The desert tortoise and the solar power industry; the high price of gasoline; and GOP saber-rattling on Iran

Tortoise power

Re “The solar desert: An uneasy coexistence,” March 4

I was utterly amazed, though not surprised, by the attempts to “save” the desert tortoise at such a tremendous expense of dollars, personnel, programs, sacrifices and concessions.

There is a severe shortage of renewable clean energy on this planet. There are millions of children who go to bed hungry each day. There are millions of humans who do not have access to clean drinking water.

But by all means let’s have a private company spend in excess of $56 million to provide food, housing, medical care and security for the desert tortoise.

And on the state and federal levels, let’s spend — in the last 20 years — an additional $200 million to protect the desert tortoise.

Am I the only one who thinks mankind should be put first and foremost above the tortoise? It is so egregiously disgusting that an educated society would place such a secondary value on its people.

Barry K. Woods

Malibu

Disregard for the desert tortoise illustrates human disrespect for millions of years of evolution.

We can hardly blame the developers. Their motivation is profit, and our government has dangled huge profits to entice them.

Complaints about tortoise-related cost are a disguise for planning failures and wishful thinking. Meantime, the government is ignoring the vast “acreage” of bare rooftops in our megalopolis.

The Ivanpah project is the vanguard. More are being built, more are waiting in the pipeline, and traditional desert management is being manipulated to allow even more. Can’t we be more clever?

Tom Budlong

Los Angeles

Your article does a good job of highlighting the historic challenges faced by the desert tortoise over the millenniums. However, some additional information may provide important context, such as the extensive desert tortoise care program in place at the Ivanpah project.

Desert tortoise mortality rates in the natural environment are extremely high. Care programs for hatchling and juvenile tortoises provide a crucial path for improving survival rates by giving support and protection from ravens, kit foxes and coyotes, and other factors such as drought and disease.

Biologists at the Ivanpah project currently care for 170 juvenile desert tortoises (including 53 newborn hatchlings), which will be reintroduced into the wild once they are

large enough to resist predation.

We are proud of our efforts to care for and protect the desert tortoise as we bring clean solar power to California homes.

Joseph Desmond

Oakland

The writer is senior vice president of government affairs/communications for BrightSource Energy

Relocating desert tortoises is not protecting them; it means their death. The tortoises will be sent to a habitat with which they are completely unfamiliar.

Our government has opened desert tortoise habitat for corporations to profit from.

Destroying pristine desert habitat is unnecessary; we should put solar panels on buildings and in parking lots and other already developed areas where the energy is actually being used.

Ara Marderosian

Weldon

Solutions to high gasoline prices

Re “Why gasoline prices are so high,” Business, March 6

As I did when we last experienced this “free-market” (free to whom, I wonder?) exercise in the price of gasoline, I notice at least a 10% increase in gas mileage when I make sure to drive between 61 and

63 miles per hour. I do this most easily by getting in the slow lane, preferably behind a large truck, and letting those who wish to burn gasoline at a higher rate drive by me at increased speeds.

Seems simple enough, right? And it works.

Carol Marshall

Anaheim

Gasoline prices are high because consumers have no clout.

Thousands of stock market gamblers are jockeying with one another at the slightest hint in the news that there might be a disruption in oil production. As soon as some country threatens an action, they rush to buy oil futures, the price of those futures goes up and so does the price of gasoline.

Also, we’re at the mercy of oil monopolies, which can manipulate supply at will. If millions of motorists united to use less gasoline for a few weeks, there would be a glut and prices would plummet.

The real solution would be for massive, feasible rapid transit in our major cities to move commuters en masse to and from work. This would cost billions, but in the long run we would have less pollution, lower insurance costs, less nervous tension and freedom from the threat of an oil embargo.

Harold Seifer

Lakewood

Your article does not mention that the oil lobby may want President Obama to lose in November, so it conveniently adjusts refinery output to lower supply and raise prices and make this administration look weak on economic recovery.

Also, the price of crude, while high at the moment, is considerably lower than it was in 2008, yet the price of gasoline at the pump is near record highs; an inconsistency in the argument that the price of crude is partly to blame for the high costs at the pump.

The oil industry is rich and powerful. It gets what it wants — and right now, it wants high prices.

Glenn Fischel

La Cañada Flintridge

A few years ago, we were told that higher gasoline prices were because of increased demand, insufficient refinery capability and reduced domestic oil drilling, and that “drill baby drill” would be the solution.

Now we are told that higher gasoline prices are because of decreased demand and reduced refining capability — and that increased oil drilling, and the shipping of gasoline to foreign markets, are causing tight supplies in the U.S.

Why don’t we ask the oil companies what they can do to reduce gasoline prices, and hold them to it?

Dennis Arntz

Laguna Niguel

Does the president have any responsibility for the higher and higher prices of gasoline? Shouldn’t we believe what he himself said while campaigning about wanting the prices to go up, just not so quickly?

Should we take into consideration what his secretary of Energy, Steven Chu, recently said while being interviewed — that his priority is to bring consumption down, a goal easier to reach if the price keeps going higher?

Suzette Van Bylevelt

Los Angeles

Speculators move oil and gasoline prices by buying contracts for future delivery.

These speculators neither intend to deliver nor accept delivery of petroleum but are gambling that their contracts will increase in value.

So when you’re pumping expensive gas, the blame for it doesn’t belong in Washington; it belongs in New York.

John Marchese

Henderson, Nev.

War talk makes him a deserter

Re “Obama rejects bluster on Iran,” March 5

Barry Goldwater made me a Republican.

George W. Bushforced me to become an independent.

I will never return to the party as long as the only thing that seems to matter to it is starting another war.

Don Powelson

Eagle Rock

Money talks

Re “Lobbying of legislators sets record,” March 6

I read the article with delight and comfort knowing that the California Legislature continues to be what it has been for a number of years: The Best That Money Can Buy.

Stanley Lampert

Los Angeles