Thank you
I would like to send a very big thank you to the many businesses that have offered discounts to holders of the Hood River County (HRC) Community ID card.
The HRC Community ID was a three-year pilot program of Hood River County. It was run by The Next Door.
The last ID cards issued were in December 2021. Cards expire after two years.
As the program comes to a close, I want to sincerely thank these businesses for their support: Aly’s Gift Shop; Bette’s Place; China Gorge; Daniel’s Health & Nutrition; Full Sail; Hood River Cinemas; Hood River Hobbies; Hood River Stationers; Isabel’s Bridal/La novia elegante; Lake Taco; Lilo’s Hawaiian Style BBQ; Orchard Lanes; pFriem; Slopeswell Cider; Solstice; and Volcanic Bottle Shop.
Lorena Sprager
Hood River
Thanks for listening
I’d like to thank the folks in all the great little towns around the Gorge for listening to and supporting Jiveradio at 101.5FM for the last four years. It was a non-profit effort that had high hopes of serving the community for much longer, but unfortunately, the loss of funding and COVID coupled to squash it’s future.
We know many of you listen online, where we hope to remain for a long time, if not a good time.
Jeff Cotton
Lake City, Calif.
Republican priorities?
As of the writing of this letter, the Republicans cannot decide upon a Speaker of the House of Representatives.
But they have won the power for any single Republican House member to bring proceedings to a halt so that they can oust whomever they finally end up electing as Speaker. They’ve publicly announced that they want to be able to create a government shutdown and a default on debt, and they want the power to throw out any Speaker who tries to stop them.
When they finally decide upon a speaker, they’ve already announced priorities that include gutting the House ethics office, rewriting the history of the Jan. 6 insurrection, and impeaching everyone from Joe Biden to the local dogcatcher.
Contrast these priorities with what the Democratic House accomplished when it had majority control in 2021-22: Infrastructure funding to fix long-neglected highways, bridges, ports, and railways, which will create millions of well-paying jobs; increased access and affordability for healthcare, including capping insulin costs at $35 per month and forcing Big Pharma to negotiate prescription drug prices; major investments in manufacturing microchips here in America; and initiatives to address Climate Change such as substantive rebates for middle class Americans for purchasing heat pumps and electric vehicles — these are only a few examples.
None of the Republicans’ shenanigans should surprise anyone. They don’t campaign on initiatives to improve the lives of working Americans. But they always manage to pass tax cuts that benefit the rich.
Rick George
White Salmon
Racism still exists
A recent letter to the editor suggests that people wanting their doctor to look like them is a form of racism and blithely suggests that this is not due to a difference in the quality of health care received.
In fact, very many studies show that there is a difference. A study of 1.8 million births of Black babies found that child mortality was twice as high when the doctor was a white doctor, and very many studies have shown that when a white person and a Black person go to the same hospital with the same symptoms, they systematically get different treatments. It is just far more likely that the Black patient will just get sent home and told to get some rest or take an aspirin. So it is a very rational choice to want a doctor of the same race.
Clearly the desire to get various kinds of services from “people who look like me” goes beyond health care and includes a desire for more effective role models. My question to people who think this is a form of racism is: Have you ever asked a person of color why they want to get services from somebody who looks like them? The example of clearcut systemic racism in health care shows that this is all more complex.
I think that the bottom line is that curing the racism that still exists in our society does not happen by ignoring it.
Dean Myerson
The Dalles
Don’t count on pumped hydro
The final Environmental Impact Statement for the Goldendale pumped-hydro project has been issued (Columbia Gorge News, Dec. 28), with no response to a fundamental problem of the project — it’s highly unlikely to make money.
Several commenters asked that question. The deepest analysis was by Rocky Mountain Econometrics (RME). In summary, they found that the average difference between daily low and high wholesale electricity prices is not nearly enough to pay the debt load.
In response, the developer (Rye Development) simply asserted that 100% of the project’s capacity every day will be sold at premium prices — a ludicrous assumption in a highly uncertain and dynamic market.
The project has no revenue plan. RME postulated that the financial plan might include declaring bankruptcy to offload most of the debt, thus enabling positive cash flows.
Rye says large regional utilities will sign up for the project’s capacity. But PGE’s storage plan doesn’t mention pumped hydro, and Pacific Power’s storage plan indicates that pumped hydro may supply less than 10% of the need, the rest being batteries. Puget Sound Energy’s long-term plan shows a much higher cost for wind plus pumped hydro than for wind plus batteries. And the price setters in the wholesale market are California utilities, which are forecasted to install much more battery energy storage than Goldendale’s capacity.
Rye claims that pumped hydro doesn’t compete with utility-scale batteries, while the opposite is true.
For a basic sanity check, the project’s total capital cost divided by its storage capacity is about $197 per kWh. Batteries for EVs now cost about $140 per kWh, and will cost around $100 per kWh by 2030, the first year of the project’s operation. And batteries use about half as much energy as pumped hydro in each charge-discharge cycle.
Energy storage will absolutely be necessary to enable the cheaper, emission-free generation from solar and wind, and distributed generation and storage (like rooftop solar plus batteries) will increase our energy resilience and decrease interconnection costs.
Ten years ago pumped hydro was the only storage game in town, but technologies have moved on.
Eric Strid
White Salmon
Political gangster war
So you think it possible that this horrible cruel political gangster war would cool down if each gang’s writers would cease from lying? Their self-righteous, judgmental condemnation of their fellow Americans behavior or choices is denounced as being so evil it will cause the destruction of America. The righteous gang writer condemns the opposing gang with devastating (supposed) political facts that embarrass and shame the opposition into silence.
Silence! Never! The other gangster writer slashes back with powerful injuring insults loaded with murderous intent “proving” those other political idiots will destroy America. These obnoxious loser letters go back and forth between our well known political prophets of doom and destruction, never providing any healing or compromise to the situation but as intended create fear and hate.
Provoking fear and hate is an ancient tactic that has been used by cowards and liars for centuries. What do they mean by prophesying that certain behavior or choices will cause the “destruction” of America? What is their definition of “destruction?” Would it be fair to say that Germany was destroyed after World War I and completely destroyed after World War II? Millions of Germans were killed or murdered. Their entire political system was obliterated. Almost every major town was leveled by bombing. No bridges, no fresh water, or sewage or electricity for years. Literally destroyed. Foreign nations occupied Germany for 50 years with the intent of destroying German culture. Look at Germany today, economic powerhouse practicing democracy along with German speech, dress, food, dance while drinking German beer even after being destroyed.
American political engagement has become a hate-filled, vengeful plague engaging cowards and liars. Ask yourself. What behavior or choices of any gangster could lead to the destruction of America? No vacation for July 4, no turkey on Thanksgiving, no tree for Dec. 25 ...what? Imagine what evil destructive behavior it would take to eliminate America’s Super Bowl?
Do you see the insanity, futility and dishonesty to the political gangster method ... yet? Forsake these righteous judges of human behavior who only instigate hate and falsely predict America’s destruction. There’s a worthy option. Contact me.
Gary Fischer
The Dalles
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