Letters to the editor for Nov. 11
‘Real world costs’ of charging an EV
A recent digital edition announced an article in the Xtra Business section: “A study looks at electric vehicle charge costs vs. those for gas — the results may be a surprise.” We drive a plug-in car, so I checked it out. I was really surprised — by how misleading it is.
Its estimates of the “real world costs” of charging an electric vehicle depend on the claim that “You typically have to go to a commercial charger;” plus an estimate of “the time to drive around to find a commercial charger;” plus the costs of paying for electricity at one. In the real world, almost nobody charges an EV at a commercial charger regularly. Most people just plug in their car at home; the rest charge at work.
You do need to use a commercial charger every couple of hundred miles if you’re driving a long way in an all electric car. If you’re going to do that fairly often, you might want to get a plug-in hybrid. They run on electricity for 20 miles to 50 miles, depending on the model, and then run on gasoline like a Prius if you’re going farther.
The study also figures that gas costs $2.81 a gallon, electricity from commercial chargers costs 31 cents to 66 cents a kilowatt hour, and that even when you charge at home it costs 17 cents/kWh. Here in the real world, it costs 10.35 cents/kWh to charge at home, and around $4 a gallon to buy gas.‘
Thad Curtz, Olympia
Boreal forest or toilet tissue?
We would be wise to protect our forests for the sake of their intrinsic value and massive ecosystem services they provide. They also are essential buffers against climate change. The Canadian boreal forest stores roughly twice the amount of carbon as tropical forests. The trees and soil of the Canadian boreal hold as much as 300 billion tons of carbon, which is nearly twice as much as is stored in all the world’s recoverable oil reserves combined.
Recently, the company Proctor and Gamble has come under pressure for their deforestation practices in Canada’s boreal forest. Many other brands don’t destroy forests to make tissue paper. With its global reach and massive research budget, why doesn’t Procter & Gamble start respecting the planet? There’s no doubt we can use recycled paper instead of virgin forest to manufacture toilet tissue and similar products! I respectfully ask P&G to switch to recycled paper for their tissue products.
As consumers, we make a significant impacts with our purchasing decisions. Let’s exercise our dollar power by not supporting companies that are driving deforestation for mere toilet paper. We can do better than that, friends. We have the power of information and decision-making in our hands.
Rebecca Canright, Olympia
Homelessness is a regional problem
Hello Thurston County elected representatives. I am writing to encourage each of you to please view this recent John Oliver program on the homeless problem happening in many cities and towns across the USA. It is not unique to Thurston County. How we go about addressing it says a lot about our cities’ and towns’ character.
Oliver mentions a study done in Florida where they found, on average, unhoused people cost taxpayers $31,000 a year in medical assistance and other costs. And on the other hand, permanent supportive housing costs, on average, $10,000 per year per person.
I hope you take a look at what Oliver has shared and work with commissioners, city councils, mayors and city managers countywide on a sustainable regional solution for supportive housing. There are multitudes of viable working solutions being enacted that can easily be duplicated here. Lord knows we have enough empty strip mall stores that can be retrofitted and are less prone to being NIMBY’ed.
Continuing to give out sweetheart deals to LLC developers building market-rate rental housing while making owner- occupied housing stock less common is not one of them. As long as Washington state has a law making it illegal to enact rent control, these LLC apartments are just compounding the problem.
Mike Pelly, Olympia