Wielechowski should get real
Democratic Sen. Bill Wielechowski wants an attorney general investigation into potential antitrust issues and price gouging by Tesoro. The governor has already said no but Bill is pressing the issue. Bill needs to pick up a phone and call the refinery manager and ask what's going on with the price of gasoline before wasting any more time on this political grandstanding.
Wielechowski also needs to get his 2008 law prohibiting DMV from spending any money on a Real ID rescinded immediately. People aren't going to be real happy come October if they can't get on an airplane because the senator thinks the IDs are federal overreach, and it's preposterous to think they won't let Alaskans on an airplane without one. I don't want to rely on this guy's opinion.
— Mike Beck
Kenai
Much ado over a logo
OH MY GOSH! I am so tired of people whining about every little thing. Now some Alaska Natives are upset because Alaska Airlines called their updated logo "Our Eskimo." So what? It is their logo.
I am mostly Norwegian. Would I be upset if they had honored my relatives by saying, "Our Scandinavian"? Of course not! Stop being so nit-picky and perceiving affronts where none are intended.
— Kathy Deming
Wasilla
Massive die-offs are warning signs; we must act now
Not long ago, our neighbor called from Anchor Point. She said: "What's with all the dead murres? There must be 30 of them right here on the beach." The very next day Alaska Dispatch News covered the huge die-off. Then APRN covered the story on "Talk of Alaska." The scientists, one old enough to be retired, said they'd never seen anything even approach this level of mortality.
We took salmon and the last of our hooligan down to Bird TLC on King Street, though that only helps those birds lucky enough to be found still alive.
Important as they are, these small acts aren't enough. Carey Restino notes in her ADN piece that we have to stop just studying or calling for more data and start taking action to prevent these disasters.
I'm a commercial fisherman, and massive die-offs, whether they are murres, whales or sea stars, concern me greatly. They all point to a crash of ecosystems, the very systems that our fishing industry is built on. Who knew such a massive thing as the ocean could be so fragile?
Piled on top of ocean acidification are sea level rise, loss of diversity and ocean heating. We know what's at the core of these maladies: too much CO2 entering the atmosphere, mostly from burning fossil fuels. So can we simply stop burning coal and natural gas, quit using gasoline? Not overnight, but we can make the transition away from fossil fuels over the a generation — as long as we don't pass the buck or kick that can down the road.
The best first step is to enact a carbon fee system that returns all the funds to American families as dividends. British Columbia has a similar policy and their economy became the healthiest in Canada while their emissions dropped by over 15 percent in four years. That is the direction America must go. Sens. Murkowski and Sullivan need to use their positions to move legislation that directly addresses the sea change striking our seas. We don't know what system or species will crash next; action needs to come now.
— George Donart
Anchorage
The views expressed here are the writers' own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a letter under 200 words for consideration, email letters@alaskadispatch.com, or click here to submit via any web browser. Submitting a letter to the editor constitutes granting permission for it to be edited for clarity, accuracy and brevity. Send longer works of opinion to commentary@alaskadispatch.com.