Green power costs us more green

To the editor:

I agree with your Sept. 12 editorial on the high cost of green energy. Why is it that the greener the energy, the less green I keep in my pocket? My power bill last month was already at record levels, and now some people think we should pay even more?

It's not at all rational, when you consider how much cheaper energy resources such as clean coal are. Coal is plentiful, cheap and reliable. And it is environmentally responsible.

Nevada's population is rapidly growing and my power bill is growing even faster. We simply can't do that without new coal-fueled power plants. How much higher should my bill go?

Clean air and climate change are legitimate concerns, but we must be practical about the resources and technologies we have now. Let's meet energy demands cost-effectively and not drown in the high prices. Let's use the resources we have now and find environmentally friendly ways to use them.

GERALD ENGELLENNER

LAS VEGAS

Union play

To the editor:

I read with great interest your articles of last week regarding the questions the Teamsters had for the Clark County Education Association. The questions being asked are valid and important. The information that has been uncovered should be troubling to every teacher.

For far too long, the CCEA has been unaccountable to its members for ineffective representation. I think it's great for them to face a challenge, and I hope it makes them realize there are many district teachers who are fed up with the secret deals and are not going to sit idly by while our dues continue to pour into CCEA coffers with no substantive return.

Personally, I believe corruption runs deep within the organization. Teachers need to ask hard questions, and have a right to expect that they will get some honest answers from the body that purports to represent them.

If not, then we need to seriously look at the Teamster offer as a great opportunity to finally get the representation and professional treatment we deserve.

S. Edwards

LAS VEGAS

Privileged class

To the editor:

Your Monday article about the expected "brain drain" from local governments as those approaching retirement dash to garner a retirement health care benefit they never previously bargained for ("Changing benefits affect cities, county") is more telling than all the articles written in the past about the government employee elitists.

Oh, how I would have liked the opportunity to have been awarded free lifetime health care before I retired from private industry with only the 401(k) and IRA savings I managed to accumulate from my own funds over the years I worked. No great public retirement plan that gave me a "living" income greater than any possible Social Security benefits -- and no one to pay any portion of my health care, except for the benefits of Medicare after age 65.

It is way past time for our union-controlled politicians to wake up to the financial facts of life and recognize that the private sector cannot be counted on to continue to subsidize benefits for public employees that we never in our lifetime obtain in working for private employers. The idea that somehow public employees are some specially entitled class that can't be replaced if they retire early is so inconsistent with current reality, when all reasonable surveys show they are higher paid and better protected than any of their private-employer counterparts.

Former Gov. Kenny Guinn made an honest effort to stem the tide, but was blocked by you know who. And it will remain that way until all elected officials start working for all the citizenry and not for a privileged few.

GERALD HEETLAND

LAS VEGAS

Skilled workers

To the editor:

In response to your Monday story, "Changing benefits affect cities, county":

It seems that as Southern Nevada has grown, the people most beneficial to our area's future are always being cast aside. First it was our nurses, then our teachers, and now our most highly skilled public employees.

Our utility companies charge some of the highest rates in the country, and we just had a tax increase to hire more police officers. Yet somehow we do not have enough money to offer the benefits that were earned and promised to our state's public workers when they retire.

In addition, the cities of Southern Nevada are some of the wealthiest in the country, which leaves me wondering where all that money is going. We have all seen what happens to a community when there are little or no skilled workers. Las Vegas, in particular, is infamous for being a haven for the unskilled. But the city and our state have flourished only because of the work of those few skilled employees.

The state is slowly running those employees out, and sooner or later that will come back to haunt us.

KATIE SANDERLIN

HENDERSON