LETTERS: Solar power a great deal for all

Sunday's Review-Journal editorial, "Solar flare-ups," demands a response.

The solar industry puts power into the grid, meaning NV Energy has to produce less power. NV Energy then sells that solar power to its customers. What's wrong with that? What a deal!

Now you say, "Solar power — and all green energy, for that matter — should be able to compete on its own merits, without federal subsidies." Let's put it this way: One thing the Obama administration did that was good is provide tax credits for solar in an attempt to drive down the cost. This has worked. Inverters are dirt cheap, and solar panels cost a fraction of what they used to. As for the tax credit, it expires in December 2016, so your wish will be granted.

If your feeling is that a taxpayer burden for solar is unfair, is it also your feeling that a child tax credit for 18 years is also a taxpayer burden? Why should those without kids pays for those who have them? Do you see how stupid your statement is? The amount of solar tax credits is so small that it would hardly register on a graph. Further, can you name a time that NV Energy has not been before their buddies at the Public Utilities Commission for another rate increase? The PUC should be made up of the three appointees and three citizens for balance, and then we would have a fair shot.

Solar is here to stay, and the battery storage of solar power, which will allow a total disconnect from NV Energy, is coming, too. That is the goal, and it is close — just ask Tesla. The author of your editorial is no doubt the same writer who still thinks TV will not make it.

Gerald McNulty

North Las Vegas

Punish gun criminals

I just read the letters from Rick Reynolds and Gopal Rao regarding gun violence ("Gun regulation" and "More guns, more deaths," respectively, Sunday Review-Journal).

Under Mr. Reynolds' approach, we should be able to sue carmakers for the mistakes made by drivers, we should be able to sue colleges for graduating attorneys who lose cases, and we should be able to sue politicians who promise something and fail to produce.

Mr. Rao advises that more guns lead to more deaths. How about we punish the criminal who uses a gun illegally by mandating at least a five-year penalty consecutive to the crime he was convicted of? Let's take the prosecutors' discretion out of the equation. What a thought that we would punish the criminal, the person who does not care how many laws he violates, and stop punishing the law-abiding citizen by making that person jump through more hoops to exercise a constitutional right.

One more thought: Since the overwhelming majority of mass or multiple shooting events involve those with mental health issues, why not modify HIPPA laws to allow accurate reporting? Or would Mr. Reynolds advocate suing those family members who were aware of the shooter's mental health issues and failed to notify the authorities?

Douglas Manookian

Las Vegas

Climate change

In Larry Rickertsen's letter denying human-caused climate change ("Arguments against AGW," July 30 Review-Journal), he asserts: "The notion that global climate is tracking with carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere is the result of murky computer modeling that has not been permitted peer review until recently. We now know that processes in that model are unsupported by science and the model is wrong in reproducing past global climates (e.g. the Medieval Warm Period) and does not reproduce current climate trends. The so called 'hockey-stick' pattern resulting from that model is now known to be scientifically incorrect."

In 1999, climatologist Michael Mann and two colleagues published a graph of Northern Hemisphere temperature changes for the past millennium, including the supposed medieval warm period. The graph indicated a sharp rise in temperature over the past century that seemed to coincide with carbon dioxide concentrations. The graph has a hockey stick pattern, with the first part being the handle and the second part with the sharp rise being the blade. In 2006, the National Academy of Sciences said that "the committee finds it plausible that the Northern Hemisphere was warmer during the last few decades of the 20th century than during any comparable period over the preceding millennium." The hockey stick pattern appears scientifically correct, after all.

Grant Couch

North Las Vegas