Do laws negate savings from inflating tires?
Barack Obama's latest announcement is so true. I am sure that I can increase my gas mileage by having properly inflated tires and have checked my tires, with John McCain's pressure gauge, and inflated them to the proper air pressure. My concern is whether this proper inflation will be enough to recover the 10 percent loss in gas mileage that I have experienced with the government mandate to use a gasoline-ethanol fuel.
Another worry I have is that if Congress reconvenes in order to address the energy bill, will it then put a carbon tax on gasoline as proposed in this legislation? And how will all this reduce my overall fuel cost? Perhaps our current congressional representatives can answer these questions?
Don Gerbig
Lahaina, Maui
Gas prices fall, except in Hawaii
Competition is the key to low commodity prices. Unfortunately, because Hawaii is an isolated, small-market, business-unfriendly state, we have little competition in commodities' markets. From this reality comes the fact that we always pay more for fuel than most folks pay on the mainland.
Rather than encourage competition, Hawaii Democrats have tried to put price controls on motor fuel - which sounds wonderful until such controls distort the marketplace, setting the stage for recurring shortages.
However, over the past month, the world price of crude oil has dropped almost 20 percent and the average price per gallon of gas in the U.S. has fallen about 7 percent. The wholesale price of ethanol (it makes up 10 percent of most gas sold in Hawaii) is down an even greater percentage to approximately $2.50 per gallon. Yet in Honolulu, the average price ($4.37 a gallon) for gasoline hasn't budged for the last month.
Greater competition in Hawaii would make it impossible for decreases in fuel prices on the mainland not to be reflected promptly in the islands. Unfortunately, local production of ethanol, as was promised by the Legislature when it mandated local oil companies to buy it, does not exist and probably never will. Nevertheless, local oil companies are behaving foolishly if they don't promptly pass on the cuts in the prices that they are now paying for raw materials - and instead use the current situation to profiteer.
I'm a fan of non-regulation who clearly sees why so many of my fellow citizens don't put much trust in our two local oil importers, Tesoro and Chevron. What's going on right now seems a good example of why.
Michael P. Rethman
Kaneohe
Democrats in denial about rising fuel costs
Corky's comic on Aug. 6 depicting John McCain and the Republican Party obliviously pointing to a gas pump amid a raging fire, ironically reflects a shortsightedness or denial of facts not by McCain and the Republicans but rather by the Democratic Senate. Lawmakers either don't see or refuse to acknowledge that fuel prices affect everything, including jobs, utility bills and the cost of all goods, and that the U.S. economy cannot be sustained at current fuel costs.
Alternative energy sources are still years away from being a viable replacement for oil. Conservation and inflating one's tires are the woefully inadequate energy policies of the party that is not pointing at the gas pump in Corky's cartoon. They are fine with high fuel prices as evidenced by statements from both the Democratic presidential nominee and by the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid.
As for Corky including Iraq in the fire, again ironically it would have been a conflagration had we yielded to the Democratic Congress' desire for a premature pullout of our troops. Despite my criticism, Corky maintains a pretty good degree of balance between conservative and progressive (Marxist Socialist) views.
Bryan Yamashiro
Ewa Beach
Kailua has changed; but so have we
Regarding Louie Vierra's July 30 letter,
"Kailua wasn't always full of selfish yuppies":
I agree that change has taken place. Oh, we all used to know each other and we all fished and put out a gill net or two. But in this area we had cluttered beaches, crime and living was not that easy. But who are these unfriendly yuppies who have moved in? All they seem to do is swim, surf, kayak and sun themselves. But we have less beach clutter, no crime and most of them just spend lots of money and go back to the mainland. No loss of fish population, no one's job taken and, in fact, jobs created. This all seems like a win, win, win situation. Just maybe we are the unfriendly ones who don't like change. Maybe, in fact, we should be down at the airport handing out a lei and latte to every yuppie who comes in.
Ralph Larson
Hauula
How to make Con Con short and inexpensive
Suggestions to save money while conducting the proposed Constitutional Convention:
» Find a ravine somewhere to the right of the H-2 freeway. Install a huge tent with no lights, fans or tables.
» Provide pencils and scratch paper with funds from 10 percent of the budgets of each of the office holders in the square building. Meet daily for 24 hours of the day until pau convention. I forgot ... no chairs or cell phones allowed.
Don Neill
Kaneohe
HPD should streamline officer investigations
The Honolulu Police Department administration and the prosecutor's office have taken one-half year to "investigate" and clear a police officer in the shooting of a criminal who was allegedly engaged in a felonious, deadly act
("Newswatch," Star-Bulletin, Aug. 6).
I'm not sure if anyone cares if the potential killer, a convicted felon, lives or dies, but as a staunch supporter of our police officers, who risk their lives daily, I become nauseous whenever I read about the length of time it takes to clear an officer.
Imagine having possible felony charges and prison time hanging over your head for six to nine months just for doing your job with courage, split-second decision-making and honor. The killing of a criminal is not the torture; the torture is laying awake night after night wondering if your honorable career along with your freedom will become a thing of the past.
HPD needs to come up with a quick way to investigate and clear the officers who fulfill an impossible duty, in the blink of an eye.
HPD administrators, take a good hard look at who comes out the loser when you dilly-dally around with a good person's life.
Michael Sakalauskas
Kailua