A lie becomes truth if it is stated loud and often enough. Add in, “True . . . true” and “believe me.” Watch the hand gestures. Hypnosis of the masses can be effective.
However, there are some groups Donald Trump hasn’t insulted: White supremacists and dictators.
Kathleen Eames Charlestown
The Aug. 15 letter by John E Yocum, “Climate Change Is Not No. 1 Issue,” told only half the story about the science of carbon dioxide absorbing heat. He actually gets the whole story wrong.
He is correct that the heating due to greenhouse gases is not a simple linear function where doubling a greenhouse gas doubles the heating. However, he ignores the fact that the pre-industrial CO2 was causing between 20 and 30 degrees of warming, and that is a good thing. He is correct that next 280 parts per million of CO2 will not cause the same amount of warming. It will cause “only” 2-4 degrees Celsius of warming. I say “only” because that is enough warming to seriously disrupt the lives of our children and grandchildren.
The costs of doing nothing are enormous. The Pew Center for Climate estimates 300-500 million people will be forced from their land by 2050. The Zillow real estate website recently estimated 1.9 million U.S. homes worth almost a trillion dollars would need to be abandoned due to rising seas by 2100. The alternative is to stop using fossil fuel. Texas energy officials just discovered they would save money by closing all their coal plants and using wind and solar. The same is true elsewhere. It is time to take action to stop this slow- motion disaster. The longer we wait, the more expensive and more disruptive it will be to solve the problems we have created.
David Henderson Hanover