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Keep the lid on
PG&E solar tax
My dentist, who just got solar panels, asked me last week why PG&E and the California Public Utility Commission want to charge a solar tax on rooftop solar homeowners. I had no good response.
After reading about PG&E’s CEO Patricia Poppe earning a $51 million compensation package in 2021 (“PG&E top boss’s pay package tops $50M,” Page B1, April 8), the answer is now obvious. Other PG&E executives also earned multimillion-dollar paydays.
So how do they justify a solar tax that will allow PG&E to overcompensate their top executives despite continued power outages and deadly wildfires?
Using a “cost shift” fallacy, they claim solar users don’t pay their fair share of the electrical grid, and the credit solar users receive for the energy they share back to the grid is overvalued.
Bottom line: PG&E wants to boost profits and eliminate competition. We need rooftop solar thriving to support California’s decarbonization goals.
Rene Wise
Fremont
Vote Cook-Kallio for
Alameda County schools
I will never forget when Cheryl Cook-Kallio told me that my peers see integrity and honesty within me after I got accepted into the “We the People” program in my school. I wasn’t even going to apply because I never thought I would get in, but Mrs. Cook-Kallio kept encouraging me to simply try.
This was the first time I had a teacher recognize that there was something special and unique about me. “We the People” helped shape me into who I am today by giving me a safe outlet where I could unveil my passion for social issues. None of that would have been possible without Mrs. Cook-Kallio.
I couldn’t imagine anyone else more fit to serve on the Alameda County School Board.
Garima Desai
Fremont
Loss of sister reminds
of smoking’s danger
I just watched my sister die. She was the second sister that I have lost to smoking-related illnesses. Unlike what you see in the movies, death is not quiet, peaceful or sudden. It is slow, painful and ugly.
Whereas I am an active and involved senior, able to play with my grandchildren, cultivate a thriving garden, ride a bicycle for miles, play in a band, and dance the night away, my sisters lived their last few years in misery.
One major factor accounted for the difference in the quality of our senior years — cigarette smoking. Don’t do it.
Deborah Wade
San Leandro
Legislation could boost
great tool in cancer fight
As part of California Cancer Action Day, cancer advocates like me met virtually with legislators and pushed for cancer-fighting policies, including legislation to increase access to biomarker testing, which is key to help match patients with the right treatment at the right time.
But many insurance companies refuse to cover this important testing even when the medical and scientific evidence is clear that these innovative tests are beneficial. Luckily, the state Legislature is considering a bill that would increase access to biomarker testing.
Join me in urging our legislators to expand access to biomarker testing so more of our family, friends and neighbors can benefit from targeted treatments. Senate Bill 912 will help dismantle a barrier to the most effective cancer treatments and help us get a step closer to more equitable cancer care by making biomarker testing available to more patients.
Lori Garcia
Danville
Source: www.mercurynews.com