About those Volts
About those Volts
In the rush to criticize the county’s decision to purchase a few Chevy Volts, the arithmetic has been confused and the obvious missed.
As for the arithmetic, critics have confused operating costs with efficiency. Every organization that has tested it, including the Environmental Protection Agency, has concluded that the Volt gets the equivalent of slightly more than 90 mpg for the first 25 to 35 miles (10.9 kilowatt-hours for 30 miles) when running on batteries only and approximately 37 mpg when running on gasoline only, which, when combined, make the Volt the most fuel-efficient automobile manufactured by a U.S. automaker.
But, as the critics poorly point out, high efficiency does not always translate into low operating costs. And that brings us to the obvious thing that has been missed. Namely, that the real problem is the cost of electricity on the Big Island is obscenely high, and those rates skew the economics of everything, including the Volt.
Plug these automobiles into something other than the HELCO grid (solar chargers, perhaps) and the arguments against them become laughable.
Niel O’Brien
Hilo
I’m with Obama
In a letter to the editor last month — headlined “Whose side is he on?” — the letter’s author asserted that in June 2007 presidential candidate Barak Obama declared the U.S.A. was no longer a Christian nation.
Had the letter writer read Mr. Obama’s speech, he would see that when taken in context, Mr. Obama was saying the U.S.A. is not only a Christian nation, but also a nation of Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and even non-believers. President Obama did not cancel the 21st annual National Day of Prayer ceremony at the White House. He issued a proclamation regarding observance of the National Day of Prayer in 2009, 2010 and 2011. He did not host a ceremony in the East Room of the White House, as George W. Bush did. But then, George’s father, G.H.W. Bush, only held such service once in his four years in office, and President Reagan hosted the service once in his eight years in office. There’s no tradition to hold such a service, nor is any service of any kind required by the 1952 law that established a National Day of Prayer.
In April 2010, a federal judge ruled that the National Day of Prayer was unconstitutional. The Obama administration defended the law in court, lost, and then appealed that decision. In April of 2011, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago ruled in favor of the Obama administration and reinstated the National Day of Prayer. Hmmm, whose side is he on?
The rest of that letter isn’t worth commenting on. Better research would preclude writing such drivel. It’s obvious the information relied on was an email from the Internet. Some sentences are verbatim. I would also suggest that as a Christian, he look deep in his heart to see what has caused him to write such lies and innuendo about our president.
You asked: Whose side is he on? Well, he’s on my side! And I’m on his.
Larry Schneider
Volcano