Letters: Masks are mandatory; Making progress with EVs
Masks are mandatory
Masks are mandatory in public in Pennsylvania. So ...
You may not drive your car in Pennsylvania without a valid driver’s license and up to date insurance.
You have no right to build on your neighbor’s property.
You may not foul our drinking water with dangerous toxic chemicals.
Industry has no right to pollute our air with leaking methane.
You have no right to not wear a mask in public in Pennsylvania.
This is all about the “commonweal.” Never heard of it? It is the fundamental right of all citizens to not be harmed by others. We all have a responsibility and a requirement to keep our illnesses to ourselves.
Stay home if you have a cold or the flu, but most especially stay away from all others if you have COVID-19, if you think you might be sick, and even if you are well. COVID-19 data collection in Arizona has shown that of all the people tested who have never shown symptoms, it is a whopping 30% of those tested that asymptomatic carriers. We could see that high an occurrence of carriers here in Pennsylvania.
It is for a public good — for all our friends and neighbors. You have the exceptional rights of USA citizens only to the point that your actions adversely intersect with another person’s welfare and safety. So, wear that mask!
Making progress with EVs
About 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, which are largely responsible for global warming, come from gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles. To limit global warming, we need to develop and use electric vehicles (EVs), which don’t produce greenhouse gases.
In 2019, there were 326,644 electric cars sold in the U.S., representing 1.9 percent of the 17,053,566 car sales that year (up from 0.6 percent in 2013). Progress is clearly being made with passenger EVs. Trucks are more of a challenge because they move heavier loads.
Lordstown Motors, operating at the site of the former GM Lordstown Plant, recently unveiled its prototype for an electric pickup truck. Lordstown plans to make vehicles available for sale in 2021. Tesla, Ford, and GM are also developing commercial vans or pickup trucks.
There are several ways to build this momentum. The California Air Resources Board recently adopted the Advanced Clean Truck rule. Zero-emission vehicles must make up 40- to 75 percent of California truck sales by 2035.
The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (HR 763), a bill now before the US House of Representatives, uses a market-based approach. This bill places a fee on fossil fuels and returns the money as dividends directly to U.S. taxpayers. The fee is equivalent to 12 cents per gallon of gasoline in the first year and increases 9 to 12 cents per year after that. Higher gasoline and diesel prices will support EV development and sales, and lower greenhouse gas emissions as well.
Fracking as an election issue?
In a recent tweet, President Trump urged Pennsylvanians to vote against Joe Biden in November in part because the former VP opposes fracking in the commonwealth. (“There is NO WAY a place like Pennsylvania can vote for the Radical Left and their puppet, Joe Biden, when they are against fracking ...”) Eric Trump, on behalf of the Trump campaign, followed up a day later, saying that Biden, if elected, would kill off 220,000 good fracking jobs in the state. In other words, the Trump campaign is attempting to put fracking on the statewide ballot in the fall. Attention pollsters: In the battleground state of Pennsylvania, please find out how many voters agree with the president as he tries to make fracking a wedge issue in the Keystone state. My hunch: Not too many.