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BART mask mandate
was meaningless
Re. “BART lifting its mask rule again,” Page A1, July 16:
Early evening on July 5, I rode BART from MacArthur station to downtown Berkeley. I saw, for the first time in two years, several riders were not wearing masks. Although it was standing room only, no one offered this 80-year-old a seat.
On the return trip, at 9:30 p.m., in a car with about a dozen riders, no one was wearing a mask and one man was blatantly smoking. We made eye contact and he stared me down.
I will not be riding BART again.
Trish Elliott
Oakland
Petroleum products
are a ‘necessary evil’
Re. “Byproduct of the state’s solar industry? Deluge of toxic waste,” Page A1, July 15:
When will the emperor (our governor and president) realize they have no clothes? The much touted spurning of the petroleum industry and coal industry in favor of “clean” energy seems to have its own demons and dire warnings, possibly exceeding those of more “traditional” fuels.
Waste and byproducts from the solar industry are now identified as a significant polluter of our land and groundwater. Biden wants the United States to increase manufacturing, but without steel, how can this occur? Seventy percent of steel is made with coal, that’s a fact.
Petroleum products are a necessary “evil,” no matter your politics. You won’t see solar-powered airliners, ships, long-haul transports or agricultural equipment that is privately owned by “small” operators. The mining of elements required by the solar industry is destroying vast portions of our planet; this is also a documented fact, although rarely addressed.
What is the solution? All electric is not the only answer.
Patrick Adams
Dublin
Freedom under attack,
but not in California
Victor Davis Hanson’s July 15 column “California arguably most unfree state in the union,” (Page A7, July 15) was disappointing and disingenuous. Purporting to document how California was unfree, he instead cherry-picked issues from across California that have little or nothing to do with freedom.
If he really wanted to talk about a lack of freedom in the United States today, he could have talked about new book bans in 26 states just in the past year. Or he could have mentioned the many states that now limit a woman’s freedom to choose her own reproductive health care. Or he could have mentioned how Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has penalized Disney for simply opposing his “don’t say gay” policy – no freedom of speech there. Or how states like Wisconsin just banned ballot drop boxes to limit the freedom to vote.
Hanson’s right – freedom is under serious threat in many states, just not in California.
John McCormick
Lafayette
CO2 likely to keep
rising despite policies
The joke is on the woke, but we all suffer from it.
The high price of oil and gas has caused several countries to restart old coal-fired plants for electricity. Millions of people will switch to wood or coal for warmth. Many of the petroleum byproducts like fertilizer and fabric use much less energy than the substitutes.
As a result, we will see a jump in CO2 emissions this year even above the jump already recorded in 2021.
Robert Rickman
Benicia
Letter gets it backward
on gun regulations
To better inform readers on the topic of Don DeSarme’s July 12 letter (“Fewer gun restrictions bring safer states,” Page A6), it is important to note that Joyce Lee Malcolm’s position at George Mason University is wholly funded by the NRA, suggesting bias in her reporting.
Moreover, all major studies on this topic conclude that states with weaker gun laws correlate strongly with higher gun death rates. Please refer to studies from Rand Corporation, World Economic Forum, Harvard School of Public Health, National Library of Medicine, The American Journal of Medicine, The Public Purpose, and Demographic Data.Org, among others.
Note there is a similar correlation in other countries: The number of guns per capita is a strong predictor of higher gun deaths.
Paula Predmore
Danville
We must do more
to cut down plastic
There are few places on Earth that are unadulterated by plastic waste. Microplastics are in our bodies, our oceans and our wildlife. We cannot recycle our way out of this plastic apocalypse. We’re drowning in plastic, and it’s time to turn off the tap.
In 2020, online retailers created 600 million pounds of plastic waste nationally. While California’s passing of SB 54 is a crucial step to address our plastic waste crisis, California must continue to lead. Introduced by California Assembly members Laura Friedman and Phil Ting, Assembly Bill 2026 would require online retailers to cut their plastic packaging. Unnecessary foam peanuts, bubble wrap and plastic envelopes clog our landfills, litter our communities and pollute our oceans. Consumers can only do so much. Online retailers must be held accountable for their plastic waste.
Benjamin Grundy
Environment California
Alameda
Source: www.mercurynews.com