Navajo Generating Station

Why get a degree? Re "Is a college degree still worth it?," June 12 It is hard to believe that The Times would present a front page article questioning the value of a college education. Even a college major that may be significantly less rigorous than science or engineering requires that the student synthesize, integrate and present information from multiple sources with minimal direction. Repeating this process hundreds of times during a four-year degree develops a skill set that cannot be acquired by on-the-job training.

The top executive at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is laying the groundwork for a sale of some of the agency's biggest assets — including the utility's iconic downtown Los Angeles headquarters — as it seeks to cover rising costs without raising electricity rates. DWP Interim General Manager Austin Beutner said Monday that he would not pursue any additional power rate increases for the remainder of the calendar year. But that decision would come with a series of tradeoffs, he said.

Beyond his calls for water rationing and expressions of concern over expensive junkets, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley's new-found interest in the city's Department of Water and Power encompasses a more expansive agenda: He wants to rein in the sprawling agency and fundamentally alter its course. For decades, the huge DWP has gone about its business of procuring water and creating power like a private company, and by that measure it has done quite well.

Millions of families this summer will flee smog-bound cities for the majestic surroundings of America's national parks, only to find that air pollution has beat them there and clouded the post card vistas. Unfortunately, air pollution in the parks is neither isolated nor new. According to National Park Service statistics, man-made pollution affects the scenic park views more than 90% of the time.

What's it worth to you, Mr. and Mrs. America, to know that the delicate balance of water, rock and life that makes up the Grand Canyon ecosystem is functioning the way nature intended? Now, would you be willing to pay that amount in monthly installments on your electricity bill? Those questions are more than just the idle speculation of economists and bloodless policy wonks.

Richard Ingebretsen bounds out of the boat with boyish enthusiasm, his sneakers splashing through the mud puddles and his voice echoing off the red canyon walls. "That was a waterfall right here," he says, eagerly pointing to a large rock. The crackling water ahead beckons him, and he pursues it until he sees the small resurrected waterfall in a bend of the canyon wall. He grins, his excitement barely contained.

This is the land where Larry Gordy was destined to live, until it was made unlivable. The Navajo believe that a person will always be tied to the place where his or her umbilical cord is buried. When Gordy was born in 1968, his father put his in this rust-colored dirt. It was here on the family's ranch on the edge of the Painted Desert that his father dreamed of one day building homes for his children, and of tilling a field where watermelon and corn could grow. But the Gordys were forced to put their dreams on hold.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has long provided the city with cheap, reliable electricity, even when other utilities faced scarcity. But the low energy bills have come attached to millions of tons of fossil fuel pollutants, which have swirled in waterways and hovered in skies all over the West. Now the nation's largest municipal utility is at a turning point. It is under orders to find environmentally friendly fuel sources -- sun, wind, water or even waste.