Letters: airport excuse | Solar benefits

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Lead study an excuse
close SJ airport

Interesting juxtaposition of headlines on page B1 of Mercury News from Tuesday, December 28: “Airports to use unleaded gasoline for small planes” and “Study says children are at high risk of lead poisoning in airplanes. city ​​districts ”.

In East San Jose, the county funded a study from the Reid-Hillview Airport that suggested lead could possibly be a problem. They will use the study to avoid their contractual obligation to maintain the airport.

In Oakland, which has a real lead problem and no general aviation airport as a scapegoat, authorities are tackling the real problems: lead paint and plumbing.

Donald grimes
Los Gatos

Low income clients
getting the most out of solar energy

The Mercury News has fallen for the utilities’ untruths about rooftop solar power, which is arguably the country’s best program to clean the air of climate-warming pollution. The unjustified charges proposed by the Public Utilities Commission will sacrifice it on the altar of utility profits.

Traditionally, utility rates have been based on the cost of the service, including fuel and capital costs. The PUC proposal does not take into account the reduced costs for supplying customers who contribute solar power to the grid.

Instead, utilities want to levy additional charges on rooftop solar installations, beyond what other customers pay. This will make future solar roofs unprofitable.

With breathtaking irony, utilities and PUC lackeys claim that low-income customers pay more for electrical service to subsidize the solar panels of the wealthy.

Nothing could be further from the truth. It is the low-income customers who suffer closest to fossil sources of pollution and who could benefit the most from cleaner air. As we all.

John schaefer
Arcata

The COVID policy should put
health, not business, first

D. “Should California still host the Rose and the Super Bowl?” »Page A12, December 26:

Thanks to Joe Mathews for his clear and honest advice. Let us ensure that our state and local officials have policies that don’t just appease commercial interests.

I understand they are rightly afraid of voters who downplay the effects of COVID. But leadership is about leading with your heart, not with the fear of being re-elected. Or lead with what they know to be right and what will benefit businesses in the long run.

Guadalupe Friaz
San jose

The gender of health care
the pay gap must be resolved

A recent New York Times article explained how female physicians earn $ 2 million less than their male counterparts. Unfortunately, this pay gap is found in Santa Clara County, where I am a pediatric gastroenterologist.

I am troubled by this and other inequities experienced by my female colleagues and myself. As a member of the Valley Physicians Group, an organization of nearly 500 publicly-employed physicians dedicated to providing members of the community with the highest quality health care, I fight to ensure that wage disparities between gender and systematic discrimination within the county’s public hospital system are immediately rectified. . As physicians, we put patients first: their safety and well-being are at the forefront of our care.

I hope the county’s priority is to ensure that we and future generations of female doctors employed in the county never again have to endure below-standard salaries. Let 2022 be the year when equity between equals will finally be achieved.

Rachel Ruiz
Hayward

Biden supporters are proud
votes cast

I was a little intrigued by the “cartoonist’s point of view” on the Opinion page (page A6, December 28). It showed a person hiding under a cardboard box, labeled “Biden Supporters: One Year Later”.

It’s harmless, but the people I know who voted for Joe Biden tend to be proud and proud of not voting for the new Know Nothing Party (aka the Republican Party). President Biden demonstrated both a respect for the truth and a willingness to compromise, traits his predecessor sorely lacked. I predict he will be known as one of America’s most successful presidents, while Donald Trump will be a contender for the worst president ever.

Pierre Ross
San jose

The national debt reflects
US War on COVID

National debt as a percentage of gross national product today at 122% is not out of step with 114% in 1945.

We were at war then and we are at war today. The circumstances are different, but in both cases Americans have died. More … than 400,000 dead in WWII and over 820,000 and more and more have died in the pandemic. Then and now, the government is spending money to fight COVID and what it has done to our economy. This is what the government is doing. We also have other wars at our feet, including climate change, which can no longer be ignored as it poses the greatest threat to national security.

President’s plan, Build Back Better, is needed. Those who talk about a big debt concern are political opportunists and were conveniently silent when Donald Trump added $ 8.3 trillion including with tax cuts for the rich.

Marc Grzan
Morgan hill