No federal gold for the Golden State
Re "Robbing California of energy," Opinion, Feb. 23
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) berates the House for cutting tens of billions of dollars of funding that would have gone to California businesses for projects in the field of renewable energy. As the senator explains, these funds would serve as loan guarantees for various industries that would then create thousands of jobs.
What she fails to explain is that if these industries have so much potential, why are they unable to find private funding that would "invest in the future" and reap a fortune at the same time? Surely there are enough billionaires in the ranks of the Democrats who would be willing to invest in such incredible opportunities and get in on the ground floor of a new and promising industry.
Of course, if the projects turn out to be abject failures, the federal government would be left as the guarantor of the loans.
Barry Nichols
Los Angeles
So House Republicans want to kill California's energy future, presumably to balance the budget. But this appears to have more to do with spite than responsible cost cutting. It's no secret that Republicans would love to diminish our "liberal" influence.
The problem is that killing these loan guarantees will also kill tens of thousands of jobs. More important, it will set back America even further in our fight to stay competitive on renewable energy so we can all be prepared for a future without oil — a future that is guaranteed.
President Obama was right: This is our "Sputnik moment." Let's not kill the goose that might lay the golden egg.
Todd Mason
Mar Vista
Feinstein writes, "Twenty-four California companies have applied for a total of $16.2 billion in loan guarantees that would bring tens of thousands of jobs to California,"
Why didn't she mention the $535-million loan guarantee the Obama administration awarded to Fremont-based Solyndra Inc. in 2009? Solyndra was the first recipient of an Energy Department loan guarantee under the stimulus, which was intended to finance construction of the first phase of the company's new manufacturing facility for solar panels.
The administration said the loan guarantees would help create 3,000 construction jobs and 1,000 more jobs after the plant opened.
Instead, troubled Solyndra announced in November it planned to close the plant.
The myth of "green jobs" will not lead this state or the country to prosperity.
Gwilym McGrew
Woodland Hills
Almost everything Feinstein writes makes sense. There are only a few words I disagree with: "clean energy technologies like nuclear."
To me that's an oxymoron. Nuclear energy is not clean.
Esther Levy
Sherman Oaks
Public unions, pro and con
Re "Public unions must go," Opinion, Feb. 22
Jonah Goldberg said it well. I would add another difference between unions in the public and private sectors: Public sector jobs cannot be outsourced. We can't send teaching jobs or motor vehicle department jobs overseas.
This means that government unions never have to negotiate as carefully as private unions do. They cannot lose members and dues to disappearing jobs.
What the demonstrators in Wisconsin don't understand is that Gov. Scott Walker isn't trying to get rid of their pensions; he's trying to save them. If Wisconsin goes bankrupt, even their existing pensions will be at risk.
Wilma Bennett
West Hills
It's no surprise that Goldberg takes the so-called conservative side in the Wisconsin union-busting debate. Unions, Social Security and Medicare have always annoyed the right-wingers, possibly because they give a bit of self-determination to the ordinary American.
The right wing is determined to ignore the true causes of America's economic downturn, which must be laid at the feet of its own. Before George W. Bush's tax breaks, wars and globalization on steroids, government surpluses were projected.
Public unions were part of America at that time, so any rational analysis could not target them as the culprit.
Geoffrey N. Lachner
Laguna Niguel
Goldberg has a point that there is a conflict of interest when unions help elect the politicians with whom they will negotiate their salaries. But he conveniently forgets that corporations are in the same situation but worse: They also contribute to the election of those with whom they will negotiate regulations, taxes, subsidies and so on.
I am all for keeping union money out of politics, but only if corporate money is kept out as well.
As for the right to form unions, that is a basic right that should not be abridged except in extreme circumstances, and being a public employee is not one of them.
Jean Lecuyer
Los Angeles
The limits of protesting
Re "L.A. protesters have their say," Column, Feb. 23
Los Angeles City Atty. Carmen Trutanich does not determine whether a protester will be sentenced to serve time in jail.
