Solutions for climate change
Last week, the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication reported that 68 percent of U.S. adults support a revenue-neutral carbon tax.
This is heartening news. And, it increases prospects of passing legislation in Congress to address our climate crisis, evidenced by all the recent fires, floods and extreme weather events happening in our state and in our world.
We are approaching the tipping point for the political will to enact a market-based solution to climate change like a revenue-neutral carbon tax, also known as Carbon Fee and Dividend. If there is a good time to contact Senator Cory Gardner about this, now would be it. Solutions exist at both the local and national levels. Let’s use them.
Randy Compton/Boulder
Support the Northwest rail
This is an important moment for the Northwest rail. There is a potential to use a portion of the local and multi-modal shares of the transportation initiative being proposed for the 2018 ballot as seed money to leverage funding for our FasTracks corridor. This ballot initiative, if passed, is proposing to fund multi-modal projects throughout the state. Since we will be spending this tax money on transportation projects anyway, shouldn’t it be used for the transit that we really want?
Positive movement has already been made in developing a more attainable, lower cost start-up plan for the NW corridor — the Peak Service plan. This plan would provide three trains each in the morning and evening rush hours. The FasTracks plan for the full buildout of 55 runs a day was estimated to cost $1.1 to $1.5 billion. On the other hand, this start-up plan’s construction cost as per RTD’s estimate would instead be approximately $300 million. We are urging that this much more attainable, start-up figure become part of the focus of the local and multi-modal shares of the initiative.
Your voice needs to be heard on this issue. Please contact your local elected officials and County Commissioners. Let them know that you want a portion of the local and multi-modal funding shares from the proposed transportation ballot initiative to be committed to funding the NW corridor Peak Service Plan.
We deserve our rail.
Judy Lubow, RTD Director and Joan Peck, Longmont City Council member
Manhattan mafia?
Americans have been long known for our compassion for the least among us.
Unfortunately, we’ve seen the consequences of manipulation of misinformation, the fact that the U.S. has been a Democratic Socialist nation from our humble beginnings. (For example: Alexander Hamilton’s creation of our Coast Guard to protect Americans and our interests, the U.S. Post Office, fire and police protection, infrastructure, etc.)
Sadly, we have seen our democracy used and abused by certain silver-spooned types whom have never worked an honest day in their privileged lives, nor produced any product or useful service… ever.
America deserves better.
What has happened is that slumlords and selfish charlatans have benefited at the expense of the vast majority of actual tax-paying taxpayers.
We’ve seen taxes slashed and/or eliminated for the uber-wealthy; obscene subsidies for fossil fuel corporations continue; banks and Wall Street get bailed out; and our military has been used as a tool of enrichment to benefit the aforementioned silver-spooned and their co-conspirators while schools, parks, national assets and associated infrastructure deteriorate as we speak.
“Privatize profits and socialize losses” has become the unspoken mantra of those who would love to see the elitist status quo continue.
Let’s disappoint (and de-fund) them.
Please. Vote… and choose wisely.
Tommy Holeman/Superior
