Letters to the editor for June 26

Flawed analysis of housing market

Come on, Mr. Rants. It was your flawed market analysis that led you to imagine the feasibility of an “upscale condominium community” with million-dollar condos for Olympia.

Even with the Selby/Jones administration ready and willing to give you an 8-year tax exempt gift courtesy of Olympia property taxpayers, you had to cancel the project.

It was not the homeless “social climate” that caused the cancellation. It was your analytical failure. Own up to it.

Dan Leahy, Olympia

Congressman Heck leads on climate again

With characteristic forward-thinking leadership, Rep. Denny Heck recently introduced a bill to the US House, the Climate Security Intelligence Act of 2019. This bill would create a Climate Security Intelligence Office within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) as a clearinghouse for climate change intelligence.

Why do we need this? Because climate change is affecting food and water supplies and exacerbating natural disasters across the globe. The resulting displacement of people magnifies misery, raises tensions at borders, destabilizes markets, and strains economies. Instead of waiting to be surprised by such events, it makes sense to gather climate change information as it relates to geo-political events so that our National Services can anticipate global stress-points.

This is similar to how the National Counterterrorism Office, also in ODNI, works. Director of National Security Dan Coats has called climate change one of the greatest threats to our National Security. Kudos to Denny Heck for paying attention!

Heck has also co-sponsored the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, a climate solution much stronger than our commitments under the Paris Agreement, with appeal across the political spectrum. It would lower carbon emissions by 40 percent within the first 12 years by imposing a rising fee on fuel producers based on metric ton of emissions. Those funds would be returned directly to every American through the Treasury Department to use as they see fit, or defray the cost of fuel. Most households would come out ahead economically.

To learn more, see https://citizensclimatelobby.org/energy-innovation-and-carbon-dividend-act/.

Sabra Hull, Olympia

This story was originally published June 24, 2019 at 6:50 PM.